Colorful Kinsale

The morning of April 13 had us kickstart the final leg of our journey and (eventually) pick up another pair of travel friends! In the morning, we checked out of our AirBnb and walked back through the city center of Galway to pick up our rental car. The process was a little funny – check in and get registered for your car – then walk, maybe half a mile?, to a parking garage where all of the rental cars are stored. Because we had never driven on the ‘opposite’ side of the road, we opted for an upgrade to an automatic so Bryan nor Jonathan would have to worry about the manual shift while driving. What a test we had right out of the gate – adjust to driving on the other side of the road AND get yourself out of this narrow, concrete parking garage! The boys did great driving and navigating where we needed to go.

From here, we were headed to the southern coastal port town of Kinsale. We had talked about making some detours along the way, but it is already a 3-4 hour drive and we would only have one day, so we made it as straight of a shot as we could. We stopped in the ‘big city’ of Limerick, handled more narrow parking garages and stopped for lunch at the Hook andLadder right near the river, then hopped back in the car and kept on our way.

Our fancy equipment

Kinsale is very small and there is not a lot of public parking – our hotel did not offer any. Luckily, there was one city lot right across the street from our hotel. Somehow, we were able to find a spot and learn that to park there overnight would only cost us a few euros. We checked into our hotel at the Old Bank – a sort of bed and breakfast - that actually used to be an old bank. This hotel was one that I was most excited about going into the trip and we were a little disappointed in the end. To be fair, Bryan had paid for one of the more inexpensive rooms because we didn’t think it mattered for just one night…..turns out, even the hotel staff felt bad for us because apparently it was a very TINY room – ha! We had no idea, clearly. They gave us an upgrade to a slightly bigger room which was very kind of them. Jonathan and Katie had the ‘penthouse’ with a beautiful view of the water and what had been a recently remodeled room. Ours was not – ha! We had some fun with the lack of upgrades in our room, but again, we were only there one night so went on our way!

After checking in to the hotel and freshening up, we made our way walking through town. We found a small map and made our own path to see some of the sites. Prior to arriving, we knew that Kinsale was a very colorful town – with colors all over the buildings. Katie had the great idea to plan our outfits accordingly so we could take some photo shoots along the way. We had a great time reading about the history of the town, but also finding different buildings to jump in front of for a photoshoot!

After some time, we decided to stop for a drink at what we thought was this adorable pub entrance. We walk through the doors of the ‘WhiteHouse’ only to find out that not only did we come through the back, this place was very big – we had a looooooong way to go to find the front AND a bartender to serve us! By this point, we had looped back around and making our way near to the hotel again, killing time until our dinner reservation. We stopped at a place called the Oscar Madison bar, so Katie could take a great photo against the color, and for another drink. To our surprise, we walked in the back again – so this was now the new tradition of our bar hopping in Ireland.

More photoshoots before making our way to dinner, a restaurant called Fishy Fishy. This was one that I had read about ahead of time and one of a few things that I really wanted to do on the trip. It was another Michelin Guide restaurant and is known for listing on the menu who caught the fish….that day! We were thinking of getting oysters anyway, and when we saw that another ‘Jamie’ caught them – no brainer. At dinner here, Bryan and I were fortunate enough to be surprised by my sister with a bottle of champagne to toast our engagement. She coordinated with Jonathan so that he could pick something out for us all to celebrate. The food was everything you wanted it to be and more! Bryan got the fish and chips and we think on our fish and chips tour of Ireland – this was probably the favorite so far. But everyone had a delicious meal – highly recommend a stop here if you’re in Kinsale!

After dinner, we made our way to the Blue Haven hotel and bar. Earlier in the day, we saw they were going to have live music, so we knew we should make a visit. At the Blue Haven, the boys crossed another ‘Spot’ off their list and we enjoyed a singer that gave the bar quite the ‘lounge’ vibe. To wrap up the night, we went back up to J&K’s room for more whiskey (my new favorite, Crested!) and then called it a night! 

The next morning, we all met for breakfast at the hotel restaurant. It was here that we finally met up with our other travel partners, Kat and George. Remember I said that Katie’s business partner lives in London and she went to visit them first? Yup, that’s the same Kat and George! We were so excited that they decided to join us for part of the trip, unfortunately, it was not smooth sailing for them. Literally. Because the wind and rain was so bad, the ferry that Kat and George took out of London was delayed. Originally they were supposed to join us for the entire day in Kinsale, but they came in VERY late and missed the entire day. We were thankful they finally found us!

