Wednesday September 16th

Before I got to Ireland I had pretty much decided I would not rent a car due to the left traffic (obviously) but also for the small and narrow roads they have here. After being here a few days and seeing these roads - and the traffic - for myself, as well as talking to the locals, I made the final decision not to rent a car.
Last night while looking at what to do today, I found (for the first time so far) the negative side of it; I can not go to the Skellig Islands nor to the Whale watching as I wanted to do, because it takes a long time to get there (and the bus times does not allow for one-days trips there) - and there was no good place to stay down there.
So sadly, I had to skip those sights. :(


Therefor I started today with going to the nearby village of Midleton - and to the Jameson distillery (whiskey for those who doesn't know).


That was my only plan for today so I expected the afternoon to be pretty dull, but I figured that I might as well go out there and see what the day would bring.
Lucky me that I did that.

Doing the tour of the distillery, there was this pretty girl in the group that I just had to talk to and when I saw her feet I knew what to talk about:

Nicest, and most interesting tattoos I have seen in a while.
They read "Life" and "Death" - but turned up-side-down they read the opposite.

So after Jameson she was going to Blarney Castle (and their Blarney Stone) and since I wasn't doing anything she asked me to join her there, which I did.
Seems not only did she look really good - she also had a great taste of music. She actually liked EBM (and other things, but still). How often does that happen when you meet someone abroad and you are not on a club/festival...?

So her name was Tessa, came from Australia and was touring Europe for 4-5 months (sadly not going to Scandinavia - this time).
This is what she looked like:


So we took the bus to Blarney, got something to eat at the pub and then headed to the castle grounds.
Here is the Blarney Castle, which we went up in:


and here is where you kiss the Blarney Stone. Yes, kiss it.


The legend says that if you kiss a certain piece of the castle, you gain the gift of eloquence. So we did. Both me and Tessa were certain that the local Blarney boys probably pee on this part of the castle when they get drunk just to have fun at the tourists (I know I would), but we did it anyway.
It's a hard job being a tourist, but someone has to do it!

Anyway, here is a picture of the stone from down below. The stone is in the little whole you see on the top of the wall. You lay down and lean backwards until you reach it. Very strange tradition indeed...


After this we walked a while on the grounds which was nice and then headed back to Cork, where Tessa was to meet a friend. I must say she was a really nice girl with great sense of humour. All in all a grand day indeed. :)

After droping her off in Cork, I went to the movies (always like to do that when I am abroad) and saw "Funny People", Adam Sandlers new movie, which was pretty OK.

Then I went to the hotel and got into the jacuzzi for a while before heading up for my room.

Tomorrow I will leave Cork and go to Kilkenny.
I don't expect to have internet there, but you never know.