west cork-representin'!

and how!

i've learned so much about ireland over the weekend. good times in skibereen!

DO NOT CAMP IN APRIL
no matter how nice and seductive the days are, the nights are still going to be very very cold. mostly this would be fine, but i tend to have to go to the washroom at least twice once i'm tucked into bed. this means exposure to the dewy grass and the chilled temperatures of dusk. in nature's defence: our house is just as cold, so we would have been freezing at home too... unless cuddled up by the fire.

THERE IS GOOD FOOD
i wasn't sure it was possible, but it's true! outside of the fabulous cafe paradiso and wagamama, there is great food that isn't just pizza or something equally common. gorgeous gorgeous food was found. once by luck, and well, the other by luck too. gerry comments on this too. the night we were going to end the cleanse we had decided to just go into town and find something. afterall, we had driven through town to get to the campsite, and we'd seen a few places advertising food... shouldn't be too hard, right? wrong. apparently you don't have to serve food to advertise that you do, that it's good, or that you are a restaurant. when we got to the second place which said "Tsar Restaurant, Good Food Served All Day" we were like, oh well, that's not too bad, it'll be a real restaurant, and it'll be so much better to finish the cleanse like that. turns out they also "don't serve food at all". but yer wan gave us two suggestions, the first kalbo's bistro, just around the corner and the second, the hotel on the other end of town. she said the food is gorgeous at kalbo's but more expensive. and that we might not get in, because it's probably booked. if someone says the food is gorgeous somewhere and you've just been on a cleanse... well let's face it, gorgeous wins! magically we got a table. unfortunately once the large group of english got there and sat beside us, the atmosphere went way downhill, but otherwise... yes. gorgeous.

i opted out of a starter because the waitress asked gerry all these questions about extra foods with his main course...and someone had to try the dessert! we ended up with so much food. gerry had a burger that he said was delicious and i had the risotto (OH MY GOD) which was devine. it was so perfectly done. and it's not like risotto is the easiest thing to perfect. yummy yummy yummy. and my dessert? mango and passionfruit pavlova. my only complaint? the english, and the potato wedges, but i wasn't too bothered by the wedges cause it just meant i ate less.

PART TWO- ANNIE'S
the next day we went to the beach, played some cards, read a bit and then were off to bantry to get an extra blanket, walk around etc.. it was a bit colder that day, cause we were by the water the whole time, but still a nice day. we went to the southern-most part of the irish mainland, and skipped out on seeing the lighthouse. but we did get to see some fancy nautical items in the museum. then we went to annie's.

we found out the day before that we got our reservations for annie's. she called just as we were leaving to say that we could get a spot. yay! so we went there and were taken across to the Levi Pub. it was awesome because it was the kind of place gerry had told me about. it sells toilet paper and household things on one side, and booze on the other. and if you want to watch the game, you go to the sitting room. it could have been lack of food (i had a small salad for lunch and a croissant for breakkie) but i suddenly got really dizzy and thought i was going to barf. i was a bit worried about barfing in public, so i went outside. i came back in, and after a bit felt sick again, so we waited outside. i didn't want to miss annie's! turns out, as soon as i started eating, i felt a million times better. tasty garlic bread to start, then our appetisers, then i had the lemon sorbet, and my meal was roasted red peppers stuffed with tofu and tomatoes. it was lovely. and strawberry pavlova to finish. WOW. gerry's dessert? chocolate fudge cake. so moist and rich and just amazing.

after our meal... 2 1/2 hours later... we went to the campsite and passed out.

reservations for june, july and august are basically impossible to get at annie's this late in the year. but if you go on the waiting list, she said that you have a decent chance of getting in, as long as you're flexible, because people's plans change.

i'm going to try to get reservations for kalbo's bistro for when danielle and her mom come. yum... maybe i should ask for a night with no english.