Catch up on the first half of our last day in Dublin here.

After lunch, we decided to head over to Dublin Castle for a quick tour since it was so close to the restaurant (a five-minute walk). We only walked around the outside because I was a little “tour”-ed out by this point. We took in the courtyard and walked up the steps to the top of the castle, and then decided we had had enough, ha.

It was nearing 3 p.m. at this point and we were growing tired. We could have walked over to the cathedrals as they weren’t too far away but visiting times were a little wonky on this day since it was a Sunday. Instead, we decided to get on the city bus to go back to the hotel.

I used my handy Rome2Rio website to figure out where the bus stop was and thankfully, it wasn’t too far away. Yay! We got to the stop within minutes of the bus arriving. When I got on, the bus driver asked me where we needed to go and kindly let us know that there was a different bus coming soon that would drop us off right in front of Kilmainham Gaol. So nice!

And that’s when the fun began! Since we thought the bus was going to stop right in front of the gaol (as we were told!), we didn’t get off the bus at the right stop. We were supposed to get off at a stop near the gaol (it was maybe 1/4th of a mile away from our hotel) but we didn’t think it was the right place so we stayed on the bus. Oops. But I figured we’d ride the bus and wait for the stop to come around again. No harm, no foul, right?

We rode through the suburbs of Dublin for the next 45 minutes, and it was interesting to get a glimpse into the “real” Dublin. As frustrating as it was to not be at our hotel, it was a great people-watching experience!

And then, the bus stopped at a mall outside of Dublin and the driver called out, “Last stop!”

Um, what? What do you mean last stop?!?!

Apparently, buses don’t just keep driving around! Instead, we were stuck at this mall and had to figure out how to get back to our hotel. (We were definitely the only tourists at this mall, and I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb with my Carrolls Irish Gifts bag, haha.)

Our bus driver told us which bus to get on so we could get back to our hotel, but we decided we weren’t up for more public transportation. Instead, we opted for a taxi. But first, we needed money! We were all out of euros so I’m very thankful we were at a mall that had an ATM and a taxi stand so we could get money and grab a taxi quickly.

And fifteen minutes later, we were back at our hotel! Whew. What an adventure!

We spent some time relaxing in our hotel (and by relaxing, I mean we both took naps) before trying to decide what to do for our last night in Ireland. I suggested visiting The Brazen Head.

So we hopped into a taxi (we learned our lesson from taking city buses!) and headed into city centre for the night. We had a really friendly taxi driver who I actually had fun chatting with about our time in Ireland. He dropped us off right in front of The Brazen Head and we walked into the pub.

And walked out five minutes later because every table was taken. And remember, it’s first come-first served here in Ireland so it’s not like we could put our name on a list and wait for a table to come available. Nope.

So then we tried another pub that was across the street but that one was just as busy. We found an empty table but I had no clue how we would get any service because the bar was completely full (nowhere to wedge ourselves in to get drinks or a menu or anything). We waited for a little while to see if a server would come over but nothing. I suppose it was the sort of environment that rewards aggressive people who have no trouble flagging down waitresses or forcing bartenders to serve them, but that’s not us, haha.

So, we left and just started walking around the area to try and find a better place for us to have dinner. We’d been walking around for a few minutes and passed zero restaurants and I was starting to feel panicky. I was feeling silly about “forcing” us to take a taxi into city centre for dinner and also silly about “overreacting” to the loud, chaotic pub environment when most other people wouldn’t be bothered by it. (My mom definitely wasn’t bothered by it, but she understands how they overstimulate me.) So this is when I had my third meltdown of the day, oof.

I was hungry, feeling overstimulated, and also feeling like we would never find a restaurant to eat at. I started hyperventilating and crying in the middle of the sidewalk and my mom had to help me calm down and recognize that everything was okay. This is probably when I should mention that I hadn’t been taking my anxiety meds for… oh… two weeks and my experience with melting down so frequently when the littlest thing didn’t go right made me realize how much I need my anxiety meds. They balance me out and help me to get through life without freaking out a million times a day.

Eventually, we found a restaurant, a cute place that wasn’t too busy and had a quiet corner for us to sit. I had a cider (definitely needed it!) and ordered a pretty yummy chicken dish. It was just what I needed! And we were able to flag down a cab right as we left the restaurant to take us back to our hotel, which was perfect.

