Ireland - Cork & Blarney

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Ireland - Cork & Blarney

Tuesday 18th March

Reagan woke up during the night with a temperature so I gave her some panadol and sat up with her for a while, although she dropped back off to sleep pretty quickly and slept through the night with no problem. I woke up about 4:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep so mucked around uploading photos and writing my diary until about 6am, then Reagan woke up and climbed into bed with me for a snuggle and to “make spoons” as she calls it, and next thing I knew it was 8:30am. I woke feeling refreshed but Reag was very sleepy and grumpy until she got out of bed and came down to breaky then she perked right up. We headed out for a walk then went and checked out and to head off for some sightseeing.

It took us about 15mins to get to Blarney Castle from Cork and as trite as it may be, it was worth the visit as the grounds themselves are gorgeous and it was a bit of fun to kiss the Blarney Stone.

Our driver to Blarney was called Matty and he had definitely kissed the Blarney Stone I think, what a nice guy he was and I don’t think he drew a whole breath the whole way out there. He’s been our favourite driver so far, and told us all about the area and the castle and his daughter is Australia etc. Hilarious sense of humour. You don’t need a tour guide in Ireland - just grab a cab! Everyone over here seems to love to take the mickey out of the Yanks, and he likes to tell his American passengers that he is studying at university for his degree in traffic management so he get a job holding one of those STOP and GO signs that the road maintenance workers use. He says the looks on their faces are pretty funny and they look at each other but are too polite to ask him if he’s kidding. Reagan thought he was tops.

Blarney Castle is actually set in the village of Blarney and I wish we had more time to stay there overnight. I would have skipped Cork (which is just a city) and I prefer the smaller places, they seem much more welcoming. There is plenty to see in Blarney and they have huge woollen mills with hand-woven clothing and Manchester. Blarney Castle itself is set in huge grounds filled with oaks, beech trees, limes and daffodils, there are picnic benches, horses grazing and not only is there the castle itself to see, but there is Blarney House and a few other places such as Rock Close. Worth a visit.

The castle itself is not as amazing inside as I thought it would be after seeing Kilkenny Castle but we did enjoy looking at it and the view from the top (glorious). When we reached the top it’s like an open parapet, with stone walls running around the edge. There is a man who lays you down on your back and holds you as you bend backwards and kiss the stone (as its over open ground at the top of the castle) and it was fun. I didn’t think Reagan would do it, but she did! She was quite chuffed with herself and I was proud of her for giving it a go.

We wandered through the ground for a while then headed back to catch our train to Kilkenny.

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