Lisdoonvarna

This weekend, Tennille & I both had days off and were looking for an adventure. Boy did we find one. We found a cheap last minute hotel deal and headed off to County Clare. We stayed in Ennis which is a beautiful little town. Our hotel was great and we spent our days in the pool, hot tub, steam room, and spa. Friday night we asked the friendly people at the front desk where we should head for and one of them chauffeured us into town. You wouldn’t get that in the States. We ended up having a great night at Knox’s in Ennis town. Saturday we decided to head to the near town of Lisdoonvarna for the annual Matchmaking Festival. Basically, the whole month of September is dedicated to matchmaking. Think Janine Garofalo in “The Matchmaker” and if you haven’t seen it, go out and rent it now. They have a matchmaker on duty during the day and then they pack the pubs at night. There were people from all over. It was the greatest people watching event ever...even better than being at the airport. The choice of men mostly consisted of ones over 50, ones missing one or more teeth, ones who still lived with their mothers, or some combination of one or more of the above. What makes this interesting is that there is a rule that you can’t say no if someone asks you to dance. My favorite partner was one who may or may not have still had a pulse (see pictures). Tennille & I spent a lot of the night dodging people that we weren’t interested in. It was fun and we actually had a great time two-stepping away. I would go back but maybe next time I might wear a fake wedding ring as a deterrent. There are pictures of our weekend under the “Clare” link.