Carrick-on-Suir

So our first day of the trip is over. It seems like we’ve been here for a few days though because it was such a long day. I’ve only had about 36 hours of sleep in the past two days so I’ll be glad to be able to get a full night’s rest tonight.

· We went for a walk around Carrick tonight. We saw the castle that belonged to Black Tom or Tim or something like that. He wasn’t really black of course. I assumed you figured that because there aren’t too many black Irishmen, especially with castles. It was given to him by Elizabeth the first. Cousin Jane made spaghetti for dinner and it was quite good. Definitely felt better in my stomach than the broccoli and cauliflower soup I had earlier today. That didn’t settle so well.

· After dinner we met up with Enda who is my grandmother’s second cousin. He lives here in Carrick and is an actor in theatre. We met him at the J. Lawlor pub for a pint or two. It ‘s only one of the many pubs in this small town. The pubs here aren’t like the bars we have for a few reasons. For example, the bartender or what they call the “bar-man” over here was actually a “bar-woman” and she was pushing 80 years old. I’m sure she had owned and ran the bar her whole life. A lot of the tacky decorations in the bar had been there for a while too. There was a cigarette machine that looked like it was forty years old. The cigarettes here so expensive, almost ten American dollars a pack. Another reason why is that they didn’t have Budweiser or Coors like they do in America. I ordered a pint of Guinness which was on tap along with Carlsberg and some other Irish beer. I was very surprised with how Guinness tasted. It was really good, the very dark appearance fooled me. When we finished our glasses Enda brought us to another pub downtown. I liked this one better. From the street it looked very small but it actually wasn’t at all. It was dark and filled with neat signs and pictures. The lounge went back like fifty feet with tables set up along the way. Next to the door that read toilets there was a door which led to an outside bar area with TV’s and a few slot machines. There was a patio and on both sides were round tables. We chose to sit in a little side nook that seemed to be the bar’s old kitchen because it had tile floors unlike the rest of the bar. We drank a few more pints and talked about the Irish sport called “hurling”. Which is sort of a mix between baseball, soccer, and hockey. Baseball because you carry a “hurley”... Soccer because you run around and play on a soccer field. Hockey because it’s physical. If I grew up in Ireland I would definitely be a hurler and not a soccer player. Enda even said soccer was a fairy sport. I agreed.

I’m disappointed that I can’t get on the internet here. There are a few spots with WiFi but they are all locked. I’m hoping the rest of Europe will be better in that way because I’d really like to be able to post on the blog and add pictures as much as possible. As well as facebook and chat with my friends and family who I miss a lot. Especially Courtney.. I love you very much.

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