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Published: March 21st 2007
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I'm in Kilkenny now, which is a nice small little town with about 25,000 people living here. It has been absolutely freezing though everyday, there is snow all on the hills surrounding the place so a fair bit of time has been spent in the pubs, just to keep warm though!
This place is like a real old town with the main streets barely wide enough to fit two cars along with the building still the same as they were a few hundred years ago.
The main thing to see here is the Kilkenny Castle overlooking the city and it is quite impressive. It was built around the 1300's I think and was ruled by the powerful Butler family for 600 years or so. This town also used to be the capital of Ireland back in the day so a fair bit to see around the place, did a walking tour today and they gave a great run down of the good and bad that had happened over the years. There was only the two of us so could ask anything about the place and he was very helpful. I'll write a little with each photo saying about
it. He also said that it used to have 50,000 people living here before the 1800's then it halved. All over Ireland there were 8 million at the time and by the end 1 million died from disease and 3 million emigrated leaving 4 million in less than half a century. At the time in Australia it was 8 men to 1 woman so they needed females so any little offence they did they were walked to Cork from Kilkenny over 140 miles away and shipped to Tassie as convicts! The trip took around 11 months and on the ship they were owned by the crew so by the time they arrived they always had a few extra cargo.
Also went to the Dunmore caves this afternoon which was an adventure just getting there. First the bus that was supposed to pick us up didn't show so we went to catch a different bus and just missed, we saw it drive past us. We were going to give up and go back to the hostel but someone decided to see how much a taxi would be there. Only 18 Euro for the four of us so wasn’t too bad.
The caves were amazing and some of the stories about the past were interesting as well dating back to 500AD when some Vikings drove around 1000 locals inside and smoked them till they died, just nice stuff like that as they did back then! One of the guys at the entrance offered us a ride half was back to Kilkenny and it was a great walk anyway just cruising through the country for a hour or so. Got out and about so was nice.
There are the usual churches around the place and plenty of pubs to satisfy the thirst, even though it is freezing still get quite thirsty 😊
I think I have stayed one two many days here though as I had a good look at all the places to see in the first day here so could have left yesterday but have enjoyed it still.
On the way here I finally got to see some nice green rolling hills again, well it has been quite awhile since most of Australia is in a drought even Tas. Need to sent some of it down there! It rains here near everyday so far then blows a gail
then the sun will come out and then it will properly start to hail! Magnificent weather to have in Ireland! Naa I was hoping for this never imagined Ireland to be a hot place, I'd have to find another excuse for going to the pub other than to get warm.
Tomorrow I'm heading more South West to Cork the second biggest city in Ireland so back into the city’s again.
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suzie
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TO CHRIS
HI CHRIS GLAD YOUR HAVING A GOOD TIME HAVE ENJOYED ALL THE LETTERS AND PHOTOS ALL IS WELL BACK HERE TREV HAS A NEW NOSE YOUR MUM AND DAD ARE WELL SEE YOU