Kissed the Blarney Stone
Sooo... seems like I'm a bit behind on my blog posts! Last Sunday, I went to Blarney, a village not very far from Cork. Blarney is known amongst tourists (and locals) for its castle, Blarney Castle (what an original name!). Anyway, I took the bus to Blarney and when I came there, I just followed the flow of tourists. Blarney Castle is surrounded by a large park with river, so I walked through the park a bit first:
The weather was OK, although at times, the sky did take on a greyish colour:
So that there is Blarney Castle. Here it is again, from another angle (look! I managed to shoot that picture without any tourists on it!... except for the tourists on the top of the castle...):
I started to climb to the top of the castle, and during the walk up, there were plenty of nice views:
See the large, beautiful house? (Hard to miss, isn't it?) That's supposed to be Blarney House, surrounded by its gardens, both of which were, unfortunately, closed on Sunday.
Anyway, once at the top, I passed the Blarney Stone. The Blarney Stone is famous all over the world for its power to give whoever kisses it the power of eloquence.
There is a stone there,
That whoever kisses,
Oh, he never misses
To grow eloquent.
'Tis he may clamber
To a lady's chamber,
Or become a member
Of Parliament.
- Francis Sylvester Mahony (early 19th century)
So naturally, I kissed the Blarney stone, too, because in all honesty - who wouldn't want to become a member of Parliament? So if the next time you see me, I'm on TV conversing with the Irish prime minister, you'll know that it is, indeed, me. ;)
Here's a picture of me kissing the Blarney Stone:
So after that kiss (I don't want to think too much about it, because according to another tourist, the things the locals do to that stone are... pretty gross, to say the least) I made my way down the castle and to the rock close. On my way, I shot yet two other pictures of the castle:
No tourists!
And here's a picture of the park/river on the Blarney Castle grounds:
It was so pretty there. Anyway, I set off towards the rocks close, where there were several - well, you'd probably guessed it already - rocks. There were also big-leaved plants that supposedly originated in South-America:
The rock close was very pretty:
Well, there were many big, well-known rocks with druidic connotations - here's a picture of the wishing steps, which you are supposed to walk up backwards in order for your wish to come true. I gave it a try, of course, although I nearly bumped my head against the rock at the very end:
And well, I went to see the Witches' Kitchen, the Druid's Cave, the Druid's Circle, the Fairy Glade, and - of course - the Witches Stone:
Haha, I love the hooked nose - it really does look like a witch.
Well, I walked around a bit more before I left the park and explored Blarney Village for a bit:
My first Celtic Cross, found on an old graveyard near an old church:
And that was the last picture I took in Blarney - I went home shortly after, having caught the bus just in time. I'll upload the pictures I took yesterday and the day before yesterday later today. It's rainy outside anyway.