Dungarvan

 I have been here at the house in Tramore for about four days and I just now saw the same print in the kitchen that the Airbnb in Galway had in their kitchen: the Full Irish (breakfast)! 

https://www.simonewalsh.net/product/the-full-irish-14663/

From the master bedroom I can see the spire of the Holy Cross Church of Tramore and two horses and, this morning, their cat!

Yesterday I took the local link bus to Dungarven,  an hour and twenty minutes away. I was the only one on the bus for the first half hour. It only cost 2 and a half euros.

I walked the wrong way but backtracked and found the center of town, Grattan Square, a busy place!

After lunch at the Shamrock (are all hostesses blonde and bubbly?), I went walking and found the Waterford County Museum very easily. The British man was welcoming but they had a sign up saying due to Covid they won't shake hands...but really, they are friendly! And the Irish woman and the Brit (part Irish) certainly were.

They were showing a movie and since I wanted to watch it they started it from the beginning. It was an hour long but very interesting.  It was about the Irish travel writer Dervla Murphy who died this year at age 90. She is best known for her 1965 book Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, about an overland cycling trip through Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Fascinating person and probably annoying, seemingly impervious to creature comforts, she had a daughter (and was unmarried) and bicycled abroad with her when she was six. Watch her on YouTube; Michael Palin knew her and talks about her. She wrote 26 books and never learned to drive a car!

After the movie I saw some of the museum but I had limited time because the small bus only runs 3 times a day from Tramore to Dungarvan. So I had to hurry. I saw an art gallery and a park and a very old wall in a church graveyard. And then I had tea and cake in Meades café which got very bad reviews for customer service.  I felt brave but she wasn't mean, just a bit hurried.

The wall in St Mary's Church of Ireland is possibly from the 1300's

The art gallery had Part Two of the same exhibit in the Waterford Gallery I went to! This painting was labeled "Pomegranates" but they are surely persimmons. When I talked to the employee about it she said I wasn't supposed to be taking photos. I think it's the first time I was reprimanded in my trip but it was done so mildly and after the fact!

The Old Market House Arts Center has a history of public hangings:

https://www.dungarvantourism.com/old-market-house-arts-centre/

After the beautiful bus ride back to Tramore (another $2.50, such a great deal!) I shopped for Greek yogurt that I have been feeding Gizmo. He now seems addicted to it and demands more until he has eaten about a third of a cup. I have created a monster! Is yogurt okay for cats?

After feeding him, I walked to a concert I saw advertised at the supermarket.  It was a great concert but surely I was the only tourist,  possibly the only non-Irish person,  and maybe even the only person not connected to the band members (who are 3 cousins)!

Their name is The Kalimbas and they were raising money for a tour they are doing to Newfoundland. 

They were very good and so were the warm up acts. I didn't understand half of the talking and gave up asking the very patient woman sitting next to me for help.