Adventure on the Emerald Isle: Part II

Dearest followers,

I am officially the worst blogger to have ever blogged. Okay, maybe not the the worst, but still, I'm really sorry this is such a terribly late post.

But in a shocking turn of events, my cold actually turned out to be bronchitis!  

(No, seriously, I got bronchitis. While in Germany. Another life event to file under: "Only Me".)

Which meant I had to take a week off of school (and also life) to give my lungs a rest.  On the bright side, I got to take 5 hour naps and catch up on all of the Game of Thrones and the Good Wife, so maybe not being able to breathe properly has its silver lining too?  (On the other hand, I might not have been fully lucid while I watched said shows, so no pop quizzes, please.)

Anyway, I have a lot of things to catch up on - or rather, catch you up on, dearest reader, so let's get started!

For those of you playing along at home, we last left off with Chelsea and me returning to Dublin. Chelsea only got one week of break (but she got two for Easter, so who's laughing now?), so she had to catch a flight the next morning, but fortunately, I was not to be left alone in Ireland.

The same day Chelsea and I came back to Dublin, another friendly face arrived - my friend Claire! (Who you may recall also went to the Alma Mater and currently teaches in Leipzig. I visited her in Berlin.) 

Also, Claire became our photographer for the second week and all of the lovely photos below are Claire's pictures.

Since I'm a big believer in the whole "Make New Friends But Keep the Old" (I can't help it - I was in Girl Scouts for a long time), we had a nice evening out on the town for Chelsea's last day and Claire's first day in Dublin.

After strolling for a while through the Temple Bar area, we found a pub, delightfully named the crowbar (no capitalization because that's too mainstream), where we perched on old sofas and arm chairs while sitting by a large window, looking out onto the street.  It was especially amusing to watch people as they headed out (or tottered back) from various pubs.  

Temple Bar

One of the best part of the evening window viewing was definitely watching a young couple, who were clearly lost, pass by us at least six times.  The girlfriend/wife looked pretty confident she was going in the right direction each time while the boyfriend/husband each time seemed to sigh and say "Yes dear" as they headed off in yet another wrong direction.  Eventually, the boyfriend seemed to catch on that we were watching them as they passed by, which was also pretty funny.

The next morning, Chelsea left bright and early for her flight, while Claire and I left (a little less) bright and early as well to explore Dublin.  We took another free walking tour - this one was better than the one I had been on before, so I learned a lot more about Irish history.

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle and Gardens

The weird backside of Dublin Castle

Trinity College

A haunting statue to commemorate
the victims of the Potato Famine. 

After the tour, we wound up at an Irish pub for lunch with some of the other people who were on our tour and our tour guide, who was a friendly Irish college student.  We ended up befriending and chatting a lot with our tour guide and an Australian college student named Jeremy.  We swapped stories of international travel, showed off passports, and, all in all, had a splendid time.

We eventually ended up heading over to the Jameson distillery (Yes! Again! But I swear I'm not an alcoholic. We mostly went because the Guinness factory was closed by then) and Jeremy came with us.

Needless to say, good times were had.

Jeremy had to catch his flight home (after nearly 6 months of traveling across Europe) the next morning, so we parted after we got back from the Jameson factory (but we solidified our friendship with a Facebook request). 

Nevertheless, the theme of new and unexpected friends would come even more important at our next destination: Galway!

I hadn't intended to head back to the West Coast, but Claire desperately wanted to see the Cliffs of Moher and I loved my first experience in Galway so much, I couldn't say no!

Our first night in Galway was interesting to say the least: we wanted to explore the city, but were stymied by ferocious winds!  But that didn't deter us and instead we used it as an opportunity for some cool photoshoots.

Claire against the wind!

Yours Truly with the "wind at her back"
as per that all too often and obnoxiously
repeated "Irish Proverb"

Claire couldn't resist taking this one.

Solid advice.

