After exploring a bit in quiet Limerick, we arrived to Kilkenny around 4:30 and could tell immediately that the city was a bit more lively than Limerick. It just had that vibe as we drove in.
Our AirBnB wasn't right in the city centre, but it was about a 15 minute walk away... with free parking! I won't go into details, but our host was a crazy lady who gave inaccurate information about her place on the AirBnB website, and then it wasn't clean. Luke and I can put up with some not so nice places, and we did deal with this one. But then the crazy lady had the nerve to give us, as guests, a bad review saying we were "unfriendly". I am still fired up about this! Anyway, we dropped our stuff and then headed out to explore.
We walked along the high street, then in out and out of some little alleyways, and of course stopped in a few pubs for some Irish Smithwick's.
We took the recommendation from our crazy AirBnB host and ate dinner at a BBQ place called Paris, Texas (random, huh?). It was actually pretty good, but no where near what we get back in the real Texas. Then we finished the night having some drinks at Lanigan's Bar listening to music while an Irish dancer entertained our eyes. There have been several pinch-worthy experiences while traveling that I've gotten goose bumps, and this was one of them! I just couldn't believe we were in Ireland watching this dancer. It was very cool!!!
The next morning, we started out getting some breakfast around 10:30. Then we took a long walk to see all of the tourist sights, which wasn't much.
We walked along the river, then made our way to St. Canice's Cathedral. We decided to go in, and then up the super skinny tower. The stairs to climb the tower ended up being like a ladder that only one row of people could go up or down at a time. It was definitely the most frightening set of "stairs" we have climbed!
We eventually looped back around through the city centre again and ended at Kilkenny Castle. Behind the castle is a HUGE open green space with a foresty area surrounding it, so we took a walk through the forest to the very end of the open space.
I got myself an ice cream, and we laid in the grass enjoying the sun for a bit to kill some time. We still couldn't believe how amazing the weather was in Ireland!
It wasn't long before we got thirsty, so we went to the Left Bank pub right next to the castle. It was a pretty expensive pub (€10 for 2 pints), but it was really neat inside. Plus they had Smithwick's Pale Ale, which we didn't come across very often during our week in Ireland.
We continued to wander around the city and stopped into any pub that looked interesting. Being a tourist in Kilkenny isn't complete without a visit to the Kyteler's Inn, the medieval witch's pub. We listened to a band play for a while before deciding it was dinner time.
We took another recommendation from our crazy AirBnB host and went for Spanish Tapas at The Salt Yard. Luke still talks about how good this meal was - aka it was A LOT of food for not all that money (while Debbie thinks it wasn't all that spectacular in terms of quality). The funny thing though is that we spoke with the owner, and he told us how much he loves London and told us that his favorite tapas place in London just so happened to be the little place right across the street from our flat (one of our faves too!). Go figure! Anyway, we were so full after dinner, that we decided to just head home from there. We had a beautiful sky for our walk home to end a nice time in Kilkenny!
The next day, we packed up our stuff for another somewhat long drive to our next and last stay in Ireland - Dingle Town. More coming...
The Kyteler's Inn pub is named after Alice Kyteler, the last witch in Ireland, who was accused of poisoning her four husbands. The pub was built on the site of her former home after the house burned down.
