First night in Killarney

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Geo: 52.0579, -9.50747

Killarney, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland

It is in the heart of the shopping district. According to the clerk at the convenience store in Fossa (I walked across the road to grab some water and a Snickers and chatter her up for a bit), this place has many live music pubs. We passed one just a couple of blocks away, so after dinner I am going to look for it. Dinner was at 7:15 in a buffet style. They had a salad bar, fruit bar, a desert bar, and a hot food area (fish, chicken, and roast beef along with broccoli, mash potatoes, yams, and vegetable lasagna). I had the roast beef with mash potatoes. Boy was that beef tender. I ended up having 2 slices of it. I also had a salad and a couple of bites of what I thought was chocolate cake, but it was a brownie type cake. I headed out to explore the streets of Killarney. There was a light rain, so I had to see much of it under an umbrella. Many of the buildings were pubs and restaurants. Some of the other stores were high end clothing shops or souvenir shops. After a bit, I headed back to the hotel to relax for an hour before heading back out to find a pub that had live musicians. So, about 10 p.m. I headed back out to find some Irish music being played in a pub. The hotel had a pub, but the music that they were playing was something you would here on the radio in America. Most of the pubs I came across either had way too many people in them or were playing American hits. I pretty much had decided to head back to the hotel when I passed a pub that had a harpist and guitarist playing. It was a bit of a dingy styled pub, but I braved the looks and entered. I was able to grab a Coke and found a seat near the front door to the side of the players. They ended up playing about 5 songs before they left for the night. They were very good, so I bought a CD that they were selling. By the time I left the pub, it was almost 11:30pm. Across the street (the streets are mostly one way and only wide enough for a car) was an all night restaurant. They catered to pub goers and workers by staying open until 3 a.m. I ordered a small pepperoni pizza to take away (to go). I called and spoke to Dad for a brief time while waiting for the pizza. I then headed out into the now strong rain shower and made it to the hotel without being too wet (I left my umbrella back at the hotel). I stayed up until about 1 am.

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