Getting locked in a pub...
That was one of my goals in Ireland. Find a small town bar and be there at the end of the night when they shut the doors and lock you in. Evelyn had never experienced this, nor did the concept of last call before 11 PM make sense to her.
We got into Kinsale in the evening, later than planned, as is the common theme in our road trips. We had dinner (at a pub of course), and then set out to check out a few local establishments. I had managed to convince Evelyn by this point in our trip that half pints of Guinness just made sense, it allowed us to go to more places. Guinness isn't something you can drink too quickly, and when we were constrained by closing time at the pubs, we wanted to check out as many places as we could.
So after two half pints in Kinsale, it was getting late and we had another pub on our list to try, old and historic. We started walking, following the map, and realized that the pub was quite a bit further than we thought. I was worried we wouldn't make it in before 11 and once I explained to Evelyn this concept of the pubs closing and that we then would be out of luck with no more Guinness, we agreed that the safest option was get into a pub asap. We made it and enjoyed a few more beers with some interesting Irishmen and learned a bit about the politics of the tax incentives for corporations in Ireland.
The next night in Wexford, we managed to get locked in again, this time in a locals’ pub. The shades were drawn, doors locked, and everyone settled in for a few more. We chatted with the bartender as he poured himself a beer. My trip was complete.