Back from my self induced rehab trip to Ireland, and I feel like some balance has been restored. Tried to keep up my Death Jogging regimen, but thankfully that only lasted one day. There are way too many pubs and interesting people to meet in Ireland to waste time running around. Plus I had a rental car.

A small old man bumped into me in another pub. His eyes were swimming in his head as he tried in vain to focus. Not sure what to do next, he extended his hand to me and mumbled, “I’m Tom, I’m droonk, and it’s maaagic!” It wasn’t long until Tom’s magic show ended, and he was crumpled in a heap on the floor.

While sipping a pint of Guinness in still another pub – yes there is a trend here – a guy came up to me, said something about me being a Guinness fan, and proceeded to tell me a story about something or other. His story was so long and involved it lasted me through two pints. When he finally finished his yarn, he shook my hand and walked away. Because of his thick accent and my pint input level, I hadn’t understood one single word the man said.

Believe it or not, there are also a few non pub-related Ireland stories – The main reason for this trip, aside from my Guinness rehydration therapy, was Fiona’s sister’s wedding. The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun. Once it was over, we had three days left to sight see. The only motorcycle rental place I could find was in Northern Ireland, and the wedding was as far south as it could be. So, instead of riding the great roads of Ireland on a blue Yamaha FJR, we toured in REAL style – a royal blue Toyota Corolla Station Wagon!

We met a motorcycling couple from Holland. I listened as my new friend Joost bitched about the bad roads and worse drivers. He said his back hurt from the constant beating the roads dished out. However, his biggest complaint was one we both shared.

Sheep in the middle of the road.

We saw a bunch of ruined stuff on the trip:

And some cool things too:

Plenty of stuff like this:

And this:
Aww… How sweeeeet!
And finally: One of the places Fiona and I decided to drive to was the Drombeg Stone Circle, located in the middle of nowhere down some small dirt roads. My map indicated this particular stone circle was ‘of interest’, opposed to the Lisseyviggeen Stone Circle, which was marked as ‘not of interest’ on the map.

In this case the map was right. This ‘of interest’ altar was used in Druid ceremonies dating back to 945 BC. Somehow the Druids figured out how to align their alter (the rightmost, lowest stone in the circle) exactly with position of the sun on the Winter Solstice, which everyone knows is December 21st. How the Druids knew that way back in 945 BC is a mystery to me, as is how anyone managed to figure the ‘stone altar alignment with the sun’ thing out in a country that is almost always cloudy.

Stone circles are interesting, for about ten minutes tops. Then it’s time to go. At a dirt road intersection, I noticed a woman running towards me, flagging me down. Expecting some kind of emergency, we stopped and waited as she ran up to the car. I mean we were in the middle of nowhere, so there had to be some reason for this lady being out there.

This mystery woman came up to the car, opened the door and jumped in the back seat. “Boy, am I glad to see you! Can you give me a lift to town? It’s such a long walk you know.”

In California, this would get you shot, but in Ireland, it gets you a ride.

Author: frenchy