not just a stone pt 2
...and so we went to the grounds.
which were awesome! seriously, the castle was cool, but the grounds were much much cooler. anyway, we had wandered around the grounds a bit before we entered the castle, and we had thought we saw most of it, so we thought we would just take a final stroll around and then be done with it. here is a picture of the grounds from the top of the castle. or at least, the grounds we could see...
turns out that this is very little of the actual grounds. you see the wall toward the back of the yard? well, there is a tunnnel going through that wall, and that's where all the cool stuff is. if you ever go to blarney, be sure to go through that wall. it was amazingly beautiful in the grounds, and it was full of natural wonders and cool stuff. there were some of the most beautiful plants that i had ever seen, wonderful colors of reds, greens, yellows and oranges, and everything was glistening from the rain. we came upon a carved stone stairwell leading down through a tunnel, called the wishing steps, and came upon even more cool stuff. the first thing we saw upon leaving the stairwell was this really cool bog swamp thing. trees were hangin down over the green water, and well, it's really hard to explain, so here's a picture of it.
we continued on this very cool path going through the forest, all with a hundred other paths leading off to glades and thickets. the trees were fantasticly thick and alive, and you could feel an energy radiating out from the entire place. it was very very cool.
the most beautiful part was called the fairy's glen, which was just a little glen beneath a few trees. the leaves fallen in the glen, however, were the most brilliant red i have ever seen, and standing in there, you could feel the magick of the place. it was truly truly beautiful. of course it helps to be there with someone you love...
anyway, there were natural stone formations creating mossy walls around the glen, and a carpet of bright, red leaves, glistening with the rain. there is no true way to give justice to such a place, but i like this picture anyway. this is one that steph took, and it is very good.
there was really too much stuff we saw to describe it all, and so i'm really not going to try. if anyone wants to see more pictures, send me an email, and i'll send you some personally. it just takes too long to post them all here.
the last picture here is the only one of me and steph from the entire trip. most of our trip was us going solo, which is not a bad thing by any means, but it also meant that we could only take pictures of ourselves. this is us in a place in the grounds where the witches lived back when it was still a castle. there was the witches stone nearby, and this is the witches' kitchen. there is a cave behind us under the tree, and there was an old fire pit inside. very neat. just around the corner from us was the druids' cave, also very cool. but here is us...
anyway, we ended up spending about two and a half hours wandering around the grounds, before we decided to go get some lunch. on the way back out past the castle, we noticed that we had completely neglected the ground entrance to the castle, which housed the dungeons. we of course had to check it out. it turned out to be very very dark, and so we went to the gift shop in the vain hope of finding a flashlight. lucky for us, they had flashlights for that express purpose! (that and exploring the caves, which were around the other side of the castle) so, we purchased a torch for the mighty price of 8 euro, and went back to the caves and the dungeons. the caves were pretty cool, but i had to stoop quite a bit, and they looked like they could go for miles pretty much looking the same, so we decided to save them for another day when we were more prepared. the dungeons were equally disappointing. the stairways quickly disappeared into a small, rocky stone tunnel, which one would have to get on hands and knees to navigate. we saw a few of the cells, and decided that we would not want to be prisoners there. that, plus an almost-fatal spider attack on steph, and we decided it was time for lunch.
we retrieved our stuff and headed for the kopi cafe, which was a neat place with fantastic soup. i ordered the tomato basil, and steph got the potato and leek. we ended up liking each other's more, and so we switched, but both were very good. while we were sitting there, soaked, tired and cold, eating our delicious soup, we discussed the remainder of our trip. we had planned to go to new ross, which was to be our final stop, and there was some cool stuff there, but we didn't know where we were staying, and even if we would make it to new ross that same day. we decided that if we saw everything we wanted to in ireland this trip, there would be no reason to return, and so we decided to go to cork and then catch a bus back to dublin one night early, and have another day on the town.
before we left, though, we went around to some of the shops, and had some claustrophobic experiences in the woolen mill, due to their annual sale. think nordstrom's annual sale. suck. then when we were in cork, we found that we had to wait a bit before the dublin bus, and so we went wandering to a music shop, where i purchased a wooden flute. i now plan to teach myself celtic flute, now that i have one, and so all should be fun with that.
our bus ride back to dublin was, to say the least, intolerable, thanks to some cork valley girls and some eastern european tourists who were having (apparently) hilarious phone conversations.
we got back to dublin ok, ate some greasy food at eddie rocket's 50s cafe (cheesy americana, terrible but wonderful), and slept in the next day. then we saw wallace and gromit: the curse of the were-rabbit. a great flick. recommended to all. we then went to a halloween party, pictures from which will be posted soon.
and that was our glorious irish vacation! i highly recommend it to anyone who has too much money and a few weeks to spare.
until next time, don't stop the music!
