Kilkenny has been one of my favorite stops so far. This town is just perfect. Great stores, food, young people, art, nightlife, not to mention the beautiful weather that we've had. Feels about 75 or 80 with a nice cool breeze. We drove into town from Cork yesterday. When we got to city centre, we were drawn to the Kilkenny Castle. We ventured through the castle on a salef guided tour, amazed at the sizes and amount of rooms this ancient castle held. We stayed in a little B&B about a 5 minute drive from down town. Went out last night and had a few beers at Andrew Ryan's Pub. They had live music, a cover band doing new age-ish rock. We shared a pizza in town that was pretty good. After we woke up and had yet another traditional Irish breakfast. At our B & B and sitting at our breakfast table was Joseph Sloane, an English artist. He spoke to us about the current exhibit he had in town and suggested we venture in. We ventured into town for an action packed day. Kilkenny is currently hosting an Art Exhibition in all different buildings all over town. There is every style of art as well. We saw watercolors on canvas, acrylic, sculptures, video installations, pencil drawings, wood turning, etc etc. We spent a good part of the morning walking around town enjoying all of the art and artists. Joseph Sloane is an artist that works strictly with bronze sculptures and it was really a pleasure to have him walk us through his exhibit and explain the meaning and inspiration of each piece. He also explained the process the metal goes through to become different textures, finishes etc. After the art, we drove out to Dunmore to see the country renown cave. We got an awesome student discount and had a guided tour for only 1€. We walked down over 700 steps into this gaping hole in the earth down to the caves front hall. It was at least 20degrees colder down there and very muggy. We ventured through many different cave rooms, witnessing million year old stalagmite and stalactite formations. We were awestruck, hearing the stories of how the cave is thought to be haunted. Hundreds of people had died in the cave from either asphyxiation or brutal Viking killings, their remains were discovered thousands of years later. After the chilling cave experience, we ventured back into town to see the Dominican Black Abbey, St. Candice's Cathedral, and the Roth House Museum. All of which were interesting and educational of the history the town of Kilkenny held. We got back on the road to head out to Waterford, where our ancestors are said to have come from. We are staying in a B&B called the Blenheim House, a large Georgian residence built c. 1763. It stands on 4 acres of lawns, shrubbery and a private deer park. After settling into our room in the historic home, we ventured into the town of Waterford to see what the town had to offer. Mostly everything is closed, except the pubs. The city resembles center city Philadelphia in the way it sits right on a river and its main drag runs right along the water, similar to Columbus Blvd. We are sitting in a pub called T&H Doolan's on George street enjoying our hundredth Guinness of the trip. (I may be slighty exaggerating, but then again I haven't counted)