Sneem

We made a couple of short stops to take more photos of the ocean and beaches, but before too long I got bored with the sameness of the scenery. Eventually we reached the charming little town of Sneem. I assume the town achieved its notoriety as a tourist attraction simply because it's the only interesting thing after travelling past miles upon miles of open fields with nothing but rocks and sheep in them. In Sneem we did our first productive souvenir shopping. I badly wanted to get a Bodhran (Irish drum/tambourine). Each one is decorated with a unique design such as Celtic crosses, clovers, dragons, knights or a beer company logo. On our last trip, in 2002, I vacillated on the idea of buying one because of the price. I felt that $40 was a little too much, but in the meantime I had started to "decorate" our den with beer/tavern/restaurant items that we had picked-up on our other subsequent world travels. I figured if I could find a Bodhran with an appropriate design for under $40 I'd get one to hang on the den wall. As soon as we got off the bus in Sneem I saw a music store advertising Bodhrans and Irish music. The entire sales floor ceiling line was decorated with them. They were all listed at no more than 30 Euro or just under $40. I seqarched through all of them finally settling on a somewhat faded-looking one with an interesting Irish script and two beer glasses. I have no idea what it says, but it looks cool hanging in my room. Gail got herself a CD of Irish music then we walked next door for that Irish tradition, ice cream cones. After dribbling half my cone on my shirt we found a couple other tacky souvenir shops where I added to my little collection of postal junk by buying a platic replica of the ever present green, round Irish mailboxes we had seen in every tiny village we passed through. In that Quills store you see in the picture Gail found more jewelry and a couple little do-dads for friends and co-workers. Little did I realize that this was only the first of about 20 Quills I would see throughout our visit in Ireland.