Good times, good friends

We headed into the conference for a bit this morning and then back to city center for some lunch. Rachael had never seen The Spanish Arch so we wandered down in that direction. The arch is a remnant from the 16th century and was likely part of the old city walls. The area along the Corrib River is absolutely beautiful and one of my favorite parts of the city. Once again, the weather surprised us and it turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day.
We finally ate at Ard Bia along the river. We had eyed it up a few years ago and never actually went, and I regret waiting so long. It was absolutely delicious. It's a tiny cafe in this little stone building right on the river. It looks a bit medieval on the outside, but the inside is really cozy with tables tucked underneath stairwells with bunches of pillows and cushions. You almost feel like you're eating in somebody's kitchen. Rachael and I both had a chorizo, gubeen and onion jam sandwich (just thinking about it makes me drool) and Dan had seafood chowder. Really, really good. I had to buy some of their onion jam too - it was too good to leave behind.
After lunch we wandered around for some shopping. I was thrilled to raid a cheap dvd place (Zhivago's) and found a couple of films that I can't get back in the states.. After that we walked back towards the university and met up with Mary and Rachael for a drink and some food at the River Inn. We got lost on our way there by making the cardinal mistake of traveling in Ireland - NEVER assume that a road is running straight or parallel! We were right in assuming that the road we took would get us where we were going, but it took us a little bit longer than we thought.

We headed back to campus for the Sean-nós performance. Sean-nós is a traditional form of singing and dancing that is found mostly in the west of Ireland. It really is beautiful and very cool and forced me to practice my Irish a bit. The venue wasn't great for this kind of thing - it was in a big lecture hall (hence the need to zoom in with my camera), but it was truly a treat to see something like this. The video below is of the last performance of the evening.

We finished the evening at a friend's house for a bbq where we caught up with old friends and met some lovely new ones too. Good times.