Soooo, tuesday was an interesting day. We got up and got to have breakfast in the Hotel, had some yummy eggs and sausage, croissant and COFFEE! Not iced, but hey. Unfortunately it was a rather drizzly day. We had a small lecture in the hotel and then went off to listen to a speaker in the Bantry Bookstore. Very interesting the reader was the author of The Soldier's Son, Alan Monaghan. It was all about war and different wartimes within Ireland. Needless to say it was nice to get in outside from the rain and listen to someone, although it was quite a bit crowded in there.
After that we had some free time, a couple of us went to go swimming in the pool at the hotel or go sit in the steam room and hot tub. Very nice on a cold rainy day. But not for long and we were back out into the lovely weather. Lucky for us though it cleared up and stopped raining right as we were supposed to go on our little boat tour/ride around Bantry and the bay area. This photo here is from way out in the bay. The big thing around here is mussels and getting mussels from the bay. They put these really long rope type things in the water for the mussels to come cling to and live off of and then later on they come back and strip all the mussels off of the rope and they go to local restaurants in the area and other places. It was really cool to see this happening on one of the boats there. If you look closely you can see what I am talking about, how they strip them off and such.
Lucky me, (sorry its sideways) got to drive the boat for a little while. Dad would be so proud! It was quite entertaining and fun. I was told I look like a true fisherman or someone on a boat because of my gear :) I found out rather fast how much turning it takes to really get that boat to move when you are going slow. A small turn to the right in boaters terms really means at least a whole turn of the wheel or more! It was a lot of fun and no one got cast overboard so I would say I did a good job.
After the boat, I decided to walk around before too many shops closed, which they did rather fast, most shops around 5 or maybe 6pm if you were lucky. Bantry is a rather small little town and you can walk most of the shopping area in about a half hour if you dont really stop. Unfortunately, most places were closing so I had to save my shopping for tomorrow, but we did find this! and thought of course it was just a picture taking spot :)
So, after all that talk of good seafood and staying in a prime area to get some good stuff, we decided to head for a pretty fancy dinner at O' Conners. I got some really delicious calamari as an appetizer and lemon sole with a basil and tomato fondue. Fondue does not tend to mean the same thing we think of back in the states as it does here, but there was no dipping, and I did have a delicious dinner. Thanks mom and dad ;)
Well I am surely missing everyone and hope this gives you enough to read for now! love you
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