Two posts in one day?! It must be due to the 'Gift of the Gab' that I received this weekend after kissing the Blarney Stone...Yes, I actually laid on my back, slid over the edge of a castle while holding onto a set of metal bars, and kissed a stone that thousands of people kissed before me, going against every germophobe instinct I have.
Laura (my future housemate), who is studying in Germany for the year, came to visit for a weekend during her break between semesters. We walked all around Limerick, toured St. Mary's Cathedral (which was established in 1168 - talk about old!), and discovered a lovely little park.
The Cathedral is the oldest building in Limerick:
It felt a little weird to take pictures in a functioning church, but we were the only ones in there...
These are really ornately carved misericords, which were provided for choir members to lean against during services since no one was allowed to sit:
King John's (of Robin Hood fame) castle:
Laura and I didn't go in, but here are some pictures from when I toured it myself several weeks ago:
The view from the ramparts was amazing; you had both city skyline and meandering river at the same time:
There were a lot of interactive exhibits inside the museum attached to the castle. The sign says 'Children Only Danger!' so naturally I went in and was promptly rewarded by being scared out of my wits by a recording of a cackling hag.
So back to the present. Or rather, the more recent past. On Saturday, Laura and I went to Blarney, which is right outside of Cork. We expected to spend a few hours at the castle and then a few hours walking around Cork, but were pleasantly surprised by how much there was to do at Blarney. It was a lot of fun to explore the castle itself, but it's also surrounded by amazingly well-kept grounds with extensive nature trails that kept us occupied for the entire afternoon.
The Blarney Stone is located all the way up on the roof of the castle (Do castles have roofs? What's it called if they don't?). Laura has a picture of me kissing the stone, which I'll post at some point.
The crazy winding staircases we had to climb to get to the top:
I wish it was possible to take a little waterfall back to the US with me. They're consistently my favorite discoveries here:
It's said that if you walk up and down the wishing steps with your eyes closed and think of nothing but your wish the entire time, the wish will come true within the year. Laura and I both did it - it wasn't easy! I'll let you know if it works or not this time next year...
There were so many old, majestic trees like this one:
The Witch's Stone was covered in little offerings, mostly coins from all over the world. Laura decided to expand her coin collection by trading some euro coins for some of the more exotic ones that were there.
There were stands of crocuses (croci?) and daffodils all over the place. I had a lot of fun using the macro setting on my camera to take some extreme close-ups:
They even had horses! And a really fun tire swing (or tyre swing, if you want to use the Irish/European spelling), but I forgot to take a picture of it. I also forgot to bring Troll along...
We caught the bus back to Limerick just in time to see the fireworks that were part of the St. Patrick's Day Festival. Afterwards, we caught up with one of my friends and the American friends she has visiting her this week and went to a very traditional pub in the city. A perfect end to a great day!
I have the day off tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day, so I'm going to try to see the parade in the city with one of my friends, and then I have to write some more essays - eeek! At least they won't be as bad as the one I handed in yesterday: Social Inclusion in Ireland: A New Beginning for Local Government. Two months ago I had never heard of the term social inclusion and I had no idea what the local government system was in Ireland. I now know a tiny bit more, but more importantly, I memorized the 32 counties of Ireland while searching for distractions instead of writing (thanks, Sporcle!).
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