The next morning we took a bus tour out to the Cliffs (since you can't really get there via public transportation in the off season).  

Our bus driver was filled with amazing facts but even more amazing verbal ticks, which included such phrases as "liquid sunshine" (aka rain) and "in and of itself" (which he used in nearly every sentence, apropos of nothing, in any context, and by the end of the tour the phrase lost all meaning).  But the fan favorite was the keyword: "fresh".

Nevertheless, "fresh" was the right word to describe the day we had on the tour.  It was a cool, rainy day with a chilly wind that took your breath away when you stepped off the bus.  But there is something delightful about the air in Ireland because it is both fresh and clean (or maybe I've been in Germany, with their love of smoking, for too long).

Although the sights below are familiar to you readers who perused the last Ireland entry, Claire's photos are very lovely.

Claire in a wee arch!

On the Burren.

Things got interesting on the Cliffs of Moher.

When we first arrived, it was pouring down rain, so we rushed into the visitor's center (or is it centre?). Once the rain had subsided a bit, we climbed up the right bank of the cliff, where we tried desperately not to get blown over by the violent winds.  Claire almost lost her gloves and we had to run into the wind to catch them before they tumbled off the Cliffs!

Mostly rain, but you can see the sunshine peaking
through on the left side!

Yours Truly, looking a little more
windswept than usual.

It wasn't until we tried to climb the left side of the Cliffs that things got dicey.  It started to rain again and then began to hail enormous pellets while the winds threatened to throw us against the safety barriers.

Misery.

Once the rain, hail, and wind let up...

We were happy again.

Oh and...

RAINBOWS!!!!

I use this gif so much, but it accurately summarizes
my reaction to a lot of things in life, so that's okay.

NOT JUST ONE BUT TWO!

Look to the right of the main rainbow and you can see
the second one.

TWO FULL DOUBLE RAINBOWS!!

WHAT THE WHAT

It was a good thing we were basically alone on that side of the Cliffs because the amount of screeching and squealing probably would have made anyone else's ears bleed.

And for the record, if you saw a double rainbow you would freak out too.

Bringin' around this classic viral vid from 4 years ago.
You really only need to watch the first 30 second to get the gist.

Double rainbow, man.

It was pretty amazing and we kept talking about it for most of the ride home.

The evening picked up when we returned to the hostel and met one of our roommates - another American named Abbi!  

We immediately bonded over stories of traveling (she had been in England as an au pair and is currently traveling around Europe) and then we headed to a local pub for a pint.  At the pub, we chatted with some locals at the bar and some French students studying at the university in Galway.

But when we got back to our hostel, we discovered that someone had taken Abbi's bed in our room!  So we immediately rushed downstairs to the front desk to figure out where Abbi was going to sleep. We then discovered that Abbi had been given the keys to the wrong room and that she wasn't supposed to be in our room! Yet fate intervened and we made a new friend that night - a friend who would later visit us in Germany!

In the morning, we also befriended the roommates from Abbi's new/correct room, who were both German university students on vacation.

All in all, our experience in Galway was great, just proving that a great hostel in a great city can really make a trip memorable.

We returned to Dublin in the evening, where we met another new friend - an Italian boy named Alex who had just moved to Dublin to find a job. He was just starting to learn English and was eager to chat with us.  We also found out that his English classes at a night school were followed by salsa dancing lessons!  (It was really cute; apparently, he and a Polish girl from his English class are dance partners and while they dance, they practice English because that's the only language they both know.)

Which meant then for the next three nights at our hostel, we exchanged English lessons for salsa dancing lessons with Alex.  The hostel manager was pretty obliging and would turn on some classic ballroom dancing hits for us every night.  To no one's surprise, Alex was a much better student at English than I was at salsa!

During the day time, we visited some of Dublin's main attractions and museums.  

One of my favorites was the National Library of Ireland (NLI) which is not a gorgeous building, but also had a really cool exhibit about W.B. Yeats (aka "my main man Yeats" as I like to call him).