And that’s Ireland! It was a wonderful trip that taught me so much about my travel style and needs. I learned that I must build downtime into my schedule no matter how much there is to see. I learned that I prefer quiet restaurants over pubs, even if pubs give a more quintessential experience. And I learned that I really need to find better walking shoes next time because damn if my feet didn’t hurt tremendously just about every day!

My mom and I have our eyes on Italy, London, or Paris next for our international trip, so I think it’s safe to say we’ve been bitten by wanderlust. 😉

Our final day in Ireland began early, as we had a very full itinerary to work through. Our list included touring Trinity College, visiting Dublin Castle, seeing the cathedrals, and stopping at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Spoiler alert, however, we only made it through half of the items on our list. Yikes!

My mom picked out a fun doughnut shop for us to visit for breakfast (there are a lot of doughnut shops in Dublin!), and today, we’d have to finally figure out the public transportation in the city.

I used this really cool website called Rome2Rio to figure out exactly how to get from one place to another using public transportation. All you have to do is enter your current location and then tell the website where you want to go, and it gives you info on all the different ways you can get there – via bus, tram, taxi, etc. It tells you the prices for each mode of transportation as well as which bus to get on, where the bus stop is, and which bus stop to get off at. It was super helpful while we were in Ireland.

Anyway, getting to the right bus stop was a bit of a mess because the first time around, I went straight at an intersection instead of turning right so we had to retrace our steps. When we finally got to the right bus stop, we waited for nearly 30 minutes for the bus and when it finally arrived, the bus driver told us we were at the wrong stop. We needed to be at the one across the street. ARGH!

This is when my first meltdown of the day occurred because I was frustrated with all this waiting. I just wanted to get on with our day in Dublin! I spent a good five minutes stewing in my anger before recognizing that this was not a big deal and it would all be okay.

Eventually, the right bus came by. Hooray! Once we were in city centre, we made our first stop of the day: doughnuts! I went for the peanut butter chocolate flavor but, unfortunately, we didn’t really love the doughnuts since they were yeast doughnuts and too bread-y for us. Gimme cake doughnuts over yeast doughnuts ANY day.

After our disappointing breakfast, we stopped into Carrolls Irish Gifts to poke around for fun souvenirs to bring back home. This gift shop is huge and it was crazy busy when we were in there. I ended up purchasing an Ireland magnet and a t-shirt.

Then, it was time to take our tour of Trinity College! It was led by the cutest college senior who was hilarious and nerdy and I’m sure I would have had the biggest crush on him had I been 10 years younger. 😉 (And wow, I feel old saying something like that!) He was a great tour guide, full of so much information and funny tidbits about Trinity College.

We started with the outside courtyard of the college, where we learned about all the different buildings and their significance. Trinity College indeed has a deep history, as it was founded in 1592 and is the oldest college in Ireland. The buildings surrounding the courtyard were built in the 18th and 19th centuries, one of those buildings being the Library of Trinity College, which contains more than 6.2 million printed volumes and significant manuscripts, including the Book of Kells.

After touring the campus, we were invited into the library to view the Book of Kells and the Long Room. The Long Room, built between 1712 and 1732, houses more than 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books. It was a space of immense reverence, and it’s hard to take in how much literary history lives in this room. It honestly took my breath away.

We weren’t allowed to take picture of the Book of Kells for obvious reasons, but it was truly significant to just be in the room with this ancient manuscript. The Book of Kells is a Latin manuscript of the first four books of the New Testament in the Bible. First, we walked through a museum-like exhibit that delved further into the Book of Kells: how it was made, how it’s preserved, etc., which was fascinating. For example, it’s not as if the writers of this manuscript could just open up a new notebook and start writing. The parchment had to be made, the ink had to be carefully chosen.

I am really glad we made time to tour Trinity College and it was one of the highlights of my trip for sure.

After our tour, we decided to check out the Temple Bar area for lunch and this is when the second meltdown of the day happened for me. (I hope you’re keeping track!) First, I was starving by this point because eating a few bites of a doughnut is not very filling (who knew?) and second, I kept getting lost on our way to Temple Bar even though I was using my phone’s GPS. And then my mom got frustrated with me and it was just a total and complete mess for both of us.

