mickan in world

After thirty minutes in the air we hear a buzz in the speakers of the plane and the capten announces that "the plane is a bit broken" so we'll have to go back to Arlanda. Scary, but Fia and I clung to eachother and the trip back was eventless. After waiting two hours in the airport the capten announces that indeed the plane is broken, but it doesn't matter: we have back-up. And we leave. Before take-off they swap the hole crew and capten though. We are suspicious but atleast on our way.

 One night in Dublin. Staying in Isaaks hostel, going for a pint in Doyle's. Feeling happy and light and going to bed early. All the anticipation got to us and we slept deep and long.

After being a bit puzzled over where to go for our little two-day holiday we basicaly just set up a few requests. We wanted small (but not too small), close (but not too close), charachteristic and of course a desent pub life. One town that fit the description was Killkenny and so that's where we went.

We arrived in the afternoon and checked into our cozy hostel. Small, family run and with two precious dogs; what more can you ask? We procedeed to visit the famous castle and got a very interesting guided tour. The castle park was lovely and the castle smashingly posh. We could see ourselves living there any day.

After a pasta dinner we asked around and found out that Andrew Ryan's was the place to go for a pint in Killkenny. Indeed that wasn't easy to know, there were a few pubs to choose from. Once there we instantly got talking to the (very cute) bartender, with whom both me and Fia fell madly in love with after about three seconds (not really but why not?), and he asked us where we were from. Upon answering the question we found out that there was one other Swedish girl living in Killkenny and that she was the bartenders best friend.
Five minutes later I felt a tap on my shoulder and there was a blond haired, blue eyed girl, asking us if we might be the newly arrived Swedes. Eva turned out to be a real tresaure and we got introduced to most of the people in the bar. As the night fell we almost grew into locals at Andrew Ryan's and we even got our picture taken to be posted with the other locals in the ceiling over the bar.

There was a band playing; "The Swinging Bluecats" and on moving closer to the music we stumbled over two guys from Wicklow to whom we got talking. One of them was living in Killkenny so when the pub closed they took us with to the local night club and we danced the night a way. Had a real good time and I swear we were the last to bed in Killkenny that Tuesday night.

Wednesday we were up early, not voluntarily but because our roommates were. Noisy blokes, but nice. The sun was shining so we took a power walk around Killkenny and enjoyed the sunshine. The follow-up to that bit of exercise was climbing up in the tower of St. Candice's Catherdral and looking out over the city.

We had arranged to meet the Wicklow boys at 12 to go to the famous caves situated about 10km from Killkenny. Luckily for us they had a car so we saved bith money and effort. We got the tour of the caves, which was really interesting. We had a lovely guide, Michael, and learnt a lot about stones and caves in general. Also we learnt that the Vikings apperantly massacred a whole lot of poor Irish paysants in the cave and we got a bit of the blame for that; being the only Scandinavians and all.

the evening was spent in good company at Andrew Ryan's and with the fire place in the Pumphouse with the two Wicklow guys. I was a pleasant evening.

Now we're back in Dublin. Happy with our little holiday. Fia is looking at rooms on daft.ie and I'm excited about moving into my room tomorrow. Tonoght's Thursday, guess where we're going. Can't wait to spend another Thursday at the Celt!

I love you.