A Good Place To Be

Though it hurt us to leave the beauty of Killarney, we had to say goodbye as we continue our journey. On Friday morning, we passed through the countryside with the Kerry Mountains in the rearview, and made our way to Ennis in Co. Clare. Our lit teacher, Dr. McDowell, isn't particularly fond of the area (calling it "a nice place...to drive through"), but our anthropology teacher emphasized the relevance of the stop as a music wonderland. He had set up a rendezvous with the well-known traditional Irish group the Ceili Bandits, but we weren't going to see them until Monday. Instead, we were given a longer leash to explore the cozy town of Ennis!

We found a coffee shop on practically every corner as well as pet shops and neat little boutiques. The intimacy of the town really reinforces that strong bond and sense of community with the Irish. Also, though, we realized that there is an incredible amount of European immigrants to Ennis especially, for we passed many Polish bakeries and grocery stores and our favorite lunch spot, "Souper", was run by several Hungarians! Immigration became huge after the Celtic Tiger era, and where better for decent work than an agriculturally-driven Ireland? I even met a Polish man taking his grandsons to the park, and demonstrated my ancestry when one of the boys, probably around 2 years old, picked a daisy and gave it to me. I replied with "dziękuję", or thank you, and the man was pleased to hear it. 

On our second day in Ennis, we realized that we needed to play catch up with our homework, and found a quiet field to read in, except that we weren't alone. A man approached us, but his appearance and speech clearly noted that he was socially challenged, and he kept asking us what we were doing. We replied that we were reading our anthropology books for our class, and he sat on the ground and stared up at the sky and eating a bag of chips as we read. Eventually he staggered off, allowing us to discuss what had happened, but he returned carrying a 2-liter bottle of "traditional cider" (aka alcohol), and repeated his questions from before. We answered similarly, and he staggered off again in a drunken stupor. He returned a third time with a bag of M&M's, offering them to us, but we refused, using our eyes to communicate to each other that it was time to get the hell out of there. He suddenly tossed a piece of candy at a friend, and we gathered our stuff and politely bid him adieu as we left the field. We eventually found an actual park to sit and read in which proved to be much better. Later that night, we went to a pub called Brogan's where two men were playing music, though nothing too entertaining, so we finished our pints and headed out to wander some more. We stumbled across a place called Enzo's that offers burgers for 2.40 euro! We were so excited for such a cheap price (even the McDonald's here is at least 3 euro for stuff on the dollar menu), that we grabbed some bacon burgers and happily ate back to the hotel.

On Sunday, we prepared a Bio study session since we have a test this upcoming Wednesday, and that took about 3 hours to go through. Can't escape reality even when you are in Ireland, unfortunately. But the session was good for us all to feel comfortable with the approaching exam, and we spent the remainder of the day doing homework and watching Sherlock after dinner.

*A quick note: our hotel, The Temple Gate, has the best food that I've ever had in my life. Professionally made potato skins, salmon, cod, chicken, soups, and especially the desserts! Hot chocolate brownies, toffee ice cream with meringue, orange & chocolate chip cheesecake...ahhh too bad it's only 4 days here...

I'm writing now on our last day, where I went out and bought a Sterling Silver Claddagh ring for only 25 euros. I was thinking of waiting until Galway to get one, but even there cheaper ones cost 40-45 euros simply because Galway is where the claddagh ring originated. I was also glad to purchase the ring from a lovely woman with her own jewelry shop, so it felt good to give back to the small community. At 2pm, we returned to Brogan's where we just finished our session with the Ceili Bandits, and incredibly fun and gifted group of musicians who introduced us to the differences in Irish music (jigs, reels, etc). After dinner, we will be going to watch their session in the popular pub and see them perform in a traditional setting. The violin player, Yvonne, told us about how she gets lost in the music when she plays both alone and with a group, and how it is a good place to be. Her words reflected upon this stop in Ennis as a whole, for though there may not be dozens of monuments and attractions to see as tourists, that doesn't make it any less beautiful.