Warning: This may be an excessively long post.
I haven't blogged since Thursday Nights fateful Karaoke night... so here is a recap of my wondrous weekend in Ireland.
Friday.
Dublin was having a bit of a schizophrenic weather day. Sun was shining, but then one minute it would start pouring. I took advantage of the sun to head into the city centre and explore for a bit. No class on Fridays gives me sometime to hang out. I was originally going to go to explore the town of Howth, but the temperamental weather made me re-think it. I had some lunch and got on the bus and got off at St. Stephen's Green. It's a beautiful park and I just wandered around for a while listening to my ipod. Watching the people feed the pigeons. One guy reminded me of the woman from Home Alone with the all the birds.
After a while of wandering around the park, I was getting cold. The local TGI Friday's was also polluting the air with delicious smells of fried food, so I had to get away. I went into the neighboring mall...St. Stephen's Green Mall. It is about the prettiest mall I've ever seen. 
About 1:30 Claire came into the city so we met up and walked around some more in St. Stephen's Green Park. Claire has a bit of a statue fascination so we walked to all the major statues of the important people in Ireland. We walked to Merrion Square and found the famous Oscar Wilde statue. We had to scale the rock to capture the moment, but if Rick Steve's guidebook can do it, so can we.
Near the statue are columns with quotes on them and some foreign men were standing there reading them and advising us not to fall off the rock. Later we realized all the quotes were from Oscar Wilde... Some of my favorites:
-A cynic is a man who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.-
-Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple and the simple thing is the right thing.-
-Nothing worth knowing can be taught-
After visiting Oscar, we head to meet some people from our Irish History class at the National Museum of Ireland. There was about 25 people that showed up, which was surprising..we thought it would only be us. I walked around the museum with some girls from Boston University and then hung out with them for a while. We saw the "bog bodies" which are victims of torture whose bodies were thrown into the marshy lands and then because of the composition of the bog, were naturally preserved. I took some illegal photographs... seen here. This guy is from about 200-400 AD.
After we'd seen all the museum had to offer, Claire and I head to Dunnes to get some stuff for dinner. We then hit up some bookstores to find guidebooks for our European Spring Break. We cooked beef stirfry with rice and Jen and Stacy joined us and brought ice cream. So good. It was another great meal, talking about our favorite SpecialGuy29 and good ol' Chris Hansen and his hit television show "To Catch a Predator". We decided that we really wanted to go to Cork and see the Blarney Stone so we made plans to meet at 9 am and catch a bus to the city and catch another bus to Cork. We decided that staying over night would be a good idea, but we decided to decide the details when we got there. Spontaneity at its finest. Then we departed, with big plans for Saturday.
Saturday.
As planned, 9 am outside Roebuck Residence Halls. Backpacks filled with the basic necessities. Pajamas, tooth brush, snacks, a change of clothes. We met up with Mariel who decided to join us on our adventure. After a noisy busride and some power walking, we got to the bus station just in time to buy our roundtrip tickets to Cork and board the bus. 4 and a half hours to Cork. Claire and I read some of the guidebooks and chatted. I listened to my ipod, napped a little, and paparazzied the Irish Countryside. Gorgeous. Majestic. We passed cattle, sheep, horses and the rolling hills of Ireland. We saw mountains. And castles. Katie, you would've been mesmerized, just like when we went to Chicago for the first time.
We stopped at a rest-stop about halfway through. Home of the Wimpy Burger. Kid you not. I also found these in the cooler... and I had to take a picture....just like home, hanging at W. West Shore, throwing Capri Suns across the room.
After more bus ride, and scenic tours we arrived in Cork. It looks a lot like Dublin, but more hilly. According to the guidebook, it is the "Venice" of Ireland. But we are beginning to question the guidebook, so who knows.
We found a bathroom (and a 20 cent charge to use it), and found out what bus we needed for Blarney. We then decided lunch would be a good idea. We found a little cafe, the Bagel Bar, and got some sandwiches. St. Patrick's Street (pictured below) reminds me of Grafton Street. My chicken caesar panini was great, and after a stop for mitts for Miss Jen and the ATM we found the 224 to Blarney. We are great at timing and the bus was just arriving when we walked up. We got on the bus, 6.20 euro later, and about 20 minute ride into the town of Blarney.
Blarney is exactly what you picture a little Irish town looking like. Colorful pubs, stone fences. We saw some local B & Bs and the Blarney Castle hotel and decided we should spend the night in the charming town of Blarney. We headed to the castle first, because it was about 4 pm and we were dying to kiss the stone before sundown and it closed. We paid out 8 euro entrance fee into the castle grounds and set foot towards the castle.
