Day 11 Getting the Gift of Gab

Another food item to cross off the list.  Black pudding.  Basically taste like a heavy sausage with a little more fat than a usual sausage.  Not too bad.  So if you are counting - Yorkshire pudding, haggis, Irish coffee in Ireland, and blood pudding.

We left our hotel in Killarney early to start our drive to Dublin.  But it wouldn't be a good driving day if we didn't make a couple stops along the way.  Our first stop of the day brought us to Blarney Castle.  

The castle sits within a massive park.  This of course is where the famed Blarney stone is where if you kiss it you will be gifted with the gift of gab.  The stone sits at the top of the castle.  You have to walk up about 4 or 5 stories worth of spiral staircases.  Once you reach the top you sit down with the help of an assistant and grab the bars behind you.  You lean back while holding on and kiss the stone which is below the stone you are sitting on.  They even have an official photographer with the kiss cam.  

Now I official have the gift of gab and should be able to talk my way out of any situation.  

The rest of the park was beautiful.  Arboretums, gardens, streams and paths that wondered all around that castle.  I could have spent a couple hours there easily.  But we only had a little over an hour so I stayed close to the castle and wandered the paths around there.  And off we went to the town of Cashel.

Cashel is well known because of the Rock of Cashel.  The Rock of Cashel is a cathedral that dates back to around 1100.  It was used before that as the location that the local area would crown their kings.

  Most of the church dates back to he 1270's.  Some of the painting from that time still survive.  Which is amazing when you find out that the building has been is disrepair for at least the last 250 years with no roof to protect some of it.

  It reminded me of Edinburgh Castle because of the rock base it was on.  It is the famed home of St. Patrick.  I think that I was the only one in the group that paid to get in but for €6 it wasn't too bad of a price. 

Our destination was about 2 hours from Cashel so in went a movie on the bus.  

I logged all my experiences while the movie was playing. We arrived in Dublin at about four.  A couple girls and I headed down to the main shopping area.  There is a chain called Primark that everyone had been raving about.  Its like TJ Maxx and Target combined but cheaper.  What did I buy? A Disney shirt of course.  I couldn't help myself.  

And I bought a couple other souvenirs at a tourist including another thing that I cant live without, another tin which will be loved and used when I get home.

We had dinner at our hotel which was pretty close to downtown.  I planned on going out with some people after they finished their Irish night. But I missed them when they headed into Temple Bar.  So I ended up staying in for the night and got a good night's sleep.