The day the whining began:

Last morning in Dublin – all traveling. Woke up at 7:30 to catch the 9am bus only to find out that the bus luggage compartment would not open, so we were delayed. Not by much, but if I am going to have a whiney day, I may as well be consistent, right?

So got on the road to Kilkenny at 9:20am and slept most of the way. Our directions to the hostel from the bus station began “see O’Gorman’s pub. Follow road until Greensbridge.” What? Which road do we follow? And as we worriedly wandered a potential road, we did find a bridge – without a sign! Sigh Ky trusted me (for some unknown reason) and everything did work out!! We were on the correct road – mostly because I’m a good guesser? ☺

We were supposed to check-in at 11am, but were late (obviously) – but the website had said checki-in from 11a-1p and 5-11p, so I figured we were okay. WRONG. The website lied. No one was around to help us check-in, but another guest let us leave our luggage in the bathroom. lol! Then we began our 5.5 hr wanderfest of Kilkenny, Ireland:

The first place we came across (by randomly following people who looked like tourists) was St Canice’s cathedral. The cemetery was beautiful and it had a HUGE round tower. We paid a couple euros to climb the tower… now I am okay with climbing (heights don’t usually scare me), but this was unbelievably tight! Ky encouraged me to confront my fears… keep in mind that this tower barely fit two people within it’s diameter & it had a winding staircase that narrowed it further and it was at least 5 stories tall! I made it to the very last staircase, which was not winding, but was the original stone staircase built by monks centuries ago for people with size 5 feet and teeny little bodies. I absolutely froze! It took me a good 5 mins to gather the courage to make it those last 8 steps, but Ky is a great friend and coaxed me.

What a sight! The wind was so wild that several of my moments at the top were spent on my knees grasping at the safety fence… and I had to take some of my pics with my eyes closed (please don’t expect the pics to do the views justice)… but it was an experience totally worth the 2 euros! ☺

Spent the next 3-4 hrs wandering a new city. Kilkenny is MUCH smaller than Dublin, Praise the Lord! I was suffocating in Dublin. We were hungry and found a tourist map that showed a mall, but I kept getting us lost, so I finally sucked it up and asked some 14 yr old kid for directions. He and his cousin (from England) walked with us right up to the entrance and we all talked like we’d known each other forever – I love Irish folk!

When I packed, Angela had mentioned that the top-loading backpack I borrowed from her might be annoying, and I figure what is a whiny blog without complaining about the luggage, right? It was so annoying that I sucked it up and bought a rolling suitcase (on sale) on day FIVE of our travels! Sigh I am such a baby!

We enjoyed the beautiful non-rainy weather & to continue in the theme of complaining – since we were unable to check-in earlier, we were still wearing the jeans and jackets we’d worn in cold, rainy Dublin that morning! Will it never end??? ☺

Here is when I posted my one pic for 2 euros while trying to waste time before check-in….

Bright moment: I found a wonderful store called Dunne’s Stores that will more than likely supply my Wal-mart fixes while in Limerick – I got flipflops for 50cents! Woot!

FINALLY checked-in. Into a hostel that fit 6 beds into a room that should have maxed out at 4 with 2 sleeping germans, that only had hot water from 7pm-10am, whose manager-dude disappeared as soon as he had our money… and the whining is complete!

It was at this moment that I met “Danielle-uh” (okay – that was phonetically spelled): this really cute Italian. We had a nice chat about Ireland and what we’d noticed so far and the next morning, he said that he hoped we’d see each other again in our travels! (but no information was exchanged, so DOUBTFUL! Oops!)