kinsale!

Unfortunately, I won't be able to travel this weekend as I'll be doing a homestay with a 70 year old couple out in the country. Fingers crossed that they at least have wifi so i can spend  so e downtime catching up with everyone. To get a taste of adventure for the week, I did go down to Kinsale today. It's a small, touristy town on the sea and conveniently located only an hour from my campus. The bus was cheap, I had a morning to kill, why not?

Since I have to leave for my homestay at 5:30, I only stayed in kinsale for 3 hours but I could have easily stayed the entire day. When I first arrived, I had planned to go to Charles fort, a military fort on the ocean dating back to the 1500s, but upon walking for 20 minutes and still only making it halfway there, I turned around. During the walk, I did get this amazing panoramic view of the towns colorful buildings along the sea, so not all was lost. Also, i passed the a pub called the spaniardo where I learned about how the Spanish and Irish armies teamed up to fight the british.

Another 20 minutes later, I arrived back in the town centre. I made my way over to Desmond castle, a castle from the 1700s that has served as a military base, prison for american revolutionary soldiers, a famine workhouse, and now doubles as an international wine museum. Ok. Cool. Apparently kinsale, as a coastal town, is one of Ireland's biggest wine towns so there were a lot of interesting exhibits that went along with that. My favorite was a world map made of wine corks, with the flags of the bigger wine producers painted onto their cork. Unfortunately, no gift shop.

Kinsale is a tourist hotspot so the last big highlight of my trip to was, predictably, all the gift shops. All of the brightly buildings were super inviting and covered in vines. I visited a lot of galleries with nautical themed ceramics, stained glass crafts, and cute souvenirs. Also, there were a lot of boutiques with the softest sweaters I've ever seen as well as a few quirky bookshops.
Aside from a papyrus card and a book (if my homestay doesn't have wifi), I remained strong and didn't buy anything. But...I was only there 3 hours.

Before leaving, I also checked out st multose church, which has amazing stained glass works and a graveyard on its grounds.

Overall, I wish I could've spent more time in kinsale because both its waterfront views and cute buildings are stunning. Also, for such a small town, it contains a lot of fascinating historical ties with spain and France that I never would have known. Not a bad way to spend 3 hours. But don't just take my word for it.