This time there's a good reason for my absence! The Grillmaster returned to his Irish/Northern Irish/[insert Anglo-national reference here] stomping grounds last week for a much needed vacation. Nothing sounded better than a week of quiet countryside, welcoming people, and stirred memories.
HA! The only moments of quiet were while in the pub toilet. Aside from that, the Guinness and old friends kept me well occupied. Such a different experience to cross the ocean and feel like you're going home again. Too many highlights to list them all, but I'll do my best with a top 10 list.
10. An open bar banquet in the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. Miraculously, less intoxicating than you might think.
9. Sharing R. Kelly's 'Trapped in the Closet' with an international crowd, thus further damaging Euro-American relations.
8. Holding it down in the best table in Belfast, the corner booth at the Duke of York.
7. Defending the honor of the Mitchell class of 2005 by winning the innaugural Guinness chug-off.
6. A glorious lunch with old friends at the best Middle Eastern cafe you've never heard of in Dublin's Chester Beaty Library.
5. Seeing the future of world theatre in '100 Minutes.' Amazingly successful even with so many frightening man-killers...
4. Discovering a whole new painful variety of cider with a crowd sophisticated enough to appreciate the complicated nuances of the cider pallette.
3. Rambling the beautiful emptiness of the Donegal roads with our intrepid and fearless American driver.
2. Meeting young Master James Walker for the first time, and seeing his parents sane and well.
1. Returning to our little piece of paradise at Downhill Hostel. And the fact that if I ever need to start an alternate life as someone named Daniel, I'll have an innkeeper to vouch for me.
