Falling behind in general, but chew on this, non-believers...
Day 6
A much better morning, indeed. Not only was it comfy and dry, it came with a full traditional Irish breakfast (with an amazing view...). And when I mean full, I mean FULL. Check this:
-cereal...
-toast...
-juice...
-French pressed coffee...
-English style bacon...
-sausage links...
-an egg (fried...)...
-black pudding...
-scones...
-tomato...
Damn, that's good...
The itinerary consisted of three goals:
1)See Queen Maeve's grave...
2)See W.B. Yeats grave...
3)Get to Tara's friend Catherine's home in Strabane...
So, first things first: Queen Maeve's grave. After finding the area, getting to the site was a challenge in-and-of itself. I can imagine that many of the pagan persuasion would consider the trek up the steep (very in some parts...) hill as a pilgrimage of sorts, and I don't blame them. I felt I had accomplished something once I reached the top...
The Queen's grave itself was more like a cross between a tomb and a cairn (size plus materials used...). Regardless what the monument was, I was suitably impressed and satisfied with the site/sight. It was at this point I did two things a stereotypical, ignorant tourist would do. One, I ignored the sign saying, 'Do Not Climb the Grave' and went to the top. This, again, was worth it. To see a stormy panorama of Ireland stretched all around me; the feeling was nothing short of magical. I'm not much for religion, but it was as close as I've come in a long time. And two: I took stones from the grave. I really shouldn't have, but they were small and not all for me. I can now say I have 'The Bones of Maeve' (By the way, if you don't know who Queen Maeve was, look her up...)...
On to Yeats. I only know this figure by reputation, as I am not usually for poetry. I do know W.B. Yeats was, and is, a highly respected and regarded author and poet in the literary world. After my experience at Maeve's, one might think I'd have a similar experience at Yeats' grave. I didn't...
So, with the two major sites to see out of the way, it was off to see Tara's friend, Catherine, in Strabane for the weekend. Catherine knows Tara through an online RPG within the Pern universe (years before the term 'MMORPG' was popularized...), as well as another Irish native named Marion. Catherine, and her husband Colin, were gracious enough to open their home to us free of charge for three days, so I was looking forward to getting to know some new people fairly well (the two bottles of wine we brought should help...)...
It was quite a long drive to Strabane, so Tara and I had to amuse ourselves. Our main topic: concepting a new addition to the Tycoon computer game series, Wine Tycoon. Due to our love of wine these days (thank you Ithaca and the Finger Lakes...), it was an easy topic for us to jump into, but a very in depth idea once we got going. We think we covered everything: Grape types, soil content, hazards, equipments, world regions, customer needs, and a bunch of other things as well. To put it in perspective, we talked about the whole idea for over an hour and a half. That feels like a long time to brainstorm a computer game...
Meeting Catherine was neat, I'd have to say. While we waited for her husband, Colin, to return home from work, we played the get-to-know-you game. Apparently, Catherine knows more about me than I could ever realize (she follows Tara's blogging...). She made us a nice dinner and we actually went through three bottles of wine between the four of us. Being tired, we made light conversation till evening's end, sharing a few more drinks and then retiring. Good people, though it's shaping up to be an alcohol-filled stop. It behooves me to mention that our hosts are 35 and 42, so their tolerance is a bit higher than Tara's or mine. Hang on, liver; it's going to be a bumpy ride. Zzzz...
June 18, 2009
Nicholas C. Witte
Enjoy these other pictures of the day:
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