Blarney

This morning I woke up as the two guys in the room were leaving. It's weird cause this is an 8 bed room, and she's full, but last night there were only three of us in here--apparently the other 5 people were out partying all night and didn't come in until after I left at 10. Anyways, I woke up and asked Tracy if there is a place I could print some things off. She is brilliant. There's a place right down the road that only charges a euro an hour and 10 cents a page to print. I was stressing out about this, so I was really happy. I wandered a little bit after that--had the most amazing scone at this really cool little place down an alley from St. Patrick's street. I never thought I would be so happy over a scone. It exceeded my low expectation I guess. I like jam now by the way people. Still not so sure about jelly though. So, got my caffeine fix and went walking again. I thought I'd go to Finbarr's to see what that's all about. It's beautiful and creepy and 4 Euro to get in. I didn't feel like paying that. I took a bunch of pictures, but guess what I forgot? The cord that connects my camera to my computer. Sucks. There will be a lot when I get back though.

I just randomly found the Red Abbey. All that's left of it is the tower. St. Francis always has cool churches. The English market is closed for bank holidays, so I'm seeing that tomorrow.

But forget about Cork. Blarney is where it's at. The castle is awesome. The castle grounds are underrated. The place is huge and it's all kept so well. It's just what I used to think of when I thought of Ireland--rolling green hills, farms, sheep. It's beautiful. There were horses running around and talking to each other and a big private mansion, the "poison garden," a couple of watch towers that seem really short, the wishing steps, there are two really cool caves underneath the roots of a really huge tree. Very cool. Lots of pictures. The castle though. It's awesome. To get up to the top you go up a tiny winding stone staircase. There's a rope going up the middle to pull yourself up the higher steps. There are different rooms on each floor with small entry ways and window set deep into the walls. Going up there aren't any windows in the stair case, so you get to the top and it's just all there in front of you. You can see the whole village, all the lands surrounding it--all green and orange and blue right now. And there at the other end of the walkway is the old man sitting with his feet dangling over the side of the wall where the Blarney stone is. I hadn't decided if I wanted to do it. I know I'm going go back there, so I was thinking I'd wait until I was with other people, but I didn't really know, and then I was walking over there kind of avoiding it while the man is just whistling away and looking cheerful. You have to pass him, you can't just get away from him, so I walked up and he said hello, how are you? do you want to kiss the stone? So I just said fuck it. Of course I want to kiss the stone. I didn't come all the way out here to just walk past it and know it's there right? Sure. Yes please mister. You sit down facing away from in, lay back so you're hanging over the edge, grab onto these two vertical bars, the guy grabs onto you and you have to just keep scooting yourself farther and farther down upside down. He's telling how far to go and he kind of puts his foot underneath the stone, so when you're shoulder is leaning on his leg you've gone far enough. It's a lot farther down than I thought. I just kept thinking I can only go down so much farther before my ass is over the edge and I'm going to break my neck. I also thought it was going to be harder to get back up than it was. That guy is strong though--he just pulls you back up and you're done. So yeah. That was great.

People are singing songs from the Lion King on the street in front of the hostel. Happy Halloween. I haven't seen any pumpkins. Kind of disappointing.