Ireland tour Day 2

Sat 16th Oct

Today we left Dublin early in the morning. One thing i dont like about being on tour is the early starts. You put your luggage outside the door at 6:45am before you go to breakfast. The porters take it down and load it onto the bus before you leave.

Drove through the Irish countryside... the first thing I noticed is lots and lots of sheep... one might think you were in New Zealand...

So we drove through Tipperary (and i do know some of the song...) to the Rock of Cashel. The Rock is basically a big mound of rock... kinda like Ayers rock but smaller. It is said that here the King of Munster (the king of that region) in the 5th century was converted to Christianity by St. Patrick. It is the site of subsequent crownings. The most significant was Brian Boru (crowned in 977) who battled and drove the Vikings out of Ireland or the anglo-norsk people to the outskirts of Dublin.

On the site there were ruins of a 12th century chapel, a 13th century cathedral and a 15th century castle. Poked around the ruins a bit and were told a bit about the history of each.

It's funny to learn about religious relics... I'm not superstitious enough to believe in these things. The site is host to the cross of St. Patrick which is an old sandstone weatherworn cross. It has now been taken down and put under the shelter in the old castle... But it is said to have mystical properties. For example... the person who wraps their arms around it and can make their fingers meet will be blessed with never having dental problems. And the young woman who hops around is 9 times will be blessed with marriage... So I had to take a silly photo with me pretending to hop but there is no way i would want to waste my energy...

Then we drove to county Cork. The Republic of Ireland (ROI) has 26 counties and Northern Ireland has 6 but they belong to the UK. Cork is the southernmost county of the ROI. We stopped at the Blarney Woollen Mills for lunch and it was also a shopping stop. At first we thought that there would be wool demonstrations - knitting or weaving etc... but it's basically the southern Irish equivalent of a department store. A good place for souveniors but we were to find out that it was also a pricey tourist trap.

What wasnt in the tour was the Blarney Castle. The tour guide actually sounded quite negative in his description. There were a lot of people on our tour who were older and might not have been able to walk or make the climb up the narrow stairs in the castle. But Es and I arent in wheelchairs yet and so we decided to go kiss the Blarney stone... cos it's apparently what tourists do...

There are several legends concerning the Blarney stone. There is one in which a guy named MacCarthy rescues a young maiden who turns out to be a goddess. She grants him one wish. He has a speech impediment so he asks her to help him. She tells him to kiss a stone... he does and is granted a gift of eloquence. Later the bluestone he kissed is incorporated into the battlements of a castle. Legend says that kissing the stone endows you with the gift of the gab or the ability to create a load of blarney...  blarney = being able to deceive without offending.

Anyway, it's not easy to kiss the stone... it's actually on the outside of the ramparts of the castle. So you climb to the top of the ruined castle looking at all the signs telling you what each space would have been when the castle was intact. Then at the top there is a guy sitting by some rails. You sit on the mat infront of the stone and then grab some metal rails. The guy then lowers you under the castle wall where you see nothing but stone... and kiss it... lol. Most unhygenic but i guess a tourist gotta do what a tourist has gotta do...

They even have a photographer taking shots of you kissing the stone... which they try to sell to you for 10euro for one or 18euro for the 2 shots they take. I could imagine in the days of film cameras they might be wasting a lot of film and have to recover costs but it's digital... methinks it's highway robbery for tourists.

imagine paying 10euro for this headless shot... apparently the true Blarney stone is a long way under the castle and actually more on the outside

Rejoined the rest of the group... and i didnt buy any of the shirts saying stuff like 'I kissed the best' or something crazy like that... We drove to Killarney for the night.

@ the Danny Mann

Our tour guide recommended some local pubs that we could go to hear some Irish music... and do as the Irish do... drink beer...
Ended up going to Sheehans which was packed with young people... bumped into another couple from our tour group there... was pretty happening but quite hot and crowded...
So walked around and went to the other place that was recommended called Danny Mann... there was an Irish folk band playing as well. I think there were more tour groups there as it is also a hotel. There were heaps of old people listening to music with arms folded across their chest. They wouldnt even clap or get into it at all... boo!!

Click here to view the photo album.