Anna, Maggie's friend from Paris, and I met up with Maggie, Claire, Stacy, Stevie and Alicia at about 9:20 and walked to the BIF parking lot to hop on the bus to Kilkenny with our Study Abroad group. While the UCD Quinn School pays for the trip, we asked Dorothy if it was okay to bring friends. She said yes, as long as we keep it on the down low.
The bus ride was a little less than two hours, and I just chatted with Stacy and slept a little. Kilkenny is the medieval capital of Ireland and home to Kilkenny Castle. Originally the site of Strongbow's fortress, Kilkenny Castle was owned and inhabited by the Butler family for the duration of its useful life. Since its sale to the state of Ireland, it has been restored to its hay days. While photography is not permitted inside the castle, I got a few illegal shots and some gorgeous outside pictures. The furniture and decorations are mostly replicas, and it was cool to walk through, but I've never been a dawdler in museum type places so I walked through relatively quickly.
(an ancient toilet--- i took this just for Brent)
After our tour of the castle, we headed to a pub for lunch. We ate at a place called Kyteler's Inn. Dorothy kept telling us we had to meet the witch Alice when we arrived. We didn't really understand what she meant until we saw a witch (mannequin) sitting in the fireplace.
Still kind of confused, we got the history from our walking tour guide that Alice Kyteler was subject of the first witchcraft trial in Ireland in 1323. Most modern people belief that she was in fact just a clever woman and poisoner, as all four of her wealthy husbands died mysteriously of a similar fate leaving her their wealth.
Lunch was great. We ate in this stone catacombs below the inn. All of us had chicken and chips (fries) and pints of cider. Even better, it was on the UCD tab. We also got cheesecake for dessert, which was more fluffy and less creamy then American cheesecake.
After lunch we went on a walking tour of Kilkenny. Which was a bit chilly but still good. We explored the side streets and Black Abbey, a beautiful church run by Dominican monks. We went inside to see the gorgeous staind glass windows and one of their friars ended up talking to our group for about 15 minutes about the history of the building. That's so typically Dublin, random strangers offering their knowledge willingly and friendly.
We finished the walking tour and headed to a local pub to watch the Ireland-Italy rugby match. This is what I observed from the game. The field is called the pitch. You can not pass forward, only backward or laterally. Scoring occurs much like American football, with the endzone being worth 5 points and then an addition fieldgoal for 2 or just a fieldgoal for 3. We think that you can kick the ball up the field, but once it goes out of bounds, possession is up in the air. We also concluded that our favorite Irish player is Ronan O'Hara, he was the best looking we saw (mostly because his teeth looked pretty decent). Also, that it is brutal and Rugby players must laugh at American Football players with their wimpy pads and simple forward passing. Some Italian player was gushing blood from the head which we can only assume was from a cleat to the head. Rugby players dress like soccer players, and they wear like spandex under their shorts--which probably is a good thing because there is a lot of tugging at the jerseys. Ireland won the match--29 to 11. We owe some of our rugby knowledge to the man sitting next to us, who probably found us clueless and stupid.
After the match, we wandered the town and then got back on the bus and headed back to Dublin. I slept for a good portion. All the fresh air is exhausting.
We got home about 7 and made plans to meet an hour later to get some dinner. It ended up being just Mags, me, Claire, and Anna because Laura was entertaining her friend from Australia and was tired from Morocco and Jen & Stacy are going hiking early in the morning, and Stevie & Alicia cooked dinner themselves and met up with us later. We went to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen and had some delicious burgers and fries. We sat outside, which makes two nights in a row of chilling outside in February. It was probably about 7 degrees out, celsius that is, which is roughly 45 degrees fahrenheit but there is heat lamps so it was actually not too bad. Today was the biggest amount of food I've consumed in a while. Actually this weekend. Must be because we are entertaining guests. After our dinner (thanks to Anna for the treat in exchange for providing her with a couch) we headed to Porterhouse for music. Temple Bar was hopping, Saturday night, Rugby match which was played in Dublin, made for lively atmosphere.
We made our way to Porterhouse, snagged some seats, bought some drinks and just hung out. I even spurlged on a strawberry daquiri type drink. We had lots of random people start talking to us...one about ex-boyfriends as friends, one about Disneyland, one from Seattle about how expensive beer was. All nice, friendly, and seemingly harmless. The band started about midnight and played American type music-- Roxanne, Beat It, Apple Bottom Jeans... It was very chill which actually makes you a little sleepy.
Maggie has an early flight in the morning so we left about 1 am to head home. Claire decided she was going to do a social experiment. We've been feeling like we're getting scammed by taxi drivers since it seems like we are going way west to go south...and we felt as though our tourist location and tourist accents may play a part. So Claire gets into a cab (given we have some time of African driver) and tells him UCD Belfield in her best Irish accent. She continues to ask Maggie how she enjoyed Dublin, and sing along to Wonderwall all in this Irish accent. I about died trying to hold in my laughter. While our taxi driver took a similar path to the guy the night before, he did mention he was going this way to avoid traffic without being asked. So maybe her accent made him more accountable.
Time for bed. Pictures coming soon.
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