A Day in Kilkenny

During this year I’ve been travelling quite a lot around but there are some places where I still haven’t been for example Kilkenny. It’s quite small old medieval town located around 2,5 hours bus ride from Dublin to Southwest direction Kilkenny is possibly mostly known of its castle but there other attraction also like Smithwicks brewery (which wasn’t unfortunately open), St. Canice’s Cathedral and its round tower from 9^th century etc.

Round towers are quite unique Christian heritage, originally built to offer place to monasteries / abbeys to hide their relics and offer a safe place from possible raids done by different invaders throughout the centuries. There are many round towers in Ireland but usually they are not accessible, this one was. So it was a great opportunity to climb up into it: About 30 meters high and 121 steps on a narrow stairs (or actually I would call them ladders) but when the top was reached there was a great overview of the Kilkenny. 

Kilkenny Castle, built in 12^th century by Normans after they arrived Ireland. Firstly it served as a defensive fortress because having such a good strategically location but then at the end of 14^th century it was bought by Butlers family who lived in the castle until 1935. Very rich and powerful family, which could be seen on castles interior designs: Some rooms had hand painted Chinese wallpapers and they also have their own gallery room, the biggest art collection owned by a single family on that time.

Besides those two main attractions there was some other churches / abbeys and since the Kilkenny is actually quite a small place and easy to discover there was time to see it all. So in total during one day, I did visit in four churches and I started to get so bored with it because even that they are interesting in a way but still they are quite similar. There would have been still two more to visit but luckily they were under maintenance and there was no possibly to enter them… After this “holy tour” tiredness was seriously starting to take over so as a cure for that I found a nice cafeteria “a hole in the wall”, oldest tavern in town which actually was also oldest townhall that is still standing in Ireland. But it is not just these individual buildings, it the whole atmosphere in Kilkenny because of its pedestrian street that was filled with many pubs, coffee places etc.

But that’s it for the historical part then. Evening in a town is not a proper evening in town if there are no visit in a pub. Plan was to have just one pint and then head up to sleep but things change… Few more pints and conversation with an Irish guy sitting in a bar about Finland, Ireland, horses, travels etc. I laughed so much as explaining some Finnish word and traditions and when I actually heard how it sounded like on his point of view…  For example:

- Kippis (Cheers) – “Keep-Piss”

- Tampere (my home city) – Somehow he managed to twist that word sounding like champagne brand Don Perignon with his Irish accent…

- Crab parties (Traditional parties where people drink shots, eat crabs and other seafood) – This one turned out crap parties instead of crab parties… and there is a “slightly” difference.

So you can just imagine: Welcome to Finland to participate on crap parties to drink shots and rising up your glass as telling everyone to keep(their)piss. … Thank god I’m not working in a tourist office :D