Obligatory picture next to the library gates

Now before I gush on about the exhibit, go do yourself a favor and edify yourself by reading some Yeats poems.

Back?

Okay.

So here's the thing.  Even though I am/was an English major, I was never really a poetry person. 

Even though I had a very good middle school teacher, who tried to instill a love of poetry into me, it got beaten out of me in high school with all the "Look, the stanzas make the shape of a wheelbarrow! This is great poetry!" nonsense.  (For the record, I still hate that poem. Why can't high school literature anthologies pick another, any other, William Carlos Williams poem?!)

Throughout my college experience, I bumped into other poets and poems, but the big turning point (I almost wrote "wendepunkt" - there goes my English) came during the fall of senior year in one of my research classes.  It was time to submit ideas for our papers and I still had nothing, and I found myself in my professor's office vaguely mumbling about various stupid ideas before he cut me short and told me to write about Yeats.  I left his office, confused and slightly overwhelmed about what I just agreed to:  A research paper on poetry?  I hate poetry!

And so began my love-hate relationship with Willy B.  Long nights were spent agonizing in the library, reading, swearing at my poetry book, explicating, swearing at my poetry book, writing, and swearing at my computer.  

And slowly but surely, I found myself sort of falling in love with this crazy, angsty, Irish occultist, politician, ladies man, and damn good poet.   Yeats' (or Yeats's?!  It's both in the academic literature, which convinces me that no English speakers can properly use an apostrophe) personal life just as weird as his poetry and everything about him made the paper writing actually (slightly) fun.  Yeats brought me back into the world of poetry and, in hindsight, I'm grateful for having to write that extremely stressful paper.

Which meant, when I strolled into the Yeats exhibit in Dublin, I majorly geeked out and had a really good nerdy time.  

Pictured:Me, geeking out, the way
English majors are wont to do.

Claire was a very good sport about the whole thing and eventually, I brought her over to Yeats lovin' lifestyle.  It also helped that the exhibit was really gorgeous and very well presented.  My favorite part, by far, was the poetry experience section, where you got to sit and listen to his poetry as the words and thematic images were projected in front of you.  

One of my other favorite museums was the Chester Beatty Library museum.  Alfred Chester Beatty was a famous rare book collector, who donated his amazing stash of books and manuscripts to Ireland (even though he was American).  He really only collected books for their aesthetic value and, man, did he have exquisite taste.  

Although the museum is mostly religious texts (the library is the second largest holder of Qur'ans outside of Mecca, which is pretty cool), they also had some other gorgeous books on display.  While we were there they had a display of Mrs. Beatty's turn-of-the-century fashion plates and dresses, which I really loved.

We wrapped up our week with some more art galleries, some shopping, pub hopping, and salsa lessons!  By the time we had to fly home, we were both very reluctant to leave the country! 

All in all, I loved my time in Ireland.  It's a gorgeous country with ridiculously friendly people, which in turn made for a friendly vibe at the hostels!  Galway was my favorite city, although Dublin has a lot to offer.  If I could do it again (and hopefully I will), I would definitely try to rent a car and drive around the island, stopping in little B&Bs.

Oh, and the guy at customs saw my last name on my passport and my pasty skin and asked me if I was visiting relatives in Ireland, which made me feel really special about my 1/4 Irish-ness.

So leor de ghrá or Lots of Love,

Your Humble Blogger

PS.  If you have any burning (or not burning) questions about Germany, my school, or my life here you want me to talk about in future posts, please shoot me an email at travelswithsimba@gmail.com!

Adventure on the Emerald Isle: Part 1

Dearest followers,

Sorry this post wasn't up sooner!   I was having some trouble loading the photos onto Blogger (sigh) and then the schedule for all the English classes at school changed (double sigh) so I haven't had much time to blog. But hey, it worked out so it's here on St. Patrick's day, so everybody wins!

