Cork City and Blarney

For some reason I was not able to sleep again. It was frustrating. I woke up early at around 0545 in order to get to Heuston Station on time for my 0700 train ride to Cork City. The Luas took me to the station.

It was really neat to see the scenery change as I left Dublin. It was really pretty to finally see some countryside of Ireland. There are a lot of farms with horses, cows and sheep. They all had babies too. After a couple of minutes I fell asleep. I woke up to a couple sitting across from me. I fell back asleep and then woke up to see more country. There were mountains in the background and everything was just so green. All in all it took 3.5 hours to get to Cork.

When I arrived at Cork I was amazed at how freezing cold it was compared to Dublin. It was also drizzling. It was at that moment that it hit me as I stared at the pubs across the street. I forgot my itinerary back at the hotel. I had no idea where to go. I had the directions written on the paper. So I went back inside and asked the man behind the ticket window where I go to catch the bus to blarney. He told me to go to the bus station by taking Bus 5 which was right outside the station. I went to the station and realized I had just missed that bus and needed to wait another 20 (I think it was) to get the next one. I wasn't going to wait that. So I decided just to walk towards what looked like the center of town. Soon signs told me where to go to get to the bus station. Awesome. I finally made it and then picked up a timetable to figure out when the Blarney bus was leaving and I had to buy a ticket. I had no clue what I was doing so again I asked for help. The machine was not taking my credit card so I used some of my Euros I brought with. I then went to the bus and found that I had an hour to kill before the bus came around.

To kill time, I decided to explore a little bit. I found St. Patrick's St. which is the main shopping area. I needed to get some coffee in me so I started searching. What did I find but a Gloria Jean's Coffee! Awesome. Now I could order something and not look half stupid when doing so. Not that I do anyway but it was familiar. I then found the English Marketplace. The English Marketplace is kinda like a tunnel. There is a doorway from St. Patrick's St. and leads you inside the building. That is one of three entrances. The other two are on Princes St. and Grand Parade. It is a covered market. When you get to the center it opens up to the ceiling. There, several different meat shops are around you. They had a ton of fresh meat. There were other shops there as well for fruit, wines, etc. A cafe was on the second floor.

I left that area through a different exit that when I came in (Grand Parade). To my luck, there was a tourist information shop where I was able to pick up another map. I walked around some more and then headed to the bus stop to get to Blarney.

The bus left at around 1130 and only took about 20 minutes to get to Blarney. From there I walked to the castle. Another stroke of luck, the lady gave me the student discount to get in rather than the adult saving me 2 Euro. Awesome. As I walked along the path that lead to the castle, I couldn't help but think about all the stories I heard about Blarney Castle and kissing the Blarney stone and all that jazz. I remember looking at pictures and thinking about how cool it would be to go there. Now, here I was, standing at Blarney Castle gardens. It was awesome. Alongside my right was a little river running. You could hear the water running as it went over the rocks and all. To my right was a lawn of green grass with some flowers and trees here and there. Along with the water, you could hear birds. These birds aren't like the ones back home either. They were very song like. In front of me was the castle on a slight hill.

Throughout the path to and through the castle, there were boards telling the history and guiding you through what you were seeing. I learned a lot from these. Blarney Castle was one of the strongest fortress there was. The English had a hard time taking it on. One time they tried to come up to the castle as guests in order to get inside. However, the house rule was if the Master of the House was not home, no guests were allowed. At the time the English came calling, the Master was not around. The English were refused entrance and the Lord of Blarney at the time managed to escape.

The Blarney stone story is interesting too. Not that the stone has anything to do with it. Actually I do not know the story of the actual stone. Just of the word "blarney". Queen Elizabeth I wanted the Lord of Blarney at the time to give Blarney to the crown. The Lord refused but not outright. More a less he complimented her and flattered her and smooth talked her. Every time she'd ask, he do the same. Finally, exasperated, Queen Elizabeth said, "All that is a bunch of Blarney...it is getting us no where." And thus the birth of a new word.

The castle was very neat to explore. It kind of reminded me of an adult's jungle gym. You could climb and peek in where ever you wanted. It was really fun. I went into the dungeon area but decided to stop because it was slippery, wet and really really dark. Everything was really damp inside the castle. I was afraid that I was going to slip down the stairs that spiraled up to the top of the castle. Every so often, there would be a room to go into. Some gave explanations as to what they were. Others did not. Some looked like they were just there. Again, I went everywhere in that castle. I don't know if some of the areas were off limits. I figured that if they didn't want people going in a certain area, they would rope it off. I finally made it to the top....time to kiss the Blarney stone.

However, I heard some rumors about the stone. I heard that locals would urinate on the stone and then laugh at the tourists who kissed it. I heard this from two separate people. So on the way to the stone I debated. To kiss or not to kiss. Along the way they had more signs telling tourists about the people who kissed the stone and stories about the stone itself. I got to the stone and looked at it. "Next please." the guy said at the stone. "I don't think I want to do it." I said, "But I'll take a picture." "Sure, take all the pictures you want." I then took a picture and sat on top of the castle. I watched everyone else kiss that stone. I tried to reconcile it in my brain. I finally decided that I could pseudo kiss the stone. I'll go through the motions but not actually kiss it...actually I can Eskimo kiss the stone. That would do the trick. So I went down to the main room of the castle where I could climb back up. I got to the top and said, "I decided I'll do it." "That's a lovely lady," the guy said. I reached down and touched my nose to the stone and got back up. TA DA! Did it without doing it....alright.

I made my way back down and did some walks around the garden. As I was walking I realized that I now lost my timetable for the bus ride back home. Luckily, Ireland has the timetable pretty much written on all of the bus stops. So I was ok. I continued on my walk. I decided to take the wooded area around the gardens because they had several paths. It was really neat. It wasn't like the forests back home. The trees were different. Some had different root structures, but all of them had a lot of moss growing on it.

After my walk I decided to head back to Blarney to find out when the bus left. I ended up just missing the bus again. I had another hour to kill in Blarney. Up the hill from the bus station was a church so I decided to check it out. It was the Church of the Immaculate Conception. After spending some time shooting there, I headed back down to the bus station and down the street. There was another church on the other side which was the Church of the Resurrection. Here there was a cemetery so I did some shooting there. Then it was time to take the bus back to Cork City.

Once I got back to Cork City I stopped in the English Market to eat at that cafe. It was really good food. After shooting some photos there, I started my walk up to St. Finnbarre's Cathedral. Another stroke of luck, they were closing in 5 minutes so they let me in free. I managed to take the photos I wanted and then left. I headed back to the City Centre to decide what to do next. I sat down for a bit in a Burger King while I looked at the map. I decided that I should check out University of Cork.

UCC is actually the Irish National University. It was about a mile from the City Centre. I actually took the long way there that had a lot of hills to climb but in the process I saw more of the residential Cork. The university was beautiful! It had old buildings next to new buildings, flowering trees, another little river running through it and the typical university atmosphere. I really liked it there. I sat down for a bit before heading back to my train to get back to Dublin.

Another 3.5 hour train ride and I was finally back in Dublin. When I got back to the Heuston Station, the Garda were talking to a group of kids. They had gotten in trouble about something. The one girl just kept laughing. Maybe she was nervous but I wouldn't have been laughing if I were here. I jumped on the Luas for the ride home.

It was a long day with a lot of walking. I hope I burned a lot of calories today because I feel sore. But I saw so much stuff. Blarney was definitely the highlight of the day. I will never forget that place and everything about it. It was really and awesome place.

Meg