Kilkenny
1 Oct
Aunt Angela picked us up at 8:30 pm from the train station. She was exactly out of Mrs. Doubtfire… “Ohhh, that’s lovely dear!” She offered us a smoke and dropped us off at our temporary paradise for the evening. She booked us a room at a local B&B, paid in advance! Scot and I walked up to town for a pint and checked out the scene. Kyle hung at the house for a hot bath and a movie. The B&B was exquisite! Three beds, a hot shower, clean and quiet rooms! The following day’s breakfast felt like a fairy tale. Homemade Irish brown bread, scrambled eggs with cheese, potatoes, tea, juice, yogurt, fruit. Molly, our host, totally hooked us up.
We strolled the town for a bit and Angela picked us up. She took us to an old church and graveyard where Scot’s relatives were raised! It was stunning. It was hard to believe these women were born, raised, and had lived in the same community and house for their whole lives. They still travelled the world through holidays and pilgrimages. And yet they always returned to their town, Dunmore.
The house they live and grew up in was built in the late 1800s and had gone through many phases over the years. The property used to be enormous with horses, peasants, cows, etc. “A great place to grow up,” says Scot’s cousin, Jayne. Over the years they sold some plots of land and stopped using the barns. They are now totally run-down, overgrown, and in ruin. It seems they haven’t been touched in 20 or 30 years! Somehow, we still had fun with it…
It appeared as though the nettles were protecting the property with their stinging hair follicles….
… but even so it didn’t stop the prettiest pink flowers from growing in the garden.
Yet the garden and greenhouse in the backyard were SO well-kept. I doubted these two elderly ladies could have do it themselves, yet I was told time and time again.. yes they did. FANTASTIC LADIES.
I felt so connected to the house and the property, like I had seen it before in my dreams. The wood stove in the kitchen, the SPACE, the thick stone walls built to last, the low ceilings, the cozy furniture. TODOS. Almost to tears.
We had a wonderful few days with these ladies. We ate their delicious meals…
…strolled a hilltop park with old stone mill ruins…
…and explored the local pubs and shops of Kilkenny. Graffiti in Kilkenny was creative and natural…
… it seemed people were actually trying to make the area look NICER.
How often does ‘street art’ really translate to art?
Or, transform the people on the street into art?
Expensive lunch and a delicious cappuccino in Kilkenny… flask!
My favorite house in Kilkenny was perfectly SYMMETRICAL!
We visited the Kilkenny Castle…
…and I trespassed on the untouched grass to pick a perfect rose.
Our departure was bittersweet. We already booked a flight for the following day to PARIS! We spent a night in Dublin at Jacob’s Inn, some sheisty hostel. At 4am our cab arrived to pick us up… we headed to PARIS!
MRumianowski
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