Put a Cork in it!

Because once you've kissed the Blarney stone, you receive the gift of gab!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Sara, Steve, and I got up rreeeaaalllllllllllyyyy early Saturday morning (5 am) to head down to Cork.  We hailed a taxi to Heuston station for our 7 am train.  The train ride took us through beautiful countryside for 3 hours; Sara and Steve fell asleep... I didn't.  Anyway, we got to Cork and walked to the bus station where we saw three of our classmates who had been in Cork and were leaving for Tralee.  We saw them off and then hopped on our bus to Blarney.  Once we got to Blarney (which is an extremely small town) we grabbed a quick bite to eat, paid our admission fee, and started exploring!  Steve and I crawled through the "cavern" to get into the dungeon... it was not pleasant. 

We got back out, thankfully, and headed up the teeny-tiny spiral staircase inside the castle (sorry, no pictures because it was too darn scary!).  The castle was set up in an interesting way.  It had two spiral staircases and every room had a doorway off of one of the staircases.  We stopped in most of the rooms but finally made our way to the top of the castle where the Blarney stone was!  Well I had no idea we were there already, but sure enough, there it was!  I kissed it first :)  It's really weird.  There are two men there - one to help/hold you and one to take your picture.  You have to lie on your back, hold the rail, and shift your head and weight down and back over the gap to kiss the stone.  It was fun, though!  (I bought the picture, by the way... duh!)

We climbed back down, passing through a few more rooms.  I think the most interesting was called the Murder Hole: in the event of attackers, there was a hole in the ceiling of the entrance way and the people inside the house could get up above the intruders and either throw things on them or pour burning oil on their heads.  OUCH.

We went outside, and because it was SUCH a beautiful day, we laid out on the grass and rested for half an hour in the sun.  Then when it got cloudy again, we got up and walked into the mystical garden they have on the grounds.  It was weird... stuff about witches and druids .... We didn't go to the Blarney house (I'm not sure what's there).  We left and went shopping at Blarney Woolen Mills - listen to me: if you're ever in Blarney, take 2 hours to shop at that store.  It's huge and awesome.  I was finally able to find some items to buy for my family.  There was also a Waterford section in the store... it was beautiful.  There was a Waterford cake topper that I have never seen before and wanted really badly but it was 100 euros and so I decided against it. 

We finally got out of there and rounded the corner to its very own restaurant.  I had beef and guinness pie... tasted exactly like beef stew, but who am I to say?  We hopped on the train back to Cork, walked around the city center for a little bit, then got back to the train station to ride back to Dublin.  We got back in Dublin around 11 pm, took a taxi back to campus through the crowds (Westlife had just finished a concert at Croke), and hopped in bed... because we were off on an adventure to Howth the next morning!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Sara, Steve, and I (this blog's web address is eerily appropriate) left not quite as early Sunday to head to Howth.  We could actually ride the bus to the DART station because it was 10 am.  Thankfully, we found the DART and bought our tickets in time because the train to Howth was leaving in 1 minute!  After about 30 minutes on the DART, I smelled it - ocean air!  Salt!  fish!  I could've closed my eyes and felt at home... except it was 60 degrees.  It was not wonderful weather like the week before, but it was good enough for us.

We stopped first at the market, where of all things I bought Italian pesto from the Italian man.  However, it was delicious and I wanted it.  Sara got this beautiful raspberry white chocolate cupcake from the market.  The fresh fruits and vegetables looked scrumptious, but we had nowhere to put them so we didn't get anything.  We walked out to the end of the first pier, and on our way back, guess what we saw -

SEALS!!!  Oh they were grand.  A little boy and his mother were feeding them, so they were all gathered at the corner of the pier and one of them was slapping his "arm" on the water.  Steve got so excited!  Once they weren't being fed, though, they tired of us.  So we left.

We walked around the seaside part of Howth for a little bit, trying to find somewhere to eat lunch.  We found a little tea room, ate a hearty lunch, and headed off for the cliff walk.  It was breathtaking up there on the cliffs. If it hadn't been so cloudy/rainy, we could've seen even farther than we did. 

Trust me, that water is not as close as it seems, nor is that cliff as gentle as it seems.  The signs were almost insulting to the intelligent mind - as if we couldn't figure that out!  I am actually holding on for dear life.  We got to the summit where we could see Howth Head's lighthouse and the southern tip of Howth, and headed back on the upper cliffs towards town.  By now it was raining steadily.  We got back into town, walked out onto the other end of the pier, got caught in DRENCHING rains, and hurried to Beshoff Bros. for what they said was the No. 1 fish and chips.  I'd have to agree.  We ate it on the train, but it was sooo yummy.  Makes me want to go back!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Today was a bank holiday in Ireland, so we didn't have classes.  I also didn't have any excursions planned because the last week wore me out!  So I slept in, got some readings for class done, went grocery shopping, took a nap, got the rest of my work done, did my laundry, ate some pasta with my new pesto, and finally got these blogs up to date!  YAY!  It's been a nice lazy day, but now that it's almost midnight here and class starts back tomorrow, I'm going to call it a night.  Hope you've enjoyed my retellings of my journeys!

Shelley