Adventures in London: Rock of Cashel, Blarney, and Cork!

The view from The Rock of Cashel

Woke up at a horrific hour this morning. 5:30. Super gross. But it was alright because we went on a day tour to The Rock of Cashel, Blarney, and Cork. And we got to drive through the countryside, which was gorgeous. So pretty and green. Slept for about an hour though, which was nice. We stopped at a little gas station on the way to the castle. I got a Coke and I’ve decided that Coke is better in Europe than it is in the States. And they had these adorable little donkeys outside the gas station.

After that we went to the castle. The Rock of Cashel. It was on top of this giant rock. The legend says that St. Patrick fought Satan on one of the nearby “mountains” (their “mountains” are basically large hills. It’s so cute.) and that bought launched this massive rock to its current location. Anyway, when you were standing on top of this hill, you could see so much of the countryside. It was amazing. The castle had a little cemetery too. The inside was pretty empty, but it had some amazing architecture. It was really cool.

Blarney Castle

After that we headed off to Blarney. It was a longer drive this time, but the views were amazing. So I wasn’t too bothered by it. Blarney was big. We headed up to the castle, but the grounds surrounding it were huge too. The line to kiss the Blarney Stone was a 50 minute wait and since we were only there for 2 hours. It didn’t seem like it was worth it. So, we wandered around the castle and walked on the battlements. They had a Poison Garden, full of poisonous plants. I found Mandrake (like in Harry Potter). I was pretty excited. Then we walked through their gardens. Took lots of flower pictures. Then we walked into the dungeons. We didn’t get very far because the ceiling was so low. We only made it into the first room and after that we would’ve had to crawl. I had no desire to crawl on the wet floor with my backpack (I had no desire to crawl in a small space anyway), so we just stood in the first room for a bit. Then we found a cave, Badger Cave. It went farther in (at least it had a higher ceiling for farther). It was pretty cool. Then we walked along the stream. It was pretty, but muddy. After that we headed back to the bus.

Badger Cave

After Blarney we went to the town of Cork. We ate at another pub for lunch. I had vegetable soup and chips (chip = French fries). It was pretty good. Not as great as the pub food from last night, but pretty decent. Then the bus driver had told us about this English Market not too far away, but we couldn’t find it so we just wandered around Cork for a bit. Found a little art museum, which was kind of cool. It was nice to see some lesser known artists and their talent. Then we got back on the bus. 3 hours later we made it back to Dublin.

Everything closes down really early here, so we had pizza for dinner. I had a Regina slice. It had spicy chicken, jalapeños, green peppers, and onions on it. It was good.

And that’s pretty much it. So, enjoy the pictures of Ireland!