All a Bunch of Blarney. . .

So, as promised, I will now recount our trip to Blarney Castle on Saturday, 25 November. This is actually the third "Blarney Castle" to have been built on the same site--started in 1210 and finished as we see it today in 1446. It was once occupied by Cormac McCarthy. No, not the reclusive author who's one of my favorites; Cormac McCarthy the King of Munster (Ireland) Cormac McCarthy.
So we set out for Blarney, only a few kilometers north of Cork City Centre. We had the privilege of filling up the car with petrol. Texans: you may never complain about high gas prices until you buy gas here. To fill up our Nissan Sentra-equivalent it cost a little over $77. That's right: seventy-seven buckaroos! Whew!
So then we were on our way--mapless it turned out--but since it is such a tourist destination there was no problem following the signs.
We made our way into tiny Blarney village around 10AM and there were very few people at the castle. Probably because it was a cold day with a dreary forecast. But we paid our reasonable admission (about $10 each) and made our way into the castle grounds.
Blarney Castle is much more popular in the summer when the lake walk and the mansion are open as well, but we enjoyed not being overwhelmed with people--especially American tourists. They just freak me out--I don't know why! Perhaps it's because in our recent destinations (China and Ireland) we have been removed from the tourists 99% of the time. They are shocking and loud when you get around them after some absence! But anyway. . we wanted to check it out now because (A) it's so close and not hard to get to and (B) in the summer I will be monstrously pregnant and who wants to waddle around while in the midst or noisy American tourists?
So it turned out to be a beautiful but bitterly cold morning. We have been dealing with the cold really well and it has been very mild, but this weekend we had more of a wet cold and that's just, well, miserable.
The first picture here is of the castle from afar. It's pretty impressive. It looks tall and it really is. You go inside and it is not remodeled in any way. The wood floors are gone so you look down all the way to the ground floor from the top. Pretty impressive. Of course, I had to take this information from John's experience: as I began to climb the twisting, medieval stairs up six flights I suffered from crazy vertigo/panic/hyperventilation/painful fear of heights that made me make my way down about three steps up. Have you ever climbed those old kind of stairs? They are brutal! Of course, women were maneuvering them in stilettos so obviously it was not "dangerous" but I just couldn't bring myself to climb up. (I have never been a fan of heights and I fear that I never will be.) But John climbed up to the top and lingered for a while. The actual "legend" of the Blarney stone is more for tourist enjoyment than anything substantial. So John elected not to kiss the stone for the gift of gab this time. (I personall knew there was no way in HELL that I would kiss the stone--you have to hang off the top of the castle to reach under a little part to kiss it. Sure, some 70-year-old Irishman is holding you to keep you from falling, but no way, jose!) The term "Blarney" meaning, well, bull, comes from Queen Elizabeth I trying to take control of the castle and getting put off by long, blustery reports until finally she said that they were just "Blarney". It's a pretty good word, if you ask me.

So after John made his way back down, we explored more of the ground. I'll have to post more pictures of that later--it took forever to get these up tonight. I had plenty of time to eat some super-frozen Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream between uploadings. Can anyone say cravings?

So after the castle we walked along and saw some pretty crazy natural area/gardens. In this respect Ireland reminds me of a cold version of Costa Rica. Everything is so green and lush--and there are a lot of tropical plants growing here. Tons of ferns and moss. I'm afraid that if I sit still too long I'll start growing moss, too. But just incredibly beautiful!

Back to the grounds. . . the castle has a whole lot more than just the edifice pictured above. There are dungeons and caves (bring a flash light for exploring), some good walking area, druid ruins, and other cool stuff. All in all, it's a great place to visit for a quick and memorable adventure.

But what kind of freaked us out was that in the middle of our visit, Christmas music started blaring across the grounds. I mean, rocking Christmas music, Sinatra Christmas music, religious Christmas music. We were totally confused as to whether it was for our benefit or had to do with something else. As we walked along one of the trails we noticed that the property backed up to a huge stadium/field that was quickly filling with people. Must have been some sort of Christmas party or pre-tree-lighting or something like that. When we reached the car and tried to make our way out of the parking lot the crowds were really gathering and made it quite difficult to get out! But we made our way home to run errands for our new house. Of course, we learned that you can't get a cell phone until you have proof of residency like a gas or electric bill. Hmm. So we have to wait until them to get that. Oh well! We got our home phone set up quickly enough and now our internet so we are high-tech and ready to rumble!

Oh, and the last picture here is one John sent from Tex's ad from the Pearland Animal Control before we adopted him. It absolutely took my breath away how cute he was. John saved the e-mail with the link to Tex's picture at the pound and sent it to me today. I had no idea he had it. I can't believe our big old meatloaf was once this tiny. Look at those ears!!! If only he actually grew into them!!! I can hardly remember him being so small and cute!!! They grow up soooo fast!!! I can't imagine what I'll be thinking about our real baby when he or she arrives in June! I'll just have to take a bzillion pictures so I can remember every moment like this one!!! I miss our pups!!!

Well, I should wrap up the blogging tonight. Tomorrow I will try to catch up to date with our last adventure to Fota Island/Cobh (pronounced "Cove").

More to come. . .