Day Twenty-Five

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Saturday morning cloudy and looked like it was threatening rain. This, however, didn’t deter Abbie and I from walking downtown to explore the magic of the Saturday Market. Having been told the wonders of the market by my friend, Barratt, who was here last semester, I was more than a little anxious to discover what was offered.

The Saturday Market is held in a small alleyway off of Shop Street by St. Nicholas’ Church. There is literally about five feet of space between the vendors on every side, and it was absolutely packed by the time we got there. There were vendors selling woolen hats, wooden necklaces, Connemara jewelry, fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers, crepes, oysters, and—my personal favorite—freshly fried donuts.

We took our time browsing, buying gifts for family members and ourselves. I was overjoyed upon finding the donut man, since Barratt had said nothing but good things about these fresh donuts covered in sugar and cinnamon. And indeed, they were a little slice (or ring) from heaven. They literally melted in your mouth and I am absolutely not ashamed to say that I ate two.

Walking further down the market, we found a local frame maker who was selling paintings and prints. His name was Peter, and though not an artist himself, he builds the brightly-colored wooden frames and offered us a deal of two framed prints for 40 Euro. Abbie and I, being Abbie and I, were quick to take up on it and selected our prints. I don’t remember what Abbie bought, but I selected a van Gogh-esque print of the cityscape at night and a print of an oil painting of a sheep. Yes, a wooly sheep. Don’t judge me.

After our time at the market, we went into Finnegan’s to get brunch…and both decided to get pizza and a Guinness. I wasn’t watching my time very well and had to gulp down my meal in order to get to a concert I had to see for my music class. I wasn’t very excited for it since I was under the impression that it was only going to be a concertina player (it’s kind of a less-impressive accordion). But there was actually a full band and they were pretty good. Plus, Caoilfhionn was there and actually knew some of the band members.

After the concert (which I should actually be writing about now instead of updating this blog), Caoilfhionn and I grabbed a cup of tea since we only had about an hour until parade rehearsal. At the parade rehearsal, we walked the route of the parade and did a quick review of our “choreography” before I headed home to rest after a long day.

Next stop: Macnas Parade ‘09