Dungarvan, Cork, Blarney, Killarney

More green fields of Ireland
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Today we set off at 9am for our drive from Waterford to Killarney. It started out as a brilliant day without a cloud in the sky, one of the only 40 days of these they get a year. The views across the green farm fields were breathtaking. Each farm field is bordered by headges, as this was required in times past for you to claim your land, and now these hedges are environmentally protected.

Our tour director Michael talks to us about the history of each area, and also tells long irish jokes. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between what is real and what is a story till the very end! And it seems that everyone in Ireland is either his cousin, his brother or his grandad!

What a lot of Blarney...

Look... a Leprechan
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On the way to our morning stop Mike side-lined us to a house he remembered from his youth. This house was covered with shells, as mythology says that evil spirits cannot cross water, so old seafarers used to place shells on their roof as they represented water. When we arrived, this house had shells on the fence, on the front wall, on the side fences, in the front garden, and if you looked down the side fence, you could see that the backyard was filled with designs as well. Not sure if I would like to live there tho. Apparently the old lady that used to live there let tourists walk through the yard, but the new owners will have nothing of it.

Shell house in Dungarvan
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After this we moved on to the memorial to the Irish Famine Victims, a young mother with her head bent in her hands, in despair of her children. Michael told us the history of the famine, and that it was not because there was no food - there was plenty of food. The british did it to get rid of the "Irish Problem". They made it illegal to fish in rivers, streams and the ocean, and took over all the farms making it offence to take food from the earth. Where once there was a population of 12 million, the famine killed 3 million. With Emmigration, the population of Ireland is now only at 4million.

Dungarvan Coastal Village
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After this we continued on our way, once again passing breathtaking vistas, full of fields of crops and grazing sheep and cows. In the distance the mist rising off the moutains (called the "Dragons Breath") by the locals giving an eerie view. We came to our lunch stop at Blarney, the location of the famous Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone. It was a 127 step climb up the sprial internal stone staircase up to the top of the ruined castle. Here we waited in line and when it came to our turn, laid down and leaned upside down and kissed the Blarney Stone. We are both now blessed with Eloquence of speech (we hope)! We had lunch in a local cafe then set off with our other travelling companions to Killarney town.

Famine Victims Monument
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The first order of business on arrival was the organised Jaunty carriage ride. We were loaded into horse drawn open top carriages, with six of us in the back and two up front the driver. We set off with our horse Whisky - clip-clop-clip-clop, and let me tell you, Whisky had a flatulence problem!! We had been told that our driver would give us the gossip of Killarney town. Someone forgot to tell our driver this, as he was pretty quiet during our 1hr trip, and when he did speak, the fact that he had no teeth and a thick irish accent made it pretty impossible to understand what he said!!

Blarney Castle
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Once back at our hotel, we took a street map and headed out for a walk around this holilday town. We walked up the main street and stopped at a small coffee shop for a coffee. We were amazed at the number of pubs on offer here - these irish must like to get out of the rain and down an ale or two! We headed back to the hotel and perched ourselves at the bar. Mike had advised that girls who think guinness is too bitter can try a guinness and blackcurrent cordial. I decided to give this a go and found that this did indeed make the black stout drinkable. At 7pm a large group of people invaded the bar, Sales and Marketing staff from Insight - the company that runs the tours. They were having their yearly conference at our hotel venue. We were told a round of drinks were on offer, so who were we to refuse! Each of us were approached by the company staff who wanted to hear about our travelling experiences on the tour and in the past, and what made us choose their company. A fair trade for a drink I suppose.

Joe climbing the spiral staircase to the top of Blarney Castle
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After our included dinner in the hotel restaurant, we decided to call it a night as it had been quite a busy day.