Ireland - Day Seven

Day Seven

Another morning, another breakfast and onto the bus. Today was our final day journeying to a different city, the last stop on our itinerary was Kilkenny where we would spend the night and then return to Dublin the next day, before the drive to Kilkenny though we made a short visit to the Cobh Heritage Center.

Cobh was the last port of call the Titanic made before it’s accident, and it was also the place where 3 million irish immigrated to the US from. One of the things I was really looking forward to seeing was the statue of Annie Moore outside of the center. Annie Moore was the first irish immigrant to be processed through Ellis Island. There is a statue of her and her younger brothers pointing towards New York, and at Ellis Island there is the exact same statue pointing towards Ireland. I took a picture with Annie, I was so excited!

It’s not a big place but inside is a museum mainly dedicated to showing how the conditions were on the boats traveling to New York, with some sections on the Titantic and some other vessels that didn’t make it. It was a really neat experience, especially knowing that my great great grandmother on my mother’s side went on one of those boats at 16 years old and traveled from Italy to New York with just a friend and never saw her parents again. They wanted a better life for her. It might have been a small place but it has a lot of history and I would definitely recommend visiting there.

After visiting Cobh we stopped quickly at the Rock of Cashel which I really thought was going to actually be a big slab of rock but ended up being another castle. When the bus pulled into the parking lot the first thing I noticed was that there was a small field of sheep right next to the lot. I no longer cared at all about the castle. I just wanted to get pictures of the sheep! And possibly pet one. After exiting the parking lot I took a few pictures of the castle then headed straight towards the sheep. I think at this point people started to wonder if I was a little off in the head. Everyone else headed up closer to the castle to see it and I crossed the street and saw a larger field with more sheep and took a few more pictures before going back to the first clearing, all the while chanting "Sheep! Sheep!". An Australian boy named Jaime noticed how nuts I was going (I was even taking video) and said "You really like sheep, ay? You shoulda been born kiwi.". Then Gennie came over and said I was acting as if I'd never seen one in person before, to which my response was "I haven't! I live in New York! We don't see these things!", she told me I needed to get out more.

Then it was on our way to Kilkenny where we checked into the Kilford Arms Hotel. This was the only other hotel that was centrally located although nothing very spectacular. The only cool thing about it was that the restaurant/pub inside the hotel had remnants of a church from the 1800’s. In fact, that’s where Teresse, Melissa and I ate lunch. I had a hamburger and fries. The one thing I loved about fries in Ireland is that they serve vinegar with them (Like in the rest of Britain). It was really yummy! I never had fish and chips because I don’t like fish but the chips were great!

After lunch we strolled around some of the streets and then the girls went to meet up with a walking tour they were doing. I went back to the hotel to take a nap and rest. The constant walking and on the go was starting to get to me a little bit and my legs ached all over. I started taking aleve every morning after the second day and although that had helped up until this point it really wasn’t taking the edge off anymore. I was glad for the rest.

Che had recommended a pub to go to for dinner that would start playing traditional irish music at around 9pm, so Melissa, Teresse and I left the hotel around 6:30pm to walk around more and to find the pub. We got kind of lost trying to find the pub and had to ask a few different people were the street was but we eventually found it and it was kind of smoky inside, and there were only a few old men at the bar. I think we were too early. We all agreed to find some place else to eat so we wandered around some more. Teresse is a vegetarian and sometimes it would take looking at the menus of a few different places to find somewhere she’d be able to find something to eat. It was never a bother though. She said there were a lot more vegetarian options there than in a lot of other countries in Europe she had visited.

We eventually ended up at a small tea room, I remember what I ordered was tandoori chicken. It was really good! We all had the same dessert too. It was chocolate ice cream with a piece of chocolate cake. It was the best dessert I had the entire trip! I wish I could remember the name of the tea room; I should have taken a picture. Down the block was a Dunnes which is sort of like a Super Walmart, they sell groceries and other items. For some reason we thought it would be entertaining to go into an irish grocery store.. we also wanted to buy some candy but we didn’t really find anything we wanted. The one thing that struck all of us was that their cashiers sit! I don’t know why they don’t do this in the states.

After that we walked around some more and went to a pub that had a sign advertising traditional irish music at 9pm. When we entered it was about 9:30pm and the music hadn’t started yet but the band was setting up. We felt so awkward though. We stayed standing by the door for a while because of that. The pub was filled with all locals. You could pretty much tell we were the only tourists there. The only seats available were right by the speakers too but we took a seat and I decided to order a pint of cider because none of us wanted to drink but I thought it would be even more awkward if we sat and didn’t order.

The band came on and we stayed for a few songs. Their traditional music is really cool in the sense that it talks about their struggles but there’s usually always a positive spin on it. It doesn’t seem like they’re complaining. What I learned from this trip is that through all the hardships the irish have gone through they have this unwavering stubbornness that keeps them going and helps them survive. My father was part irish, and I’ve never really felt a connection to my irish heritage, I always felt closer to my mother’s which is Italian. But after my experiences in Ireland I can truly say that I definitely have a little bit of irish in me.

The walk back to the hotel was kind of sad for me, this was our second to last night and we knew tomorrow would be the final day of our tour. I was having so much fun I didn’t want it to end.