Be warned: this post (and its sequel) are both very image heavy, so it might take a while to load.

Anyway, while you wait for them to load, pop open a Guinness, pour yourself some Jameson, or mix some Bailey's into your coffee.  Or you can mix all three and have a creatively titled "Irish Car Bomb"!  (Not that I encourage such drinking on this blog...)

Also double-Irish spirit points if you listen to some Irish music playlists while reading.

Part I: Fulbright & Friends

The state of Saxony had a two week spring break this year, so I decided to take full advantage of my 14 days of not dealing with my students (don't get me wrong, I like them, but sometimes you need a break).

Most of my coworkers expressed confusion about the fact that I was going some place colder than Germany - Germans usually escape the EU for vacay to cheaper, warmer places like Croatia or Greece.

During the planning stages of this trip, I was worried that I might end up alone for a week in Ireland, since lots of the other Fulbrighters had family members and friends visiting and others had shorter breaks (especially if they didn't teach in Saxony).

Luckily, I was able to find two great traveling companions for my first week in Ireland - Chelsea, who teaches in Erfurt, and David, who teaches near to Chemnitz!

We set off in search of adventure and Ireland delivered.

Dublin

RyanAir is simultaneously both the best and the worst thing to happen to poor college students (or in my case poor college graduates) in Europe.  RyanAir, which is based in Ireland, provides the cheapest flights to major cities in Europe.  So woohoo!

But the downside is they that fly out of crappy, out-of-the-way airports and you can only take one tiny carry-on bag, which is really unfortunate especially when you're planning on living out of a single bag for two weeks.

Anyway, since we were flying with RyanAir, Chelsea and I flew together from Berlin's lesser known international airport, Schönefeld, which still is frighteningly Soviet...and by that I mean poorly laid out and inefficient.  We made it through the multiple security checks only to discover that our flight was delayed.

After a wait and then a sprint to the gate (because that's how it happens, right?) we were basically the last passengers to squeeze ourselves onto the RyanAir flight.

But we were rewarded when we landed with a soft drizzle and a rainbow on the tarmac!

Despite our best efforts we weren't allowed to run outside
to find the pot of gold that we were clearly entitled to.

We made our way to our hostel which was right along the river Liffey which flows right through Dublin.  (After all this time in Europe, I really shouldn't be surprised when yet another river goes through a city, but somehow I get ridiculously excited when I discover a new river.)

The Liffey at night

We met David, who had gotten there a day before us, at the hostel.  We dropped off our stuff, strolled around the city for a bit and then got dinner - traditional Irish dinner of beef, potatoes, and Bulmers cider, which is confusingly called Magners everywhere else in the world and is not be confused with the British Bulmers.

The next morning we woke up and got ready for our walking tour around the city.  It was a crisp, cloudy day perfect for strolling around Dublin.

Another view of the Liffey

One of our first stops was Trinity College, Ireland's top university.  Famous alums include: Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, and Samuel Beckett....so basically a checklist of famous Irish writers.

Oh, and did I mention that it's totally gorgeous?

Now, Trinity College was founded as Lutheran university in the heart of Catholic Ireland and it was built with a wall around it to protect the Lutheran students from the (perceived) rabid hordes of Catholics (because that's how we roll).  Catholics were ordered not to attend the College and some were even excommunicated for attending. The campus is still walled off from the city and you can't even hear the sounds of city from inside.

There are still lots of rumors and superstitions surrounding the College and its rules.  Rumor has it that a Lutheran student technically still has the right to shoot Catholics on sight with a crossbow.  

Another rumor says that if a student climbs to the top of the bell tower and yells out "Trinity, Trinity, Trinity" they become the "King of the College"; however, the only way they can be stopped is by the Dean who also has the right to shoot students climbing the bell tower with a crossbow.  (Apparently Trinity College students and faculty have a thing for crossbows.) 

