Audrey's Travels: And The Dance Goes On

Who needs to go to class when you have a chance to go to Killarney? Well, I decided to skip two days of classes to go watch Maggie Dufficy dance in All Ireland's--an Irish Step Dancing Competition--in Killarney, Republic of Ireland. It only took about 8 hours on a train (my first train ride) to get there, but oh so worth it!

When I finally arrived in Killarney, I walked about a mile to the Riverside Hotel to meet up with Nancy and Maggie Dufficy. The guy at the front desk probably thought I was crazy when I was asking to leave a message for them and trying to explain why I was there--however, Maggie walked in right after I left them a message. It was so good to see family friends from Denver, CO. Maggie and I were able to catch up while Nancy was off doing who knows what--just joking, she was picking up Hannah from the bus station with the Radcliffe's.

Maggie Dufficy

The next day we got up and got ready to go watch Michael Gardiner dance in the competition. He ended up in 5th place for his age group and qualified for Worlds again. (The Gardiner Family used to live in Denver and went to Notre Dame Elementary School before moving back to Galway, Ireland four years ago.) After his dance, the Radcliffe's, Dufficy's, Hannah, and I head off to go for a horse ride through Killarney Park. It had been about two years since I had been on a horse and my first time riding English--I prefer Western style of riding. My horse was named Dingo and the name fit him well--overall, he was a good horse, except when he went a little crazy and almost threw me off. The hour that we were out there, we had beautiful weather and scenery!

We made back in time to hear the results of Michael's age group, he ended up placing 5th and qualifying for World's again! Afterwards, all of us meet up at Danny Mann's--a traditional Irish Pub that seemed to be the place to go in Killarney! We had some good craic (pronounced 'crack' for those who might have been wondering)! There was live traditional Irish music in the background; which just added to the atmosphere! After dinner, we headed back to the hotel so Maggie and Julie could get a good nights rest before the big day!

My horse, Dingo

Killarney Lake

Ready to ride!

I don't know how they were able to walk in such a narrow path

Giddy up!

Lovely Day!

Finally, the big day was finally here--the day Maggie and Julie danced! Their age group was quite a bit bigger than Michael's; so, it took a while to get through all the girls and you had to listen to the same song each time. The competition is broken into two parts: hard shoe and soft shoe; and has six judges. The hard shoe was first and unfortunately Maggie kind of rolled her ankle at the very beginning; so, she was not able to do her best. But, she made up for it in her soft shoe! Julie did well in both of the shoes. However, neither one of them got recalled in the end to go onto the next round; it was a learning experience for them. They were happy to have it over with and could finally relax a little bit.

We went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant--boy were we hungry! After dinner, we went over to Tesco to get some snacks for the bus ride back for me and car ride back for them. The six of us headed to Danny Mann's to listen to some traditional Irish music on last time as a group. On the way back to the hotel, we ended up going to another Tesco to look for some last minute things they forgot to get. (Tesco is similar to Wal-Mart/Albertsons). We got back to the hotel, where we got all packed and ready to leave in the morning. Sadly morning came and I had to say good bye to Nancy and Maggie; I had a wonderful time with everyone and it was nice to have a break from school! I took my time going to the train station as I walked around Killarney--it is such a cute town!