Friday evening was a lazy stroll around some of the pubs in the City Centre area of Dublin. Just a few relaxed pints to unwind and prepare for the first big travel day within Ireland. We ate dinner at the Mercantile in Dublin. Nothing extraordinary but still good and still filling.
Saturday morning we took the bus from our hotel to the airport and picked up our car. It is a small black hatchback style car, a Skoda Citigo. After a few hours of bitching about different features of the car, Ryan semi-affectionately named it "Bandit" and was giving it pep-talks when attempting to steer it up hills.
We requested an automatic transmission vehicle when we made our rental car reservation. Ryan and I have each driven manual transmission cars before, however neither of us have any recent experience with it and decided that when we already have to get used to driving on the opposite side of the car and the opposite side of the (narrow!) roads, readjusting to driving a manual transmission would just be one extra, unwelcome headache. We were right about that!! However, the downside is that "Bandit" is only what I refer to as semi-automatic. The car will shift on its own, but it isn't 100% automatic either. There is no "park" gear, instead you put it in neutral and put on the emergency break, just like with a manual car. When reversing or in a low gear the car is a little wobbly, just like with a manual car. And when going up a hill, the struggle is so real. Anyway, the moral of the story is that driving the car definitely took some getting used to, as did driving here in Ireland.
The first moves out of the airport went relatively smoothly. We made it through one roundabout just fine, then at the second we turned out to be in the wrong lane, but it was too late to do anything about it. Thus, instead of merging easily onto the motorway (the equivalent in roads to the interstates at home) we ended up on some side road by the airport. What we really needed was to do a U-turn, however the signage indicated that these were prohibited at the intersection we were at. I urged Ryan to "just do it!!" after looking around for any Garda, and thus our first traffic infration in the Republic of Ireland committed. Thankfully I was right, there were no cops around, and unless we get a ticket in the mail from a hidden traffic camera, we should be out of the woods. Whew.
Following that slight mishap it was off to the Powerscourt House and Gardens, approximately 30 minutes outside of Dublin. The gardens took about an hour to walk through, and they were gorgeous. For those of you who see our Facebook pictures and probably imagine that all we've been doing is hitting the pubs and not seeing any real sights, just know that I'm taking pictures on my real camera at all the major sights and so those pictures won't be uploaded until we get home...I promise we're doing some real touring in between the consumption of pints!
After Powerscourt we made our way to the Glendalough ruins, about 45 minutes drive from Powerscourt. That was our first exposure to the naaaaarrow rural roads that connect the sights in the countryside of Ireland. If there is a bicyclist or pedestrian (or sheep) in the road, you basically have to slow down to their speed until the coast is clear in the opposite direction to pass. There is no shoulder, no wiggle room, and most of the time on the rural roads the visibility is limited by completely blind turns. It was a bit harrowing to get used to. I tried to stay calm and be a good navigator for Ryan, who bravely took on the first day of driving. From what he said, I did a good job of not letting my nerves show, but damn did I need that pint when we got to our final destination last night!
Glendalough was equally beautiful to Powerscourt. It is the site of ancient monastic ruins from around 1050, and is surrounded by beautiful hills and countryside. We walked around the ruins for a bit, taking in all the natural beauty and trying to imagine what life must have been like for the monks who resided there nearly 1000 years ago.
Once we were through at Glendalough, it was back on the road for a 90 minute drive to the town of Kilkenny. The hotel car park was ridiculously hard to find (really shitty directions, by the way, if anyone from the Zuni hotel happens to stumble across this blog!) but once we got situated in our room we were more than ready to head out for, what else, a pint.
We went to the Kyteler's Inn and enjoyed a few rounds plus some delicious traditional Irish dinner. Ryan got the Irish stew and I had the bangers and mash (mine was better!). Following our dinners we headed down to their covered beer garden to listen to a trad session going on down there. Around this time we realized that it was 8:30 here in Kilkenny which meant it was 3:30 back home-and that meant it was time for Gator football! I was able to stream the game live on my phone so we propped it up on the pint in front of me and enjoyed (mostly) watching our Gators play. It was kind of amazing to be sitting in a pub in Ireland, listening to trad music playing and cheering on the Gators at the same time!
