Ireland - It's Green Because It's Raining!

(Internet is ever elusive and very slow when I can get it, so words will most likely make it to the blog before pictures do - check back and hopefully there'll be something pretty to look at)

Two trains, a ferry ride, a rental car and 12 hours later, we finally arrived at our first destination in Ireland - Kilkenny. I think my teeth are worn down to nubs however, as riding on the left side of the road with Mike driving is infinitely worse than when he's driving on the right side! But we made it in one piece. All joking aside, Mike is doing a great job driving. As tiring as it is for me to grip the seat cushion, it's that much more exhausting to be the driver!

Kilkenny is an adorable town with it's own castle. Our hotel was right across the river from the castle, which was closed by the time we made it to town, and not open before we left today!

After checking in, the first thing we did was look for food. As a matter of fact, think all we do is either look for food, buy food, think about food, and eat food. By the time we find the food, we're so hungry that everything tastes great and we've stuffed ourselves silly. Two hours later, we're looking for food again - snacks, water, ice cream - food in any form. I'm going to rename our trip The Baxendell's Amazing Hunting and Gathering Tour.

The problem with finding food is that although pubs may be open, they don't serve food after 6pm if they're not also a restaurant. Naturally, this is a problem when you're hunting and gathering at 8pm! What we think of as grocery store, they call Supermarkets, and are only in the bigger cities. Adding to the thrill of the hunt, most of the little shops that sell snacks close at 6pm, which makes for lots more hunting than gathering. Hopefully this will benefit my waistline in the long run!

We had an awesome dinner at a restaurant/pub called Fields. Mike had his first Guinness, complete with shamrock foam. I had an amazing seafood chowder, and Emma had Hobo Hash - in case you're wondering, Hobo Hash is basically homefries with sausage, canadian bacon, cheddar cheese, topped with a fried egg, and very yummy!