Because Kat and George hadn’t seen much of Kinsale, the six of us decided to go for a walk

View on the Scilly Walk

in the morning before heading out of town. There is a path called the Scilly (pronounced silly) Walk that takes you around the edge of the water and (if you want to) the ruins that remain from the Battle of Kinsale – Charles Fort and James Fort. The loop is about 40 min out and 40 minutes back, so we didn’t go the entire way, but enjoyed the beautiful views along the way! After the walk, we loaded up on some snacks at the grocery store and got in the car for our next destination – Skibbereen!

Almost the Cliffs of Moher

Only Cliffs of Moher we got

Our last full day in Galway was meant to be a tour to the famous Cliffs of Moher. It was one of the few things I knew I wanted to do. We woke up early and found a cute café in town where we all had breakfast, than walked through the main square to the tour stop and got on the bus. The drive wasn’t supposed to be terribly long to the Cliffs, but about 30 minutes later, the tour guide said that due to the weather, we weren’t going to be able to go to them. The language he used was gale force winds and because of the structure of the Cliffs, they are extremely dangerous to be on during weather like that. I was pretty devastated, but what can you do? The driver told us he would take us to something called the ’baby cliffs' that he thinks are much prettier anyway.

Along the route, our driver shared lots of information about Ireland history. Many homes (and businesses) in Ireland have thatch roofs which are often times still kept. A thatch roof is one made up of straw, hay or other vegetation. It is meant to help shed the water away so also acts like additional insulation. Because of this, the water fell from the eaves of the thatch roof and dropped to the ground. Well, history tells us that when someone would come up to a house, they would stand near this spot of water - where it dropped - and listen to a conversation that was happening inside the house. Because they were standing where the eaves dropped the water, the phrase eavesdropping - referring to someone who was secretly listening - was born.

Thatch roof

One of the stops on the tour is at a town called Lahinch. Here we wandered the streets, found another bookstore, got some ice cream, and took in the views. From there, we loaded back into the bus and stopped in a small town called Doolin for lunch at McGann's pub. The restaurant is used to the tours coming by, so they have a set menu of so many options to choose. Bryan and I had decided we were now doing a fish and chips tour to find our favorite – so we had to place an order of that here. We felt pretty good saying that with each fish and chips meal, the food got better!

We were required to sit at certain tables for lunch, so the four of us could easily sit together. There happened to be two singles on the tour bus that sat next to each other and we couldn’t help but pretend they were making a love connection! They ordered the same meal (they’re both vegetarians), they’re both going on these solo journeys together and seemed to have a lot in common…..so naturally, we planned their wedding – without them knowing we were doing it. Not many people read these blogs, but maybe they will come across it somehow and report back to us. Ha!

After lunch, we went to the consolation (in my mind) baby cliffs. The color and topography of these

cliffs were really neat, but I have to say, considering how windy it was, I am so glad that we were safe and couldn’t imagine how scary the real Cliffs of Moher might be. The wind was so forceful and loud – I went into mama bear mode. Jonathan wanted to venture out toward the edge of the cliffs and see the views and I kept yelling at him to come back – I was terrified……but he couldn’t hear a peep I was saying because the wind was so loud! Check out this video of Katie almost blowing over just trying to walk around. The weather made it quite an experience to share!

From here, we got back in the bus and our tour guide gave us a long and winding route back to Galway telling stories along the way. We drove through the tiny town of Fanore, which is believed to be where surfing was invested. And he drive us by the 'smallest church in Ireland' which turned out to be just a village well, but the beauty of it had us thinking otherwise!

The driving is where you have to give major kudos to these bus drivers. It is weird enough for us to see the driver on the ‘wrong side of the road’, but these roads they are driving on are backcountry and NARROW. Multiple times, other buses and cars would pass by and we felt like we should suck it in to help them pass…..these busses pass by each other with inches (if that) to spare – it is so impressive! That alone should be it’s own tour. Our driver had a cute passenger to help him along the way.

Fiddler, our co-captain

When we got back to Galway, we all cleaned up and got ready for dinner. While golfing the day before, J&K had learned about a Michelin-guide restaurant called, Kai, that was just a couple of blocks away from us. It sounded delicious and fun, so we made a reservation. They only do seating in two time blocks, so we were happy to get one on short notice. After learning about our Irish friends (the lambs), we decided to have some delicious lamb for dinner and then do a mini repeat of our first night in Galway – drinks and games back at the AirBnb. It had been a busy few days and it was our last night in Galway – off for a new adventure tomorrow – driving our own car in Ireland!