Ennis

Ennis...

I'm really short on words here, so I may babble to convey my thoughts. 

The Irish love to drink.  They really love to do it.  Having never been to Ireland I didn't know what to expect here, but it's almost exactly what you think.  They drink a lot of Guiness, followed by a pretty tasty cider on ice called Bulmer's. After that, I think they drink Coor's Light...? Weird #3, but the stuff is everywhere.  

They really hate hats.  Don't ever wear a hat in Ireland, they'll make all kinds of comments about you. 

This picture is a synopsis of of a drinking Irish man, and Jon wearing a hat, which everyone made fun of.  

The spoken word here isn't too hard to understand, unless the person is older or they're country.  Then what you hear is some cross between English and Gaelic that sounds more like Gummer hocking up a loogie than someone actually trying to communicate.  

Anyway... Back to Ennis.  Quaint little town which our drunken friend Maaaaaark (pictured above) said had a population somewhere between 20,000 and 300,000 people is really pretty cool. On my morning stroll the town was pretty bustling with people getting along in their daily lives.  I'm sure I stick out but people were still nice enough.  Everything here is old, that's common in Europe, but coming from the States you never really gain a great appreciation for old stuff until

You realize that most of the buildings have been here since before my country was even a country of its own.  

One other thing... People here are seriously well versed on recent events. Even the drunks in the bar, like Maaaaark could have a mostly intelligent (and studdery and repetitive) conversation about any recent world events.  That said, holy crap do they hate ISIS. Everyone had a comment about ISIS and the beheadings, and they were pissed. 

Time to go, but happy birthday MAAAAAARK! (He's 43)