Last day in Dingle

We had a gale last night - winds coming in from the Atlantic blew so hard it rattled the windows.  When we woke up the rain was still blowing sideways. Across the road the sheep continued to slowly move around the field, munching away as if nothing had changed. The only difference is the distinct part down their backs as the heavy wet fleece droops.
It slowed down over breakfast and so, rain gear and umbrellas in hand, we headed into Dingle to explore. It wasn't long before the rain stopped and eventually a blue sky even appeared over the ocean with a cloud looking like a chinook arch.
Our first goal was The Music Store to buy tickets for a traditional music concert tonight. All sold out but if we hurried down to the Kooky Scoup (ice cream store), they might still have some tickets left. It wasn't open, to the surprise of neighbouring store owners, (made sense to me - who'd buy ice cream in weather like this!) but we hung around and were rewarded 45 minutes later with the last two tickets in town!

Last night, for the first time on our holiday and after a day's rest, we felt prepared to stay up long enough to go pub crawling looking for music. Traditional music is featured in most pubs but it never starts before 9:30 pm. Much too late if you've been going at our pace since an early breakfast! But we'd had a relaxing day and so set out at 8:30 to find a table.  The signs outside promised The Shenanigans at 9:30 so we settled into Murphy's Pub and ordered a Guinness for him and Sticky toffee pudding and coffee for her. It was fun waiting and watching the locals set up for the musicians as the tourists dribbled in. By about 9:45, the two musicians had finished another drink (guinness in large coffee mugs) and wondered over to the stools. The accordion player fiddled with a few tunes before the guitar player started an Irish drinking song in the familiar nasal folk-style. The pleased crowd were clapping and tapping their feet the instant it started. So our introduction to the 'Craic' began. We would have lasted long into the night but Bill got singled out as one of the four Bill's in the room (my fault!) and he knew it was only a matter of time before he'd be called on to sing a solo. Even two healthy Guinnesses couldn't give him enough courage for that! We escaped.
So, tonight will be a chance for more music with some traditional instruments and perhaps some Irish dancing and no solo's required!