Lisa's Trip: Blarney, Killarney and Galway.

On Thursday morning I left Cork and headed to Blarney, where I visited Blarney Castle. Blarney Castle is home to The Blarney Stone, which imparts the gift of eloquence onto anyone who kisses it. To get to the stone, it involved climbing the steps in the castle up to the top, then leaning backwards over the railings (whilst a helper held onto my legs) and planting my lips on the stone set into the castle machicolations. I didn´t realise quite how high up I was (or that apart from a couple of iron bars, the helper was all that stood between me and a broken head!) until I was bent backwards over the edge. It was quite an adrenalin rush afterwards though, and time will tell I guess, to see if it´s worked!

After kissing the stone, I walked around the beautiful gardens which are part of the castle grounds, then headed to Glengarriff, a little holiday resort, where I hopped on a boat which took me to Garinish Island. This small island was transformed into a beautiful garden by an MP who owned it from 1910 when he brought it from the British War Office. It changed to public ownership in 1953 and now you can take a tour boat to the island and walk around it. On the way, the boat captain takes you past small islands with seals on them.

When I got back to Glengarriff, The Aygo and I headed to Kenmare, a lovely town with lots of great restaurants and some very colourful buildings! I got a lovely chocolate milkshake from a café here, then headed back on the road again, driving around the Iveragh Peninsula (on the "Ring of Kerry" coastal road) until I got to Killarney where I spent the night.

Again, I had an awful time trying to find the hostel which I´d booked into! I finally found it though, and had to park about a mile down the road, as that was the closest (free) car park available. I had booked a bed in a mixed dorm with 8 beds. When I got there, I found that I was the only girl in the dorm! I thought that maybe another girl would turn up later in the night (as there was one free bed), but none did. I was pleasantly surprised though that no one snored, and each time I went to the toilet the lid was down!

The next morning I got up early (again) and headed to a coffee shop for breakfast, before driving to Limerick. Limerick has the very appealing nickname of "Stab City", so I didn´t particularly want to spend a great deal of time there. I ended up visiting King John´s Castle where I learned about the history of Limerick, and grabbed some lunch before heading out of the city again.

I drove to Lahinch, a lovely seaside town, where there were at least 3 surf shops right near the beach.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and I think everyone was at the beach enjoying the weather. I got an icecream from a cafe and ate it while walking along the beach, then it was back in The Aygo and I headed for The Cliffs of Moher. Apparently they're home to colonies of puffins, but I didn't see any.

After enjoying the sunshine on the Cliffs, I headed north, to Lisdoonvarna. This little town hosts a matchmaking festival every September. Unfortunately, I was a week too early for the festival, so didn't think there was much point in stopping!

I tried to take some back roads through The Burren, on my way to Galway, but unfortunately I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up going down a driveway to a farm yard! I thought when I was going down the road that it wasn´t very well maintained and very narrow (I was scared that I was going to meet someone coming in the opposite direction as there wasn´t anywhere to pull over), but I thought it was a road marked on the map, so kept going anyway! I ended up having to open the farm gate, turn around in the yard, then head back out and shut the gate behind me! I got back on to the main road after that, and went the regular tourist route from that point. There are limestone cliffs on either side of The Burren (and also some interesting rock formations that I didn´t see because I couldn´t find the right "back road").