Day 11: Irish Seaweed, Irish Wealth, Irish Music

Today we woke up feeling fresh as a daisy and effervescent as a petunia.  We had an appointment with the seaweed bath proprietor (of course) so we headed down by Killary fjord.  The people at Connemara Seaweed Baths go down to the ocean and collect seaweed each morning, then when someone wants a bath they make a sort of seaweed tea in a bathtub for you to soak in.  The seaweed is supposed to have all sorts of health benefits.  It was very relaxing and a bit slimy.

After soaking and steaming we walked around Killary for a while and then went further into the mountains to visit Kylemore Abbey.  The place was gigantic (33 bedrooms) and also had six acres of walled gardens.  

The gardens were cool because they have a lot of fresh veggies and herbs growing for the nuns that currently inhabit the abbey.  They also used to have huge heated glass buildings that were used to grow exotic fruit like nectarines.  The guy that built the place went a little crazy with the money-spending especially after his wife died so there was a little but super fancy gothic church and a mausoleum in her honor.

Our Airbnb host let us know that there was some Trad music at the pub near our place so we chilled at the gardens with some tea (coffee) and scones until it was time.  Somehow when we entered Burke's Bar we were given a reserved table immediately in front of where the music would be.  Soon after we got our food the musicians began to arrive.  They were just a hodgepodge of locals that probably hadn't played much together but boy were they talented.  I was sad to see two bagpipers blow in, but they ended up working really well with the music instead of overpowering it.  So, the gang was two bagpipers, two accordionists, two flutists, a guitarist, a banjoer, and a lady with a big drum thing.  Together they played simple melodies that built to complex harmonies with short breaks for banjo or pipe solos.  It was amazing, I can't believe how much talent is in this little town.

I can't accurately describe how much passion and skill these people played with so I'll just put a quote from someone who can (Patrick Rothfuss): 

I touched the last string and tuned it too, ever so slightly. I made a simple chord and strummed it. It rang soft and true. I moved a finger and the chord went minor in a way that always sounded to me as if the lute were saying sad. I moved my hands again and the lute made two chords whispering against each other. Then, without realizing what I was doing, I began to play.

The strings felt strange against my fingers, like reunited friends who have forgotten what they have in common. I played soft and slow, sending notes no farther than the circle of our firelight. Fingers and strings made a careful conversation, as if their dance described the lines of an infatuation. Then I felt something inside me break and music began to pour out into the quiet. My fingers danced; intricate and quick they spun something gossamer and tremulous into the circle of light our fire had made. The music moved like a spiderweb stirred by a gentle breath, it changed like a leaf twisting as it falls to the ground, and it felt like three years Waterside in Tarbean,