Some may say that I didn’t need to visit the Blarney Stone to improve on my gift of gab, but it is a must do when I Ireland from what I hear. After checking into our hostel in Cork, we headed over to the nearby Blarney Castle. Once again, this castle sat on amazing grounds, even more spectacular than those of the castle in Kilkenny.
Passing through the entryway we immediately found ourselves crossing a stream that lead us to some beautiful gardens. We set out first to the actual castle itself before spending some time just walking through the many different gardens on the property. I had always assumed that castles were all huge pieces of property that are surrounded on all sides by huge protective walls, a moat, and consisting of large rooms and courtyards.
The castle here at Blarney however is quite different, one standing rectangular building that opens up to a courtyard that leads to the stairways taking you up to the different bedroom rooms, dining halls, and kitchens. At the very top of the castle is the Blarney Stone itself. Here, leaning over backwards and being dropped down by the friendly staff member I was lowered to kiss the stone and receive the gift of gab.
After kissing the stone, we made our way back down the stairway and wandered the gardens for just over an hour.
One of the parts of the garden is where a witch used to live. Here at the witches place are the “wishing steps”. The way the wishing steps work is that in order for the witch to remain there and get food and wood to build fires she had to grant peoples wishes from the village. The way to have your wishes granted was to walk up the steps backwards with your eyes closed and then back down them again with your eyes closed and backwards. Of course both Kristin and I did this, she’s working on super powers, and I’ll tell you at the end of my trip what I wished for. After completing the wishing steps we continued to wander the grounds before heading back to Cork. Here in Cork we relaxed the hostel for a bit and then headed out to the city center.
Crossing the bridge we were shortly reached the city center and all the lively pubs, restaurants, and shops. There was a big rugby match on that day between Ireland and Scotland so we headed to a local pub to watch the match and the second source of entertainment, the locals who are absolutely crazy for sport. The match itself was pretty amazing as well. Down by ten points at halftime, Ireland rallied back to tie the game, only to lose it in the final five seconds to an amazing kick by the Scots. The locals were crushed. From here we found some dinner and headed to another local spot that had live music. Soon after ordering a beer, Kristin realized that she had broken her really nice camera, had a slight breakdown, and decided to head back to the hostel and call it a night. I stayed and made friends with some locals, a group of about fifteen, but spent most of my time hanging out with an older guy who was an absolute blast.
He told me his grand plan to steal the Blarney Stone on Christmas Eve and asked me if I’d like to join in on the caper. I politely declined and we continued to dance, sing, and drink some more pints. Truly a great evening.
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