Kinsale: When it rains it....

We finally got out to Kinsale despite the rain...well it wasn't really rain, it was a strong mist that didn't stop ALLLLL day...we got soaked but we saw a lot of sweet stuff...

We took the bus from Cork to Kinsale and got off right at the harbor. We saw a lot of old boats and fishing crews out in the water and took a lot of pics. The town is tiny and smells of fish and had tonsss of seagulls flying around. After we got a map from the tourist center - to make it obvious we're Americans - we headed on the Salmon Walk to the Charles Fort. What a walk...Salmon Walk's are what it's all about...

It took about 30 mins to get to the fort while it continued to rain. Once we got to the fort we basically just walked around the various rooms and checked out the exhibits they had set up. I won't get into detail, you can check out the pics and get an idea of what went on. The fort was in pretty good shape and there were some amazing views of Kinsale and the harbor, but the rain wouldn't allow for a nice picture or two. Overall, Charles Fort was pretty tight.

Heading back into town on the Salmon Walk, we saw a guy in the water flip his sailboat - something you don't see everyday. Luckily there was like 1 other boat in the water at the time and they came and saved the day. I took pictures. We ate lunch at some cafe. It was good food, but i was really diggin a bowl of seafood chowder or some type of seafood from Kinsale, but the restaurants open a later and the ones that were open were extremely expensive - 12 euros for a bowl of soup!

After our quick lunch at a cafe, we went into the Kinsale Museum where they had a ton of old stuff from the 1600's on. A lot of things from various battles, the potato famine, and ships. I really liked all the parts they saved from the Lusitania - chairs, railings, and even some documents from Germany that documented the sinking of the ship. Also, Reline found the Pokemon stone that you have to get in the game so he was pretty pumped about that.

After the museum we either had to hurry and catch the 2:15 bus or wait until 3:45 for the next one and it was about 2. Reline wanted to see the Desmond Castle so we walked to that. Once we got there it was closed...so we took a few pics and booked it to the bus station and caught it literally 3 seconds before the door shut.

It was a good trip, but I think a return trip would be better since the rain kinda made things difficult and we hurried through a lot of places that we should have seen.
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Everything is going well. This week is RAG week at UCC. What I take from this is no one goes to class, everyone drinks, and there are various activities such as bands, games, clubs, and drinking that gives all the money to charity. Everyone tells us the pubs are "jammerz" or packed from 9 PM on. So we'll see how everything goes, it should be pretty fun to see some bands and what not and skip class legally since the professors sometimes come to class hungover apparently. Only in Ireland.

I'll update soon!

- Travis