We had only one word to describe Blarney Castle: Majestic. It was overwhelmly beautiful, and a picture does not capture it.
The grounds and everything that surround the castle are as perfect and beautiful as it. I legitimately took about 300 pictures in the 24 hours of traveling.
This is the view from the back, walking up to the entrance and to the stone.
Inside the castle. The stairwells were very narrow and windy and the little rooms of the stairs were perfect little nooks. We were one of the few tourists there so we had pretty much free rein.
Once we got to the top of the castle, we looked out and we could see for miles. Or kilometers I guess. We have been incredibly blessed with great weather.
(me & my favorite canadian at the top of the castle..ready to kiss the stone)
When we got to the top, it was so beautiful and breathtaking and the radio was playing Bob Marley "One Love". It was absolutely perfect.
There was no line to kiss the stone. During peak season (after St. Patrick's Day) over 1500 people a day come to the castle and kiss the stone. That's a lot of action for just one stone. We tipped the guy who held us, prior to leaning over, extra incentive not to drop us. I think it's virtually impossible to fall due to the bars they have in place but whatever. So you lay down on a mat, the guy holds you, you hold the bars, lean back and kiss the stone. It is supposed to give you the gift of eloquence, aka smooth talking and flattery. Sounds like something Aunt Kath would call a schmooze.
Because we were the only ones in line, we had a chance to chat with our "holder" and the photographer, who took an over priced picture (10 euro) of you kissing the stone. We got our own. I think we had a real advantage since no one else was there. We also got the guy to take a picture of all 5 of us. He did it on all of our cameras. Seriously nice people. He was also rocking a Colts windbreaker. Right on.
We joked around with them about the fact that the Blarney Stone is so unsanitary. Thousands, millions of people have put their lips on it. We asked if they turn people away if their lips look questionable. They informed us that they sanitize the stone every 30 min- 1 hour. Which is good because some guys tried to tell Mariel that the local kids sneak in and pee on the stone after hours. Now, this is coming from a guy named "Bootsy" so I'm not sure how reliable the source.
That's the guy that held me when I kissed the stone and his cleaner. Righteous. He wanted us to tell the world that they in fact keep the stone clean. And since my blog obviously reaches the far ends of the world and into Narnia... here is your little plug Blarneyman.
That is the stone from the ground.
After we left the castle and bought our souveniors (a 40 cent postcard) we head to the Rock Close. Supposedly enchanted, somewhat creepy looking.
We set out on a hunt for the wishing steps which were included in my guidebook as another superstitious place for visitors. Given I have yet to find my leprechaun or the pot of gold or a four leaf clover, I'm going with whatever superstitions I can find here in Ireland. According my guidebook (and doubted by all) you have to ascend to the top of the wishing steps, make a wish, and climb down the stairs backwards with your eyes closed and then when you reach the bottom turn around (que the Bonnie Tyler) and ascend up the stairs again, backwards and eyes shut. So My dedicated and believer friend Miss Jennifer Matchett and I did the somewhat strange ritual. Some of the other visitors seemed to think that we were making it up... but whatever. We will see if our wishes come true.
We explored a little more and decided that since it was getting dark and we had yet to find a place to sleep, we should adventure on back into town.
(typical of the whole trip so far--map in hand)
Jen and Stacy explored the Blarney Castle Hotel and found that it would be 50 euro a night per person for a room & breakfast the next morning. I thought that was a little more than I wanted to pay so we decided to check out a few of the B & Bs and see what the comparable rates were. We walked to the top of the hill and saw this cute little white house with a B & B sign out front so we knocked on the door. Jen, designated talker, asked the young man who answered the door if this was indeed a place to stay. He said yes, but he had to check with his mom. He came back a few minutes later (after we thought we were out of luck) to tell us yes he had room for us and that his mom said we could stay for 30 Euro a night (a discounted price since we were students and probably pretty pathetic looking). Owen showed us our rooms and we got settled. Soon his mom, Carol, came and brought us towels and showed us how to use the electric shower.
Now, Carol Hallahan had to be about the cutest woman ever. I loved talking to her, she just made me smile. She was exactly what you picture a B & B owner to be like. She was so sweet and she suggested a good place for us to have dinner. At the Castle Hotel. A nice local place. The locals call it Johnny's because Johnny Foster owns the place. And then to go across the way for live music. She also suggested other places to go in Ireland, namely Kilarney. We thanked her and headed on our way, all so upbeat and loving on the town of Blarney.
