March 21,
Today I woke up at 815 to catch the bus at 9. The morning was pretty hectic with everybody bustling around trying to make sandwiches and do last minute packing. Our first stop on the bus ride was at a monastery called Clonmacnoise which is along the river Shannon. We had a tour of this monastic site, but also had a little time to explore for ourselves. This site had many beautiful Celtic Crosses, 2 towers, and many churches. The coolest part about this site was actually something called “The Whispering Arch”.
If you whisper into the doorway on one side, the sound carries through the arch to the person listening on the other side. It was pretty neat!
Our next stop was at another monastic site called Kilmacdough. While this site was also very beautiful, but it seemed to be an exact replica of Clonmacnoise. So we definitely got our fair share of Monastic Sites today!
When we finally arrived at Bunratty that evening, we got a few hours to ourselves at the B&B to just relax, nap, and do homework before the Medieval Banquet that evening. Our B&B was called the Bunratty Mews and was run by a woman named Dolores O’Toole. She was so incredibly kooky but so hospitable! The B&B completely replicated her personality and we all settled in so quickly. Around 830, our whole group (including our amazing bus driver, Owen) got all dressed up to go over to the castle for our banquet!
We walked across the drawbridge and up a tower where we received a glass of mead while we waited for the evening to begin. A bunch of us were chatting when one of the ladies dressed up in Medieval gear came up to our group and asked, “Where might I find Jake and Beth?” So Jake and I, a bit confused, stepped forward. She then told us that we would be acting as King and Queen for the evening and told us to get ready to be crowned in a few minutes. So after the performers told us some history of Bunrattty Castle and sang a few songs, Jake and I were brought up and crowned King and Queen of Bunratty!
We had to lead everyone down the tower into the dining room. Jake and I sat at the head table, and the evening just turned out to be a blast! We had an amazing 4 course dinner (soup, ribs, chicken with potatoes and vegetables, and a little dessert) plus all the wine we could drink! Jake and I even got to throw somebody in the dungeon about half way through the dinner! They performed lots of Madrigal Music for us plus some traditional Irish songs like Danny Boy. I had such a fabulous time, and Jake and I definitely milked our roles as much as we possibly could : )
March 22,
This morning I woke up pretty early and went into one of the many sitting rooms and read my contemporary author book while everyone else was still asleep. It felt so good to just to sit and read while I heard Dolores getting breakfast ready in the next room. Throughout the morning, other people started trickling into the sitting room with their books, but we all ended up just chatting before breakfast. At 830, we went into the breakfast room and had an unbelievable breakfast! Anything we could imagine for breakfast was provided. Eggs, black and white pudding, rashers, sausage links, roasted vegetables, pastries, toast, granola, yogurt, fruit, and so much more! Dolores kept checking in on us to make sure we had all the tea and toast we could ever want. She is just fantastic and I would recommend her B&B to anyone traveling to Bunratty.
After packing up our things after breakfast, we said good-bye to Dolores and went back to Bunratty castle for a formal tour. We ended up getting a bunch of free-time to explore on our own though! Jake, Kenny, Rian, and I had such a great time exploring every nook and cranny of that castle.
Around the castle, Shannon Heritage as set up a medieval village with real thatched roof cottages with turf fires burning inside to give people a feel for rural Irish living. Of course all of us thought it was hilarious because turf fires and thatch cottages are how we have been surviving the last few months! Anyway, it was such a beautiful day and we still had fun just roaming around in the sun.
Around noon, we all hopped back on the bus and drove to Coole Park. It was so neat to come to the same place that Yeats wrote so many poems about. A handful of us walked down to the lake, and believe it or not we saw a pair of swans swimming in the distance. It was just like we had jumped into a Yeats poem! Jake then decided to hop onto a rock in the lake and though it was most appropriate to read a poem out loud. It was so picturesque with the swans in the background; we were all embracing everything we had learned about Irish poetry together.
I cannot describe how peaceful it was to just hang out by the lake on this beautiful day and just soak in the beauty around us. We were skipping rocks and just having a grand old time.
Rob and I even climbed a tree in the park! It was just a beautiful day to be outside in the sunshine.
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