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I hate being sick on international trips, but at least a beautiful day singing at Kylemore Abbey, high tea at Ashford Castle, and a nice lake cruise with singalong Irish music helped offset the pain! My painful raw throat has now migrated to a killer sinus headache, so I've stayed at the hotel after dinner this evening instead of going out downtown tonight. Hopefully I'll feel better soon, since I hate this cramping my style!

We had to get up bright & early to drive through Connemara to get to Kylemore Abbey. I was feeling worse than the night before, so I attempted to nap while the bus was bouncing along the rural roads, but I did get up to try to photograph the rainbow in the mist. It was raining when we left the hotel, still gray & misty while we toured the gardens at the abbey, but by the time our concert started, it was warm & sunny. The concert went well, sure glad I can still sing fine when my throat is painfully raw on fire, and we had a decent size crowd for both sets who seemed to enjoy the music. :)



We left Kylemore Abbey for another long drive to Ashford Castle for our high tea, driving through more winding, bumpy roads at top bus speed.Others were on the edge of nausea from the drive, but maybe my killer headache staved off the motion sickness for me since I was fine. I was able to catch some of the rugged Connemara scenery out the bus window, then we made it to Ashford Castle still in beautiful sunny weather for a delicious high tea. Glad I was still hungry and my throat wasn't as sore by then.




Ashford Castle is on Lough Corrib, one of the cleanest, most unspoilt and most scenic lakes in all of Europe. They haven't allowed any new housing or development around the lake since the 1960s to preserve its state. We took a lake cruise, breezy but still in sunshine, and we got lucky that the accordion player decided to stay on for our cruise even though he wasn't booked for us in advance. He sang & played, and we hummed harmonies on choruses or anything we knew, then we sang Dulaman for him, using a plastic bucket as the bodrhan drum. ;)



After another long drive back to Galway, we had a late dinner where I sipped Jameson on the rocks instead of cider in hopes of the whisky clearing my sinuses, then a bunch including Cyd, Tracia & Doug went out on the town in search of more traditional Irish music, but I'm still feeling awful enough I think it's best I stay in & try to get some good rest. ARGH! Hope I can get to sleep with this headache still going, since we have to leave bright and early again, but this time with luggage packed, to make it to perform at the noon mass in Charleville!