So today was Kildare day. The night before I was out a bit late so I ended up being late for my train by one minute. That was ok. I could take a later train. This actually saved me money because I could eat breakfast at the hotel which was included in my room fee. I also was able to get some postcards done. Well I aimed then for the 1110 train and hit the 1130 train or something like that. It was about an hour ride to Kildare from Dublin.
I don’t think any of my family was from Kildare. I only wanted to go there because my Grandma lived on Kildare St. in Chicago. I thought it would be cool to visit the place which my grandma’s street was named after for the 23 years of my life. After researching the city I realized that Kildare held the Irish National Stud Farm. This is the place where race horse winner are kept and bred. Seeing as I am a horse person I HAD to go there now.
Once I got there I wasn’t sure where I needed to go. I could see St. Brigid’s Cathedral which I knew was in about the opposite direction of the Stud Farm. So I started heading towards the opposite direction. I started heading over a bridge that led over the train tracks to the neighborhood part of town. Somehow I knew this was not the right way. So I headed back towards the train station. Luckily, there was a lady pushing a baby stroller so I figured that she was safe to talk to.
“Excuse me,” I asked, “Can you tell me how to get to the National Stud?”
“Sure, head into town and there will be signs posted to tell you where to go.” She replied.
“Ok, Thank you very much.” I answered.
“Your welcome dear.”
Ha…she called me dear! Awesome.
So off I went towards the center of Kildare Town. I finally saw some signs posted and started walking towards the National Stud. I walked. And walked. I walked through the town. Over a highway. Through a country. Though a farm. Through another farm. Until….NATIONAL STUD. JAPANESE GARDEN. Horray. I finally made it after about 2 miles of walking. People must of thought I was nuts. Oh well they will never see me again.
I went into the grounds and handed my ticket to the lady. I had prepaid for it over the Internet back at home. She looked at it and said, “Is this all you have?” I said, “Yes. This was my email. I printed it off.” She said, “oh….I thought that you would have more.” I said, “Is there a problem? Do you need to see identification?” She pulled out a binder and TADA there was the email with my name on it. They also had a record of it. I thought that it was so cool. I was in Ireland before I even knew it. She gave me a map and pointed me towards the different directions.
I decided out of the two gardens and the horse farm to start with the Japanese Gardens. It was suppose to be about a man’s journey through life. It had a guide so I walked through it first with the guide without taking any photos. Then I decided that a good project would be to go through the gardens and try to portray the story’s concept in my photos. I think in the end I did a pretty good job. We’ll see when others judge it.
I then headed out towards the Stallion Paddocks. I stopped at the museum where I learned a couple of new things about horses and horse racing. I use to not be a big fan of horse racing. I have heard too many stories of horses being abused because of horse racing. However the museum and farm saw the horse and racer as a team. They respected both the horse and the racer. It was actually pretty neat to read on. The museum was not only informative but hands on. You could put a bridle on a “horse” (a plastic horse head). You could weigh yourself and see if you were jockey material (sometime I chose to skip out on). And you could watch some of the National Stud winning horses in their glory.
After the museum, I headed out to see the winners themselves. The one that stuck out in my head the most was Vintage Crop. He won a race right in the straightaway. It was amazing to watch on the tv. He was maybe 5th or 6th (I’ll look it up to be sure) and he pulled in the 1st within the last few seconds of the race. Amazing. So there he was. Standing in his paddock. One hoof folded back and his ears lazily laid back on his neck. I had to laugh a little because it was like an old football player done with his prime days. Now he was just sittin’ back relaxing on his couch watching his reruns. Only the horse was napping.
I also saw the mares and foals. One was a tiny fellow in Nursery One. I figured that he must be relatively new since he was still in a nursery with his mom alone. The other ones were in a paddock of maybe 5 moms and babies. I have pictures so check it out. One of the moms brought the baby pretty close to the fence where I was standing. It was kinda funny because all of the foals pretty much stayed with their moms. Anywhere their moms went they went. This one foal that was close by would wander a little bit farther away from his mom. His mom would look up from her grazing to check on him every so often. He actually came up close to the fence where I stood. It was pretty cool.
Next to the mare and foal paddock was the miniature horse paddock. There was a horse in there by the name of Marge. So I took a picture of her and said that we shared a name. We also seem to share a hairdo considering hers was a mess…so was mine I think.
It started to rain a bit so I headed back to the main office. I forgot my raincoat for my camera and didn’t want to get my camera soaked. I stopped in the second garden to take some photos before headed back totally. By the time I got to the main office it was pouring. I didn’t know what to do because I had to head back to the train station. I didn’t care about me necessarily. I had a raincoat. It was my camera I was more concerned about. I went into the gift shop to see if they had a poncho or a plastic sheet or something. Luckily there was a cheap plastic poncho so I bought it and covered my camera and camera bag with it. I then started on my 2 mile in the pouring rain back to the train station. I am sure that everyone looked at this idiot foreigner walking through Ireland’s countryside with soaked pants in the pouring rain. Once I got to town I was going to skip St. Brigid’s Cathedral but figured, you’re only in Ireland once…go for it. So up I went. I didn’t take any pictures because my camera was tucked safely away in its plastic and it was still pouring. After walking the small grounds of the church I headed to the train station. It was about 30 minutes before I got onto the train and headed back to Dublin. I was cold and wet. I probably looked like an idiot. But that is ok.
I called mom and the fam and then headed back to the hotel and then to eat. Another night of drinking and sleeping.
Till tomorrow…
Meg
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