Baltimore, Ireland

While at Dzogchen Beara, I arranged a ride with Sean, another guest, to Skibbereen, but his car broke down and I ended up in Dunmanway. I really wanted to be on the coast, so I stayed the night in Dunmanway, and then hitched to Skibbereen.

The father and daughter who picked me up outside Drimoleague asked me where I was from in Canada [I was wearing my hat with the flag on it]. It turns out the daughter spent time in Sudbury for part of her university. I knew the flag would come in handy! They advised me to skip Skibbereen and head to Baltimore, which I did. A young bearded French guy picked me up just outside Skibbereen and as we drove he told me a bit about Baltimore. When we got there I offered him a drink and he showed me to Declan McCarthy's. It turned out that McCarthy's was having a Fiddle Fair with different bands playing each night for about ten nights, but sadly it was all sold out. I went to settle in to the hostel, then came back to the restaurant next door, where the French guy worked, for some pizza.

The tables outside were all pretty much full and I had a picnic table to myself, so when a couple of women asked if they could sit with me, how could I refuse? It turned out they are part of the band Harem Scarem from Scotland who played the previous Friday night at the Fiddle Fair. The rest of the band showed up for some grub and Declan McCarthy brought out a bottle of Champagne for the band. I was offered some, which would have been rude to refuse, and three bottles later we went back to their rented house for another drink and to have a listen to the live recordings of their Friday night gig. They needed to pick out a couple of tunes for a compilation album put together by the pub. We then headed back to McCarthy's to see the show. Since I was by now adopted by the band, I didn't have a problem getting in.

After a great show by The West Ocean String Quartet and a bit of a pause, the doors were closed and the music continued. All night. The Harem Scarem crowd had a flight out the next day from Shannon to go back to Scotland, and they had to leave Baltimore at 10:00 AM to make it. When I left McCarthy's, it was starting to get light out and they were still going strong. The next day, I certainly would not have wanted to attempt driving or flying.

After a sufficient recovery period was observed, I headed out to Cape Clear for a couple of days.