Dublin/Kilkenny

I'm trying to post pictures, but the Internet isn't working for me. Hopefully I'll get some posted, soon.

So, did I mention the bog bodies at the Archeology Museum? There are bodies that were tossed into the bogs hundreds (thousands?) of years ago. The bogs preserved them, and they are on display so that tourists can appreciate the well-preserved grimaces, fingernails, and clothing still attached to the shrunken limbs. Yikes! Also, did I mention the mini-replica, in the archeology museum, of the Viking village that used to be in Dublin? That was neat, too. It was all huts close together. One hut was created so you could see inside. It looked basically like a big ark, with benches all down each side for sleeping, a fire pit in the middle, and at each end little areas for livestock.

This morning, we breakfasted in the hostel, packed our bags, and headed to the Dublin Writer's Museum. The only problem was that it was closed. It was nine o'clock, and the museum opens at 10:00. Luckily, the museum is at the end of O'Connell Street, which is one of the main roads, and it is lined with city shops, so we found a bookstore and went in for coffee. I think the store was called Earnie's, and the coffee shop inside was called Barnies. It reminded me of Barnes and Noble.

I was determined to buy a watch so I would quit bugging John, asking him every five minutes what time it was. We stopped in a souvenir shop. The only watches they had were pewter pocket watches and Guinness wrist watches. The wrist watches were double the price of the pewter ones, so I bought a pocket watch with the claudach (spelling?) symbol on it.

Finally, it was time for the museum to open. It is the best museum ever. It has a facsimile of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels. It has first editions of famous books. Writers' portraits, typewriters, writing desks, fountain pens, notes, letters, et cetera. There was a library housing 16th century tomes. There were old, yellowing newspaper clippings of reviews for some of the writers' works. There were writers' busts all over. Yeats, Joyce, Swift, Shaw, and Edgeworth (the woman who wrote gothic novels). Ah, it was a nice place. Too bad we had so little time--not enough to really linger over all that there was to see.

We had to catch the 11:30 bus to Kilkenny, so we left the museum, scurried down O'Connell Street, over the River Liffey, and onto Aston Quay, where the hostel was located. Grabbed our suitcases, then scurried to the central bus station. The bus ride took 2.5 hours.

Now I'm in the Kilkenny hostel, which isn't as nice as Abigail's in Dublin. However, it's only 20 euro per person per night. Poor John is not used to dormitory-type living. We have a private room, but we have to share a bathroom with the other people staying on our floor. Still, it's clean, and we have cute bunk beds. The house is Georgian, originally belonging to a middle class family.
Okay, but Kilkenny is not very easy to navigate. At least, it wasn't when we got off the bus on St. Patrick's Street and tried to locate our hostel. Keep in mind that we'd run a marathon to catch the bus this morning and then had nothing to eat. It's a wonder we were still standing, much less functioning at full intellectual capacity. I think we went up and down one street two or three times before we stopped at the tourist's office to ask for directions. Then, the tourist guy gave us kind of faulty directions, so we took even longer, but we finally made it.

Now that we've rested, eaten supper (at a cute little Italian restaurant), and had a Smithwick at Kyteler's Inn, the town is looking much nicer. In fact, I think it's great. It's soooo old. Kyteler's Inn dates back to the 1200's! It was owned by a woman who was accused of being a witch, but really people were just jealous of her because she was a "merry widow"--married four times. She escaped to England, but the Kyteler Inn is still here. Inside there are witches hanging from the ceiling and old iron pots and iron chandeliers. I tried a Smithwick (beer) because it is produced at the St. Francis Abbey Brewery here. It was good. We also visited the Black Abbey, so called maybe because the monks used to wear black capes OR because the black plague visited the monks in the 1600s, killing off 8. It's an ancient stone church with beautiful stained glass windows and statues of saints throughout. I lit a candle at a Mary statue. Outside there are several wild cats that a woman was very concerned about feeding. They must live in the church yard.

There are other things here to see--we are going to try tackling Kilkenny Castle tomorrow morning before heading to Cork. We walked the grounds this evening, but the inside was closed by the time we got there. However, the grounds are huge and beautiful and opened as a park even after the castle closes.

Tomorrow: Kilkenny Castle, Cork, and the Blarney Stone.