Trip Diary....

Preface

 

Well, we’re home.  Another harrowing day of travel insulated us from the beauty of Galway, and brought us to reality at the digs.  Our return trip routed us through Heathrow again, and our thoughts of “well, we’ve done it once, this can’t be so bad” went glimmering.  Directions to two wrong gates, complete with “oh, you need to transfer to another building, sir”’ another tram ride, and hike finally found us at the correct gate a scant half hour before boarding began.  A long plane ride (we’re experiencing stronger than normal headwinds, folks” got us to Dulles around nine local time.  

When we checked in to the Aer Lingus desk at Shannon, the nice lady said well, at least you can go through US customs here!  Oh, wait, you’re going through Heathrow, you’ll have to do it in the US.  That resulted in standing in the US Customs line at Dulles along with at least 200 other souls waiting for one of the two agents who casually processed the travelers. Sporadically, a perky recording came on saying “Welcome to the USA!”.  Ironic.  Welcome indeed.

 

Chapter One - The Festival

 

Now that there is time to talk (while lists of errands go wanting), the feeder is somewhat unsure as to how to proceed.  Some 380 images are available to tell the story, but we both would be fatigued if I recounted the journey in detail… “At ten o’clock we went over to….”  So, let’s talk about the Festival itself first, and then maybe another story about the food, and yet another about the people and country and sights we saw..

 

As sort of the last “duty” as King Oyster of the 2011 St. Mary’s County Oyster Festival, I was entitled to represent the USA along with our champion shucker Mike Martin at the

 

 

 

The festival runs over the course of three days, with many events and galas, with some major highlights.  Friday evening, was the Irish National Opening Championships which crowns the Irish Champion, who then competes in the World Championships the next day.   That competition is held Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night is the big blow out gala.  A Sunday brunch wraps up the festival.  Also on Sunday was the final of the All Ireland Hurling Championship match between Galway and Kilkenny.  Sort of the super bowl of Irish Hurling.  The local support for the Galway team makes Green Bay Packer fans look casual..  signs, banners, everywhere..

 

 

 

 

 

 

The word below the ship crest is "Galway" in Irish (its the official crest)... Anyway after a lunch (at that Taaffes bar - included in the upcoming food chapter) we got to the festival tent (called a “marquee” over there) in time to see the official start of the festival complete with music

 

 

 and speeches

 

 

The equivalent of our King Oyster is the Oyster Pearl, who is pictured above with the Mayor of Galway City, and reigning Irish Champ Michael Moran (pronounced: mor’n) son of two time World Champ Willie Moran, and the long line of Morans of the famed Moran’s Oyster Cottage, located in nearby Kilcolgan.  Michael of course had to open an oyster for Her Honor the Mayor

 

 

who appeared to struggle a bit, but eating an oyster in front of cameras and crowds can be a bit daunting...

 

 

 

Anyway, the evening moved on into heavy party mode

 

 

 

And we hooked up with Mike Martin who enjoyed talking to his fans...

 

 

 

After more partying and music, the Irish Opening contest took place.

 

 

 

 

 

I was accorded the honor of being the “North American Impartial Observer” for the World Championships, but after the first "heat" I was invited “back stage” to watch the judging for the Irish version as a warm up for the next day.  That was fascinating, more on that tomorrow.  Like our festival here, judging is very exacting.  I was fearful I would be sort of isolated, but no, not in Ireland.  Hey Bill, come meet the head judge Terry, and this is….. by the end I was just one of the guys, and celebrated the finish of judging with a pint.  Similar to our competition all they do is decide on penalty points on each (anonymous) tray and turn in the sheets which then are married to the time, and final score determined.  One difference between the events is that they open 30 oysters instead of the two dozen, plus the oysters are Ostreae Edulus, as opposed to our Crassostrea Virginica.  The Edulus is a bit more “cuppy” than ours which provides a challenge for the Americans.  The common name for that variety is “Belons”, however since the Irish have an aversion to what the English and French call them, they are known locally as “Natives”.. go figure.

As the hour was advancing, MFO and I departed before the long process of determining the winner as it was getting late and we’re unfortunately not party animals.  Besides the next day was scheduled to be a long one and we wanted to work off our sleep deficit.    So we walked back to the hotel, along the way striking up a conversation with a gentleman who just happened to be walking the same way, not associated with the festival.

 

So that concluded our initiation to the Festival, the first of what proved to be three great days…

I guess we were

 

DFP(artying)

 

More to come…