Its been a long day & its time to finally make our way down to Kinsale. I have heard so much about this town & viewed tons of photos online thanks to Google. It looks amazing & I can't wait to get there. Unfortunately we had to drive back through the traffic filled city of Cork. Who knew this was such a booming metropolis in Ireland. Also, who puts traffic lights in the middle of a round about. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a round about? It was on the way out of Cork that my car got separated from Joe's thanks to poor timing at a traffic signal. Joe made it, I didn't. Unfortunately there was also construction going on so we couldn't see what exit from the roundabout that Joe had taken. As my light turned green I took the first exit...no Joe so I turn around and go back thru the roundabout & take the 2nd exit...no Joe, so I turn around again & take the last exit...still no Joe. At this point I just looked at Kelly and told him to get the map & we'd get there on our own like we did when we went to Donegal.
As luck would have it, we were headed in the right direction before Kelly could even figure out where we were on the map (mainly because we hadn't really been paying attention to street names as we were concentrating on not losing Joe's car...which we lost anyway). The road leading into Kinsale opens you to a view of the harbor & colorful downtown area. Holy crap it is even more scenic than the photos I saw online give it credit for. As I wind my way into town however the roads became decidedly more narrow and there is nowhere for you to move over to in the event that an oncoming car is bigger than the size of a gnat! There is also no straight roadway in the entire town & we have absolutely no idea how to get to the Ashgrove B&B. I pull into a parking lot for a tourist/visitor center, but wouldn't you know it, the place was closed. Being the amazingly quick on my feet thinker (hahahaha) I sent Kelly across the street to the chocolate store to ask for directions, not that I had ulterior motives or anything, but can you believe Kelly only came back with a map of the town & directions. I mean seriously where was the friggen chocolate!!
We find our way up the walking path...err I mean up the road & find the B&B with no problems once we have the non chocolate map. Upon our arrival Bettina comes running out with such relief on her face that it is obvious that they thought I was going to go ballistic on them for losing me once again. Admittedly it was through no fault of their own this time & probably because the view upon getting to Kinsale was very calming I was in a great mood. Not only because of where we were, but because I was going to Skype with my dad tonight for the first time since we got there. The B&B had wireless!! Well okay it was supposed to have wireless anyway. Oh well it was a nice idea.
By the time we reach Kinsale it is dinner time and we are all starving since we hadn't had anything to eat since leaving Belfast early that morning. Our B&B host, Martina, gave us a list of places we might find some grub. We decide on a place called the White House. I had brought my iPad just in case they had wi-fi as I was not ready to give up on Skyping with pops. Alas, the restaurant did not have wi-fi. There was a cafe next door so I decide to go over there to test the waters...I mean what cafe/coffee shop now a days doesn't have wi-fi. The answer...the one in Kinsale. Thats right still no wi-fi, but oddly enough my iPad does detect a wi-fi in the area. As I walk around to see where it gets stronger I can't help myself...I started laughing out loud. So the coffee shop doesn't have wi-fi, but the pub does! We make our decision that this pub is now the pub we will spend the remainder of our evening at so that I can call my dad at the designated time. Apparently not many people do this as we got some funny looks as every web addicted person in our group got online to send updates to friends...emails & photos etc. After about an hour I go just outside the front door so it will be a little quieter when calling pops. When he answers I immediately tell him that he is at the pub with me & I think he finds that a bit humorous. Its just too bad it was dark out, I would have loved if dad could have seen the colorful town & street from where I stood. The party was really getting going in the short time I had been on the phone with pops. It seems the Guinness & Jameson had started to flow freely! Let the fun begin again...
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