I Kissed the Blarney Stone

One of my bunkmates was rustling around as she is leaving for the airport early this morning, so I ended up getting up early. Yesterday I left for the bus station and took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in suburbia, so after losing an hour, I found the right road and got to the bus station only to find that I had missed the bus to Blarney by just a few minutes. I went in search of an internet cafe, found one and spent the time catching up on email before the next bus left for Blarney.

The bus ride to Blarney was thankfully short and when we got off the bus, the castle was almost in front of us. Admission was just 2.50 pounds Irish for students (which I am!). I managed to walk to the top of the casetle, with lots of little stops along the way as many little rooms branch off from the circular stairwell. The main rooms in the centre of the castle have lost their floors over the years however, so the centre is the height of the castle, but they have marked what each room was at each floor and you can still see the grand fireplaces in most of the rooms. It must have been quite a castle in its day.

Kissing the Blarney stone was not difficult at all. You sit on a blanket with your back to the wall and and older gent holds your arms and guides you to the handrails, while you bend over backwards and kiss the stone. I got some guy in the line behind me to snap my photos.

The grounds of Blarney Castle were amazing. For whatever reason, there were tons of druid ruins just next to the castle such as a set of wishing steps, sacrificial altar, witches kitchen, druid cave, fairy circle. The flowers and blossoming trees transform the forest into a magical place. I could just imagine the knights and royalty passing through the woods and its ancient trees.

After returning from Blarney, I hung out at the mall for an hour next to the bus station, then came home and began watching another movie, this one called Trial by Jury. While watching it we gained another bunkmate, a German girl, Corinna who had been working outside of Tipperary on a stud farm helping with the horses and children. We watched the rest of the movie while chatting, then headed into the city centre to find a pub, and had a couple of pints while nattering like two goats. I know I can talk a lot, but she was quite a chatterbox too! We had a few laughs, watched part of Ally McBeal, much to the annoyance it seemed of some men who had just come in to watch sports. After coming back to the hostel, we hung out in the lounge, watching another movie - The Beach, with an Austrailian, a Frenchman, and my new German friend, Corinna. Quite surreal to be watching The Beach in another country, surrounded by backpackers...if you've seen the movie, you get my drift. The rude South African guy stopped by, completely hammered, so most everyone ignored him and he went off to bed.

I'm catching the afternoon bus to Kilkenny so have the morning free, although I don't think I'll go anywhere as I don't want to have to walk all the way back to get my stuff or drag it all with me. So I'll probably watch yet another video. I'd like to go see the Cork City Jail (it's a tourist thing) but from the look of the map, it's quite far away on the other side of town. I got to see Blarney Castle, which was my main reason for coming to Cork.