The most famous rumors surround the heavily veiled and secretive process of being a Scholar at the College, which involves passing a grueling test at the end of your second year of studying.  If you pass this exam, you officially become a scholar, receiving fully paid tuition and housing plus free meals. And according to all the lore, scholars get to: request a glass of port to drink during their exams , carry their swords to all their classes, and let their sheep graze upon the campus grass.  All of which sound like things my Alma Mater should allow students to do.

The new library.

If you look closely, you can see Your Humble Blogger!

Trinity College is also home to the gorgeous Long Room and the famous Book of Kells, both of which I'll talk about later.

Our tour also took us to Dublin Castle, which isn't even really a castle since the original structure from the 1240s burned down and was replaced in the 1700s.  It served as the home base of British rule until Ireland became its own free republic.  Today it serves as a major political building in Ireland.

The castle itself is a hodgepodge of styles and designs and from the back it looks really weird.

A view from the front gate

The Records Tower, which served as a prison, is the last
piece of the original castle.
The little chapel to the left isn't really used for church, but
rather as popular movie and TV show set.  The Tudors
used the inside as Henry the VIII's court.

A view from the other side.

From left to right: "Legoland", the State Apartments, and a
chunk of the Records Tower.

The Coach House building built opposite the State Apartments
in order to hide the view of Dublin's slums from the King's
line of sight.

Important.

Our next stop was Christ Church Cathedral.  

Here's a fun fact: Dublin does not have a single Roman Catholic Cathedral in the entire city.

It blew my mind too.

Because technically, Christ Church Cathedral is still Catholic on the books since the Church refuses to acknowledge Henry the Eighth's takeover of the church back in the day.  But in reality, Christ Church is a functioning Anglican church today.

We took a stroll around around the church...

The colorful doors which are Dublin's hallmark!

Another view of the church

We then took a walk along the river...

Check out the super-duper skinny house!

The Liffey
(Again. Sorry I like rivers.)

Ignore the bus and focus on Dublin's latest
installation: The Spire.  It was built to commemorate
the new Millennium, but Dubliners still have mixed
opinions about it.

It's been creatively titled "the erection
at the intersection" or "the stiffy on the Liffey".
Which just serves to prove that the Irish are
crude and witty people.

Speaking of wit: This plaque was recently laid into the O'Connell
street bridge to commemorate the death of Father Pat Noise
who died falling off the bridge in a carriage.

Excited tourists and tour guides snapped lots of pictures
of the plaque.

Except for the fact that it was an elaborate prank:
Pat Noise never existed nor did anyone die in carriage falling
off the bridge.

Oh, the Irish.

This is Daniel O'Connell who was the first
Catholic man elected to British Parliament
to represent Ireland.  He was a supporter of
non-violent protest to support the rights
of the oppressed Catholics under English rule.

We finished up the walking tour and decided to head off to best place to recover from a day's worth of walking: The Old Jameson Whiskey Distillery!

Our tour of the distillery began with a cheesy little movie about the history of Jameson Whiskey and then we learned how whiskey is made. (Since I'm too lazy to explain: here's a helpful article about how whiskey is distilled.) Specifically, Jameson's whiskey is triple distilled and made with smokeless heat. (FYI: if it was made with peat and had a smokey flavor, it would be Scotch.)  

At the beginning of the tour, some lucky people
 were given hollow batons so they could be whiskey
tasters at the end of the tour.

David was our lucky winner!

Mashing some barely to make sweet, sweet booze.

The old distillation vats!  They aren't being used now.

An empty, used barrel!

And then came the best part of the tour: the whiskey tasting!

David was pumped.

Chelsea and I with glasses of Jameson,
ginger ale, and lime.

I highly recommend it.

David got to taste test three different types of
whiskey, including American whisky.

At the end of the testing, David got a Whiskey tasting diploma
with his name on it.

Hopefully he can put it on his resume!

Yours Truly in front of an old distillation vat,
sitting on an old barrel.