Eventually, we found Temple Bar and the legendary bar this area is named for. Let’s talk about overstimulation station! Whew. It was loud, chaotic, and every seat in the bar except for one in this tiny corner was taken. I felt like I was having a mental breakdown being in a place like that. I was already in a pissy mood and being in an environment like that didn’t help matters in the least.

We decided to leave Temple Bar and find a quieter place for lunch, and we stumbled on this really adorable place called Old Mill Restaurant. It was the perfect spot for us, although I spent the first half of the lunch stewing in my anger because I felt so much righteous indignation. (Listen, it’s not fun to talk about this but I want to be honest here. Honesty and vulnerability are always my priority when I write.)

Once I got over myself, I really enjoyed my lunch. I had a delicious cider (of course) paired with cottage pie and soda bread. The whole meal was soooo good! I also really enjoyed the whole atmosphere of this restaurant. It was just a peaceful space where I felt my heart rate slowing down and my body re-centering.

Real talk: it’s hard to be a highly sensitive person in a world not designed for me. I kept having these moments on this trip of trying to deny my HSP-ness, of wanting to be a “normal” person who could enjoy being in a crowded pub. I wanted to be able to take in the loud music and chat with locals without my heart rate accelerating and my body shutting down. But I’m not – it’s simply not the way my body works. My nervous system reacts to these outside stimuli in a completely different way, and I’m still learning how to accept that.

To be continued – I’ll have part II of our last day in Ireland published on Wednesday. It involves another meltdown, getting lost on public transportation, and visiting a castle. Stay tuned!

Our second day in Dublin started bright and early because we had a lot to do today! There were so many sights I wanted to see, and we only planned for one day to do it all since we were going to take the train into Belfast for the day tomorrow.

We ate breakfast at the hotel and it was pretty damn delicious. I had over-easy eggs with toast and sausage and it was perfect fuel for the day ahead.

After breakfast, we walked over to the hop-on/hop-off bus stop that was right across the street from our hotel. I had bought the tickets for this hop-on/hop-off tour before we left the States because it came highly recommended by Rick Steves. I thought it would be an easier way to see the city.

We got to the stop around 15 minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive but it actually didn’t arrive until 45 minutes after its scheduled time. We were growing very frustrated, especially since other hop-on/hop-off buses had come by multiple times while we waited, and I was beginning to regret choosing this tour rather than a different one.

Eventually, around 10:45, the bus finally arrived. We were off!

We saw some sights around Dublin, such as Phoenix Park, O’Connell Street, and the Ha’Penny Bridge, and decided to “hop off” at the EPIC Museum. I hadn’t included this museum in my itinerary but people on our train yesterday were raving about it (and honestly, this museum is so up my alley), so we decided to add it in.

I would highly recommend visiting the EPIC Museum if you’re in Dublin, but you definitely need a good chunk of time here (we were there for more than three hours) so if you haven’t planned much time in Dublin, I’d skip it to see some other sights.

It’s hard to express how much I loved this museum, though. My mom’s side of the family is Irish, so I had a personal connection to the stories of emigration. As I walked through the museum, I couldn’t help wondering what caused my own ancestors to leave Ireland and come to America.

The museum is super interactive, filled with 20-something different exhibits that you walk through one at a time. Each exhibit provides a different immersive experience – videos, touchscreens, games. In the room about Irish literature, you could tip out a book from the “library” and it would start reading the book to you! But my favorite experience had to be the room about sports in Ireland because there was just this giant air hockey table with a bunch of pucks on the sides. You picked up a puck (each labeled with a different sport) and held it on the table to reveal how the Irish people have contributed to that sport.  Sport is undeniably enjoyable, especially when you delve into the world of sports betting on platforms like qqmacan, where you can enhance the excitement and make it even more entertaining.

I was incredibly impressed with EPIC and all the time and energy that went into creating such an immersive place. My mom is not really one for museums but she was taking longer than me in going through each exhibit because she was so engaged! (Not a knock on my mom; I was so happy she was enjoying it because I was worried I’d feel like I was dragging her through the museum.)

It was also a lot of information to take in and I got really fatigued by information overload by the 10th or so exhibit. I wish I could have done half of the exhibits one day and the other half the next! There was just so much information to uncover. I learned so much about Ireland’s history and how the emigration experience changed throughout the years. (It’s not all about the potato famine, who knew?!)

