Today’s the day I have been waiting for for years! I finally get to go to the Blarney Castle! It is probably one of the most touristy, cliché things, but you have to do it in Ireland. That and the classic Cliffs of Moher, but don’t worry that’s still a little ways away. Anyway, I was so excited that even though, yes I was still tired from the short night’s sleep, I didn’t care I just wanted to get there! Our professors let us (made us?) do this voyage on our own to capture the full experience of learning to get somewhere by ourselves and all. We split into two groups for this one as well, an early group and a late group. I went in the early group and we met in the courtyard at 9:30. The 7 of us left a little later and started our walk to the bus station, which we thought was “just around the corner.” However, it was around multiple corners and down numerous blocks and it ended up taking us almost 40 minutes to get there. The bus to Blarney comes every hour on the half hour, like 9:30, 10:30, 11:30, etc. So we ended up speed walking into that place with maybe 5 minutes to spare. We sat down in our seats a minute before the bus pulled away. The bus ride lasted about 30 minutes, but we would’ve missed our stop if a nice, random Irishman didn’t politely tell us we needed to get off.

Walking through the gates, I could immediately see the castle in the distance. The walk up to the castle had enough picture stops along the way it was hard to hold back once we got there (just in case you couldn’t tell by my hundreds of pictures of Blarney at every possible angle). I thought it would be packed, especially since it was a Saturday and there was a chance of rain in the afternoon, but really we went at the perfect time. The base of the castle had really cool openings you could explore and beautiful gardens around it. We got to walk up different levels of the outside of Blarney and I was able to get some really nice shots (I think at least). The top part of the castle was more sudden than I was expecting. We reached the inside of it and immediately you walk into a hallway and you’re in line to kiss the Blarney Stone. The line wasn’t bad at all. I was expecting it to take a lot longer, but they did a good job moving it along. The waiting also didn’t seem as bad when I was constantly taking pictures through the slits in the walls or peeking into small rooms. The spiral staircase, however, did take a little bit of time. They should probably warn people of them first. The stone was smoothed after millions of feet have trudged up the steps and it was very narrow, which made them slippery and a little hard to climb. I didn’t realize until about halfway up that there was a rope that you could hold onto. My hands were a little occupied with holding the camera, but it was helpful when going up particularly narrow corners and the steps were basically nonexistent. Clearing the steps was a relief for most people, but we weren’t quite there yet. We circled the outside of the castle behind a wall before walking up a few steps and making it to the top level and in sight of the Blarney Stone. Now I saw how the line was moving at such a good pace. Once you get to the front, you drop all of your stuff and the man working there has you sit back and gently, but forcefully, pushes you back while you hold on to the rails and you half descend until you see the stone. Once you kiss the stone and they snap a picture, the man pulls you back up, hands you a ticket, and moves you right along with barely enough time to remember to grab your stuff. We tried to outsmart the system by taking pictures of each other so we wouldn’t have to buy theirs, but it all happened so fast. We ended up buying them anyway because those pictures didn’t turn out too well. But for kissing the Blarney Stone I think it was worth it! 

We made our way slowly back down exploring every nook and cranny in the castle. We, then, headed towards the gardens to check those out. The first garden we walked through was the Poison Garden. I felt like it was kind of eerie because it was a peaceful garden, but also kind of dark. There were plants there that I recognize from seeing in people’s yards back at home. And then plaques of stories stood next to some of the plants a few reading things like: The elderly were supposed to eat this when they reached a certain age or became ill as not to burden their children and grandchild, or Mothers would sometimes give this to their children. For what? I don’t remember, but it doesn’t sound too good. There were also two art pieces in the garden that were faces hanging from strings that were a little strange. We made our way to the Irish Garden next, which was a lot of green and some really interesting trees. The trees had vines running down the sides in odd patterns or were shaped in twisted angles.
The trail next led us down to the riverbank that we walked along for a little before turning back to the main part and exploring the caves next. The opening cut into the rock. It was like a funnel in that it got smaller the deeper you went, but that wasn’t very far. The back of it was kind of a pocket, but it was odd because the floor was covered with bird  wings, making us wonder  if one tried to  live back  here or if  something happened. We heard there was supposed to be a waterfall trail, but we didn’t find it and at that point we were already at the front of Blarney again and people were getting tired and hungry. I probably could have stayed another few hours exploring there was that much to see. Definitely worth taking as much time as possible there!

On the way out we spotted a little hut for ice cream and some food, so we went to take a look. There were these four metal spikes on the counter, which intrigued us. We began talking to the guy, who proudly told us these hot dogs were only found right there and explained that the spikes are used to toast and make holes in the middle of the rolls so the sausage can go inside them without spilling out the bottom. He showed us how you put the condiments in first then the sausage and it’s all perfectly spread out and easy to eat with one hand. He was quite the talker, making jokes the whole time and telling us stories. He asked where we were from and told us how he’s visited Seattle and Hawaii.
Besides trips, he had never left the town next to Blarney where he grew up.  After we ate in a park next to Georgie’s (the name of the food hut), we walked around the town to get back to the bus stop, afraid we’d miss the bus. We ended up being very early for this one. Once we gave the bus driver our tickets he informed us we were going the long way back and driving through other towns, but we all didn’t mind. I was excited seeing other places, even if we did just stay on the bus the whole time.

We got back into Cork with enough time to watch Ireland vs Belgium at a pub. Every single one was packed! People were crowding the sidewalks outside of the pubs to try to catch the match.  We were able to squeeze our way into one and somehow found a piece of standing room. It reminded me of just a few nights before when we stopped for an early dinner at a pub and Northern Ireland was playing. We wondered why there weren’t more people there to watch the game to which a man shrugged and simply replied, “They fly the British flag.” It makes sense, but it made me take a step back for a moment. This pub was the complete opposite. Everyone would cheer the moment an Irish player would touch the ball and curse every time they messed up or Belgium scored. After a few too many goals on Belgium’s side and a brawl in the street, we decided it was probably best to head home. We decided to go our separate ways back at the apartments. But I’m ok with that so I can catch up on some writing and began planning activities for tomorrow before going to bed. On that note, goodnight everyone!