Did you know that Ireland is a friggin' beautiful country? Well, it is! I was lucky enough to spend some time there traveling around and wanted to make a list of my favorite places I saw.
Disclaimer: This is far from a complete list of the top 10 overall places in Ireland, just the top 10 I got to see in my limited time.
Let's start with #10 - Kinsale
Small Town Vibes
Dublin, Galway, Cork - some fantastic and well-known cities for good reason, but in a place like Ireland, the small towns were what we wanted to see the most.
Mom got a tip from a friend who tours Ireland annually about a cutesy little town in the south central coast, right around where Ireland's famed Wild Atlantic Way starts, so we decided to make a stop through Kinsale:
Kinsale isn't big in size - a population of just 5281 at the last census - but it sure is big on whimsy. This quaint village is chock full of vibrantly-colored buildings with names like The Milk Market Cafe, Mother Hubbard's, Kitty O Se's and The Lemon Leaf Cafe.
Heck, even the post office was adorable as it could possibly be. How would you like to pick up your mail from this place?
Though the main street (Pearse St.) was a bit more muted than the bright Market St. restaurants shown above, I'd say it was still quite a bit more cheery than your average town, even on a gray Irish day. You decide:
Of course, every Irish town of any significance has two things: a good pub and an old, beautiful church. Here it was the Saint Multose Church of Ireland:
My favorite part about visiting these kinds of churches is the really old cemetery that typically accompanies it. If you're the kind of person who likes exploring old cemeteries, Ireland is definitely a place for you:
Although, I gotta say, this was the first cemetery I've been to where I've witnessed a cat performing a burial ritual of its own in a questionable location...
That's in the blockchain for eternity now, Kitty. You're welcome.
Anyways, moving on, how about a pub? We didn't actually have time for a drink in this village unfortunately - there was a lot of Wild Atlantic Way driving to do later in the day, and it was only around 10am (and we're not complete drunks, okay!). If we did have the time, something like this probably would have sufficed:
After a while of walking around, I really needed to get out of this place though. Did you notice how there weren't that many people in the pictures here? Well, I'm not sure how that happened honestly, because this place sort of becomes a tourist madhouse as the day goes on.
Proof of tourism
I guess because we got there fairly early, it wasn't that crowded at first. But after a while, the small sidewalks particularly around the waterfront became crowded enough that I was starting to feel cramped. Mom can attest to this fact I'm sure.
That said, if you're visiting Ireland and charming little towns are your thing, then you might consider adding Kinsale to your list of destinations - we were certainly glad we stopped to check it out!
We'll move from a quaint seaside village to something a bit more rural and majestic in the next post, so stay tuned if you want to see more Ireland!
You should also check out the #culturevulture contest put on by Irish Steemian himself @eroche if you are interested in or write about anything having to do with travel, culture, art, food, etc. Head over to his blog to find out more.
Adventure Every Day started as a dream by two expats lost in Norway. It never amounted to much more than that, but the spirit lives on in our sporadic adventures. Keep adventuring my friends!
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