Back in Kinsale

March 6 – Tuesday – The sun is out so we decide to wander down to the Farmer’s Market after a light breakfast. I go to the I-café first to post some pics and update my blog after the week away from Kinsale. We pick up some fresh roasted coffee from the Cork Coffee Roasters at the market, get a few things for dinner, and see that Gina’s Café is open, it opened up on the first of March, so we go there for lunch. Small place but nice, I had the tuna melt panini and a seven-up, Lisa had a toasted special and diet coke and the bill was 15 euro. Take everything back to the house and with the sun still shining we decide to walk Compass Hill.

It is the area south of where we are staying, and overlooks the harbor on the east side, and some village on the west. A lot of the old stone wall is still up, and some very old and interesting houses up there. It is an hour walk or so and we really enjoy it. We find Victoria’s house on the way, we’ve been invited for supper there tomorrow. Lisa wants to get a tea when we head back so we make our way back into town and go to the Cucina for a coffee, tea and a couple cookies, and as we hit the door the sky opens up and it pours, I guess timing is everything! After the rain stops and the sun reappears we make our way back home.

After a supper of salads and tarts we picked up in the morning, we head out for a pint at the Lord Kinsale, my bartender friend isn’t working so we decide to try the Tap Room. Only one customer and the bartender when we arrive, but patrons wander in and out through the night. I get a chance to try the Jameson Distillers Select 12 year old, the same stuff that I bought at the distillery. I ask the bartender about the whiskey box with Kinsale 2000 is printed on it. He shows me the box and opens it and I see that it contains a bottle of Bushmill Millennium “For display only” he says, “if I drop it I would need a second mortgage to pay it off”. After a couple drinks, Lisa and I are both tired so we head back and hit the hay.

March 7 – Wednesday – After a lazy breakfast we decide to take the bus into Cork for a little exploring. Getting on the 10:30 we hit Cork at 11:15 and make our way around the city. I use a reference I printed from the internet which shows us some of the historical buildings around Cork city center. This is a town rich in culture and heritage, and interesting to note that the main city streets were once canals filled with water. There is even a law still on the books that allows the building owners to park their boats next to their buildings. Making our way around South Mall St, Grand Parade St, St Patrick’s Street and the Merchant’s Quay, we find ourselves back at the bus station, we decide not to try St Patrick’s hill today, so wander back to Oliver Plunket Street and have some lunch at the Old Oak again. I get a printing off the wall that shows the Elders playing there last Monday. I try to hit some of the CD shops to find a copy of the Valley Project. This was recorded by Ian Byrne, Fran Harper and others, but no luck.

Catching the bus back to Kinsale we pick up a bottle of wine to bring to dinner tonight. Bill and Sue picked us up about “half seven” which I find out does mean 7:30, and we dine at Victoria and Alan’s. We started with a drink in the living area, and after an hour of socializing we went to the dinning area for what Victoria informed us was a typical Irish dinner that you would have been served in a typical Irish home of the past. It consisted of “bacon and cabbage” which starts with a potato and leek soup, a main course of cabbage, “bacon” (ham) covered in onion gravy, potatoes and turnips, and finally fresh fruit with cream for desert. It was a very leisurely dinner, we didn’t leave the table until11:30 when Bill and Sue finally took us home. I opened a Kinsale Cream Stout and watched a bit of TV before going to bed about 12:30.

March 8 – Thursday – Up early today – 7:15, bowl of cereal for breakfast, shower, then we pick up and clean up a bit, besides being time, Victoria is bringing a prospective renter by about 10:15. After they leave we go down to town, I check my email and pay some bills. Lisa swings by the Ireland Soap Co to buy a few things, then we head off to Fishy-Fishy for lunch. Beautiful place inside, this is the one next to the harbor, the original store is on the road leading up to Desmond Castle. I have the Avocado-Prawn special, very delicious! And Lisa gets the breast of chicken. Also very good. We split a apple-strawberry crumble for desert, and go home about 43 euro lighter. Pricey, but worth it.

