Catching The Gift Of Gab

This day we woke up to sunshine and no wind. Hurrah! We were looking forward to a warmer day.

Our first destination was Blarney Castle (18 euros). We spent about four hours there, and it was just the right amount of time for us. We stood in a long line to get in even though we had pre-ordered tickets. Once we got through, we bought a couple snacks and headed in the direction of the castle. There were a couple caves and towers along the side of the fortress which were fun to explore, especially since it looked like most people were skipping these and going straight to kiss the Blarney Stone, so we had these all to ourselves.

Arriving at the castle, we had to stand in a long line and follow everyone in a big procession up the stairs and into the rooms. Once we got to the top, we could see down below us and across the fields for what seemed like miles. We stayed up there a long while, as the only options were to head back the way we came (against foot traffic in the narrow stairs/hallways), or finish the exploration of the castle by kissing the Blarney Stone. We thought it was pretty nasty to kiss a piece of rock that a million other people's germs were on- they weren't spraying it down with Lysol after every kiss (you can tell we weren't in the times of COVID-19). Graham opted out, but waited in line with me while I sucked it up and received the gift of the gab. The Blarney Stone was literally a wall in the castle and they had to hold me while I laid down to kiss it so I wouldn't fall to an untimely death. The gift of gab is not for the faint of heart.

There were a lot of other things to see on the estate, including Blarney House and several alluring gardens. I loved walking through the garden by the castle and seeing all the poisonous plants. There was another garden down a ways where the family's pets had been buried, plus a garden next to it full of overgrown plants and waterfalls. Another garden at the other side of the castle had plaques discussing the folklore behind the estate, such as the Blarney Witch. You can see the witch's head carved into stone. Personally, I loved this, but Graham thought it felt kiddish and was just installed to give families "something else to do," like the fairy gardens at Irish National Stud. You can decide for yourself.

When we left Blarney, I took my first adventure driving through a big city- Cork. When I drove through a small section of Wicklow, I had the misadventure of turning onto the right side of the road, and had to drive through a pedestrian crosswalk to get to where I

needed to be (luckily there weren't any people around). In Cork, we didn't have any

mishaps, though the navigation system tried to take us down a street or two that had been closed to traffic and turned into pedestrian walkways. We found a parking garage, but it didn't accept cash and rejected my credit card. It was luck that I had another card without a chip. In Cork we wandered around the rather crowded streets and splurged on another fancy meal at an old pub (I want to say it was An Spailpin Fanac, but I could be wrong about that one... ~30 euros per person).

We didn't spend much time in Cork. We drove two more hours west to arrive at Mizen Head (7,50 euros), Ireland's "most southwersterly point." Here the wind and the cold picked up by a lot, but we stayed dry! We would definitely go back if we took another trip to Ireland. The cliffs are gorgeous and though the sidewalks and stairs might be a little steep at points, it was a much easier climb than some of the other hikes we went on later in our trip (you need to be in great shape for some of those, which I am not!). There's also a little maritime museum in the signal station itself, so when the wind picked up, we could go in there and keep warm.

That evening we skipped supper and headed to the airbnb, where we got our own little apartment to ourselves in Coolcoulaghta. I didn't think it would take long to get there, but our navigation system took us through winding, steep roads in the country. Sometimes it's nice to get lost, especially when you don't have anywhere special to be. We parked, took some pictures, and saw a bunch of sheep roaming around (they get out of their fences a lot so the farmers have to mark them with spray paint!). It was our first real view of the remote Irish countryside, and we loved it.

Total costs for Day 5: ~60 euros per person

Cost of airbnb: $64