cheers,
scott
which were awesome! seriously, the castle was cool, but the grounds were much much cooler. anyway, we had wandered around the grounds a bit before we entered the castle, and we had thought we saw most of it, so we thought we would just take a final stroll around and then be done with it. here is a picture of the grounds from the top of the castle. or at least, the grounds we could see...
turns out that this is very little of the actual grounds. you see the wall toward the back of the yard? well, there is a tunnnel going through that wall, and that's where all the cool stuff is. if you ever go to blarney, be sure to go through that wall. it was amazingly beautiful in the grounds, and it was full of natural wonders and cool stuff. there were some of the most beautiful plants that i had ever seen, wonderful colors of reds, greens, yellows and oranges, and everything was glistening from the rain. we came upon a carved stone stairwell leading down through a tunnel, called the wishing steps, and came upon even more cool stuff. the first thing we saw upon leaving the stairwell was this really cool bog swamp thing. trees were hangin down over the green water, and well, it's really hard to explain, so here's a picture of it.
we continued on this very cool path going through the forest, all with a hundred other paths leading off to glades and thickets. the trees were fantasticly thick and alive, and you could feel an energy radiating out from the entire place. it was very very cool.
the most beautiful part was called the fairy's glen, which was just a little glen beneath a few trees. the leaves fallen in the glen, however, were the most brilliant red i have ever seen, and standing in there, you could feel the magick of the place. it was truly truly beautiful. of course it helps to be there with someone you love...
anyway, there were natural stone formations creating mossy walls around the glen, and a carpet of bright, red leaves, glistening with the rain. there is no true way to give justice to such a place, but i like this picture anyway. this is one that steph took, and it is very good.
there was really too much stuff we saw to describe it all, and so i'm really not going to try. if anyone wants to see more pictures, send me an email, and i'll send you some personally. it just takes too long to post them all here.
the last picture here is the only one of me and steph from the entire trip. most of our trip was us going solo, which is not a bad thing by any means, but it also meant that we could only take pictures of ourselves. this is us in a place in the grounds where the witches lived back when it was still a castle. there was the witches stone nearby, and this is the witches' kitchen. there is a cave behind us under the tree, and there was an old fire pit inside. very neat. just around the corner from us was the druids' cave, also very cool. but here is us...
anyway, we ended up spending about two and a half hours wandering around the grounds, before we decided to go get some lunch. on the way back out past the castle, we noticed that we had completely neglected the ground entrance to the castle, which housed the dungeons. we of course had to check it out. it turned out to be very very dark, and so we went to the gift shop in the vain hope of finding a flashlight. lucky for us, they had flashlights for that express purpose! (that and exploring the caves, which were around the other side of the castle) so, we purchased a torch for the mighty price of 8 euro, and went back to the caves and the dungeons. the caves were pretty cool, but i had to stoop quite a bit, and they looked like they could go for miles pretty much looking the same, so we decided to save them for another day when we were more prepared. the dungeons were equally disappointing. the stairways quickly disappeared into a small, rocky stone tunnel, which one would have to get on hands and knees to navigate. we saw a few of the cells, and decided that we would not want to be prisoners there. that, plus an almost-fatal spider attack on steph, and we decided it was time for lunch.
we retrieved our stuff and headed for the kopi cafe, which was a neat place with fantastic soup. i ordered the tomato basil, and steph got the potato and leek. we ended up liking each other's more, and so we switched, but both were very good. while we were sitting there, soaked, tired and cold, eating our delicious soup, we discussed the remainder of our trip. we had planned to go to new ross, which was to be our final stop, and there was some cool stuff there, but we didn't know where we were staying, and even if we would make it to new ross that same day. we decided that if we saw everything we wanted to in ireland this trip, there would be no reason to return, and so we decided to go to cork and then catch a bus back to dublin one night early, and have another day on the town.
before we left, though, we went around to some of the shops, and had some claustrophobic experiences in the woolen mill, due to their annual sale. think nordstrom's annual sale. suck. then when we were in cork, we found that we had to wait a bit before the dublin bus, and so we went wandering to a music shop, where i purchased a wooden flute. i now plan to teach myself celtic flute, now that i have one, and so all should be fun with that.
our bus ride back to dublin was, to say the least, intolerable, thanks to some cork valley girls and some eastern european tourists who were having (apparently) hilarious phone conversations.
we got back to dublin ok, ate some greasy food at eddie rocket's 50s cafe (cheesy americana, terrible but wonderful), and slept in the next day. then we saw wallace and gromit: the curse of the were-rabbit. a great flick. recommended to all. we then went to a halloween party, pictures from which will be posted soon.
and that was our glorious irish vacation! i highly recommend it to anyone who has too much money and a few weeks to spare.
until next time, don't stop the music!
cheers,
scott
posted by Scott | 8:55 AM
1 Comments:
once again, my love, i must be the food/drink police...don't forget about that heavenly apple pie with ice cream we had at the kopi!
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