Tonight we will just have sandwiches for dinner, and wander down to the An Seanachai to listen to Liam O’ again. As I return with our pints, I see that Lisa has an “admirer” at the table. When he realizes that I am her husband he departs with a “sorry”, a smile, and a handshake, I see he is a bit in his cups and we laugh it off and continue listening. Liam O’ directs several of his remarks to the group of men that Lisa’s “friend” came from, and we find out they are a bunch of Welshmen here on holiday, who are very enthusiastic about the music. After four of them leave for the next bar, our friend returns to our table and we have a chat. Find out his name is John, the drink making his Welch accent rather difficult to understand, and he regales us with stories of his trips to New York and the Madison Square Garden where he listened to Bruce Springsteen, and attended a benefit concert for BB King with Robert Plant playing among others I couldn’t understand. When he realized he needed to catch up to his friends he left, with us not to far behind, I wanted to stop to the Lord Kinsale to see if our bartender buddy was working, which he was.

He seemed happy to see us, except for the part where I asked him what happened to Arsenal? “Out of 3 cups in 2 weeks!” he said “I suppose you cheered when PSV scored again?” as PSV Eindhoven was the club that defeated Arsenal again this week. I tried not to rub it in, so we talked of other things, and found out his name is Owen, he’s 24, and his “mum” and “nan” where in the pub, so he was born and raised in Kinsale. Began working the pubs at 16 when he was at one and they were a bartender short. We notice that he is always busy, and very good at his job. Lisa had a nice talk with his mum, but we only had time to finish the one pint and leave, they seem to be much better here about getting you out of the pub at closing time. Last call is 11:30 during the week.

March 9 – Friday – 7:00 finds me making coffee and toast for breakfast. Looks to be a nice day, the sun is making another appearance, and they are predicting 14C. That gives us the idea to do another tour around town. First I need to see if I can update a couple websites, so I head to the I-café and attempt to get FrontPage to cooperate. This ends up being a failure, so I take my laptop home and we head out to see the other side of town. We take Rampart Lane west to Blind Gate, north to Butchers Row, up Friars Walk, east on Lower Catholic Walk where we go in the Carmelite Church and peek around. I take a few pictures, and we head back out. Going east again, I stop and take some pictures across the valley, we can see the back side of our house from here. Back north again and we make our way east for a bit, then south til we hit Barracks Road and through the walkway down to Newman’s Lane which takes us back to town. Lisa buys us lunch at the Armada, we pick up a couple groceries on the way home, and I take my newspaper out to the back porch to bask in the sun! Simply gorgeous! Supper tonight is a pizza we picked up, and afterwards we walk to the Spaniard in Scilly to listen to the Trad music they advertise.

We get there about 8:30, find a seat near the table the musicians will be at, and wait til 9:30 for the music. 9:30ish ends up being about 10, and then it is only one guy with a banjo and guitar, who plays and sings a little. Not being very good, Lisa and I wander back to the house about 11 and call it a night.

March 10 – Saturday – 7:00 and its very overcast this morning. Easy day today, pay bills online, coffee at the bakery, lunch at home, a Smithwicks in the afternoon while watching some rugby at the Market pub (first time there for us), chicken kiev at home for supper, and listen to music tonight at the Vista and then An Seanachai. The three boys at the Vista are the same ones we heard the first time we were there, acoustic music that reminds us of the Greenville bunch.

The An Seanachai featured the Trad Routes, which was Liam O’ and Ger Walsh. Great fun, lots of traditional with some Billy Joel, Eric Bogle and Simon and Garfunkel thrown in. Ger tried to do a “stump the audience” on a song, “none of you will know this” he says, then proceeds to sing “I Still Can’t Say Goodbye”. He mentioned that he got it from Tommy Emmanuel, and he was amazed that we knew it, and I reminded him that Jimmy Moore was the one who wrote it. Had a nice talk with Ger after the show, he mentioned his band was recording Jimmy’s song on their next album. Closing time on Saturday is 12:30,so that’s when they started hounding everyone to leave. We got home about 1:00 and slept in until 8:30 or so.