Cragganaunowen & Bunratty

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This post is mainly about Clare County though we are staying in Limerick.

Well, when last I wrote, it was Monday and I didn't expect much excitement for the remainder of the week. Last night, some of the local lads took us out to a place called Copper & Spice. The food was delish but I didn't think it worth writing about.

Tonight, on the other hand, despite working until 6pm, we had an adventure. My co-worker's last night in Ireland is tonight, so we went out for a drive. Every site is marked by a brown sign from miles away. One of them sounded particularly intriguing, although I had never heard of it in my life. Craggaunowen. (Say that 5 times fast). We followed windy road after another until we stumbled upon its outer parking lot.

Naturally it was closed by 6pm and we were there at 7:15. So, should that stop us? We climbed up what looked like a path into a hilltop, transversed the hilltop towards a tower rising from the hills, and crawled over a stone wall. The terrain was rough and thankfully dry in this week of sunny weather. Then we passed through the gates (closed, but not locked) and toured the site on our own, feeling a little like teenagers for our trespassing. The site was fascinating - I'm so glad we saw it. From an old Irish lord's castle, visible to the raod, to the surprising Iron Age settlements - a crannog (settlement in a bog), a ring-fort, an old road and fields, and even some Iron Age sheep (adorable). When we reached the Dolmen, a gravesite, I remembered Lords of the Rings, in the scene in the beginning of Fellowship where they come upon the stone graves. It wasn't that spooky though.

Then, we went off to Bunratty Castle, where we got one of the last spots in the medieval banquet. Quite a lot of fun. Suspend your disbelief, drink the quantities of wine and mead, and have fun! The food was actually quite good. My favorite was the parsnip soup. We sat across from a honeymooning couple from Princeton NJ. The wife was a Whole Foods florist and a shaman. The husband was a reverend. They were older and quite fun. The banquet also featured madrigals, harp-playing, violin, Irish sing-alongs, and a bit of fun from the staff, locking up one of the diners in the dungeon and such. Overall, I heartily encourage people to visit if they have the funds - it's a really fun way to spend an evening.

Afterwards, we headed out to a pub nearby called Durty Nelly's, dating back to 1610. We met a fellow there who worked in real estate. He was quite drunk but also quite enthusiastic about chatting.

It is so easy to meet people in Ireland. In some countries, people worry about experiencing the "real" thing. Here, it's everywhere. That's why going to a fantasy medieval place like Bunratty doesn't take away at all from the experience. Because I can hang out with tourists, since I've spent all week getting to know Irish folks. Thing is - it's neat here - they look like me and my family and my friends, though they do not talk like them, and we have similar concerns - the economy, housing markets. They have different political and especially immigration issues, so it's interesting to hear about that. And it's distinctly a different country. But the culture isn't all that different from New England. The big thing I notice here though is - people seem like they stay close to their families and in-laws, and know their neighborhood well. They dont' ahve Garmin (GPS mapping system) here because everyone knows what roads to take. There is also a culture of home ownership, different from the US. Though it's quite expensive to own property, people strive for it, even before marriage, and a lot of people seem to own homes earlier than we do in the Boston area. And another stereotype also seems true - drinking is part of the culture. But I haven't seen true out of control drunkenness. It's very moderate.

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