Twelve Bens and Third Cousins

Our second day in Ireland was a wonderful success! It naturally began with Jess and I waking up in a bed for the first time in a while which was obviously exciting. I was up at 9:00am and went downstairs to have a breakfast of Bran Flakes, which I thoroughly enjoyed because I love cereal! I could eat it for every meal and did for a number of years when my mother got 180+ boxes, but that's another story. Jess was dead to the world until 10:30am, possibly from jetlag but also because she just really loves sleep and it was exceptionally comfy in our bed. Marie had to leave about the time Jess got up to go see her mother somewhere else in Ireland, so we said our good-byes did the hugging thing. She wasn't sure when she was going to be back, but we hope it's before we leave on Saturday for Killarny.

We hung around the house for a bit and were general lazy gits while Michael took the dog, Duchess, for a walk, and drove his wife to get another car to drive to her mother. When he returned, though, he received a call from his mother, our (Great?) Aunt Nora, inviting us over for a drink and chat. Jess and I grabbed the gift we'd brought for Aunt Nora, a pink stuffed flamingo from Florida which our mother and Aunt Eileen had insisted was a gift she wanted. Together the three (four if you count the flamingo) of us walked the one of two houses over to Aunt Nora's place where we were greeted by Aunt Nora, our third cousin Collin, and two relatives, Alan and a woman who's name I couldn't spell if I wanted to who are related to me in some way but who on earth can keep track of how? We're already onto third cousins for goodness sake. Anyway, they all just happened to be there as they live close by and wanted to raid her alcohol cabinet. When I say 'live close by' I really do mean that too. All the houses in the general radius of Michael's house are houses built by relatives to be close to their other relatives so they all live next to each other. Despite this, according to Michael he rarely sees these relatives because he just doesn't bother and neither do they, so he was actually surprised to see so many people in the house.

Upon entering we were immediately offered our choice of drink, however Aunt Nora only drinks hard liquor so we had a choice of vodka, whiskey, and rum. I went with Captain Morgan's spiced rum mixed with Diet Coke and Jess got Absolut Vodka, also mixed with Diet Coke. While we sipped those, me more than Jess because I'm not even used to wine, we laughed and chatted and had a spectacular time with our relatives! I've never had such a wonderful time talking with people I'm related to. That sounds harsh, and I don't mean it like that, but as the youngest of my relatives I've always been on the edge of conversations, just listening and trying to find something useful or interesting to say, whereas here I was actually part of the conversation and people wanted to talk to me and listen to me and that was totally different and exciting!

We started off giving Aunt Nora her gift, which she thought was hysterical and loved. She's probably in her 90's so Michael says she's in her 'second childhood' which is probably true and she's definitely enjoying it! We then discusses all manner of things all at once and over each other, as loud and as fast as possible and Jess and I certainly kept pace with that! We're too loud and fast as it is, and we actually got to amplify that here! We talked about Jessica's research grant (you know, what we're actually traveling for), the temperature in Florida compared to Ireland (Jess and I are in jackets here while everyone else is in shorts, but they'd never survive the heat in Florida), Collin's middle name (which he didn't know and had to check his license to figure out), and Aunt Nora's memory of the war (in Ireland called The Emergency) though we focused mostly on the tea rations during the war which was a major concern at the time. Michael wanted us to have enough time for a drive around Galway so we eventually chugged the last of our drinks, and pink in the face, said farewell and took off.

For several hours then we took a drive around Galway and the areas around it. We chatted the whole way as Michael pointed out different landmarks and described them the best he could, which was amusing in itself. We stopped at Aldi's briefly and got to see what the Irish sell and what their prices are and had a laugh about the shape of their soda bottles before we headed towards Kylemore Abbey. The abbey is essentially a castle and a huge tourist attraction, so Michael didn't want to see too much of it or subject us to things that are overly tourist-populated for too long, so we parked, used their toilets, and snapped a number of photos outside before we tarried onwards.

  For the most part our drive took us past sheep, greenery, and the Twelve Bens, which are 12 mountains or hills or what-have-you that are very lovely and perfect for photographing from the car as you drive by, which is how we got most of our shots anyway. We also went by the only fjord in Ireland, called Killary Harbor because they didn't know what a fjord was at the time they named it.

We went about like that for several hours before arriving home to eat hamburgers, hotdogs, and sausage then help load up Michael's car with paintings for his art exhibition. In Galway town again, Jess and I helped Michael unload his art before once again meandering through town. There were more people than before, which was odd given it was only a Thursday, but it was still a nice walk around. We actually stepped into a pub, The King's Head, just to say we had, even though we didn't buy anything, but it's the principle of the thing. We also found an unusual outside/inside mall that is entered via an open mouth canal of some sort into an indoor underground style shopping mall. We saw a group of singers raising money for some disease or another and a window display featuring mannequins with horse heads and it was all very bizarre and wonderful.

We returned to the school to meet with Michael and got to take a spin around the now almost complete art exhibit to see everyone's work. A lot of it was lovely pieces, my favourite being a stunning oil on canvas wave that was just full to the brim with colours. It's just a small art display, meant to happen at the same time as the art festival that's going to be happening the same day it opens to attract more people, but there's a lot of talent on display. Eventually we meandered home, taking the long drive so we could see an area by the water where my mother, Uncle Brendan, and Michael stole a sign warning against parking too close to the edge for danger of falling in, which they have, obviously, since replaced. On the way home we could smell fire and saw fire trucks pulling away from a plot of land that had burned away. The drought has made everything dry and the heat and sun is setting things ablaze. That's supposed to end with Hurricane Chris, but we'll see. Michael wanted to take us into the Twelve Pins, a bar in Galway, but the smell of the fire was everywhere and we opted to just head home.

At the house there was a distinct smell of onion and we discovered that Duchess, the dog, had managed to get the leftover hamburger and sausage out of the celophane from the table by breaking the plate. Of course she was forgiven but we had a good laugh. Then, until 1:00am, Jess, Michael, and I talked and talked and talked. We talked about movies and the greatest actresses of all time (Audrey Hepburn is at the top for all of us), and we talked about Uncle Brendan and how Jess and I should have been able to meet him before he passed away. We laughed, and cried, and talked until we'd had enough of that and really needed to go to bed. Well, Micheal did. Jess and I hadn't taken a shower since before the plane ride and my hair was actually starting to matte, so that needed to be handled, 1:00am or otherwise. Taking a shower was definitely a highlight of the day, silly as it sounds, and I am finally refreshed completely and ready to take on the world. Or at least southern Ireland!