So I can officially check "touching both sides of the Atlantic Ocean" off the list...

About a week and a half ago on August 29th, a several of my friends and I went to a small town on the ocean known as Kinsale. Luckily, public transportation is pretty awesome here in Ireland (well, compared to Maine) and we got to take a bus round trip for under €10. We were all pretty tired, so we took the one o’clock bus to Kinsale so we could sleep in. I was so excited to see the ocean! The trip was only about 45 minutes long, and once we arrived we got dropped off right by the harbor. Of course, it wasn’t quite as amazing as Bar Harbor, but it was definitely beautiful. Right away we went to the tourist center to see what our best bet was to see the most in a small amount of time, since the last bus left around 7pm to get back to Cork. The tour guide lady was not helpful at all, so we just grabbed a map and tried to figure out what to do. We eventually decided that we would take a road train tour. This tour was so awesome and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to see the town! Our driver thought we were all hilarious, and he found the fact that all seven of us wanted to squeeze in one seat even funnier. This road train was a specially built passenger vehicle made to fit in and out of any street in Kinsale… and let me tell you—this was a good thing because many of the streets were not even minivan accessible, haha. We took a quick tour around the village, and the driver told us all about Kinsale…

The small fishing town is famous for a couple reasons. First of all, it’s totally a tourist-y Irish town with colorful buildings and many, many souvenir shops. Secondly, Kinsale Harbor is one of very few star-shaped harbors in the world. Thirdly, the Lusitania (the sister ship of the Titanic) set sail for the last time from this harbor. There is actually a court house in the middle of the town that held the first hearing of the Lusitania sinking case, so that was pretty neat!

…Alright, back to the road train story. So we toured the town, then headed for the “million dollar stretch”, aka, huge houses (for Ireland, at least) that looked out onto the harbor. They were definitely beautiful, but the view they had was wayyy better. After driving through the rich part of town, we headed towards Charles Fort. This is a HUGE fort that was invaded three times I believe, and lost all three. Apparently after the first invasion, they still didn’t understand that they didn’t have enough defense from the land side…? Oh well. It was still a glorious fort. Since it cost more money to go in, we just strolled the outer premises. The grass was SO green, and the ocean was absolutely beautiful. A few of us had a mini-photo shoot (of course…), then we headed down to the ocean. Obviously I had to touch the other side of the Atlantic Ocean! One of my roommates who came with us actually had never even seen the Atlantic before, so that was cool to experience with her. So after touching the water, we climbed on the rocks along the seashore, and I found SO much seaglass! Very glad to add Ireland seaglass to my collection, for sure. We stayed at the fort for about an hour then it was time to catch the road train back into town. This time we took up the whole back car, instead of just one seat!

Once we got off the road train, we were all hungry so we went to Dino’s a restaurant famous for their fish and chips. Obviously, I had a cheeseburger, but it was delicious all the same! I never have understood why people enjoy eating seafood by the ocean… like yeah, your fish was just swimming in that water you’re looking at. Enjoy. Hahaha, but anyways, dinner was great! We decided that since we had about another hour and a half left we would walk around the town. Supposedly there was a castle in the middle of town, so we went out to find that. One our way, we stopped at this really old church and checked out the cemetery. Graveyards in Ireland are way more interesting and less sad than in the States, I’ve decided. So we took some pictures, then continued the search for the castle. Once we found it, we wondered why we even went looking for it in the first place. It was like a big, square, stone building that is now made into a wine museum (which, unfortunately was closed). Despite our disappointment with the “castle”, we took a couple pictures and then headed back for the bus. We may or may not have grabbed a small scoop of farm-made Irish ice cream on the way there. Probably leaning more towards may have :)

It was definitely a great day, and I got to know some of the girls a little better, which was nice. They are so great, I’m very lucky to have found good friends over here! Plus, the weather was cooperative (aka, NO STEADY RAIN) so that already made for a good start to the day. Other than that, I am supposed to get internet in my room in the next 24-48 hours or so, so I will be able to update this more often because it won’t require so much effort to get to wireless! Here are some pics of my Kinsale adventure! Enjoy :)

On the bus!

Serious decision making :)

Sooo many buildings crammed into one space!


Our sweet ride! The road train!

All crammed in, but still all smiles :)

The famous courthouse

Kinsale Bay from the "million dollar stretch"

Me in Charles Fort entrance!


Such a HUGE fort!

Mini photo-op, of course.

So beautiful! I LOVE THE OCEAN ♥

Me touching the Atlantic from this side of the world!!!

Love it.

Kinsale Harbor! Reminds me of Sackets a little :)

That old little church

So "Ireland"

The castle...

Love this adorable window!

All of us, except Kacie in a phonebooth, haha!


Will write again soon, love you all!

♥ Danielle Lynn