It was a great experience, though, and I’m so glad we went even if it did eat up a huge chunk of our one day in Dublin. We didn’t leave the museum until a little after two, but we also wanted to poke around the bookstore for a bit. I saw a copy of The Chronicles of Narnia in the gift shop and I’m beating myself up for not buying it. (I thought I’d wait until we went to some other bookstores in Dublin to get a copy, but we didn’t really have time for bookstores in Dublin.) Ah, well.

After the museum, we walked to The Winding Stair to have lunch. My mom found this place during her Ireland research and it is half-cafe and half-bookstore. Perfect for me! Unfortunately, we had not looked at the menu beforehand and it was not our thing. (Also, very expensive!) Instead, we found a restaurant nearby to have lunch.

It wasn’t the best lunch. Although I enjoyed my sandwich, I wasn’t keen on the salad and the cider didn’t really taste like anything. But it gave us the fuel we needed to power through for the rest of the day. We also made the decision at lunch to skip our planned day in Belfast. We hadn’t seen anything on my itinerary so far (Trinity College! Book of Kells! The cathedrals!) and I would have been very sad to leave Ireland without at least touring Trinity College. So I canceled our train ticket. It was a hard decision to make because we were very much looking forward to going to Belfast but it would have been a really short day (we’d get to Belfast around 1 p.m. and have to leave before 7 p.m.) so I think we made the right call.

After lunch, we tried to decide what to do next. We decided to get back on the hop-on/hop-off bus to see the second half of the tour (and because our feet were screaming at us by this point!) We saw the bus pull up when we were kind of far away. I did not think we were going to make it and would have to wait for the next bus. However, new people were getting on the bus who needed help with their tickets, which meant we were able to hoof it and make it onto the bus before it pulled away. Woohoo!

Also, the tour guide who was driving this bus was soooo funny and he made our time on the bus 1,000x more enjoyable. My mom and I were just sitting there, cracking up, and it’s a memory I definitely cherish from our time in Dublin.

We got off the bus at a stop near Trinity College, intent on going to the Irish Whiskey Museum to take a guided tour. We got there just in time for the 5:30 tour, but it was fully booked. Womp! We weren’t too upset since neither of us particularly enjoy whiskey (at least not on its own). It just seemed like a cool tour to do!

Instead, we walked over to Hodges Figgis which wasn’t too far away. I thought I would have plenty of time to peruse the stacks of this bookstore but we got there within 15 minutes of closing time. Nooooo! I made a promise to myself to come back tomorrow to take my time looking at all the books to find exactly what I wanted to buy. (Spoiler alert: I did not make it back to Hodges Figgis. Sad face!)

At this point, all the tours and museums were closed and since we had eaten a late lunch, we weren’t particularly hungry. So we decided to get back on the hop-on/hop-off bus to go back to our hotel.

At this time in the day (after 6 p.m.), the bus was pretty empty and the tour guide was just playing a recorded message about the sights. As we were nearing our hotel by the Kilmainham Gaol, I got nervous that the bus driver wasn’t going to make a stop there because he said it was closed. I made my mom get up to tell him we wanted to stop at the gaol but the bus driver didn’t hear her correctly and dropped us off near the old Kilmainham hospital, which was 3/4ths of a mile from our hotel.

Lemme tell you – I was not happy about this. My feet were so achy at this point from walking around all day (and I was in boots, which aren’t the greatest for walking around a city) and I was so tired and so ready to be in the hotel. I was being grumpy about it and not my best self, for sure. My mom walked ahead of me because I’m sure my attitude was unpleasant to be around. I wish I wasn’t like this – I wish I could have been like, “Oh well! It happens! But hey, we’re in Ireland! Who cares?!” But no, that’s just not my personality. UGH.

We finally got back to our hotel and it was so glorious to shuck off my boots and crawl into bed. I don’t even think I did anything else. I just needed to be cozy immediately.

And then I fell asleep, waking up pretty disoriented a few hours later. At this point, my mom and I were hungry but there wasn’t much to eat around where we were staying. Instead, we went downstairs to the hotel bar where we had a pretty good meal! I had a burger and fries, and we ordered that s’mores brownie dessert again, which was just as good as the day before. I also enjoyed yet another Orchard Thieves cider – yum, yum!

