Meredith and I took the bus out-- it was about a 45 minute ride-- and Beth met us at the bus stop. She gave us a quick walking tour of the town, pointing out the numerous pubs and Ireland's only working moat. (Apparently, it is fed by the namesake lake and circles the town, and is "working" in the sense that the water actually flows through it.) After stopping back at her house and an hour-long misadventure with her door, we went down to festival.
There was a poetry competition being held in three pubs. Thanks to the door problems, we got to the nearest pub about half an hour after it started. We each got a pint and stood listening to mostly old Irish men reading poems very badly. (It doesn't matter if the poems were good or not-- some were and some weren't-- but most of the readers just did not know how to present their work. Unfortunately this is all too common with poets, from the readings I've been to.) During the break, we struck up a conversation with the only other person in the pub that seemed remotely near our age. Aside from him and us, everyone there was at least fifty years old. This young man, whose name was Neil McCarthy, turned out to be one of the poets-- he read second-to-last. He was a very cool guy, and in addition to his poem being very very good he also was a good reader. After the competition, in which he was announced as one of the five who will move on to the next round (tonight), we invited him to come to another pub with us. He gladly obliged.
On the walk to Beth's favorite local pub, I talked to him a bit and found out that we had both been present at the same slam poetry competition, at the Cuírt Poetry Festival in 2005-- my only previous Galway experience. Not only were we both there, but he is very good friends with the poet that won that slam-- who I had spent at least half an hour chatting with, before and after the readings. Neil and I probably even spoke, because I remember the winning poet having friends nearby. What a small world!
We all left the pub around 1 am, and Meredith and I spent the night at Beth's house. This morning, Beth made us tea and Meredith made us scrambled eggs, and we were all greeted by the beautiful view from Beth's front windows:
(Click for a larger, prettier version!) It was dark when we arrived the previous night (It gets dark here around 6:30 now!) so we didn't get to see what a gorgeous view she has of Lough Rea until this morning.
Today has been spent working on my last midterm essay-- a history essay, on patterns and trends in 19th century emigration. In case you were wondering, this is what essay writing looks like...
Notes, books, and cup after cup of tea.
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