July 16th - Kissing the Blarney Stone underneath some liquid sunshine

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(I should have proper wifi tomorrow so pictures will go up on the later blogs... it drives me insane when I can't add them because it would take 30min to do one photo.)

I'm writing half of this entry sitting in a stable at Blarney Castle. I don't mind mist, I don't mind rain, but I do mind downpours and what they do to my camera.

Anyway, just getting to Blarney was amusing. I had purchased my bus ticket online and the machine on the bus was having nothing of it. It took the bus driver, a bus director and some head honcho guy from inside the bus station to get it to work. Ahhhhh, even funnier when you realize by booking online I saved maybe 50 cents. I laugh at my frugality.

Blarney Castle is more impressive than I expected. I mean, it's still quite touristy, but it it maintains its charm more than I expected it to, and it has a lot of other nice things on the grounds which make it a lot more interesting than just kissing a stone.

The walk to the castle was cute. A saw a field of cows (yay) and a whole bunch of tree cosies. Yep, they are exactly what you think - cosies for tree trunks. Not quite sure why they have them, but they are unique I'll give them that.

Even though I got there early there was already quite a line to go up to the stone. Quite the cramped climb - very narrow passages, low ceilings and a spiralling stone staircase that is the narrowest and tallest I've been in. They had this thick rope down the entire thing to pretty much pull yourself up the continuous turn.

While climbing it started to mist. It does make for a nice landscape. Grey and green... a whole lot of grey and green.

Kissing the stone was anticlimactic as I expected. *shrug* it's a piece of the wall, what more is there to say? I will say it's neat that you have to lay down on your back, shuffle to the edge and lean your neck back to kiss it upside down.

Next up was the Poison Garden - where you're not to taste, smell or touch... go figure. It was mostly things like castor oil, opium poppies, marijuana etc but it had a few cool things like a mandrake..?! The name is a real thing?? (Harry Potter reference y'all. They had wolfsbane too or whatever it's called.)

The downpour then began so I'm sitting in their cafe... which is in a stable, drinking some tea.

*interlude*

Ok, back at the hostel now - I'll continue. The rain let up to a light drizzle so I chanced continuing my walk. The Rock Close was a nice little stroll - seeing the witch folklore, the wishing stairs and a nice little waterfall. I also met a few gardeners who were all happy to have a chat... particularly about the weather. They kept referring to it as "liquid sunshine" which is my absolute favourite way of referring to rain. So cheery.

I continued along to do the lake walk... which oddly enough brings you into the forest much more than it does the lake. The downpour started again while I was in the forest but it was so thickly covered that I didn't get wet - it was amazing to listen to... the patter of the rain. There were also zero tourists around, so for a solid half hour all I heard was bird songs and rain. Beautiful.

I finally got to the lake and thankfully the rain had died down to just a heavy mist. I watched some birds and a family of swans. As I started my walk back to the castle the heavens opened up once more and this time there was no forest to protect me. Of course, I say to myself 'ah at least it's not raining sideways like it did in Northern Scotland!'

...

Not two minutes later you can guess what happened. I had rain up my rain coat sleeves, and one half of my pants were soaked completely thru. Even my waterproof bag didn't go unscathed. Oh Ireland. Too much liquid sunshine in one go.

Of course to reward myself for being a drowned rat, I went shopping once back in Cork. (Yes, the plan was to shop in my last two cities - London and Dublin - so no surprise I instead start in the first)

Supper was an amazing smoked haddock and hot salmon chowder. To die for. And then it was off to see "Pulses of Tradition" which was spectacular! They use an old church as a music hall and the acoustics are lovely. It's all tradition Irish music and dance. I absolutely loved it! Not only was the music great, but it was also incredibly funny. They introduced each piece with a little historical info, but also made jokes.

At one point they asked if there was anyone from outside Ireland. I stunned myself by saying Canada (after the Texans screamed afternoon some drunk guy from Pittsburgh half screamed half fell into the aisle... ahem). I was the like 'Canada' *littlebabywoo* so of course the guy starts ribbing me for being the ultimate Canadian... waiting until everyone else was done before basically going 'excuse me'.

This turned into a 5 min convos about our politeness and I just wanted to die hahaha. He asked how I liked the weather and I said I didn't mind the rain... he did the biggest over exaggeration of horror haha. "Ok. Ok I know you have to be polite and all... but really now." I said it was sunny and hot when I left Ottawa, so what's a little rain. "Ok. I think some of us are going to have to show you how to be less polite my dear Canadian lady."

He then asked me about Parliament Hill (what??) and asked me about Rob Ford. I quickly jumped in that that was Toronto and not us. "Ohhhh you jumped over that one and were quick to blame them! Not so polite when it comes to Ford then!"

Ahhhh, the joys of speaking up lol.

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