A Night in Kinsale

Arrived in Kinsale in the middle of the afternoon, after a long flight and a 4 hour drive from Dublin airport. Kinsale is a picturesque little coastal town on the Southern coast of Ireland, below Cork, sitting on a little bay.

Our rooms at the White Lady Hotel weren't ready yet, so we went for lunch and our first Guinnesses, then did the tourist thing and walked around the town and shopped a little. Pretty soon it was time for the second Guinnesses, and we found ourselves at The Spaniard, a pub on a hill looking over the harbor that was supposedly known for its great views. The view did look out over the harbor, but all you could see was trees. When we asked about the view, the waitress said “You should see it in winter!” This was also the pub where I got out my laptop and found myself in Google hell, unable to validate my logon to the blog without my cellphone Anyway, the Guinness was good.

Dinner that night was at a restaurant called Jim Edwards, in the middle of the town. Deirdre O'Sullivan joined us for dinner. Deirdre runs Tailor-Made tours, who organized this and our other two Irish walks. She runs self-guided walks throughout Ireland. It was neat talking to her about the walk we were about to begin, and about her business in general.

Finally, it was time to hit the rack – 36 hours after any of us had gotten up. I'm sure we all were asleep maybe even before our heads hit the pillows.

Sometime after midnight the party started.

Our room looked out over the narrow street below, and right across the street, two doors down was a roaring party complete with what sounded like Latin disco music with a rap beat that shook the windows of the apartment it was in. And every so often the front door would open, the party would spill out onto the street, and the music would be even louder.

The only thing that could make it worse could have been a large Irish woman yelling out another nearby window to “Shut the F*** up!” And “Close the F***ing door!” Oddly, that happened regularly. And with increasing regularity through the night, from the lady in the

apartment right next to the party.

But after being awake for 36 hours I really can't say that the party kept me awake. But it did make the whole night seem like a fog where sleep kept rolling in then rolling back out. And both the party and our Irish neighbor across the street got quiet sometime after 4:00.