While we were there I noticed this man eating his pasta and skewering something from a bowl. I finally figured out he was eating French fries. Then two women came in and one ordered pasta and another pizza. They had a bowl of boiled potatoes brought to go with their meal. How do the Irish manage to stay so thin? Probably the fuel to keep them warm considering the price of heating.
 |
| Ireland 2007--Kilk |
Afterward we were told there was live music as a couple of places. We hunted them down but it turned out to be mostly discos with security guards standing outside. Yeesh. I didn't want that so we popped into a quieter pub. Well, it was so quiet I mentioned it was downright funereal. We were finishing up our last drink when these guys sent over some drinks.
It turned out the three of them were from Belfast and down for the races. They were very nice, didn't hide that two of them were married and bought us drinks. I was talking to the cop from Belfast but as the pub closed he said let's go dancing. I said sure so we left. But it turned out the whole town was closing up, and it was very very foggy, and I had over two pints of cider sitting in my bladder. Since none of us knew the town enough to know what was open we said goodbye.
My sister and I found the car (with burgeoning bladders) and tried to find our way back uphill in the fog. It was so thick we drove past our B&B and really were only a block away when I had to pull the car over, run up someone's lawn and piss by the bushes. It was like Austin Powers, with the stream never ending. Sorry folks, it was the less embarassing option and the fog hid the dirty deed. Then I found our place and my sister ran up the stairs while I parked. She made it just in time too. :)
The next day we took in Kilkenny castle. No pictures are allowed and they make you check your camera. The castle was sold off by some descendant of the Butlers who held it for centuries, early in the 1900s I think. It's been renovated and refurbished and some orginal pieces bought back. Many were auctioned off and the Irish OPW keeps hoping to find some of the original piecies. There was a very long drawing room, filled with paintings on the walls. They said it was only about a third of how many were in there. Overall, they've redone the castle in a Baroque/Rococco style when it was probably at the last of its opulence.
It was a good tour and I wished I'd recorded it. There's so much that you forget. After Kilkenny we headed back to Dublin. It was a bit longer of a drive and we got into the city okay but true to Dublin, promptly got lost several times. Finally, after asking directions often we got to our B&B and then took the car back downtown to where we had to drop it off. Yeesh, none of the directions matched what we were told so we had to drive around three times to find the drop-off point. And of course that meant going some very long blocks out of our way. I don't relish ever driving in Dublin.
