The photograph that had drawn me to Kilkenny in the first place was one of the Butter Slip, a small, medieval passage between streets. We went out in search of it, and it ended up being slightly charming, but not quite as breathtaking as the rest of the city, so we snapped some pictures and moved on. At this point, Nathan was desperate for clean socks, and of course the Metropole didn’t offer laundry services (it didn’t even have a refrigerator we could use), so we had to make use of a laundry facility that insisted we do our laundry separately–All for a mere 15 Euros. We were really kicking ourselves for not doing laundry in Doolin, where it was free.
We had a delicious lunch at The Yard, a tiny, but delicious cafe on St. Kieran’s St., down which (as far as I can tell) only service vehicles are allowed to pass. As we wandered down St. Kieran’s after lunch, Nathan spotted a Turkish barber, and since he needed a haircut anyway, in we went! I sat in the waiting area for the first bit of the cut, listening to the interesting conversations around me and watching a small boy get a maze-like pattern shaved into the sides of his head. After that, I wandered over to a department store to look around.
Our time in Kilkenny was largely spent on eating delicious food. We purchased (and immediately consumed) a Ferrero Rocher milkshake from Shakeout Milkshake Bar, and walked to the expansive Kilkenny Castle green with our respective copies of This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash. Nathan, who now looked like a cast member of “The Jersey Shore” with his new haircut, and I really enjoyed relaxing in this community area–There were people of all ages enjoying the sun. It seemed like a scene from a movie–Ladies pushing babies in prams on brilliant green grass, in front of a castle…On our way back to the hostel we tried to find an eclair to eat (this was an ongoing search on our trip–we didn’t have one until we arrived back in the states), but settled on another pastry.
Later that evening, we were walking around some of the shops in town, and kept seeing advertisements for Mrs. Brown’s Boys Da Movie. Obviously, this piqued our interest, and when we realized we could make a showing, we ran to the theatre. Apparently it was fashioned after a popular (?) Irish television show, but we were able to understand enough of what was going on to be entertained. I’m sure we were the only Americans to watch that movie.
Afterwards, we realized that most restaurants were closed. This was something that we struggled with throughout our trip. It didn’t get dark out until around 10:00 pm, but all of the restaurants closed at 6:30 pm. By the time we even started to think about eating, we were out of luck! This resulted in many, many last-minute, homemade (hostel-made?) meals. Lots of canned soup. However, we did not have a kitchen at our hostel in Kilkenny, so we were very glad to find “Paris Texas,” an American-style restaurant that was still open. Afterwards, we hit up another pub for some more trad music and then retired for our last night in a private room (and hopefully our last night in a room as mangy as this one).
Would I recommend…
- Butter Slip? √
- The Yard? √+
- Shakeout Milkshake Bar? √+
- Kilkenny Castle Green? √+
- Paris Texas? √- (Only because I felt guilty going to an American restaurant while abroad)
GonnaGoTravel 