We had two days and two nights in Kinsale – and really enjoyed staying put and not having to rush through anything. Our first night in Kinsale, we settled into our B&B, which was by far the biggest room of the three B&B’s we’d been in since we got into Ireland. One side of the room had a sloped ceiling that J could just not remember was lower than the rest of the room. He kept walking into with various parts of his head, leaving him to talk about his concussion for most of our stay in Kinsale (much to my enjoyment, mind you).
We walked around the entire town our first night and then stopped at a beautiful restaurant on the harbor called the Fishy Fishy Cafe. We did not make reservations, so we were sat at the bar, which turned out to be great since our waiter was the bartender. I ate monk fish for the very first time – a very meaty, mild flavored fish – and it came with a vegetable risotto which was lovely, as the vegetables were still crunchy but the risotto was creamy and al dente – perfecto! J had a Fishy Fishy pie, which was also fantastico! and then we went to a lovely pub whose name I can’t pronounce for our very first night of traditional Irish music.
That’s right – we’d been in Ireland almost three days and not actually heard traditional Irish music in an actual Irish pub. We did go to an Irish “shindig” in Dublin at the distillery, but that was a tour type deal. I’d been hoping for pub music at a local place. We finally found it! We sat around drinking, listening to the singer, and talking with locals and other tourists as well. We met a couple from Ohio who were in town one last night and J made friends with an Irish lad and lassie – the lad was a wee bit strange but in all we had a grand night.
The next morning after breakfast we went back into town and walked the entire town again, stopping into shops at our leisure – shops that were closed the previous night. J took picture after picture and we shopped and just enjoyed ourselves. When lunch time came, we couldn’t make up our minds where to eat because of all the choices. A lot of places had a pub menu, which is really popular in every town in Ireland it seems, comprised mainly of fish and chips, chicken strips and chips, lasagna (I know, right?) and chips…. everything came with chips!
We went back to our room for a wee nap and then went back into town for more walking. We ended the evening at a unique pub that served American style food and had the sweetest bartenders, Alice and Caoimhe (pronouced Quee-vah). Then it was time to turn in, as we had an early morning since we were leaving for Cashel the next morning.
