So Ireland it is! After a lovely but rushed goodbye (it was so nice to hear ‘have a nice trip!’ rather than outright ‘goodbye’ for once!) I got on the local bus, and then successfully made two other bus connections, onto the ferry from Fishguard, UK to Rosslare, IE, then a final bus to Wexford, where I spent the night.

old abbey in Wexford

Immediately I loved Ireland. A lot of it was probably my impressions from childhood (Leprechauns! Luck! Rainbows! Magic!), stories from friends who love it here, or stories from books, (I’m reading a historical fiction about Dublin and through the ages they refer to their princes as ‘poets’ who have the ‘magic’), but I think some of it was also the bus driver joking with me and then singing along with the radio, the old lady sitting next to me and asking where I was going, even the teenagers smiling and saying hello. What a sweet, friendly place. I was ready to move here instantly.

When I looked at the map of Ireland a week ago, Cork seemed like a good place; close enough to where I would get off the boat, big enough to have things to do but not as big as Dublin. So thats where I am staying for a few days. The Irish romance has worn off a little-it is a city after all-but it’s still nice. I also know I need to get out of Cork and visit the little towns where I’ll get more of the friendly musical spirit I experienced that first day.

After a post on Facebook, I got so many suggestions to go up to Killarney, Dingle, and Galway that I was considering extending my trip a couple of days. But thinking about it today, I realized that this may actually be the first time on this trip (post Spain) that I’ve decided to come to a place just for myself; I’m not here to meet anyone, or on the way to meet anyone. And I’m really rather pleased with where I’m finding myself as I learn to hear and trust my own intuition more and more. My intuition is telling me that 5 days here is perfect, then it will be time to go back to Wales. I really do want to see more (all) of Ireland, so I will save Galway and the other places for the next trip when I can give them my undivided attention.

In the meantime I’m going to do a bunch of day trips. Turns out that Blarney is the next town north of here, so I felt I just HAD to go and see the castle and the famous Blarney Stone! The story is that if you kiss the stone you will be imbued with the Irish ‘gift of gab,’ or smooth-talking. It is the most visited, most photographed place in Ireland.

However all of the Irish that I’ve ever met have been quick to tell me that I should absolutely not kiss it; that the stone in fact used to be a deflector in the toilet shoot (which I’m not sure I believe now after seeing three prominent toilet shoots on the opposite side of the castle), but more importantly that locals pee on it at night and laugh at all of the tourists that get down and kiss it in the morning! Furthermore, the actual process seems ridiculous-they make you get down on your back and shimmy forward over the hole in the wall, holding on to two iron bars, in order to kiss it, when they snap a picture that you can purchase at the gift shop! The whole thing seemed a little too “lets watch the tourists make fools of themselves,” although the helper and the photographer didn’t seem too amused.

the stone is at the middle of one side at the top floor

The helper and the Blarney Stone-a piece of bluestone set into the wall

(sorry to the random man who happened to get there after me) This is the stone kissing position!

the kissing queue formed fast!

the view from below; in the gap at the top, directly above the windows is the Stone and you can just make out someone kissing it

So I didn’t kiss the stone, nor wait in line to kiss it as I got their early and was one of the first at the top. I don’t like to talk too much anyway.

In addition to the Castle, I had a lovely walk around the grounds of the old Blarney House, the lake, the dungeons, etc.

Then I caught a bus back to Cork in time for an afternoon train to Cobh, a small town at the mouth of the Cork harbor. In addition to being a major English military base in centuries past, the town was the last stop for the Titanic before she set off to the Atlantic.

the last remaining bit of the dock that the last Titanic passengers boarded from.

St. Colman’s cathedral is also in Cobh, which boasts the largest ‘carillon’ in the British Isles with 49 bells. There was a wedding there today so I couldn’t go inside, but the view was impressive.

After seeing the sites and treating myself to lunch I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon in John F. Kennedy park, reading my book, listening to the kids play, and watching the sailboats in the harbor. It was nice just sitting back and

being

there.