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Published: March 7th 2008
Cork Gaol
The castle like entrance to Cork Gaol.On Friday morning, Siri, Carrie, Joy, and I rose before the sun to begin our trip to Ireland - first stop Cork and then on to Dublin. In Cork, we ventured up to our hostel only to discover that we couldn't check in until 3, but we could leave our luggage, so we grabbed what we needed and went to find the Cork Gaol. The gaol looked almost like a castle, from the outside anyway. Once inside, we found ourselves in a 20th century prison, complete with creepy manikins, both as jailers and prisoners. Our favorite prisoner was perhaps Mary McDonald, and this was only because the audio guide said, "Sleep Well, Mary McDonald" in a very creepy and final way. There was also a room that had preserved prisoners' writing on the walls from the 1920s, soon after which the jail was closed. At the end of our tour was a projection show that included manikins and singing - it was really strange. After the jail, we made our way back down into the main part of town and crossed the river to St. Fin Barre's Cathedral. Inside the cathedral, we went around trying to figure out what Bible story
Before entering
Preparing to go into Cork Gaol each set of stain glass windows told - they spanned the entire Old Testament and the ones behind the alter depicted the New Testament. The only ones we had trouble with were near the organ and we finally had to go look in a book to figure them out. On very tired feet, we made our way back to the hostel to our very cosy room and then back out again to dinner.
The next morning we made the pilgrimage to Blarney Castle. All that one normally hears about is the Blarney stone, which was great and we were all super excited to see and kiss it in the hopes of gaining eloquence. But the grounds of the castle are amazing! Once again the only way to get up in the castle was spiral staircases - the narrowest that I have been on yet. But at the top we were able to kiss the stone. On Storm's advice, we had gotten out their nice and early, in fact just as they were opening the gates. So we were the first to kiss the stone on March first - has to be good luck! After kissing the stone, we made our
Cork Gaol
20th century prison, complete with prison guard. way back down to ground level and explored the grounds. As well as caves, we found a rock close, a kind of garden/forest. There was a Witch's cave, a Druid's cave, a Druid circle, and a sacrificial alter. We took the opportunity of the beauty of our surroundings to have a photo shoot. We spent a good hour in the rock close taking pictures. Then we headed back to Cork to grab a bus to Dublin.
A 4 1/2 hour ride later, we arrived on the streets of Dublin, found our hostel, gave up on finding a cheap place to eat and made a grocery store run, and then prepared to go in search of some live Irish music. It almost turned out to be a fruitless search. The Temple Bar area, where live music can be found, was crowded beyond belief, it was a Saturday night. We had just about given up hope when we turned the corner and found O'Sullivan's. It wasn't too crowded, so we made our way in. The music was wonderful and everyone sang along. We heard everything from Johnny Cash to 'Leaving on a jet plane' to 'The Belle of Belfast City' to 'Molly
In Prison!
Carrie and I looked in a cell! Malone' - which is sung in a M*A*S*H* episode for all you M*A*S*H* fans. After throughly enjoying ourselves, we made the trek back to the hostel and called it a night. The next morning we were up bright and early to go on a tour of the Guinness Storehouse, where we spent a good chunk of the day. The place was huge! After that we wandered over to the Dublin Writer's Museum before going back to our hostel to collapse. On Monday we set off for the airport - which was an actual big airport, not what we were used to after flying RyanAir for so many months! - and then fly back to Nottingham to start another week.
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Mom
non-member comment
I love the witch stone! I'm sure that being the first to kiss the stone on March first is almost as lucky as kissing it on the 17th! It looks like you had another great weekend.