Our evening at the hostel that night was interesting to say the least, but I'll talk about that in another post.  Suffice it to say that my tolerance for drunk teenagers in Europe has rapidly changed now that I'm older.

The next day, we said goodbye to David, who was meeting up with his parents, and Chelsea and I left to explore Trinity College's Long Room and the Book of Kells.  

The Book of Kells is a gorgeously illustrated copy of the New Testament from around 800 AD. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but you can check out some of pages here at Trinity's digital archive!

But I really loved the Long Room in the Old Library.  After the exhibit on the Book of Kells, you walk upstairs.  Before you even go into the Long Room, the smell of old books just washes over you.  And if you're a bibliophile like me, the smell of old books is intoxicating.  But then you step inside...

Obligatory shot of Aristotle.

Chelsea in the Long Room

After we strolled through the city a bit, we went in search of lunch. Now, normally lunch isn't usually the highlight of my day (well, sometimes it is on a bad day at school) but this lunch was special.

Chelsea and I had the first Mexican food - not crappy German attempts - that either of us had had in about six months.  It was glorious.

So if you're starved of good Mexican food and you're trapped in Dublin, head over to Pablo Picanté!

Overall, even though we didn't have much time in Dublin, our experience was a really good one!

Galway & County Clare

Our next leg of the journey had us heading out to the West Coast and the charming city of Galway, which became my favorite city in Ireland.  Galway is a cute little city filled with a vibrant live music scene and festivals.  What made our stay infinitely more pleasant was the great hostel we stayed at: Kinlay House, which was more like a hotel than a hostel.  If you're heading out to Galway and you're on a budget then I would highly recommend Kinlay House.

Our first day in Galway was eaten up by the 3 hour bus ride that took us from Dublin to Galway and then the tired check-in and search for dinner.

Our second day was a bus tour around County Clare, the Burren National Park and the Cliffs of Moher.  Normally I'm not one for bus tours, but this one was a really great all day tour and we got to see some truly gorgeous sights.  The day started off gray and disgusting, but turned lovely by the time that we reached the Cliffs. 

So let's go on a tour, shall we?

Thatched houses typical of the County Clare region.

Dunguaire Castle, which isn't really a castle but rather
a tower house.

A view of the inlet near Dunguaire Castle

The castle up close and personal.

Our next stop was Corcomroe Abbey, which was devastated
during Oliver Cromwell's invasion of Ireland, like
many of the monasteries on the West Coast.

The destruction of many of the local churches and monasteries
led to the tradition of home Masses on the West Coast. 

A view from the abbey to the Burren National Park

A cow escaped and blocked our path for a bit when we tried
to leave the abbey

We then stopped for a coffee break at
Monks tavern.  If you look closely,
you can see the little monk catching the fish.

The ocean!

Probably something to avoid.

A little country lane.

An earthen ringfort built by Iron Age settlers to protect
them from wild animals and invaders.
When the forts became overgrown over time they
were dubbed "fairy rings".

Although the ground was a little mushy, it was fun to walk
around the middle and the walls of the fort.

Our next stop was the utterly sublime Burren National Park.

The characteristic criss-cross limestones were formed
when what now is Ireland was part of Pangaea and
developing under a tropical ocean.

Poulnabrone dolmen aka "The Portal Tomb"
on the Burren.

From the Burren, we headed up the Cliffs of Moher and despite my fear of heights, the experience of being on the cliffs was unreal and amazing.

Some good tips for staying alive on the Cliffs of Moher.

Thank God.
How else could I instagram all my pics?!

It was a wee bit windy.

Stupid tourists die every year on the Cliffs
because the cliff edge is crumbly and soft.

At least they warn you.

"The Stack"

A freestanding stone wall built without mortar to allow
the wind to pass through the rocks.

A cove where we were allowed to wander near the seaside

If you're going to Ireland, you absolutely must see the Cliffs of Moher!

The next day we spent exploring Galway itself and the Museum of Galway.

