I paid 10 pesos to take this picture of Lauren with the llama in Santiago. As we were walking away, the llama’s owner came running after us waiving a 10-peso bill and yelling “Falso!” He said I paid him with counterfeit money so I gave him another 10. Only later did I realize he’d swapped my original, real 10-peso bill with the counterfeit one and conned me out of another 10.
In 2014 I attended the Galway Arts Festival. The great thing about Ireland was that I could turn to the stranger sitting next to me and spend the next half hour discussing the play we’d just seen. In America, they’d think I was some kind of serial killer and leave. On my last night in Galway, I was walking back to my hotel after the play and realized I hadn’t discussed it with anyone. Just then, I guy on a bicycle screeched to to a stop and said, “Did you just see Ballyturk? What did you think of it?” I started talking and other guys on bicycles pulled up. We spent 40 minutes discussing the festival while standing on the side of the road.
It’s a great festival and the Irish are wonderful people. If you ever get a chance to go, do it.