Kiss your what?

We've all heard some great blarney from time to time but have you ever climbed to the top of a very large castle with worn and very narrow stairs to kiss some blarney.  That's exactly what Thursday was all about.  From Dublin, I took the train to Cork to spend the evening and do a little sight seeing.  Of course, as the tourist office made abundantly clear, there really isn't much sight seeing to do outside of making your way to blarney castle, about 6-7km outside of town which you can get to by bus.

The blarney castle itself is quite dilapidated, having not really been lived in for quite some time.  However, it's safe enough to make your way up some winding steps stopping along the way to see a number of the various rooms that the owners used to live in.  The thing that always stands out is just how small so many of these rooms were.  Heck I think my tiny kitchen at home is bigger than these folks had.  Very sad.  Once a top this castle, you get your opportunity to kiss the stone.  Of course, it's not nearly as easy as simply walking up to the stone and giving it a nice lip lock.  Nope, you've got to lay on your back, hold on to some railings, and lower yourself down til you can get to the stone and then give it a kiss.  Let's just say if you're afraid of heights, don't look down as it's a free fall to the ground :). Now the only question that remains to be answered, is will my blogging get better no that I've kissed some blarney.

Another place of note I saw yesterday was on the grounds of the university of Cork.  On the grounds there is a Honan chapel, or in Irish, Séipéal Ui Ónáin.  As I mentioned in my blog from the other day, there were only a couple hundred Honan's running around at the early part of the 1900's and one of them Isabelle, upon her death, left her fortune to build this chapel.  Of course i have no idea, yet if she's related or not but it's cool to just know that my little known last name is a part of history in stone somewhere.  While visiting the chapel, there was actually a wedding rehearsal going on so not only did I get to see the chapel I got to see it being used.