Cork, Ireland

As far as I can tell from the family history my Grandpa Murphy made for my brother and I, our Irish ancestors come from County Cork on the southwest coast of Ireland. This is one of the many reasons I wanted to go and see this area. After classes on that friday Jenny and I went to Cork via a bus, it was a long trip but very worth it because the views were amazing! When we got to Cork it was raining (which is no surprise in Ireland) so we headed to our hostel to set up camp and figure out what we wanted to do for the rest of the night. This hostel was the least private one that I have stayed in on my journey since it was a 16 person mixed room, but it didn't feel that bad and the place was pretty well kept.

On saturday we decided to venture out to Blarney Castle even though it was once again raining. If you ever get a chance to go to Blarney caste leave on the earliest bus it isn't crowded at all and there are no lines at Blarney. When you get the to site you walk towards the castle which is a simple tower castle of which there are many in Ireland. We climbed up through the castle which is missing its roof so we got absolutely soaked. Once we reached the top it was the moment of truth...would I kiss the Blarney stone? Well running through my mind is the whole dilemma, this stone is disgustingly dirty but with the rain and being the very beginning of the day is probably the cleanest it will ever be, it will give me the gift of gab which many people tell me I really don't need, and its at least 3 stories up from the ground and you have to lean back and hold on while kissing it and I am scared of heights. Needless to say I did not kiss the Blarney stone because of all three contributing factors, but mostly because I was scared of heights and it was rainy and I didn't want there to be any way possible that I would fall, because that would be most unpleasant.

After I climbed back down from the castle we didn't really feel like leaving yet since we were still soaked. So we wandered the estate in search of the Blarney house since I saw a sign saying they were giving tours of it now. When we finally made it to the house I was astounded, it was so beautiful!!! We were just in time for the first tour of the house and let me tell you I really really wish I could have taken pictures of this house! So I brought my notebook with me and took note of some of the cool things the tour guide told me. The house is owned by the Colthurst family and they still live in the house today, the leave the house for a few hours a day for the tours and then they get the house back for themselves. In their entrance hall they have a 1716 grandfather clock that shows the time, tide, and moon position. They have a pure silk rug from Pakistan (which both Jenny and I were scared to walk on because it was PURE SILK!). There was also a 1710 Queen Anne writing table, a grand piano with a rose and sandalwood inlay from 1840. Another thing I found interesting about this house is there was a giant picture of a King in the stairwell going upstairs, I don't remember the particulars but apparently one of the Colthurst men rescued the King from prison during a war so in return the King gifted the family with a big picture of himself and a large bag of gold. I personally would have left the picture and just taken the gold but it does make for a nice story. I loved touring through the house, I think it is a hidden gem inside of the Blarney estate since the main draw is of course the Blarney stone. Its so much more interesting to see how a family still lives in there family house after many generations and still has the history they are living with.

After the house Jenny and I decided to head back to Cork to dry of a bit since we were literally soaked to the bone. After spending a little time drying off in the hostel we headed out to the church that was right near our hostel called St. Ann's Church in Shandon. The fun thing about St. Ann's church is that the only time the church bells ring is when tourists go up and ring them. So we did our part climbing up a few sets of stairs to ring the bells to certain tunes, I rang the bells to Amazing Grace. Once we rang the bells we put on our special headphones and climbed right past the bells up to the top of the bell tower to get a view of Cork.

After the Shandon bells we walked just up the block to the Butter Museum, yes you read correctly there is a butter museum and I found it!! It was awesome, I learned a lot about how they make Irish butter and what makes it different than all other types of butter. It was cool to see all the old butter churns and other butter making supplies. I also learned how to hopefully make my own version of Irish butter, here is hoping it works!!!

The whole day was pretty crazy and busy but we still had one more day in Cork on Sunday but we kept sunday more chill and laid back. This was partially due to the fact that in Ireland a lot of things are closed on sundays which is cool but stinks for tourists. The weather was beautiful and we saw many old churches including the Red Abbey which is not really in existence any more. I also managed to drag Jenny to mass at Holy Trinity which was really interesting to experience. I have found that church in Ireland is more relaxed than in the US. I also noticed that there were not that many people in attendance especially younger people. Once mass was over we just wandered the city until we got to the bus stop to take another long bus back to Dublin. Overall the trip to Cork was one of my favorite short trips in Ireland!

(pictures will be coming later)