Yet another facet of Ireland

Today was all about the people. I met all sorts of interesting Irish today. This morning we went to the Grange Stone Circle, the largest standing stone circle in Ireland. As David pointed out, it's more than a little impressive that they were building similar stone circles, with presumably the same functions, in 2000BC in both Ireland, and England and Scotland. Imagine the physical and cultural barriers to overcome. We were met at the gate by the farmer who owns the field. He was quite proud of the circle, and showed us his collection of postcards that visitors had sent him once they returned home. It only got better from there.

This evening we went to Glenstal Abbey, an abbey just out of town, where the Benedictine monks sing Vespers in latin every evening. After Vespers, we hiked back into the closest village, and had supper at a pub while waiting for the local taxi guy to finish his runs and come back for us. It was a little surreal, eating good food, while watching rugby in Irish (apparently only tourists call it Gaelic) and chatting with Denny. We thought he was having a laugh at us, introducing himself as "Demi Moore", but it was just his thick accent. The taxi driver called him a rogue, and David called him "a right colourful character". At any rate, I think he proposed to me, if I made it out correctly. He was eventually surrounded and led away by five other locals in the pub.

Even the taxi driver was great fun!
David: This lady sitting next to me comes from Canada!
John: Canadian! (a bunch of gibberish in a country accent)
David: She lives up north in Yukon... It borders Alaska.
John: Yukon! Yukon you say? ... That place is full of squas. You a squa? Are you a squa?!?
and then later...
David: And did you know that they actually have Eskimos there? I thought Eskimos were imaginary! You know, like Leprechauns are to Ireland, Eskimos are to Canada. Hey... can you hunt Eskimos?
I think he was pulling my leg. I HOPE he was pulling my leg. [5 minutes later] Nope, it's confirmed. He was not pulling my leg.
Political correctness was also apparently a lost battle.