4. Ireland Day 2, Part 2...

Upon returning home we decided to go grab the early bird special at the Cill Aodain Hotel in downtown Kiltimagh. The inside has be renovated with a modern look. There is a low orange cast to the room that is very welcoming. David entertained us by telling us what it used to look like inside as Erynne had never seen it pre-renovation either. Here is the sign that hangs over Aodain Street on the front of the Hotel.

As I was reading over the menu I can across the vegetable soup. Now as you look at the picture above you will have a hard time understanding what I read on the menu. Let me explain. The menu read "Vegetable soup served with a creamed crouton". Just imagine what you would think if you didn't have this picture image in your head. I just giggled and looked up and asked Erynne and David what in the world a creamed crouton is. I mean in my head a crouton is a crunchy dry food item. How do you cream it? All sort of things were going in my head. Were they doing a fancy deconstruction of the crouton, soaking it and making it spongey? Well once she placed it in from of me I laughed out loud. Ah Ha, a creamed,(comma space pause) crouton! Now it makes sense. I know I know, a long post about a stupid crouton but hey it really made me laugh at the time.

Mmmm, dessert. These are delicious, light not overly sweet, gorgeously presented Profiteroles (Thank you David for help on the spelling!).

We finished dinner off with coffee. Did you notice what the cup says on it? A cup just for me!

After dinner we went across the street to Ryan's pub. Here is a picture of me on the right and Mary on the left. She walked in took one look at me and said "You're Erynne's friend visiting from DC. Anthony (the man who served me my first ever Guinness the night before) told me you were in town". How cute. Literally in town for barely 24 hours and the word was out! Mary is a wonderful woman whom I really enjoyed meeting and seeing around town.

Now here is Bill. Let me give you a little background. Before my trip I told Erynne that I wanted to sit in a pub and talk to an older Irishman so he could tell me stories. "I've got just the guy for you" she said "That would be Bill". Well dear readers please meet Bill. He brought me to tears, literally. He sat and lovingly recited from memory William Wadsworth's poem Daffodils to me. Let me tell you that it being my second night, having met some lovely lovely heart warming people, sitting in a pub and having this lovely man recite poem after poem to me really did bring tears to my eyes. What a lovely man. Bill, I'm proud to have shared a Hot Whiskey with you.

Here is the group from that night, minus David who is behind the camera. From left to right is Bill, Erynne, Me, David (I forget his last name, David or Erynne a little help here) and Mary ( I don't remember her lastname either I'm sorry to report). Can't you just tell we are all having a wonderful time? Each and every person made me feel like I was home.

Erynne and I passing the time by arranging "Beer Mats". I think we annoyed the owner's wife a bit by demanding more beer mats so we could finish the puzzle, silly girls!

Yay, we finished it! I made sure I collected all the beer mats, stacked them back up and handed them back with a great big smile of thanks.

This ends Day 2 of my travels. I may take a day off to catch up on work before posting Day 3 so I hope you are enjoying the trip so far!