^This morning I got up super early to walk to town to catch my bus to Cork City. I left the apartment at 645 in hopes that the pretzel guy would be set up when I got to the market. Unfortunately, he wasn't, so I headed to the bus station to wait for my bus.
On the bus to Cork City I was able to read about half of the book that is assigned for my class next session. When we arrived, I got off the bus and just started walking in the general direction that my Hostel was supposed to be in. I ended up walking a little bit out of the way, but I found it.
I was too early for check in, so I left my backpack with the guy at the desk and headed for the bus station. I ended up getting there 5 minutes before the bus left, but I was able to grab a ticket and jump on the bus just in time.
I had about a half an hour ride to Blarney Village. When I got off the bus and was looking at the map a few Americana guys behind me asked which way Blarney Castle was.... I told them that I was following the signs that pointed in the right direction. (It was REALLY easy to find- Blarney Village is super tiny)
I walked around the town square and queued to buy my ticket to the castle grounds. After I paid, I headed in the direction of the castle, but when I got there I didn't go up right away. I decided to walk the grounds a bit and head to Blarney House because they had tours ending at 2 and it was about 1 at that point. When I got to the house, I discovered there was an extra admission fee to take the tour of the house- I wasn't up to paying 5 euro for it, so I walked a bit more of the grounds and saw a few things that were on the map then headed back towards the Castle. When I got there I climbed up the steep and windy steps to the top. When I got to where the Blarney Stone was, there was a girl in front of me flipping the shit about kissing the stone. (You have to hang upside-down over an opening in the stones- its a long drop to the ground below, but theres bars and a guy helping you out) After girl finally got down and kissed the stone, I laid down and leaned back.... It took all of about two seconds. Then I headed back down a different set of steps than I came up. When I got to the bottom, I handed the guy at the gift shop my ticket and got a picture of me kissing the Blarney Stone. It cast 10 euro, which is a bit much, but because I am on the trip alone it was the only picture I was able to get.
I scouted out the poison garden next to the castle, then I headed to Rock Close and walked around a bit, once again, finding the various points labeled on my map. When I finished the walk around Rock Close I headed for the gate.
When I left, I headed for the Blareny Woollen Mills Shop. Aparently its the largest shop of Irish Made goods. I wandered around the shop for a bit and saw a bunch of stuff that I liked, but I was less than impressed with the prices. (They had some decent sales on some stuff, but Ive resolved to stop accumulating a bunch of stuff) I did find two sweaters upstairs on the clearance rack (it was a bit hidden, but Im glad I found it) I paid 30 euro for both of the sweaters together which originally cost over 200 euro. (Score!)
I did try to find some gifts, but like I mentioned, nothing quite stood out :( So alas, the hunt continues for Angela and Joe’s wedding present and stuff for the nieces.
I hit a few more small shops in town. (In Olive’s, I talked to the shopkeeper for a bit. She was a very friendly woman :D) I then had a quick run to the tourist station to ask what time the next bus was (only 20 minutes later) and then headed to the bus stop to wait for my ride back to Cork City.
When I got back to Cork, I headed to my hostel and checked in. After I put my stuff up stairs, I decided to just go and walk around Cork for a few hours because Im probably not going to see anything in the city tomorrow. There wasn't anything specific on my agenda (other than get something to eat. It was late afternoon and I hant eaten anything today besides a bottle of OJ and a bag of almonds in the train station)
As I was wandering, I kept my eye out for a place that would serve food. After about 20 or so minutes, I saw a McDonalds and was going to give up and eat there, until I turned the corner and saw the saturday market with a bunch of street vendors. I stopped and got a kebob pita. It was friggen tasty. Messy as hell to eat, but tasty.
I then continued my wandering.
I ended up passing by a youth art exhibit in the park, so I walked through and check it out. It was super cool. A lot of it was very socially aware stuff..... talking about the environment, diversity, ect.
I found a bunch of stuff that was on the free tourist map that I picked up. I ended up wandering onto the grounds of St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral. (I would later find out this is the founding spot of Cork. And the Church is hella old with a bunch of grave stones from the 1700’s) When I got back to the gate about 15 minutes later - it was locked. (perhaps a sign from God about my lax church attendance) When I saw the padlock on the gate I started thinking about how the hell I was going to get out. I wasn't going to spend the night on the church grounds, and I wasn't a fan of the prospect of jumping the super spiky gate. Thankfully a taxi driver stopped so the passenger could take a picture. When I asked him how I could get out he gave me the emergency number to call the police (911 in the state- 112 in Ireland- FYI) ::SO thankful I have an Irish Mobile:: The police called the priest who came and let me out. I apologized and told him I didn't know that the gates would lock that early. It was only half six and there were no signs saying what time the gates would be closed. (He said he had only locked them 5 minutes earlier, so I had just missed him and he must have missed me as well- I was around the back of the church)
After the Priest told me what time services were in the morning and I apologized again for the inconvenience I forged on with my wandering. I saw a few more things and then headed back in the direction of my hostel. By this point I felt like the walking dead. Im in severe pain from the amount of trekking I’ve done the past two days.
When I got back, I uploaded my pictures, surfed the net a bit and had a shower. I did a little research for my day tomorrow as well, because apparently the Jameson Distillery in Middleton is really close by, so I figured out how Im going to squeeze that in along with my trip to Cobh tomorrow AND be back in time to catch the last bus back to Galway. Hopefully it all works out. Or Ill be here another night and will miss my first class in the morning.
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