Day 30: County Cork

Yesterday we toured around County Cork, visiting Blarney, Kinsale and spending the night in the village of Cork. The highlight of Blarney is obviously the famous Blarney Castle. It is a pretty funky castle, and probably my favourite of our trip. The entire thing is open to visitors, and even with it being in a ruined state it still has a lot more personality than many of the ones we've visited.

Of course I had to climb to the very top for the obligatory kiss of the Blarney Stone. The surrounding castle grounds and gardens were really nice too. They were a bit tacky in places, as there were signs out trying to create myths around things that they probably built recently, but they did create some very nice views even with that.

Next was the coastal town of Kinsale. We didn't spend very long here, but I liked it a lot. It was a very artsy town with lots of small galleries and bookshops. The rain kept coming and going all day, and there were some interesting views of sunny mixed with dark clouds over the bay.

We spent the night in Cork. The hostel was located in a pretty hidden alley a moderate distance from the city center. We went out for dinner then headed to a pub to watch the Chelsea - Barcelona game (wild, wild game). I was having a bit of a coughing fit so decided to head out for some fresh air. Unfortunately I got pretty lost and couldn't find either the others or the hostel we were staying at. Eventually after wandering around for almost two hours I finally found the hostel and by this point was happy just to go to bed for the night.