from EPIC fail to epic views: our road to Kinsale

This morning Bill planned to go to “EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum” at 10am, and the rest of us were awake and ready enough to join him. I still wasn’t feeling great, which wasn’t helped by a moderate walk and then a not-so-healthy breakfast, but eventually I got my protein via the egg part of a McDonald’s egg mcmuffin and considered that my best attempt. We walked a little further to the museum and began our journey through the story of Ireland’s history of population movement.

Unfortunately we found the EPIC museum to be a real disappointment. The rooms didn’t tell a story in any discernible order, and chronologically really would have been best. There were large school groups trying to get through and overall the whole place just felt kind of chaotic and pointless. We quickly decided to speedrun our way through the remainder of it and emerge, at least for me, worse for the wear. So I caught a taxi with the boys back to the hotel and Bill took off to pick up our rental car.

I enjoyed some much-needed downtime and then ordered us takeaway lunch from an Italian spot on the next block, which was easy and fulfilling. I may have purchased a few American-style cookies from a place called “Yum Yum Cookie Monster” as well. The boys and I checked out of our rooms and hung out in the lobby to eat lunch and play video games at the two arcade machines. I had a great time making Ben play the 90s version of Super Mario with me.

After some delays Bill eventually pulled up in front of our hotel in a big Volvo SUV, and we all climbed in with the strange feeling of being just us in a car together for the first time in eight months. I’ve been dreading the wrong-side-of-the-road component of our travels for weeks. But Bill carefully navigated his way out of Dublin with me only panicking once or twice, which he preemptively forgave me for. Once we were out of city limits it was much more comfortable with long stretches of open road and only the occasional confusing roundabout.

During the three-hour drive we made just one stop for provisions, at the Portlaoise (I dare you to try to pronounce it) Tesco Extra. It was fun to be in a very suburban non-touristy shopping center and to work our way through a superstore, even if the Irish offerings are essentially the same as the British. Predictably we got some interesting snacks, including “vanilla latte” flavored Oreos.

We got everything we needed (and didn’t need) and then got back on the road for a last hour of driving, which gave way from busy motorway to quieter winding country roads. The landscape is exactly what you’d expect here: lushly green with rolling hills and lots of sheep. Honestly it reminded me a lot of wine country back home.

We made it all the way to our destination of Kinsale just before our 7pm dinner reservation, and dropped our things at the hotel quickly before walking the short two-block distance to Max’s Seafood Restaurant. We had a really excellent meal that included James’s fantastic choice of Irish pork belly and Ben’s selection of lamb cutlets. Tired from a long day on the road, we skipped dessert and took just one detour on the walk back to see the colorful sunset sky over the harbor. Then back to our rooms to relax a bit before bedtime, with my enthusiasm for cookies a strong sign that I’m feeling more and more like myself each day.