Popped on up to Blarney today, and checked out Blarney Castle. Surprisingly it's only about 6 or 7 kilometers from my apartment, and that's by road. As a bird flies it can't be more than about 3 I'd say. Got my first glimpse at the rolling green hills covered with farms on the drive there, which was absolutely breathtaking, would have snapped a picture but it was gone so quickly I barely had time to say "my god..." I'll hopefully get some good pics up of that in the coming weeks after I go check out Dingle.
This is the Castle. It looks pretty small on the outside, but is surprisingly tall once you get to the top. When we first got there we went into the dungeons, which you would think would be in a basement, but were actually up a short set of stair, and then through a long 3' x 3' tunnel that had loose rocks, mud and water scattered on the bottom. An incredibly tedious 20 feet later and you get into a small cramped room, and wonder why you put yourself through all that to really see nothing. After that we started to head up to the top and see what all the hubbub was about. The interior of this place is just one huge maze. Spiral staircase after spiral staircase, leading to rooms and other spiral staircases. The worst part is the stairwells got smaller and smaller the higher you got and by the time we were about 6 steps from the top I had to hunch my shoulders to squeeze through.
And if you can mange to fit out of the door, the cool wind will blow your hair all around and it's impossible to no gasp at the sea of green the castle is floating in. Promptly out the door there's a good chance you'll be stepping right into last place in line to kiss the stone. While waiting in line (which slowly wraps around the top of the castle) there's plenty of time to snap pictures, and get all hyped up, because you're about to be dangled upside down, with nothing between you and falling to the ground but the old man holding onto your jacket, and your grip on the bars, but we'll get to that in a bit.
This is a shot from the top of the castle of the Blarney House, a cool old house that... well I don't actually know what the deal with it is because we didn't want to pay again for the tour, and you're not allowed in unless you do... All I know is that it's cool looking.
And suddenly, you're at the front of the line and the man tells you "no hats, no glasses, sit down and lie backwards, grab the metal bars, lean down and kiss the bottom stone." and you do, and then you're back up. Only I thought he said "lean down and kiss the bottom of the stone" so I pulled myself as far down as possible to kiss the bottom corner, and I'm glad I did cause right when I got down there, I could see all of the horizon (only inverted) against the smooth black stone.
(By the way, that's not me in the picture above)
This on the left is Blarney House. It's pretty big, pretty old and pretty cool. Once again, I have no idea what it's story is. I'm assuming someone lived there at one point.
To give you an idea of it's size that pink dot on the front steps is a person.
After that we just putzed around for a bit before catching a cab back to cork. There were some decently cool rocks and trees, as well as a waterfall with a staircase behind it know as the "Wishing Stairs." What you have to do for your wish to come true is go up the stairs, then walk backwards down them with your eyes closed and then walk back up them with your eyes closed still. There's a large rock sticking out at the top of the door (which is only about 4' tall) so when going back up I suggest keeping a hand a couple of inches in front of your face to know when you've almost hit it.
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