I pulled in to Killarney at about 10:30 at night. I was SO relieved I’d made it after such a long journey! It was great to have learned how to successfully gamble today, but it REALLY set me back time wise! I was eager to check in, drop off my gear and head out for some grub and a drink.

The grub proved fairly difficult to find, given the late hour. One thing that is so surprising to me is how early kitchens shut down here. ESPECIALLY given that every second doorway is a pub :) At any rate, I did find a hole in the wall Chinese Takeout Place. I wasn’t at all put off (cough) by the 3-deep row of 8 garbage bins right in front of the doorway.

A farmer walked in right behind me and I struck up a conversation. “Hey, how are ya? Good food here?” kind of stuff. You know, the usual. He told me he’d just been fixing his tractor. He was out clearing his field and slammed into a buried butter stone. What? So check this out:

There are artifacts buried throughout the land and farmers frequently dig them up when working the land. This time it was a butter stone; large round stone wheel with a square peg in the centre. He lifted the stone and rolled it to his yard where he proceeded to clean it up. He explained the acid wash process and the extreme hard work to clear up the square hole in the centre so he could fashion a new wooden post for it.

When our food was ready and we were ready to leave, he asked me something, but I couldn’t quite understand. I thought he asked if I had a smoke. No, that wasn’t it. Did I smoke? I asked if he needed a smoke? I was laughing because I could NOT figure out what he was saying, but then he reached in his pocket and handed me a gum wrapper. I looked at it and he says, “You can figure out the rest of it”, shook my hand and strode off.

I shoved the wrapper in my pocket thinking I’d throw out his garbage for him. I turned and walked back down the alley and came to little pub. There was a guy standing outside with his drink so I asked him what were the chances I could go inside, grab a pint and sit to eat my food. He laughed and said, “Sure! Go on in!”. Then he had a funny grin on his face so I asked if he was setting me up for embarrassment. He laughed and assured me he thought it would be fine.

Well I walked in and it was jam-packed. I had a hell of a time squeezing through people just to get to the bar. After securing a pint I walked back out and joined the fella at the front door. After all, he had a half a whiskey barrel to himself out there! (sideline – many of the pubs have a half a keg attached to the outside of the pub wall to serve as a table). I set my drink down and we got to chatting.

Regrettably, due to the lateness of my arrival, there was only time for one drink before they shut the place down.I wanted another drink; I was still pretty wound up from my extremely long day. I asked Michael (my new friend), if there was a place we might grab another drink.

He took me to a place called “The Grand” in Kilarney and what a blast we had! We laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what we talked about, but he was the perfect friend for me that night. That lonesome, completely singular feeling slipped away,

I’d finally found a right good bit o’ craic here in Ireland!