We left our dorms at 9:30 Thursday night. All we had was backpacks. I know, I'm just as shocked as I'm sure you are that I fit my weekends worth of stuff into a backpack. Our flight wasn't until 6:30 the next morning but we needed to take the tube and a train to the airport which left us with catching some of the last ones of the night. The tube closes pretty early. We slept in the airport and had to get up around 4:30 to check in and get through security. I have never had such an issue getting my makeup through security. We landed in Cork around 8:00 Friday morning. We tried to check into our Hostel but we couldn't check in until 1:00. This was slightly disappointing because we were hoping to nap and then do some sight seeing. We decided to get breakfast. We got a traditional Irish breakfast which was delicious and pretty cheep. We then got on the Cork Sightseeing Tour Bus. It ended up being more of a death bus. Our driver was crazy and practically drove into every building and flew through the streets. He would beep at any car that was going to slow in front of us. At this point we were so overtired that we laughed the entire time and made the best of the tour. We finally got to check in and take naps. We walked around St. Patrick's Street and found some place for dinner and then just had a relaxing night. Our hostel was a bar on the bottom so we hung out down there and went to bed at a decent hour.
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Our hostel was actually not to bad. I was expecting a grungy, hole in the wall place with a bed but it actually was decent. Our hostel was called Bru Bar and Hostel. It was clean and I felt pretty comfortable there. The bed was actually more comfortable than my bed at school, believe it or not. Colleen, Kelly, Caitlyn, and I were in a 6 person room. One of our roommates was horrible. She was at least 65 years old and louder than the four of us combined when she was in the room and then yelled us for making the slightest noise. All she would do is either glare at us or she would pick her head up and in her accent go "excuse me, people are trying to sleep", mind you we are getting ready in the dark and there are 4 of us. My question was why are you staying at a hostel at that age? No to mention you are sharing a room with 5 other people, some noise needs to be expected and if it bothers you that much get a single or a hotel. Showering was kind of annoying. To turn the water on you pushed a button. The water would run for about 45 seconds and then shut off. You basically had to either hold the button down or continually hit it every minute. The water was at least warm and for what we paid I guess I can't complain to much. Overall, hostel living wasn't as bad as I expected.
On Saturday, we ventured to Blarney to tour Blarney Castle and of course to kiss the Blarney Stone. The grounds and gardens of Blarney were beautiful. We climbed to the top of the castle which was much harder than you would think. The staircases were very small and cork screwed all the way up. It was well worth the climb though. The view was gorgeous and really made you feel like you were in Ireland. We each kissed the Blarney Stone before heading back down to walk the grounds. The gardens were so pretty. On one of the walks you follow what they call the "Witches Path". You can read all about the Legend of the Witch of Blarney. We also took on the challenge of the Wishing Steps. Legend says that if you can walk up and down the steps with your eyes closed only thinking about your wish, it will come true within a year. It was much harder than you would think considering they are steep, rock steps. We stopped at the Blarney Wool Factory. I bought a really nice wool scarf. I had been hoping to get one in either Ireland or Scotland. We had dinner at a pub in Blarney which was really good. The Irish really do make great food. That night we hung out at the Bru where they had a live band. They covered Domino which we were the only ones to know the words to. There was one lady who was ridiculously drunk and made a fool of her self when she tried to dance and sing. To be honest, she was more entertaining than the band.
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Sunday was quiet the struggle. We had planned on getting on a tour bus for the Ring of Kerry at 8:30. We had looked into it on Friday and thought it would be fun. We had been told we did not need a reservation but once we got there we were told they were booked and we could not fit on the bus. We were really upset because we didn't think we would have enough time on Monday. We ended up getting breakfast again and were going to tour the Jamison Factory instead. We stopped back at the tourist office to find out about the bus to get there and the lady working told us that we would have enough time the next day to do the Ring of Kerry tour and make our flight. She even called to see if the tour bus would bring us to the airport which they said they would. We were very happy and we booked the tour thinking the lady was so nice and helpful. We ended up missing the Jameson bus to add to our luck of the day so we went to the Church of Saint Anne and rang the bells going up. It was a beautiful view from the top dispite the rain. Getting to the top and back down was the challenge though. We once again had windy stairs but we also had a small, steep latter right next to the bell. I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if the bell went off while I was next to it. The amount of bird poop and feathers on the way up and down was gross too. It was definitely interesting. Other than that we spent the day relaxing and did a little more sightseeing of Cork.
Monday was a beautiful day! We got up early again and checked out of the hostel. This time we had reserved our seats on the tour bus so we were off to tour the Ring of Kerry. Our bus driver Mike was really funny which made the tour great. The Ring of Kerry brings you through the coast of Ireland and through the hills. The views I saw were amazing. We stopped a few times and were able to get out for pictures a long with taking them as we drove around. We got to see two rainbows which was pretty cool cause we were in Ireland. Lunch was delicious. I got traditional Irish Stew. It only rained when we were eating lunch giving us a lot of sunshine for our tour. Mike sang us some pretty funny songs as we drove a round a long with information about the places we were passing through. The views were breathtaking. Some of my pictures look painted. It was unbelievable. At one point this kid started playing bag pipes on top of one of the hills we were on. It made me feel like I was Wards lane listening to Jack. We started getting nervous toward the end however because we had been told we would be back by 6:00 but actually the tour would not end till about 7:30. The driver also didn't know we were suppose to be dropped off at the airport. The lady from the day before clearly was just trying to sell us tickets and was not as nice as we thought. Everything worked out in the end and we were early for our flight. Once we arrived back in London we had to run through the airport to catch the train back to Liverpool. Luckily customs was a breeze. The train took 45 minutes which we weren't expecting because it only took 30 minutes when we went to the airport. This meant we had to sprint through the tube station. I don't know when the last time I ran that fast was but we caught the last tube back to Old Street and got back to our dorms around 12:45. Luckily I didn't have class today so I could sleep.
Overall it was a great weekend. Every time something seemed to be going wrong our luck turned around and everything worked out. I was excited to come back to London though after such a busy weekend. I can't wait for my next adventure. It should be a lot of fun. I definitely have a huge travel bug! Well that's the story of my weekend in Ireland! Until next time.
Cheers,
Allie
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