Vacation Tour of Ireland 2008, Day 4

Oy am I tired. Today was a busy day. Fortunately, I had a good night's sleep last night, maybe too much of one. I woke just after nine. My wake up call was supposed to be at 7am so I could join the rest of the tour in the pretty town of Adare, to have a look around. I was a bit late, but made it in time for breakfast before I the bus took off.

We drove up the coast a bit to the Burren and stopped at the Singing Stones. The name reminds me of Three Amigos, and while there was no singing tree or stones for that matter, it was a beautiful place. Rocky terrain with several rocks standing on in, which some were wondering if they had some cultural meaning. I'm guessing a bunch of kids decided to stand them up because they looked cool. The view was lovely and the sound was fascinating. Andrew and I started talking 50 feet away as if we were five feet away. We could hear each other perfectly.

From there we drove to a Burren perfumery. It was a quaint little place. The café had some of the best coffee I've had in a long while, certainly in Ireland. And the smells… I love the scents we create. There's such power to it.

There was a lovely garden that after wandering around a bit, I ran back to the bus and grabbed my autoharp and Andrew's recorder. We played in this nice stone backed nook that would be an amazing stage at a Ren Faire. Soft, relaxing music was just the start for our final destination-Brigit's Garden.

Brigit's Garden was beautiful, relaxing garden built around the theme of Brigit with landscaping around the various Celtic holidays. It was all human constructed but beautifully designed for peace, serenity and even some playfulness. We had a short tour and after a very late lunch, Andrew and I played a few serene songs on top of a hill in the garden, which attracted a number of interested visitors.

Afterward, I walked around, playing a little bit, some with Andrew and some alone as I saw the site. Then we boarded the bus once more for Leenane, Connemara in County Galway. In this small hotel with had another delicious dinner and a group of us went into town to check out the two pubs. The first was hot and packed watching some football game. I'm not entirely sure what the game was. It wasn't quite soccer or American football. We found out about that when we went to the second pub where there were fewer people, and the temperature was cooler.

I was pretty out of it. But Andrew and I played a few songs. After he left, we had a wee sing-a-long and slowly others in the pub got interested, and we had a bigger sing-a-long. One lady, Brigit, oddly enough, came up and raved about my voice, which was nice as I wasn't sure what the "natives" would think. Last year in Lisdoonvarna, it was all fans. This year was split with fans and locals. And the locals enjoyed the songs. Brigit said I had a whole Pearl Jam sound to my voice. I thought that was amusing considering I used to play Alternative Rock.

Well, I stayed up far too long, and we wandered home feeling wiped. Another day ahead and oy am I tired. I should get more sleep, but I'm having too much fun!

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Originally published at Marc Gunn .com. Read. Interact. Breathe. It's easy; it's free.

Labels: travel

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posted by Marc Gunn @ Monday, June 09, 2008