The Blarney Castle Hotel restaurant and bar offered us a very relaxed atmosphere for dinner. It was filled with locals and we sat near the bar. We ordered our food-- soup for me and Jen, bangers and mashed for Stacy, ribeye for Claire, and fish and chips for Mariel. Mariel and Stacy had some pints and we sat around and just chatted.
This kid was sitting next to us with his dad, but his dad left for a second and it totally looks like this kid is enjoying a pint of Ireland's finest.
We were all enjoying ourselves and the locals. We enjoyed our meal and splurged for dessert which was very tasty. We talked about everything under the sun... just one of those days when you find comfort in talking about life and how crazy, mixed up it can be. It was like we were laying our burdens down and basking in the glory of Blarney...in the fact that we were in Ireland and that it offered us an escape from the day to day normalcy or craziness. We talked about how Jen had gone bison hunting in the Yukon with her 7th grade class and had to be warmed up by the blood of the dead bison. Let me tell you, you never know what to expect with the Canadians and it makes for a great travel buddy. After a while, we decided to move the party to the local pub across the street for some live music.
We found a nice booth and resumed conversation. Must have been the Blarney Stone that gave us the gift of gab. About 10:30 the music was supposed to start. Unfortunately, we had picked the booth that the musician sets up in and so we had to move. We wandered around looking for a new seat but the place was filling up. The barkeep came up to us, asked if we needed a place to stay, and then cleared a spot for us. That's the second time someone's gone out of their way to help us find somewhere to sit in a pub. We ended up sitting next to four locals. 2 originally from Barcelona, one from France, and one from Poland who had all visited Blarney, fell in love with it, and never left. We chatted with them for a while. Jen, Claire, and I decided we were feeling a little tired so we headed back to the B&B while the musician began to play some Counting Crows. We could here the sha-la-la-la as we walked down the street. We got ready for bed and then ended up sitting around and chatting for a while eating hobnobs and laughing.
Sunday.
We woke up for our traditional Irish breakfast served at 8:30 am. Carol greeted us and got us tea and coffee. I had some orange juice and a little granola with milk. We also had toast and then our traditional meal of eggs, sausage, and bacon. It was picture perfect...the ground outside was frosty and the sun was coming up over the hills.
After breakfast, we paid Carol, got some local advice from her and went on our way. We loved our time at the Meadowbank B & B and we're so energized by our hearty breakfast. We wanted to explore the town and Carol gave us some shopping advice. We walked down the street and around and decided we all wanted to explore the gardens around Blarney Castle some more. The locals at the bar told us they were absolutely gorgeous. We figured we could see if they'd let us back in with our ticket from yesterday.
The lady at the main gate said that it was no problem so we began another walk around Blarney Castle. We decided to go along the lake and around the grounds on the "lake walk". We walked through the gardens--definitely not in bloom yet. But we did get to see some horses. We named this one Buttercup and we offered it my apple but he declined.
We walked down the path and enjoyed the brisk morning air. We were the only people in sight which just made it so much better. Definitely not touristy at all.
The path lead through the woods, by a lake, through this lush green dense woodland area. We tried to climb up the big hill but it was barb wired off. We saw holly like straight off a christmas wreath and a fox that was running across the path.
We all were just so engrossed in the beauty. Everything was pristine and the air was fresh...with a hint of farm somewhere in the distance. Jen was determined to find fairies and I am a born explorer. We loved the woodland area..it reminded me of some kind of rainforest. Lindsay, you are going to love this place. It has so many cool trees and plants. It was such a wonderful place, you could wander for hours and just soak it up. The weather was absolutely perfect, we couldn't ask for a better day.
We soaked up the scenery for a bit, then we head back towards the castle and towards town. We stopped at Blarney Woolen Mills, shopping for an authentic sweater but passed. We got back on the bus towards Cork. Found a little cafe to have lunch in, our big breakfast was burned off by the hiking. A chicken salad sandwich hit the spot, then it was back on the bus headed for Dublin.
I slept some of the way and just thought about how cool the weekend was. Authentic Ireland. It's such a blessing to be able to experience it, the beauty, the way of life. People are so friendly, the pace is so comfortable. It makes you re-evaluate. Traveling is definitely a luxury, and I'm lucky to be able to do it now. I can see why people fall in love with Ireland. It's like untouched beauty. Especially when you get outside of Dublin....although Dublin was beautiful when we arrived back in town tonight.
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