People let their cats and dogs wander freely. We met a golden retriever, and a man playing ball with his black lab named Lily took a picture of all of us. Then we met a little white dog with brown spots who was frolicking around the beach and followed us for a while, and met his owner, who drove up in a car, picked him up, and drove off. He'd dropped his dog off to walk itself and then we delivered him back, hahaha!
Afterward, we drove to Kinsale for lunch. I had an AMAZING seafood chowder with soda bread and butter. As soon as I had a bite of the chowder, the first word that came to my mind was “fresh.” I asked Rachel if it had been caught recently since we were right next to a sort of port with lots of yachts and boats tied outside, and she said it had probably just been caught the night or day before. So my fish probably wasn't even 24 hours old. It was probably the best chowder I've ever had in my life (sorry Dave).
Also, Shelly likes goat cheese. And so do I. She tried an open faced goat cheese sandwich, and let me tell you, that Brie goat cheese was fan.TAS.tic. Some of you crazy people over there said that stuff wasn't good? Are you kidding? It was like mild feta. But maybe you're just buying the wrong stuff. Next time, go for the Brie soft goat cheese that's all mushy in the center with a hard case on the outside, and then you'll be doing it right.
Then, we went to Blarney to kiss the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle. The castle itself was very interesting. We went in through the front gates, which was at the back of the building, and under the “Murder Hole,” where if they don't want you they just throw sharp or boiling things down at you through a grate in the ceiling. Then, we went in through the great hall and up the stairs to where the tower started. As we climbed the tower, we saw several rooms jutting out from the terrifyingly small-stepped spiral staircase. At the top was a square area where you could look down into the family room at the center and out in all directions. Then we went and kissed the stone. There were two men there – one to hold you as you bent over, and one who took your picture as you kissed it. They were very nice.
As we came back down, the night mist started rolling in over the town and countryside around us. It made for some really awesome photographs. We wandered a bit through the paths that went through the places where the first cave dwellers lived, but we didn't want to get locked inside the castle, so we didn't actually see any caves. By the time we reached the front gates outside, we thought we were locked in, but it's ok. They've devised a spinning door contraption that doesn't let you get locked in. So we left for Dublin as night fell. And then I fell asleep for like an hour. It's really odd that you don't really have to slow down in the fog here because we're so used to looking for deer, but here they don't have any except for domestic deer, so anything that runs out in the road is probably smaller than your tire and is doomed. Unless it's a stray livestock animal. In which case anyone would be confused. (Rachel: “The driver AND the cow! The cow's going, 'What? What are you doing in my field?' And then BANG!” Bye bye cow.)
We found our way to the hostel fairly easily thanks to iPhone GPS. When we arrived, we couldn't get into the parking lot because it was locked so you needed to go inside and get a key. The barbed wire around the lot is probably the most ferocious barbed wire I've ever seen that's not on a prison. It's like RAARRAAAR NOM NOM NOM HUMAN FLESH! Zombie wire. Maybe that's what it's called.
When we were all settled into our room, which locks with an electronic key card so that's good, we took a walk in the city. The city lights here are very nice, especially on the river. We wandered until we found a bar and had beer/cider. I had my first Guinness, right here in Dublin, woo hoo! It was pretty good. Second round was orange juice for me, and Shelly had a pint of Guinness, and Rachel another cider. Then we went back to the hostel and went to bed.
Today, we are going to Guinness and Jameson, and perhaps Belfast or the area of the city from the Medieval times. We'll see!
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