Corking Good Times

Except for the allergies anyway. We've done a fair bit in only 3 days in Cork. We seem to spend less time napping like old people when we're on a bit of a schedule.

After walking around town for the remainder of our first day, we then spent the second day at Blarney Castle. This was a lot better than I first imagined it would be as it includes the surrounding grounds, which are rather large. We also bought a ticket to tour the manor house which is on the same property. This was pretty interesting as it is still occupied by the family who own the estate at certain times of the year. We also climbed to the top of the old castle and kissed the Blarney Stone. Yay for doing clichéd touristy things. The poison garden at the bottom of the castle was rather interesting as well since it contained a lot of plants you would traditionally think of, like madrake and poison ivy, and a few others which were surprising, like the tobacco plant and marijuana (or a hemp plant in this case anyway).

Blarney House

Blarney Castle

The Poison Garden at Blarney  Castle

Sancha also had a great time ringing the Shandon Bells at St Annes Cathedral, which is right next door to where we are staying. She tried to play "The Final Countdown", but it came out an incomprehensible mess. I don't recommend using church bells as an instrument if you are going into the 80s hair metal business.

We also took a self-guided walking tour of Cork, which was a nice way to see what is around the town although it is a touch short.

One of the more interesting bars in Cork was Fred Zeppelin's, a rather non-traditional Irish pub with metal paraphernalia taking the place of the sporting memorabilia found in your regular Irish pub.

We spent our last day in Cork doing a dolphin watching tour (we wanted to go on the harbour tour, but forgot to ask when it was on). This was a great way to to get about the harbour and despite getting a face full of dolphin blow hole spit it was pretty enjoyable. The tour included a fair bit of history about all the islands in Cork harbour (second only in size to Sydney Harbour) including the naval base and serveral old forts constructed to defend against Napoleon's fleet, should they even show their faces in Ireland. We also learned a bit about the Titanic and the Lucitania, despite Sancha trying to steal our skippers jacket to keep warm.

Dolphins! I hear they taste just like tuna.

Blackrock Castle

Sancha looking stylish in her borrowed windbreaker and life jacket

One of the island forts around Cork harbour