To Killarney We Go!

First, I forgot to mention the other fun thing that happened Tuesday morning right before Fred saw Mr. O'Sullivan — he ran into our "friend" Andrew Garvey, whom we met last week at Fertha's. He's a volunteer firefighter in Cahersiveen — a very, very uneventful job. Which is nice.  Anyway, Andrew was washing down the walls... ?  I guess they have to use the hose for something.  Andrew's good friend is a film producer living in Peterborough, NH. Small world. 

Also, on Tuesday evening, Fred and I had our first and only pre-dinner cocktail in our courtyard. I had bought a little nip — which is sort of double the size of our nips, I think — of Skellig Six18 gin, which is made just down the road. It was tasty, albeit weak by my standards. :)

It's now Wednesday... our last full day on the Emerald Isle, which we started with saying goodbye to Brian and Ann-Marie. Just as we pulled into Kells, a big truck was blocking the way... cars backed up on both sides. The locals assume the truck took a wrong turn since there is NO way he would have intentionally taken this route. The driver asked me to pull into the little café there so he could have more space to do a three point turnaround. There was a cone there, though, blocking the lot because people aren't supposed to park in there, so he moved the cone. From the looks of things, it was going to be some time before the road cleared, so Fred "pulled the Lynch card."  He knew this café was Lynch-owned, so he introduced himself to the owner (Brendan Lynch) who allowed us to stay parked there and walk up to Brian and Ann-Marie's house.   We said we'd be about 20 minutes, but we forgot about the hospitality of our Irish friends! We were there for well over an hour, I think, chatting and having homemade scones with tea and coffee. It's funny what a name connection does in terms of sort of jump starting a friendship. 

From this goodbye, we went on to say goodbye to Roads, Fred's plot just down the road. And also to see potato "bumps" which we had not noticed or known about till today. Potatoes are planted in mounds that form long sort of ridges perpendicular to the sea.  Okay, I looked it up... it's "furrowed fields of potato ridges." Here's a pic I did not take — which is a more dramatic representation than we saw in Roads, but same thing. (The potatoes are LONG GONE, FYI.)

Goodbye sheep.... click to listen. 

After this, the truck now on its way, we headed out for Killarney, a one-hour drive through the now-familiar towns of Glenbeigh and Killorglin. I had a Zoom meeting at 4:00, so I had about three minutes to spare after finding parking, finding out how to pay, learning the meter would take only coins and not our credit cards, having to pee, putting 30 minutes into the meter (that's all the coins we had)...  but not having time to pee since I had to find a café and buy a soft drink in order to earn my keep. The call went great, but it was an hour of me muting and unmuting myself due to the intense traffic behind me. I was outdoors.. maybe a bad move, but I didn't want to be on a call inside with other people nearby. After the call, during which time Fred was exploring, I then had to find an ATM for some cash... locate a bathroom (in a nail salon), exchange the bills for some coins, go back to the car — only to realize I had to go back to the MACHINE FIRST — add coins in three separate operations.... each time starting from scratch. They didn't add up. So after all my coins, I still ended up 12 minutes short of the deadline for having to pay the meters. I was super stressed and exhausted.... walking around in sprinkling rain, clutching my laptop. Once I unloaded it in the car, I met Fred at the BEST little pub called O'Connors. Possibly Teddy O'Connors. Fred had done the research — an authentic non-touristy pub, no easy task in a popular town like Killarney. I never did see much of Killarney but I've been there before. 

Another scene from Killarney.

And for dinner, a new spot for us — the Towers in downtown Glenbeigh. A LOVELY pub with yet again, the best bowl of seafood chowder ever. They really do have this dish down. 

Not our bar, but such a cute "chipper."