Jude's M00t Report
The Pub
We spent most evenings in Durty Nelly's, a pub dating from 1620 and simply oozing with personality and character. It's the yellow-gold building you can see just in front of the castle in this picture:
The People!
But of course, even the best pub in the world is only as good as the people you're with. It was a real privilege to be able to m00t with such a fine bunch of people. There were many that I met in Edinburgh, and more new people as well. Evidently I'm well known even to people I haven't posted with – I'm “the man with the dogsâ€.
truehobbit, Matt, and Taurië:
Rowanberry
truehobbit
Lidless, Rodia, Estel, Areanor, Berhael, Dan, Dindraug
Dan, Dindraug, Leoba, Matt, truehobbit, Rowanberry, Lidless, and part of Rodia's head
Rowanberry and truehobbit
Rodia and Estel
Jude
Taurië and Matt. Aren't they cute?
No, Rodia is not giving you the finger. She was eating something.
The_Angel and Jewelsong
wilko and Rowanberry
Areanor
Dan, Berhael, Matt, and Taurië
Jude
Inzilbeth and Satch
Back: Hobbituk, wilko, The_Angel, Matt. Front: truehobbit, Taurië.
Even more people!
The Aroma!
The smell of a turf fire alone would make it worth emigrating to Ireland. Each of the homes in the Bunratty Folk Park had one, and the hotel near our cottages had one in full blaze all the time. I guess the fuel is small bricks of peat. I remember the topic came up last year in Edinburgh, but I didn't really pay attention because I hadn't experienced it for myself. All I know is – the smell is wonderful!
The Cave
Our first sightseeing stop was the Ailwee Cave, which was carved under a mountain by water over millions of years. The scenery was fascinating, but my photographs didn't really capture the magic of the place. Here are a couple of my better ones:
At one point the guide switched off the lights entirely. Now
that was dark. Darker than darker than dark. So dark that you could wave your hand in front of your face and get no visual feedback at all. And suddenly, we all heard a quiet, sinister voice hiss “precioussss...â€. One of our group, no doubt.
It did give us a sense of how frightening the “Riddles in the Dark†scene really is. I mean, it was freaky enough knowing that the lights would be switched on in a minute, and we were on a clearly marked path with a hand railing. Imagine being lost, with no clear knowledge of whether you're getting closer to the exit, or just moving deeper and deeper into the mountain.
*shudder*
The Banquet
Friday night we went to a Medieval banquet in Bunratty Castle. Upon entering, I was handed a goblet of mead by a ravishingly beautiful young lady in Medieval garb. And I do believe that's the first time I've ever been addressed as “My Lordâ€.
After a brief talk summing up the history of the castle, the Ladies of Bunratty Castle entered. These were not just workers in the tourist industry that happened to be able to carry a tune, oh no! They started off the evening by singing a contrapuntal madrigal, from memory, facing outwards in a circle so that they couldn't see each other. No mean feat! Later on, during the actual banquet, they continued to entertain us with traditional Irish as well as some 16th-century music. They were joined by two male singers and a violinist.
About the violinist – he did play some solos that were definitely not 16th century. It was very disorienting – like he had some special powers that let him see 200 years into the future.
After, we went up to the grand hall for the actual banquet. No sissy knives and forks! We were given daggers with which to hold our meat. The wine was served in goblets, and the soup was drunk straight from the bowl. The food was delicious!
The Alleged Democritus
Last year, in Edinburgh, the other m00ters got together and played an elaborate hoax on me. They made up this guy, Democritus, and pretended he was coming. We kept getting these cell phone calls, someone would pick it up, and say something like, “It's Demo – he's in Yorkshire and he's on his way.†Or “He's just finishing up a meeting and will come up to Edinburgh as soon as it's over.†The phone kept getting passed around, but whenever I asked to speak to him, they pretended not to hear, or would say "Oops, he just rang off".
This year, they went one step further, having realized that I was sceptical of his existence, they hired a voice actor to portray him. When the inevitable phone call arrived that he wasn't coming they handed the phone to me immediately. I must say, it was a good try; whoever it was, he seemed knowledgeable about the boards (although he did get my gender wrong), and the attempt at a New Zealand accent wasn't bad. I wonder what they're going to pull next year.
The Scenery!
By now, you've all seen the pictures of the Cliffs of Moher. They were so magnificent, so awe-inspiring, that we couldn't help but gawk and take picture after picture. But even as we were driven from one stop to another, there were many sights that would have been worth seeing if we had had more time. For example, there was the Burren, a strange rocky, almost otherworldly landscape that we drove through on the way to the cave. I could easily have spent a day hiking there.
We passed so many picturesque ruins of old castles and abbeys. Evidently the locals take them for granted because there are so many of them, but this Canadian would have happily stopped to explore each and every one of them. It's a good thing I didn't have control of the steering wheel – we never would have gotten very far!
One of our stops was Killarney National Park, a huge expanse of beautifully cultivated gardens and easily on par with the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh. Oh look – I have some photies!
Yes, I know I need to get a less ostentatious pair of glasses – you all made that very clear to me.
I took this picture because the stump in the middle looks a lot like the character Rygel on Farscape:
Yes, Virginia, there really is a TORC waterfall:
The mods of TORC!
A group photie in front of the TORC waterfall
There was a path climbing up from the waterfall – some of us went up for the view, while others rested at the bottom. What we saw at the top was so beautiful, so unexpected, so unforgettable, that we all agreed to not take any pictures, and to never speak of it again.
You've already seen the pictures of those amazing cliffs, but here are mine:
The beacon tower: