Veronica Baker: Travels: Days 8 & 9, Ireland

Friday morning we went to the English Market (a sort of farmer's market) and grabbed breakfast. After that, Steph went shopping and I went with a group of the guys from Denmark to Blarney Castle. The weather was gorgeous once again, and we spent lots of time exploring the castle and the house nearby as well. There were a couple of cavern-type spots we crawled into, and endless amounts of little rooms in the castles. The Blarney Stone was at the very top of the castle, and to kiss it we had to lay on our backs and have a man hold us as we slid down towards it! Quite the ordeal, I must say.

Inside a little cave with the longest tunnel to crawl through!

A watch tower outside of the castle

Blarney Castle

Standing in a "window" - that's how this the walls are!

Some of the stairs we had to climb up - stories and stories of this!

View from the top of the castle - you can see the tiny "watch tower" in the background!

Kissing the Blarney Stone!

Blarney House

One of the group taking a little break

Blarney House

On Saturday we got an early start because some of the boys had forgotten to change their watches, which somehow meant we needed to be awake with them. We packed up and checked out of the hostel - Cork International Youth Hostel, great place! - and then headed to the University College Cork. What a stunning campus! We went to a cathedral after that and wandered around, eventually ending up at a restaurant called 14A for lunch. At lunch it started to rain, so we went back to the hostel to relax and stay dry before it was time to head to the airport.