An "Early" Night

This is the Rock of Cashel. A very imposing site atop a hill in the Tipperary country- side. It was the seat of the Kings of Munster for centuries until the early 1100s when the current king decided to donate it to the church. All the ruins you see are different stages of the church in the area. There is a small chapel, a very large cathedral, the castle built for protection after the cathedral, the bishop's quarters & the choisters quarters. It's amazing to imagine what it would have been like to gather for worship on this wind swept hillside in such an imposing edifice. For more cool pics of the rock check out this site:
http://www.all-ireland.com/attractions/r/rock-of-cashel.htm

This is the interior of the chapel which was built in 1169, it's very small, as you can see, and is famous for the romanesque arches and the carved faces in the arches shown in the closeup pic. I went here on Wednesday because my new friend Sarah had the afternoon free and she's leaving back to the states on Monday so we've been trying to see as much countryside as we can.

As far as what I'm doing with myself, the history study continues, but I'm still just reading surveys of large chunks of time in the hope of contextualizing the history that I'm getting to see. I'm trying to educate myself in several things that interest me and there've been some fun strides in that pursuit this past week. On Tuesday night we went to Dolan's (a pub in town where Blayne plays in the Tuesday night session with local musicians) early for the set dancing lessons. It's Irish folk dancing for couples that's sort of like square dancing. It's loads of fun to learn there; the people are so very friendly and it's great for me to be able to put movement to this music that so inspires movement! Another thing along that line is that Becky, another new friend, has taken step dance (that's the riverdance kind of thing) for 3 years and is willing to teach me and a few other folks how to do it. We had our first class today and it was great! I wasn't sure if I was going to find someone willing to teach me for free. We've all just said we'll take turn buying her pints when we all go out together as her payment.

Oh, one other highlight of this week was the Wednesday night session at the pub at Castletroy Park Hotel. This is a session started up by some folks in the program with Blayne, which is fun simply because they're all amazing musicians and they're very friendly and open. This past Wednesday there was a kick-off for a Trad Festival coming up soon and some VIPs in the Irish music world were around. So, part way through the session we see Paddy Maloney (the founder & front man for the Cheiftans) in the pub. He sort of retreated to a corner with his pint and a newspaper at first. Then as the evening progressed he got closer to the action and pulled out his whistle and started to play with the session. He said it's been ages since he'd just been at a session and he was loving it. So, that was really amazing for everyone there to be a part of.

I call this an early night because it's Friday and we were home before 1am. I'm wrapping this up and it's 1:30, so now I think I'll get to bed for an "early" start on the market tomorrow. Since we've never gotten there before 11:30am, early is a very relatvie term. The schedule is wacky, but it suits me just fine. Good night to you all. Lots of love from Ireland to wherever you are!