Tomorrow was our last day in Ireland! Sadssss. We planned another full day in the city centre, but we’d be relying on public transportation this time and, lemme tell you, that was an interesting experience! But that’s a story for Monday. 🙂

I consider day four of our Ireland trip to be what we call on our cruise vacations, “a day at sea.” Days at sea are when nothing particular happens: there are no excursions or countries to visit. This is kind of what today was like.

Our train to Dublin didn’t leave until noon, so we decided to sleep in and take it easy this morning. After three days in a row of being on the go and dealing with jet lag, it was much needed.

I set my alarm for 9 a.m, thinking there was no way I would need it because I never slept past 7 or 8 a.m. And yet… that alarm most definitely woke me up. Apparently, I was one tired girl!

I had to wake my mom up (around 9:30) so we could go downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast stopped at 10 a.m. and I think we got there 10 minutes til, haha, so we just made the cutoff. Breakfast was fine but nothing spectacular, probably because we got there so late that they weren’t putting out any new food.

After eating, we took showers, packed up our things, and then headed to the lobby to check out and ask for a taxi to the train station. I definitely did not want to walk there after the experience we had walking from the train station to the hotel the day before.

I was growing nervous, though, about missing our train because the main road to the train station (which was right outside our hotel) was pretty backed up. We ended up riding in the taxi with another traveler, a woman from Philadelphia who was traveling alone, so it was fun to chat with her on the way. And, thankfully, our taxi driver knew the side roads that got us to the train station in record time.

Our train ride to Dublin was interesting because we were in a cabin with all different American travelers. They weren’t rowdy or anything… it was fun to be surrounded by other travelers like us! But still, I suck at small talk with strangers so I wasn’t great at conversating with any of them. I just read my book, listened to podcasts, and played copious rounds of Candy Crush.

We got to Dublin around 2 p.m. and took a taxi to our hotel, which was right outside the Kilmainham Gaol. (Side note: it was so hard to tell every taxi driver where we were located because I never knew how to say “Kilmainham.” I always wanted to enunciate every syllable – kill-main-ham. Instead, it’s pronounced kill-main-um. I don’t ever think I said it correctly.)

Our room was ready for us, so we went right up to it and it had a beautiful view of Dublin. We also had a balcony, which would have been nice to sit outside on if it wasn’t so cold!

Once we were situated in our room, we had to decide what we wanted to do that day. I hadn’t planned for this extra time in Dublin because I thought we would arrive later (this is going off my original itinerary where I was driving). I checked into tickets to the Guinness Storehouse, but they were nearly €60 for two tickets, which seemed like a waste since neither of us like Guinness. And most other places we could have visited would be closed by the time we got to them via public transportation.

So, I was getting a bit grumpy at this point. Not only was I hungry, but I was also feeling a bit stressed out about not taking full advantage of every minute we had in Dublin. We’re in DUBLIN! We can’t just do nothing!!

So, we thought about going into the city centre to have lunch and walk around for a bit. Unfortunately, we were located about 3 miles outside of it, which meant any time we wanted to go into the heart of Dublin, we needed to take a bus or taxi. For this endeavor, we considered public transportation to save money. (A taxi ride into the city centre would be €20 easily – and that’s €40 total round trip.)

We got directions from the hotel staff on how to get to The Brazen Head, which is the oldest pub in Ireland, using public transportation buuuut I did not listen to her as closely as I needed to and couldn’t find the bus stop. I was getting super cranky at this point so my mom made the executive decision that we would go back to the hotel and eat at the hotel bar.

My meal was a bit of a hodgepodge because nothing on their menu caught my eye. And I was at that point of hunger where nothing really sounded appetizing. Does that happen to anyone else? It’s a weird feeling. I ordered a side salad and a breadboard with Irish butter, olive tapenade, and basil pesto. I also ate a lot of my mom’s fries. 🙂 We ordered this delicious s’mores brownie for dessert, which truly hit the spot.

After that, we decided to walk across the street to the gaol to see if we could take a quick tour but they were sold out of tickets by that time of the day. Whoops. So, instead, we went back up to our room at the hotel and took naps!

I felt a little silly about not taking advantage of Dublin since there is really so much to see and do here, but looking back, I know it was the right call and I’m glad we had a low-key day in the middle of our trip.

