Church Climbing and Rock Kissing

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For those of you receiving email updates about my blog from subscribing when I was in Papua New Guinea, I'm now in Ireland! I figured I would keep the blogging going. My brother, David, is doing a master's program in Edinburgh, Scotland, and so I figured I would go spend a week in Ireland before heading over to Edinburgh for Christmas.
If you aren't interested in non-PNG blogs, then I recommend unsubscribing from the email list.

First impression of Ireland: holy green. Ireland certanly lives up to is reputation of being green. I noticed the grass as we were landing in the plane. Everything is growing. Trees and even steel bridges and sidewalks have all manner of green lichens and mosses growing bountifully. In the moss on the trees ferns can sometimes be found sproutng. After being in Ireland for about 3 hours, I found out why it is so green - so much rain. The rain poured down as I walked through downtown Cork. Thankfully, I was expecting this and was prepared with a rain jacket, rain pants, waterproof boots, and a raincover for my pack. I learned my lesson from 3 straight days of ran in Sydney. Though it's raining, at least it's warmer than home - in the balmy 40s.

My adventures for the first day included climbing 40 meters up increasingly-smaller staircases in St. Anne's Church, past the bells and up to the top of the clocktower. This gave me an incredible 360 degree view of the city. It was also incredibly windy - gusting up to probably 50 mph. During my ascent of the final stairway, I was slightly hindered by four pigeons as they watched my progress. The bells and staircases showed much evidence of their habitation. I was even able to ring the bells in the tower. Later in the evening, I went walking for several kilometers, all the way to Cork City Gaol (Jail). The architechure and everything about the building is so much different than any US city I have been in or even Australia. You can tell that the city evolved over hundreds of years. Roads wind everywhere and some are incredible narrow, though that doesn't seem to discourage Irish drivers from driving like their insane. Overall, I would venture to say the Irish people are more friendly than Americans, as a whole, until they get behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Today I went to Blarney, only about 9 km from Cork. Blarney Castle is the seat of the world-famous Blarney stone. My adventures for the day included climbing the 100 stairs to the top of the castle and kissing the Blarney stone (and thereby bequeathing the gift of eloquence upon myself), exploring most of the Castle grounds, and walking about downtown Blarney. The castle itself is very impressive: rather tall and thin as castles go, but I was able to walk through the entire castle and see what remained of bedchambers, great halls, the kitchen, storage, and defensive areas. On the very top battlements (probably 50 meters above the ground) is where the Blarney stone lies, embedded within the wall. To kiss it, one must lie on their back, and lean down (while someone braces their legs). This is not the most flattering pose in which to kiss something for the first time, but it gets the job done.

The castle grounds contained other ruins, such as an ice house, a lime kiln, and stables. The most entertaining for me was the arboretum and pinetum (an arboretum for pine, spruce, and fir trees). Trees across the entire property where labeled and many exotics grew. As mentioned previously, things are very green, especially in the manicured gardens. I spent a good three hours just walking around, to Blarney lake, along the Close Garden, and through a variety of natural stone structures, some of which were supposed to be inhabited by the elusive Blarney witch.

Of course, no trip to Blarney would be complete without visiting Blarney Woollen Mills - a large spinning and weaving mill with the largest Irish giftshop in the world. The whole trip (a 7 Euro bus fare, and 10 Euro admission to the Castle grounds) was VERY worth it. Being that it is winter, there were hardly any tourists about. I was by myself almost the entire day, and it was more enjoyable that way.

Interesting cultural eccentricities that I have so far noticed:
Tires (like on a car) are spelled "tyres" and pajamas is spelled "pyjamas".
Every major sign is in Gaelic and then in English. I had just assumed that English would be dominant.
The Irish people whom I have met so far like to swear... A LOT.
WiFi is much more abundant than in Australia (or PNG, obviously). Even the city buses I have ridden have free WiFi onboard.

Tomorrow afternoon I head to Killarney on the western coast. There is another castle there, as well as Killarney National Park.

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Comments

[Samantha]

:)
I love that you're blogging again. I had no idea you were in Ireland. You write exceptionally well. & you are kind of funny... Enjoy the rest of your trip!