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Published: August 6th 2007
On the train
On the train to Cork...VERY EARLY in the morning.First I want to thank everyone for their comments and emails regarding my last post. I think it is for the better to not have a child right now. One of us would have to quit school to work and we would rather finish school before we have children.
Second thanks for all the compliments on my writing. I like to think I got my storytelling skills from my Grandma Coleman (if you never met her you really missed out on some great stories--she could make a trip to the grocery store sound like an epic adventure). I can't tell stories verbally like she could but I do my best to write them.
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On Saturday the 23rd a group of us went on a tour to Cork and Blarney Castle. There were 10 of us in all and we had a lot of fun. Our tour guide was an older man who does the tours for fun rather than because he needs a paycheck. He was quite funny. We had to leave the dorms at about 6 am to catch our train so we agreed to meet outside at 5:50 AM. Two of girls from our group got home
from partying at 5:30!! They had enough time change their clothes and grab their cameras. It was fun on the train because they were still drunk. It took about 2 and 1/2 hours to get to Cork and we did a quick bus tour through the city and then arrived at Blarney Castle (yes that is where the Blarney Stone is).You have to go through a bit of the original castle grounds before you come upon the castle. The grounds were quite beautiful. The castle is one of the better preserved castle ruins I have seen so far. We looked in the dungeon (also used as a storeroom when not needed as a dungeon) before we went in the castle. The Blarney Stone happens to be at the very top of the castle. Unfortunately people back then were really short and tiny. The stairs are rock and uneven and it is a spiral staircase going up for about 4 to 5 stories. There were some handrails installed (which was a very good thing--I don't do well with heights OR small enclosed spaces). The castle is a major tourist attraction so it was quite busy and took us about 30-45 minutes
to get to the top. (Thank goodness there was another staircase to take you down or we would have never gotten to the top!!).
We finally reached the top!!! I think we annoyed all of the people around us...we took probably a 1000 pictures between us. I was the only one who did not kiss the Blarney Stone for several reasons-- 1) it is kind of gross to put your lips on a place that so many other peoples lips have been 2) you have to lay down and hang upside down while someone holds on to you to kiss it 3) I was already lightheaded because of the height-- not my cup of tea! I do have pictures of my friends doing it though! The way down was much easier-- the stairs had many landings and rooms off of it. We got to be in the murder hole!! That is were the inhabitants of the castle would pour boiling oil onto invaders. We even made the Australian guy who had been stuck behind us take a picture with us. He was still drunk from the night before so he didn’t put up much of a fight.
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Blarney Castle and Dungeon
The dungeon is on the lower right...you can see the gate. we went to Blarney Mansion- it was built in 1874 and is still inhabitable (though no one lives there). It did not open for tours until after we had to leave so we just got to see the outside of it. We wanted to see the Rock Close, which has some important druidic stones, but we did not have time. We will just have to go back sometime!!
Map link: http://www.travelblog.org/gmaps/map_4ae.html
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