Blarney Castle

On this day, Saturday I guess it was, we got up early to get the first bus from cork to blarney.  The bus wasn't right on time so we were a little worried about making sure we got on the right one and all that but we did find it and it wasn't too long of a ride to blarney.  From the place the bus dropped us off it was just a quick ride to the castle itself.  We got there right when it opened so there weren't many people in there yet when we got in.

That meant we didn't have to wait long once we made it through the rest of the castle to get up to the top and kiss the blarney stone.  It was kind of scary since you have to lay on your back and like bend backwards to kiss the stone.  But you've got to do it.  Something to check off the bucket list.

After kissing the stone we got to spend a quick minute admiring the view from atop the castle before making our way back down some more narrow winding staircases.  And then it was time to visit the poison garden where all these incredibly poisonous plants grow.  It was especially fun recognizing some from harry potter.

After that we spent some time walking around some of the various paths there are through all the beautiful trees and plants.  It really makes you think you're walking through an enchanted garden, like something out of a fairytale.

There's also a house on the property that is normally open to visitors but it was under renovation or something while we were there so we had to settle for the view from outside.  It was after going through these gardens and such that we walked to the other side of the park and got to see the things that really are straight out of stories and legends.  A particularly fun one was the wishing steps.  You walked up then and then back down them, backwards, concentrating on your wish.  If you made it up and back your wish is supposed to come true.  And of course there were stories of witches and fairies and all sorts of things along the way.

Soon it was time to say goodbye to the castle and make our way back toward the bus stop.  We did make one more stop at a shop since we had time to kill before the next bus was due to be heading back to Cork.  Then once we got back to the city we made a stop at our hotel to drop off some purchases I think before heading back out.

We decided to make another out of town stop and go to Cobh, which was the last stop the titanic made before it sank.  So we walked to the train station and got on the next train.  The titanic museum is basically right at the train station in Cobh so that was really convenient.  And they had a little cafe of sorts where we got some lunch.  It was really interesting to read all of the information and see all of the artifacts they had from the titanic and all the history they told about transatlantic journeys and the progress of ships from years and years ago up to the titanic.

We spent a decent amount of time at the museum and then it was back to Cork.  I think we did a little more walking around and found some churches to check mass times for the following day before heading out of town.  Then it was back to the hotel for the night to get rested up for another early morning and heading off to our next and final destination, Dublin.