We woke up a little after 8 p.m. and we were hungry but neither of us wanted to eat at the hotel bar again. Instead, we decided to walk across the street to eat at The Patriot’s Inn. This restaurant actually had a ton of history, as it was established in 1793 as a place for people who were visiting inmates at Kilmainham Gaol or visiting the cemetery (since grieving and drinking go hand-in-hand). Pretty cool!

Our food there was super delicious, too, as I had a pepperoni pizza (omgggg pizza!!!) and my favorite Orchard Thieves cider. It was such a great meal and perfect for people-watching, as we were surrounded by Irish residents and I had a fantastic time eavesdropping on all their conversations. 😉

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and called it a night! Tomorrow, we had a full day ahead of us exploring Dublin. Whoop!

On Thursday, we woke up relatively early so we could get ready and pack up our things. We checked out of the hotel around 10am and then walked to the train station to catch the train that would take us to Kildare.

I don’t think I mentioned the hotel we stayed at in Galway, but it was called the Park House Hotel and I would highly recommend it! It was a bit of a splurge (my mom has very specific tastes when it comes to hotels, ha, so we didn’t stay in anything that wasn’t four stars), but a really beautiful hotel in a great location (next to the train station and right across the street from Eyre Square).

Once we’re situated on the train, I open my Kindle to begin to read. And then hear this little mewing sound. I turn to my mom and say, “I know I miss my kitties a lot, but are you hearing the mewing sound, too?” Ha! I was hoping I wasn’t going crazy, but nope – there was indeed a cat on the train. A woman who was flying back to the States after living for a year and a half in Galway had her cat with her! The cat softly mewed throughout the entire train ride, but it was sweet, not annoying.

It wasn’t until we were nearing the time we were supposed to arrive in Kildare that I realized I had made a mistake. As in, the train had already stopped in Kildare and I hadn’t been paying attention. I thought the train’s final destination would be Kilare; it didn’t even cross my mind that it would just be one of those quick stops in the middle of the passage. Instead, we wound up going all the way back to Dublin, and I felt like a real big idiot for not reading my train email closely enough. Ah, well. It happens!

Thankfully, there was a train leaving for Kilkenny within 15 minutes of us arriving in Dublin, so we were able to purchase tickets and get on the right train. And we still arrived in Kilkenny at the same time we would have originally, so it wasn’t too much of a big deal. (Just an expensive mistake, as we had to eat the cost of the ticket from Kildare to Kilkenny, and cough up €56 for the second ticket.)

We got to Kilkenny around 12:30 and when I looked at how far away our hotel was to the train station, I figured it would be easy enough to just walk there. It was maybe 3/4ths of a mile but boy oh boy, did that feel like walking a marathon, especially towing 40-lb suitcases up steep inclines while starving since my only food up until this point was half a chocolate muffin. I felt hot and clammy, shaky with hunger, and irritable – definitely the signs of a hypoglycemic episode.

Eventually, though, we found the hotel, and what a beautiful sight it was! In Kilkenny, we stayed at the Pembroke Hotel. This was another snazzy hotel, but it was actually pretty reasonable (we paid €117 for one night). Our room was beautiful with a gorgeous view of Kilkenny Castle in the distance.

Our room, however, wasn’t ready when we arrived so we dropped off our luggage at the front desk and then decided to eat a quick meal at the hotel bar. We just needed food at that moment – sustenance!

While we were at the hotel bar eating lunch, I encountered one of the most curious exchanges between what I assume was a boss and an employee. The boss was concerned that the employee hadn’t taken a long enough break. I think she’s given a 30-minute break and the employee came back after 20 minutes, and the boss told her, “You take your full 30 minutes. Take 40 minutes! But you only took 20 minutes today, and that’s not a long enough break.”

Y’all. Coming from a culture where employees are celebrated for working through lunch and skipping their breaks, this was pretty novel to me. We need more of this in our society.

Anyhow, our lunch was good! I ordered a chicken Caesar wrap with fries, and it had a little too much dressing, but was otherwise very filling and really hit the spot for me.

After eating, we visited Kilkenny Castle. It was amazing to come face-to-face with it – we just turned a corner and there it was! This centuries-old castle in the middle of town. We had to walk by a slew of vendors on our way to the castle and if it wasn’t freezing (I think the temps were in the mid-40s that day), I would have loved to stop and have a bite to eat or look at their wares, but as it was, it was a little chilly for us! We had to keep moving!

