Haters gonna hate, potatoes gonna potate

It was our first full day in Ireland, which we spent driving from site to site in our little black rental car:

We started out in the morning by going to get some lunch supplies at the grocery store, where I found this:

I am butter.

Our first site in Ireland was the Rock of Cashel, an old fortified church on a big hill. A rocky hill. Hence the name.

After that, we drove on to Cahir Castle, which is actually pronounced "care." Here is a picture of a medieval toilet from said castle. I am not guessing. The placards actually said that.

We did some more lovely driving to get to this pile of rocks. It is actually an ancient tomb. The placard here had an odd anecdote about a woman who lived under the shelter of these rocks in the 1800's.

Then we drove on to Limerick, checked into our bed and breakfast (much nicer than the hostel from last night, which never did warm up), and headed off to a guidebook-endorsed pub for dinner.

Almost everywhere we have parked has felt slightly illegal--in a church yard last night, in front of someone's house for the Rock of Cashel, and this parking job. I am actually rather proud of myself for parking like a European.

Maybe you can't tell. I'm parked on the curb.




We got to the pub and kind of wandered and found the restaurant part. No one was really paying attention to us, so we finally kind of asked if we could just sit down. We were told yes. This strangeness continued. Someone came to take our order, and it came after awhile. After that, we watched as the two waiters bustled around all the other tables--asking how things were, asking if the people at them would like a drink or a dessert, getting and taking the check from one table, etc., etc. Through all of this, they never even looked at us, let alone come over to talk to us. We were a pretty solitary island in the middle of all the hustling and bustling. I finished and no one cleared my plate. Natalie finished. And we sat there. And sat. And sat. After a bit, I finally asked if we could have the checks.




As we were walking back to the possibly illegally parked car, Natalie and I talked about this. I thought maybe it was because we were Americans, but Natalie pointed out there were two other tables of Americans that got great service. We thought some more, not coming to any conclusions..."Unless," Natalie said, "they thought we were a couple."


Oh the discrimination.