After a bit we got restless and knew there were more places in Kilkenny to be explored. From the Kyteler we went over to Matt the Miller's pub. We noticed right away walking at night on a Saturday that Kilkenny seems to be the place for the Irish to throw their hen and stag parties (the equivalent of a bachelor or bachelorette party). I cannot tell you the number of super drunk groups of girls in tiaras we saw running around screaming last night. Unfortunately, Matt the Miller's seemed to be a gathering point for these inebriated partiers. The music and dancing looked enjoyable but we were both a bit tired to be trying to join in on those festivities. We got one round there and then moved up the road.
Our next stop was a small place called O'Riada's. We tucked in there for a few pints and watched some locals enjoying their evening. We talked to a few local guys who gave us some suggestions for other spots to hit. They also educated us a bit on the yellow and black checked flags we had been noticing all over the city. Turns out hurling is a huge sport here in Kilkenny, and they seem to have quite a successful team. The pride for their team cannot go unnoticed once you understand the meaning of those flags-they are everywhere.
We left O'Riada's just in time to walk back to our hotel and catch the end of the Gator game (aka the good part). We briefly celebrated our victory and then passed out, agreeing to not set an alarm for this morning since we only had a few sights to see.
This morning we woke up around 11:30 feeling rejuvenated, if still in need of caffeine. We got up and around and made it over to a place called Langton's for lunch and Irish coffees. Ryan got potato and leek soup with an entree of prime rib. I had the spiced beef sandwich which came with salad and chips. Definitely a good start to the day.
From the restaurant we made our way back across the River Nore to the Kilkenny Castle and the rose park out in front of it. The castle was originally built in medieval times but has been occupied up until the mid 1900s. It was quite nice and it was easy to imagine living in the lap of luxury there.
Once we departed the castle it was up the street to the Smithwick's Experience Kilkenny. There we learned about the history behind the Smithwick's ale and the Francisan brewing that had taken place centuries earlier in the same area. Like any good brewery tour, we finished in the tasting room where we each got a pint.
From there we went just up the street to Bollard's pub where we had a pint or two and a nice chat with the bartender. We got to watch a little more rugby and showed the bartender there a bit of American football tackles for comparison to the roughness of rubgy.
This evening for dinner we went to the Rive Gauche, connected to the West Bank bar which is nearly just across the street from our hotel. Ryan got a caprese-style salad for a starter and a steak with chips for his main course. I had a prawn and asparagus risotto for my starter and the pork belly with mashed potatoes. Everything was delicious and by the time we left we were stuffed.
We took a bit of a stroll around town after dinner to try to get our digestion going. While we were walking we spotted a sign outside of a narrow alley directing passersby to the Hole in the Wall bar. This had been recommended to us by our dear friend Rick (Steves) so we decided to stop in. We made our way down the alley and into the bar, which was already occupied by 3 English gentlemen. Yes, 3 guys pretty much took up the whole place. It is tiny! The owner and his barman were still very welcoming towards us and got us started with some Bulmer's ciders while we took to the small table located just behind the occupied bar stools. The young man working behind the bar began to give us some history on the place while the owner ducked upstairs. He began to tell us some history of the building the bar was located in, which dates to the 16th century. He also gave us some backstory as to the owner of the place, who it turns out is a cardiologist by day who was involved in some research pertaining to the use of ACE inhibitors in AMI (heart attack) patients back in the 1980s.
Of course after hearing all of this Ryan and I were quite anxious to meet the man. When he came back downstairs we talked with him quite a bit about his research and cardiology/MI patients in general. He then offered to take us upstairs to show us where they have music on some nights and demonstrated how to play the stones for us. Quite the eccentric man, as I'm sure you can imagine a cardiologist/clinical researcher/barman/musician would be. It was an enjoyable time though, and everyone in that bar from the lad serving us to the owner to the random townies in the bar who were just there to hang out and shoot the shit with the owner made us feel extremely welcome.
We're currently relaxing back in our hotel room. I have developed a new and quite serious addiction to Cathedral City baked cheddar mini-biscuits. Not sure what I'm going to do when I'm cut off in 2 weeks when we come back home. They are basically just little cheddar flavored crackers we disovered by accident in the local grocery store in Dublin, but they are so freaking good. Anyway, more travelling tomorrow. We'll be going from our place here in Kilkenny up to the Rock of Cashel and then on to our next stop in Cork. It's my turn to drive tomorrow so.......should be interesting. Like I told Ryan, we have full coverage on our car, and the only thing not covered is the keys. So if I end up wrecking, you better believe I'll at least be trying to pry the keys out of the ignition! That's all from me for now, hopefully my entry wasn't too boring compared to Ryan's =)
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