The Dublin Connection: The Parents Are Coming, The Parents Are Coming!

Actually, they already left! I was lucky enough to have my parents, the ultimate American tourists, Kev and Suz visit me in Ireland last week. They had a lovely time for Kev's 2nd visit to the Emerald Isle and Suz's 4th. My parents have seen the surrounding Dublin and Wicklow areas pretty extensively, so this time we decided to travel west to Galway for the International Oyster Festival.

Shouts out to our dear friend Maggie Rutledge, who is from Gort in Co. Galway!

Turns out we got there fairly late on Saturday during the day, and missed the main tent event. So we pretty much wandered around the village and ate at local restaurants and ordered plates of oysters and lobster. Galway is Pad's favorite city in Ireland. He says it has it all: good people, good pints, great craic! The whole main part of the village has pedestrian-only streets and a big square which gives it a unique feel.

You never know what you will see on the streets of Galway, case in point, a one man band... well one man if you don't count Marilyn or Obama.

Galway is a bit of a college town, and on weekend nights pubs like The King's Head can get a little rowdy. After dinner with the parents one night Pad wanted to go into the aforementioned establishment, and I suggested that it might be a bit "too much" for my parents. Well, at least, my mom. Peadar insisted that my parents weren't that old, and in we went. Funny story, within 5 minutes of sitting down, this guy starts screaming "Peadar! Peaaaadaaar!!" We look at each other like, is this guy talking to you? Pad says he doesn't recognize him. Turns out this guy did know Peadar, comes over, and starts screaming in his ear about how they use to go to school together. Every other word is feckin' this and that, and you can just see my poor mother sitting there uncomfortably, all while Kev is too distracted by the Ryder cup to notice what is going on.... We thought we were rid of him when he goes and sits back down at another table, finds some other Americans, and starts arguing with them about the merits of Michael Jordan (his opinion- hero) vs. Kobe (child molester) with this couple from San Diego.

It was classic.

Anyway, the guy comes back over to us and keeps slobbering and hollering, so eventually we moved the party back to the hotel bar. We stayed at the Radisson Blu, which was lovely.

Mom and Dad also did excursions to the Cliffs of Moher, and Kylemore Abbey, check out the pics below.

The best part is the below pic:

Yeah, sheepys in the road, pretty standard for the West of Ireland. Gotta love the juxtaposition between the modern GPS and sheep cruising down the lane. Oh and by the way, in Ireland they call GPS "Satellite Navigation", or "Sat Nav". Kev kept accidentally calling it Nav Sat which Pad found pretty funny.

Pics my parents took. Pretty & Pinterest worthy: