Cork Trip, Part 1: Blarney Castle

     This past weekend, I journeyed to the Irish city of Cork with a few fellow adventurers.  Cork is on the southern edge of Ireland, slightly inland from the sea (Dublin is on the eastern coast).  Bright and early Saturday morning we hopped on a bus to Cork, hoping to get some sleep on the three-hour ride.  We would have, except for one small problem--the bus didn't have heating.  I curled up in the fetal position the whole time, trying to keep warm in my coat and trying to keep amused by blowing frost rings with my breath.  Neither venture proved successful.
     Once we arrived, however, things drastically improved.  We dropped off our stuff at the hostel, ate mayonnaise-y prepackaged sandwiches at the train station, and took another bus to Blarney Castle.  This bus had heating, thankfully, and was a measly 30 minute ride.
     Blarney Castle was beautiful.  Built 600 years ago, the castle itself is a crumbling shell of stones, but some parts are still safely explorable.  The most well-known attraction is the famous Blarney Stone.  If you kiss the stone, it supposedly gives you the gift of eloquence.  It's set below the battlements at the very top of the castle; to get there, you have to climb an infinite number of claustrophobia-inducing spiral staircases.  It was pouring outside, so the stairs were slippery as well, a fun combination.  Once you got to the top, you have to lie down on your back and crane backwards until your torso hangs completely over nothing.  (You have iron bars to hold onto, but still.)  Then you lean down as far as possible and kiss the Blarney Stone while backwards and upside-down.  It's actually kind of fun, once you get over your fear of imminent death.

Kissing the Blarney Stone.

Gift of eloquence: acquired.

     The walk up through the castle is an experience in itself.  Although old and crumbling, the castle is still quite beautiful.

Approaching the castle.

Roomies at the castle.

I love this picture so so much.  (It's not me--just another girl  from the program with curly hair.)

Me inside the castle, with a mysterious red blob floating past.

The view of the grounds from the top of the castle.

The view from the battlements.

The grounds were equally gorgeous; they span over 60 acres and are filled with little gardens and ponds.

On our way to the castle!

The walk to the gardens.

Blarney House, not open to visitors until May :(

In one of the gardens, we saw a sign for the wishing steps.  The legend is that the witch of the steps will grant your wish if you walk up and down the steps with your eyes closed and you think intently of your wish the whole time.  We decided to go for it, and being stereotypical girls, all wished for the same thing--true love.  Aaw.

Making my wish come true!

The Willow Tunnel in the Bog Garden.

     After exploring Blarney Castle, we stopped in the Woollen Mills store, with their famous Irish wool sweaters.  We spent far too many euros, but stepped out of the store with some of the warmest sweaters in the world.

   Up next--our Saturday adventure to the seaside town of Cobh (pronounced Cove).