The castle was so beautiful and I’m glad we had plenty of time to walk around and take it all in. We started in the main courtyard, and I was blown away by the gardens, realizing that for Kilkenny residents, this is a place they can go for a walk anytime they want! One guy walked in with his dog, and his dog was just running around the grass, happy as can be.

Eventually, we made our way into the castle to tour the interior.

Kilkenny Castle was built in 1195 to control a fording-point of the River Nore. It was also a symbol of the Norman occupation and provided a defense point for the city due to its four large circular corner towers. In 1967, it was sold to the people of Kilkenny for €50 and is now managed by the Office of Public Works. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

It was beautiful inside, most of the rooms were decorated Victorian-style, as it looked in the 13th century when the castle was used as a method of defense. There was even a rendition of a water closet!

After touring the inside of the castle, we walked around the rose garden and then the rest of the grounds, taking it all in. It was all so beautiful, and such a gorgeous day to explore the castle! (We lucked out so much with the weather – no rain, aside from the short downpour on our way to the Cliffs!)

Next stop on our list was visiting Smithwick’s to do their guided tour. I bought the tickets online before we left the States and we were able to get in for the 4pm tour, which gave us about an hour to walk around Kilkenny. I was feeling a little hungry at this point, so we stopped at the Black Cat Cafe (you know I had to have a bite to eat here since I have a black cat of my own!). The food was okay – my latte was a little bitter and the brownie wasn’t anything to write home about, but it was nice to sit down and chill for a minute before going on our tour.

The tour of Smithwick’s was really cool, and I’d highly recommend it! (We didn’t do the guided tour of Guinness in Dublin, mostly because my mom doesn’t like Guinness, and the whole point of doing these tours is the beer at the end, right?! Plus, the Guinness tour is more expensive than Smithwick’s – double the price! – so we definitely made the right call, I think.)

Our tour guide was this adorable Irish man, who gave me George/Fred Weasley vibes, even more so when he made a Harry Potter reference for one of the rooms we went into. I believe both his grandfather and his father worked in the brewery when it was a working brewery, so he definitely had deep roots in Smithwick’s.

The location of Smithwick’s was originally a Franciscan abbey where monks in the 14th century brewed ale. (I never knew monks were brewing ale centuries ago!) Eventually, the abbey was shut down and in 1710, John Smithwick founded Smithwick’s on the ruins of the abbey.

We learned how the brewery’s ownership changed throughout the years but mostly stayed within the family. (This is where the Harry Potter reference came in, as we walked into a room that had talking pictures.)

Lastly, we learned about how the ale is produced, which is a super complicated process! It would have been cool to see an actual working brewery, but Smithwick’s was acquired by Guinness in 1965 and in 2013, all production moved to Dublin. This location in Kilkenny is now just used for tours, but our tour guide said they are planning to return it to a working brewery in the next few years.

After the brewery tour, we got to try their ale! I am not a fan of beer, so I opted for a Coke while my mom got their blonde ale which she said was super delicious. (She even got it for dinner that night!)

We stayed for a bit and then started walking back to our hotel. It had been a busy day! But on our way back, I spotted a bookstore and we had to stop in for a peek at their collection. I ended up picking up another Sally Rooney book!

After that, it was finally back to the hotel to pick up our room key and relax for a bit before dinner. Just like in Galway, I had researched the restaurants within walking distance of our hotel and selected a few that seemed to be a good fit for our tastes. I gave my mom the list of restaurants and let her pick out the one she liked the most, which ended up being Paris Texas Bar and Restaurant.

The restaurant was a little overwhelming at first because when you entered, you walked straight into a pub-like space that had loud music and tons of people. But towards the back was a much quieter restaurant, which is always preferable for me.

I ordered a cider, and it was probably one of the tastiest ciders I’ve ever had (very fruity!). I ordered a burger with fries and a side of mac-and-cheese because, well, I just wanted some carbs on top of my carbs?! It was a great decision, though, because it was probably one of my favorite meals of the trip.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel where I enjoyed a very luxurious bubble bath. The bathtub itself was rather tiny (and this is coming from someone who’s five-two and generally doesn’t need a lot of space in a bathtub!) but it was still sooooo nice, especially for my feet which were getting a workout from all this walking!

I was also so, so excited to sleep in tomorrow because our train to Dublin didn’t leave until noon. Sleeeeeep!