Kilkenny, Castles and the 6 hour bus ride

this weekend a group of eight went to Kilkenny, Ireland. It is a medieval city and absolutely gorgeous. I think I would have loved to be in college there too, because it is a small but defintely VIBRANT town. Plus everywhere you are, you can see the castle or the cathedral over the buildings. We stayed in an 8 person room, bunk bed style in the Kilkenny Tourist Hostel. That was my first time ever in a hostel and it was so...clean. I was surprised, I thought hostels were dirty with rickety beds and maybe some spiders. This was really nice and in the middle of everything. Friday we toured the town (The Field, Anthony (Andrew?) Ryan's, Matt the Miller's). Saturday we reallllllly toured and went everywhere possible. Kilkenny Castle, the Black Abbey, the Cathedral, the Kyterly Inn. In order to save money, we even bought food at the local grocery store for breakfast lunch and dinner ---everyone's good about the saving money thing.

So. First things first. The CASTLE WAS BEAUTIFUL. They were restoring it still, so I wish the tour was longer and showed more. The library was beautiful, bright yellow, with almost all the original works and bookshelves. I could have lived there forever, there were early editions of Shakespeare, Dante, histories....it was beautiful. the walls were covered in silk. Apparently the Butlers lived there, a very powerful family in Ireland from the 1400's until 1935, when they moved back to England. In the bottom of the castle (not the dungeons, I was hoping but no luck) there was a gift shop with nobody there and I really wanted a postcard of the castle...
But I guess the occasionally snatch from the stag didn't help as I just left my 50 cent piece on the desk and took a postcard. The Carrolls are just good like that.

The Black Abbey was Franciscan, small with crypts and stained glass, and the Cathedral was gorgeous on the outside. We didn't go in because there was a wedding!! I met the car driver - it was a Rolls Royce- outside the Cathedral. His name was Graham, and if you would like to know his life story, I will email it to you separately. But in case you're curious, I know all about wedding cars out of Waterford, where Graham grew up, what he does, what his previous jobs have been, what weddings he has done this month and which cars he drove, where his children are living, how he and a "colleague" rebuilt this car from a London taxi base and that is genuine Italian leather seats for five, even though it looks like only 3. Graham turned 65 in December, in case you are wondering, but is not retiring because he's been "working for fifty years and it took me 49 to get this job, so why would I give it up? I drive around beautiful motorcars and beautiful women, and sometimes they even give me a kiss," (picture with an English accent and you got it, don't worry he had the cap on too)

A woman named Alice used to live in what's now the Kyterly Inn and allegedly poisoned 4 husbands with arsenic (WHAT was husband #4 thinking??) and we stayed Saturday in a haunted castle 8 miles out of town, which was awesome. The rooms were stone and the steps were windy (that's windy, like winding a clock sound) and the original fortress walls were still intact.

The Irish are such gentlemen. I met Peter, who like to pantomime every single word and lip sync to every single song the dj played (60's-90's night, of course only American music). He didn't really talk until after an hour and a half of this. However, he eventually mimed buying myself and my other friend a Carlsberg, and that is 4.40 euro. So sweet deal. Isn't that a Bible something...like be patient and you get free beer...

This is a very long post! But a lot of things happened this weekend and I wanted to share some of it! Once I figure out the address of flickr I'll post more pictures.



Also, I've decided once I graduate college it will be fun to work in a hostel for awhile. Maybe in Romania or something. Maybe a haunted one.