Saturday morning got off to a bit of a slow start ... I walked over to Brian's hotel - the Conrad Dublin - for a free breakfast (Brian is the wheeler and dealer and found a way to get free brekkie -- very nice -- and thanks for sharing!). It was a buffet style with all of the full Irish breakfast trimmings as well as yogurt, juice, cheese, breads, pastries ... too much food ... but good fuel for the rest of the day. While having breakfast I got a text message (which is like THE way to contact folks in Ireland) that one of our cohorts was coming into town with his little boy.
With impeccable timing, Andrew and his little boy Alex arrived at the hotel just as we finished breakfast. Little Alex is a handsome devil although I'm not sure where he gets his dashing good looks (sorry Andrew!). We all decided to walk over to a farmer's market that gathers in the Temple Bar area of Dublin ... and on the way we traveled through the gorgeous St. Stephen's Green. There wasn't much to the market, but what was there was great ... there was a bakery, a cheese peddler, a few butchers, some wines ... just a fun little experience. From there we walked over to Christ Church - a beautiful old cathedral in the middle of Dublin. After this it was back to my hotel and a lovely drive south of Dublin, into the country side of Ireland, on my way to Kilkenny.
Getting out of Dublin is always a chore ... however once I was out of the city center ... it was on the road to Kilkenny. The drive was very scenic and passed right through the heart of at least 2 towns on the way to Kilkenny. Brian joined me on this adventure into the countryside and actually did an excellent job as the navigator (printed/copied tons of maps, etc) where as if it was just me heading out ... I probably would have just started driving ... and would probably still be driving. HA HA! I was told that THE place to eat in town was called Langton's ... so the first order of business was to find lunch/dinner.
Kilkenny City is not a very large place with only really one or two main streets running through it ... however those streets are NARROW and WINDING ... so it's always an adventure. On the way through town I saw Langton's and made a mental note how to get back. About 30 minutes later ... after a narrow close call running a red light ... a U-turn through a petrol station ... and a 5 minute wait for a space in the local car park ... I was at the restaurant with Brian, ready to chow down. I ordered the roasted lamb with a leek soup starter ... very good eats. With the fuel in the belly, it was time to see Kilkenny ...
One of the main attractions to this city is the castle that sits up on one of the hills. It's a funny thing about traveling in Ireland ... you should really plan to do things early ... because by the time we ate lunch ... walked down the wrong street ... then found the right street ... the castle was closed! Ugh ... so it was onto the main shopping street. While Brian was finding deals I was scouting some of the cathedrals ... the first one I came to was St. Mary's (Catholic) and it had amazing stained glass inside and tall spires on the outside. After collecting Brian ... I walked over to another cathedral, St. Canice's (belonging to the Church of Ireland), this one built in the 1200's!! It was time to say farewell to Kilkenny and journey back into Dublin.
On the way back into town I called Andrew to see if he was up to having visitors or even heading into town for a little night out with the boys. After getting completely lost on the way to his house ... I called Andrew and he literally guided me in turn-by-turn ... like a low-tech GPS system if you will. I got to meet Andrew's beautiful wife Liz and had a small tour of their new house ... Alex was sleeping ... so we didn't disturb him by heading upstairs. We visited for a bit ... and listened to Andrew and Liz's fantastic stereo ... then decided to drive into town.
Once the car was parked, it was onto the pubs. The first one we stopped into was called Neary's ... and Andrew filled me in on some little known facts that back in the "day" women were not able to sit in the same area as men at the pub ... and they also couldn't drink a full pint, instead having to drink out of a smaller glass. After a drink it was on to the next pub (can't remember the name right now!!) ... which was PACKED. We chose to go to the upstairs portion of the pub ... and there we encountered some interesting folks ... a few groups of ladies were eyeing our table ... and we all were assuming it was due to the 3 handsome devils that were sitting there. HA! It was fun to have a few drinks ... then the pub closed, so on to the next one. For me it was back to Sheehan's, the first pub I visited ... and another drink, and more people staring ... was I starting to get a complex?! Once again, we were hanging out until the pub closed ... then ... one more pub. The haute and uber-trendy Clarendon's. This reminded me of a Scottsdale-type pub where you had to look pretty and drink pretty beverages to be "cool". Needless to say ... I had a Bulmer's ... then stumbled back out onto the street with Andrew and Brian ... in search of some food to soak all this liquid up. We found a place that did kebab's and shawarma ... just what you need after a pub crawl ... garlicky chicken and pita ... with a few dozen of your closest inebriated friends. I wound up chatting with a few lads from England, and a few gals from Canada at this eatery ... and then it was off to bed after a VERY long day.
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