Girls Gone Isled: Ross Castle and Ba-lar-ney!

After our harrowing adventure through Killarney National Park on the 18th, we decided to hit up one last thing before peacing out of Killarney, aka Irish Gatlinburg. In the morning we stopped by Ross Castle, a 3 km walk from town. The day was grey and the afternoon called for rain.

Ross Castle was pretty cool. It was set one of the park’s lakes and that, coupled with the gloomy weather, made the Castle appear extra foreboding.

Right after our visit Ellen and I hopped aboard the bus bound for Cork. We arrived around 2:30 and made it to our hostel by 3, only to discover that we couldn’t check in until 4. The hostel was across the river from the city and had no real pubs or restaurants around, so we headed for the train station across the street to get out of the rain. Ellen was Mr. Grumpy Gils at this point as the weather was bad and she was toting around about 60 lbs worth of her shit. I warned her not to overpack. But then again she does have everything we could possibly need (and have made use of), so I’m shutting my mouth on that subject. Once we checked into the hostel we hunkered down for the night since the weather was so bad outside.

The next day was chock full of adventure. Ellen and I made plans to see Blarney (or Ba-lar-ney as I like to say in a sing-songy voice) Castle in the morning and head to Kinsale in the afternoon. We made it to Blarney at half eight and dined at a local hotel for breakfast. Right when the Blarney grounds opened we made it in and pretty much had the place to ourselves. We explored the underground entrances, scaled the numerous slippery spiral staircases to the top (which was quite a bit more precarious than I would have thought, but apparently it’s supposed to be a feat to have kissed the Blarney Stone, that’s why it’s so famous), kissed the stone, then had some adventures on the castle’s grounds.

Ellen was not a major proponent of our trip to Blarney because one of the guidebooks said it was, and I quote, “kitschy.” The adventure of kissing the stone and the history of the castle was well worth the admission price; nothing struck us as being particularly tourist-y. Until we explored the gardens. The grounds were littered with places like the “Witch’s Kitchen” where “if one arrived early enough in the morning, they might see the dying embers of the fire she laid the night before.” We got to the “kitchen”, a concreted crevice located under a giant yew tree, where a bunch of unburned twigs lay strewn about the back end. The witch must have made do with a cheese sandwich the night before. The description of the “Druids Circle” began with the statement, “Since the dawn of time.” I didn’t need to read any further; we left shortly thereafter.

We made it back to Cork around lunch and bopped around the city a few hours before our bus left for Kinsale. The weather was nice and I much enjoyed the city. It was a manageable size and gave a clearer picture of working-class Ireland than either Dublin or Killarney had.

In the late afternoon and evening we were in Kinsale. Since it was Sunday, not a lot was open. We went because Kinsale was supposed to be this stunning fishing village, but to be honest, it just reminded me of resort towns in Michigan or Maine. We did have a lovely evening dinner of seafood chowder before making it back to the hostel around 8 pm.

Our morning on the grounds of Ross Castle.

It was a sky Mufasa would pop out of.

Some King Arthur shit right there.

"Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!"

St. Mary's Cathedral in Killarney

A traditional Irish thatched roof.

Ellen models all her shit. I told her to pack lighter. This was not a happy hour as Ellen and I had to wait in the train station before our hostel would re-open to sign people in.

There's that smile!

The Brookstone Converter Incident. Ellen insisted I plug my computer into the wall with this converter. Twenty minutes later, sparks start shooting out of the thing. Turns out it was only supposed to be used for hair dryers. But when you don't read the instructions beforehand, you wind up with incidents such as these. The red script here reads, "Warning: This 1800 watt Slide Switch is only to be used with travel hair dryer & iron. It should Never be used with electronic devices." Our bad.

Breakfast the day of our Blarney visit. Porridge with cream and fruit, brown bread, coffee and some fiber flakes. Gotta keep the plumbing running smoothly.