Adare

We've reached the last leg of our trip: in Adare for 2 days, then back home. Tonight we had a nice dinner of fish and chips at a neighborhood pub here, my first meal in a couple days because of a stomach flu, which also has kept me in bed half the time, less of a concern now that we're here in Adare, a perfect place to just take it easy.

Our pub has a nice dining area on one side. The bar portion was filled with a collection of local old dudes telling stories and laughing, one of whom was celebrating his birthday, and another who noticed that I needed the waiter and who made sure I got some attention. Outside tonight the wind is incredibly cold, and this collection of pubs up and down the street now makes more sense--if you're walking home, you need a few warm stops along the ways just to keep from freezing, and it helps if each place makes you feel welcome, as tonight, when the waitress brought Cheryl and me some birthday cake.

So it was a little discouraging when an American burst into the pub and demanded, in a loud voice, to know if the table for 10 that he'd reserved was ready. Probably I wouldn't have noticed his attitude back in the states, but after a week here his voice cut like a knife. There's really no such thing as a typical American, but I'm guessing that the loud-mouth a-holes are more memorable than the rest of us.

Here's a video of our drive yesterday.