August 14
Duration of day: 10:30 AM
Instead of going right to the hotel, first we went to the Cliffs of Moher. It’s nice and everything, but I’d really begun to run out of steam. For a while the hour bus ride was exciting, talking about the scenery with Leah, but I started to fall asleep.
The cliffs were beautiful, but also got old fairly quickly. Leah and I wanted to go into the area of the path past the sign that warned of “extreme danger,” but Emily didn’t want to at all. She ended up walking off a bit angrily, even though we didn’t even spend 5 minutes there (because it was, in fact, dangerous). But so Leah and I went after Emily and she was still not pleased at all, so I decided to give her some space… and Leah decided to follow her. I walked around, a bit frustrated at Emily and in an increasingly sour mood… you see, my camera wasn’t working at all and I couldn’t figure what the problem was, and my cell was no longer in my pocket, meaning it was either a) on the ground near a cliff, or b) on the bus. I decided to check the latter first. On my way back to the bus I saw Emily, and she’d decided to be friendly again. She fixed my camera, somehow, and accompanied me to the bus to check for my cell. It was there, thankfully.
We then took off, after waiting for a few stragglers. I was under the distinct impression that we were going to the hotel directly from the cliffs, but it turned out that we were driving about to random places which had rocks that were somehow deemed interesting or historical. Leah and Emily got off the bus at every stop, while I tried (with little success) to sleep. I’d been awake far too long at that point.
Finally, we arrived at the hotel and got to take showers and naps. I’d been extremely worried for a little while, thought, because I realized that the plug sockets for my converters were for two-pronged plugs and that my laptop’s plug was three-pronged. I’m actually surprised that I didn’t freak out a whole lot, but, thankfully, it turned out that Emily has the right kind of converter for me to use. We owe her.
I felt really refreshed after the nap, and then it was time to leave for dinner. We went to Bunratty castle for a “banquet”… it was… interesting. First, we were entertained in a kind of “lobby” in the castle, and the minors were given juice while the adults were given mead. During the banquet, there was mead and wine on the table the whole time. Madelyn had told us we could try it, but not to go overboard. I had to fight with myself not to – I’m curious, but I know, specifically for me, it would be wrong to drink alcohol. We were first given a delicious potato soup, and then some sort of off pork rib dish. Emily and I opted out, so we got melon instead… and forks. It’s supposed to me “authentic,” so the only utensil we were originally supplied and allowed to use was a “dagger.” Then, we had chicken, and Emily and I had the wonderful advantage of being able to use forks. One of the jesters came around and took Emily’s fork, though. Thankfully, he seemed not to notice mine. Once again, I ate too much.
The whole time there was this odd, audience participation roleplay in which Madelyn’s husband was the Earl of the castle. At one point, as Earl, he forced this odd southern man (from the audience) to sing “Whiskey in the Jar.” Some of it was too outlandish for my taste.
Oh yes, so I mentioned the mead issue, yes? Sorry if this post is a little jumbled; I wrote most of it when I was very tired. So, at any rate, mead is not quite as obvious as a color as red wine, so I was having trouble toward the beginning of the night with telling which pitcher was water, and which was mead. The boy sitting across from me had about two cups of water before he decided he would deliberately go against Madelyn’s wishes and nearly drank the whole pitcher. At one point, being nearly out of water, and having just seen him pour a fairly clear-looking liquid into his cup, I asked him for some. I took a sip and it was terrible – they’d talked a lot about how mead has honey in it or something, but it’s just as terrible as vodka.
I don’t know how Max drank so much of it. Alcohol is ridiculous. It tastes bad and it’s bad for you – it says really bad things about people’s psychological state and our society that anyone drinks it.
After dinner some people dressed in medieval costumes sang some madrigals. There was a harpist and a violinist, too. The violinist looked a little like a brown-haired Snape and looked very meek and confused. We learned his name was Seamus, so when he played we cheered and clapped extra loud for him. He looked so unsure, but he really was a fantastic violinist – he had very good form. I’m afraid he thought we were taunting him. I wonder if it was his first day.
Then we went home, and I was really looking forward to getting online to see if you were on and make a post, but since we have a concert tomorrow Madelyn ordered us to go to bed right away and even had a bed check. I couldn’t spend any time typing, either, because Emily wanted to sleep.
We’re not even really going to have any free time tomorrow, either.
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