Off to Kinsale

Saturday we had beautiful weather. We decided to go to Kinsale, a little coastal town south of Cork. We took a boat ride in the harbor to see some of the farther sites, like the two forts of King James. I must say, boat rides make me really miss SAS now, though none of them can really compare. Anyways, it was a nice boat ride. Afterwards, we walked along the road until we reached the closer fort and explored around it. We couldn’t get inside, though there was a gate so I guess on certain days it might be open. It was certainly a nice field to sit in, some Europeans were out sunbathing and there was even a guitarist sitting on the top of the hill, serenading the wind. 

Kinsale

More of Kinsale

In front of the one of the fots

the rest of the larger fort 

blue skies in Ireland!!!

patch of trees?

more of Kinsale

James fort

another angle

along the side

lookout along the water

            Once we were back in town, we happened to find some live music in a square and caught the tail end of a violin-guitar duo who were quite good. I’d been waiting to hear some good violin music (i.e. violin as the prominent instrument) and this was just what I’d been waiting for. The violinist was very good and I wish we’d found it earlier because I would have loved to hear more of the concert. We wandered around a bit more and then headed back to Cork.

            We went to a Middle Eastern fast food restaurant for dinner. I ordered chips, chili and cheese imagining American chili cheese fries – I got fries with shredded mozzarella and some weird Middle Eastern chili – not quite what I was hoping for and it was kind of spicy. So that was a bummer. Later we went back to the same pub we were at the night before for hoping to find some more good music but this time they had a DJ playing. I must say, I wish there were more pubs or venues for artists in the States, it is really nice to have such a wide variety of live music for free and I think it helps out some of the starting bands (like the one we’d listened to the first night). Anyways, the DJ started out playing 80s music, which was just funny. Then a large group of American girls came in so he started playing current music so people would dance. We had fun, danced around, but you can definitely tell who is American and who is Irish – the Irish just sit and listen to the music, apparently dance parties aren’t their thing, or at least not in pubs.

            There were some other places in West Cork we wanted to visit but they were far away and there didn’t seem to be public transportation out there so we couldn’t go see them (like the only Salt lake in Ireland (Lough Hyne) or their older version of Stonehenge called the Drombeg stone circle). Those kinds of journeys are only for people with cars because you just can’t get to them otherwise, which is a bummer.