Songs of the south

We went to Killarney this past weekend, supposedly the most touristed place in Ireland. We were there to do some touring, but also to see Josh Ritter, who is one of my friend's favorite musicians.

Since Killarney is such a highly visited place, we had difficulty finding a place to stay. Midweek, we called a bunch of places but they were all full. This is why, at the age of thirty, I ended up spending some nights in a hostel for the first time in my life.

As we rolled south on the bus, my friend said that she just hoped the people were quiet and didn't smell bad. We walked into the room and were greeted by three boys in their late teens, maybe early twenties. As my friend told me later, they smelled sort of funky. I nicknamed them the funky bunch. And two of them snored. Loudly.

On Saturday, we did a full-day tour of the area, known as the Ring of Kerry, because the region is somewhat circular in shape. Our tour followed the coastline for a great distance.After the tour, we grabbed some food (bangers and mash at an excellent little "gastropub") and then went to the concert. The opening act was local, and the best part of his act was when he started singing children's songs in Irish and the crowd joined in. I didn't know what they were saying, but it was pretty cool. Then Josh Ritter played for two hours and was absolutely amazing, putting on a great show. This was a pleasant surprise, since I hadn't heard any of his music prior to the concert. Live, he's sort of a mix between Ben Folds, Springsteen, Coldplay, and a dash of Radiohead.

We then went back to the hostel and tried to sleep through the snoring and the endless ringing of phones when one of our roommates' friends was trying to get into the room without a key at six in the morning, and they were too passed out to even answer their phones.

Today, we spent our third straight day on buses coming back to our home-base. I now have one more full day in Ireland before leaving these green hills for the other green hills of home.