The Spanish Arch, which is a lot less impressive than the
name seems to indicate.

The town itself is narrow and winding,
filled with cool little shops
and taverns.

This window is the last remnant of Lynch's
Castle, where Sir Lynch, a local magistrate,
hung his own son, convicted of murder, out
the window.

Hence the word: lynching. 

The museum in Galway was small but cute.  They had a lot of information about local history and some artwork done by local artists.  It made a good stop when it started raining and it was free, so even better!

A statue of the author Patrick O'Conner, who was a
Galway icon.

This is a Galway hooker, a type of
fishing boat.

In the evening, we went to a local pub with some girls we met at the hostel and listened to a live trad (traditional Irish music) band.  The "band" was a trio of a guitarist/singer, a fiddler, and a bodhrán.  They were amazing to watch playing live and luckily we got really good seats in the pub near the stage. The pub was really cool and filled with locals who chatted us up and taught us the lyrics to some songs.  It was a great way to end our last night in Galway.

Cork and Blarney Castle

Our next trip was the bottom of the South coast to the city of Cork.  Both Chelsea and I agreed that Cork was our least favorite city.  There really wasn't much to do in the city itself and it's a very pretty city either. (It kind of reminded me a bit of Chemnitz, actually.)

Although in Cork's defense, they did have a very cool covered Victorian-era mall (like the one I saw in Cardiff), which made my little Victorianist heart beat a little faster.

Obligatory photo of Cork to prove I went there.
This was my only photo of Cork.

But Cork's main attraction is about 30 minutes away in the small town of Blarney.  Which is home to Blarney Castle and the magical Blarney stone! (The stone, by the way, was proven to be 100% Irish in a new study.)

Although you probably have heard of the stone's magical ability to give you the "gift of gab", you probably didn't know that Blarney Castle also includes a gorgeous plot of land that includes forests and gardens.  We spent the whole day in Blarney and despite the occasional rain shower, we really enjoyed ourselves.

To all my American readers still suffering from the snow:
Look! Spring!

No kidding.

Chelsea in the hidey-hole!

An "art" installation on the grounds.

Our first stop was the castle and the stone, of course!

Fortunately, we got inside the castle just as
it started to rain.

Unfortunately, they try to preserve the historic
elements of the castle so they don't really
repair any of it, which means in the rain
it turns into a wet, slippery death trap.

We climbed higher, but the rain kept up.

Eventually though, the rain left
and we got a lovely rainbow!

The castle is bare on the inside and despite
the fact that it was used until the 17th century
little remains of the frescos or adornments
inside.

Once you get to the top of the castle,
it's quite windy plus you get this view to right.

To your left is the open space that used to be
the dining hall.

In other words, I nearly had a panic attack.

Chelsea bravely kissed the stone with the help of
jovial Irish dude.

Luckily, I was endowed with the gift of gab naturally, so
I didn't need to kiss the stone.

Also, I was terrified about being up so high, I immediately ran down
the slippery spiral staircase to get to safer ground.

Chelsea took her time going downstairs,
so I was able to get this cute picture
(from the safety of solid ground)!

The stone from below!

Another cool part of the ground was the poison garden,
which held all kinds of poisonous and deadly plants.

They meant business.
Especially with the deadly ones.
Or the stuff people might steal, like marijuana. 

The plants also had little signs next to them so you could
read all about how poisonous they were.

Blarney House!

Too bad it was closed for the season. 

We took a stroll into the gardens.

Brave explorer Chelsea!

The Wishing Steps.

Seriously though, in Ireland, they give out
free wishes like candy.

If you squint, it's a Witch.

Overall, my first week in Ireland was amazing, despite all the drizzles.  The Irish people are unbelievably friendly and you immediately fall in love with the country.  The landscape is breathtaking and actually really, really green.  Oh, and rainbows.

Up Next: Ireland Part 2!

Lots of Love,

Your Humble Blogger