a NOLA girl in a Big world

Guest post – the groom. Our first stop on the day in saying goodbye to Dublin was Kilmainham Gaol. It was initially created as a ‘new age’ prison, the first to house prisoners in cells rather than one big room. But during the many Irish revolutions for independence it was used for political prisoners by the British. Unfortunately for us the most photographed portion of the jail, the west wing was under renovation so our tour was shorter than originally planned. This was really our first stop where we were exposed to the darker part of Irish history. We learned of executions that occurred, how minor some of the crimes were that landed these people in jail (sometimes 6 months for stealing bread), and how the Irish were willing to go to any length to gain freedom from England.
 

Moving out of Dublin we arrived at our first hike, the fairy castle and Wicklow way. A truly awesome drive through golf courses and extremely wealthy neighborhoods, we parked the car and were faced with our first challenge… The altitude. Nothing could prepare us for the change from New Orleans to Dublin. The total distance was around 6 miles and although we got a bit turned around we still made it in about 3 hours. Oh yea, and be warned… There’s no such thing as the fairy castle. We learned that after finishing the hike. We did visit a location called the three stones that left us with a 360 degree view of Dublin and the Irish countryside – truly amazing. What we thought was the fairy castle was in fact a cairn… Whether this cairn was meant as a marker for the valley or a tomb we’re still unsure but to think people traveled all the way up this mountain to deliver the stones necessary for this cairn was impressive to say the least. The fairy castle is actually the highest point in the area.

The way down is always the easiest, on the legs and the lungs! We drove to Kilkenny for the night where we stayed at the Zuni hotel – pretty cool name. They put us up in a wing of our own of the hotel with huge chandeliers and a big tv, curtesy of our honeymoon arrangements through Macs. We ate at a baller Italian restaurant – ristorante rinuccini. Great food, great staff, family owned for over 25 years and noted as the best in Kilkenny. They actually took us down to the wine cellar when they heard it was our honeymoon. Very cool people. I’ll try to post again but I’m not nearly as entertaining as the wifey