Cheers with oysters and beer!
August 9, 2019
Last week, I met Donald through a chance encounter while I was taking out the trash near our Airbnb. He was living in the same complex and was very excited to meet a couple of American tourists.
He offered to give us a tour, and when we went to exchange information, we realized I did not have a working number (we opted for an internet-only cell plan), and Donald wasn’t very tech-savvy and didn’t keep up with social media or anything.
We settled for meeting up the old-fashioned way and set a day and time to meet at the same location. Saturday came around, and we went to meet him. He was already there and lit up as we walked towards him! He said he had a good feeling about us and knew we wouldn’t blow him off – and he was right! We absolutely love any opportunity to meet a new person in a new place!
We started off walking towards his favorite local bar… at 11 am. Hahaha. He introduced us to some of his friends, who I could not, for the life of me, understand a word through their thick Irish accents. (I really struggle with understanding accents!) He treated us to Guinness beer, and I have to say, it’s MUCH better in Ireland! No lie, I struggled to finish a beer for breakfast though, hahaha.
After the bar, he took us down Talbot Street. There he pointed out the location of the Irish car bombings in the 1970s and then proceeded to tell us his story. He was there and a victim of the event; he pulled up his pant leg and showed us his scars from it. He recommended a book for us to read, but I can’t recall the name of it. Maybe Alan remembers.
After our walk, he took us up to the touristy area but then worked his way back to a local-looking bread and fish market. There he also treated us to fresh, raw oysters. Alan did not try them out because he despises seafood. It was my first time trying raw oysters, and Donald showed me the way – a bit of lemon or vinegar, an onion garnish, and slurp it down!
Can’t say I have ever had beer and oysters for breakfast!! hahaha.
From here, he had plans to attend, so he left us to check out a museum he recommended.
This was such a memorable day, I wanted to record it. If you ever see this by any slight chance, thank you again, Donald! You made our trip to Ireland so memorable!🙂
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