Cork Ireland and Blarney Castle

 We left Killarney, Ireland and headed via train to Cork, Ireland for 2 nights. 

Arriving at the Cork train station - it felt like a big, busy city!

We tried to store our luggage and explore for a bit, but luggage storage near the train station was crazy expensive. We ended up taking a taxi to our hotel, storing our luggage there, and then catching the bus back into town. Our hotel was a little out of town because lodging was not cheap / there wasn't much available, but local bus was easy to navigate. It cost us 5.60 euro as a family for any one bus ride. But if you sit on the very front of a double decker bus, then it becomes a bit like a cheap amusement park ride because the streets are very narrow and it doesn't feel like the bus will fit!

 

 

We walked around the downtown area...

Can you see all the pigeons on the old historic city wall?

We went to a new and a used bookstore…

The Mr.Men series of books in this book store had
WAY MORE than we had ever seen before!

A terrific Travel Section at this Bookstore!

The English Market

It was Rachel's 12th birthday!! We celebrated with an afternoon personal cheesecake from "The English Market", going out for an Italian food dinner where Rachel lost her 6th tooth of the trip, and our hotel gave her a "Happy Birthday" chocolate bar! Awesome!

Our hotel was quite nice. It makes me curious if there are any budget hotels in Ireland...we stayed in 3 hotels for a total of 4 nights but each was quite nice and quite expensive and we would have preferred a cheaper and more basic option if we could have found any... I think that's one thing about travel as a family of 4, rather than as a single backpacker or a couple. As soon as you need 4 beds, things often jump way up in price with higher standards...

Anyway, our hotel has a pool. Like out hotel near the Cliffs of Moher (in Ennis), the pool is actually the town 'rec center' or 'leisure center', so busy with regular people from town. But this hotel had strict rules - kids under 16 are only allowed during certain hours, kids are never allowed in the hot tub or sauna or steam room, and everyone in the big pool must wear a 'swimming hat'. It cost 3 euro to purchase a 'swimming hat' so we decided to pay for 3 hats and then rotate around a bit for who was in the pool at once. Apparently this is a hygeine standard in all of Ireland but we didn't notice this rule at the Aquadome in Tralee or at the pool hotel in Ennis. 

These 'under 16' rules were frustrating for our 12 year old... sometimes being a tween can be tough! But Jason looked quite good in his 'swimming hat'... don't you think?

Kissing the Blarney Stone

After an early lunch of sandwhiches in our hotel room, we took the bus to the community of Blarney to visit Blarney Castle. We debated about this activity and whether it was worth going. We got the impression that "kissing the blarney stone" was a tourist trap and we were nervous it would be a waste of time / effort / money. But when I lived in Vancouver, one of my favorite places to go was an Irish Pub called "The Blarney Stone" and I thought going and kissing the stone seemed like an opportunity I needed to do...

Kissing the Blarney Stone is a very popular tourist attraction in the area. People come from all over the place to kiss the stone, which supposedly blesses one with 'the gift of the gab'... I'm pretty sure our family is already properly blessed in this department... There are many different theories on the origin of the stone, and it sits at the top of the castle with quite a drop below it. Back in the day, people used to get hung upside down by their ankles in order to kiss it. Now there is a rail for each hand to grab and a man there to help hold your body so you don't fall. You have to lie down on your back, arch and wiggle way back and down over a ledge, and try to get your lips to the large cold stone. 

The castle itself is quite lovely, and sits on an property of beautiful gardens. When we arrived, it was raining, but the sun came out and it turned into a lovely afternoon. The best part of the whole thing was exploring the castle. There are hidden little rooms here and there. You can see the dungeons, the 'murder hole', spiral staircases that are wearing down, the old modest bedroom chambers, and the toilet systems from back in the day. 

When we got to the top, we were lucky that there wasn't a line. I guess it is common for people to wait in line for 60-90 minutes on busy days to get their turn! I went on my back and kissed the stone. It was quite a reach and I felt dizzy getting back up. Jason wasn't interested. Rachel gave it a try and got quite close, but then abruptly stood up and said 'no!' and walked away. She was quite upset with herself, but the upside down position and big reach back was freaking her out. Ava tried it but couldn't reach her body far enough so she calmly gave up. Rachel really debated about trying again... but decided that she wasn't going to and we went down.

We walked around the gardens and enjoyed a cave, the poison garden, myths about the witch and her rock, and the wishing steps. We took turns walking up and down the steps with our eyes closed, focusing on our wish and hoping for it to come true. The trees and flora throughout the gardens were really amazing and varied.

Cave

The Witch Rock

Throughout the garden exploration, we could tell that Rachel was really disappointed not to kiss the stone. So we nudged her to consider trying again. And at the end of our garden walk she announced that she would like to try again. She climbed up there, took her time to face her fear, and gave the rock a kiss! We were so proud of her for trying again and she was so proud of herself for persisting. 

So I’d say going to Blarney Castle was the highlight of Cork, and kissing the stone was an optional bonus.

We stayed in Cork for 2 nights and then said goodbye to Ireland!