Day 28...Too be sure, to be sure! Ireland - 24th July

Woke up on the ferry feeling completely subhuman, and deboarded tired, unshowered and feeling like we were coming down. We drove up to Wexford which was a messy little sea town and had some hot breakfast. I was enjoying the Irish accents already, and completely ironic they were playing the Corrs on the radio.

Stopping at a servo on the way to Cork, we changed our underpants and did a quick APC wash and felt alot better. Driving to Cork - that part of Ireland looked a little dry like England as they are in a drought at the moment (plus with all this record breaking heat the grass probably doesn't know whats going on!). However I expected it to be emerald green like the pictures I saw. Oh well! It was definately a lot cooler, which was a welcome change in our little black car. We drove for a little while on a coastal road. The roads here are fantastic. They barely fit 1 & 1/2 cars and are boarded thickly with flowers and grass overlooking rolling farmland hills spotted with trees, grass, stone fences and sheep. THe houses are mostly quaint stone buildings, with either rickety wooden or solid stone fences. I was so tired though - I did a little microsleep on the way to Cork so we changed drivers. woops. It has been my only one and we have mastered the art since then.

We got to Cork, drove thorugh up north to Blarney to Blarney Castle. It was a beautiful big old thing built in the 1400's I think. Don't quote me on that. The best thing about it was that it was preseved really well - but not restored. I hate restored!!! I want to see everything as how they built it back then. They also let us clambour over everything so Nate and I were quite surprised and pleased at that. It was better than we expected. It definately felt more authentic than the disnez-type version at Tower of London. I felt the grit and the cold! (Although it was a nice sunny day and I was in a t-shirt haha). It was amazing to peer out of those small stone windows and know that a girl just like me would have done the same on the exact same spot but hunderds of years ago, in another time.

We went up a very small but incredibly steep spiral stairwell...and up...and up...and UP! A girl in front of us started to cry coz it was so high, and Nathan definately sympathised. He's now fine with the whole plane thing (maybe all this exposure therapy thing helps) but is now getting a touch of the vertigo with some heights. Good fun! The castle was built in as well as onto a rocky outcrop overlooking green rolling hills, and was prolly around 7 storeys at the top. I felt exhilerated with the height eh! It was a great view, and would have been fantastic back in the day to survey all your lands around you. I was so excited to kiss the Blarney Stone too! For those that don't know, kissing the Blarney Stone is famed to give you the "gift of the gab". I'm sure you've heard about it somewhere. It was jutted out as part of the spill off at the top of the castle. You had to lie upside down, grab 2 metal poles and lower yourself backward and down to kiss it, staring at 7 stories below before you did. I had read about the hygiene thing with the old stone there, with spit and bodily fluids, but threw all caution to the wind and gave it a big old smack! I got superstitious and wanted to do it right! Somethings you just have to do, no matter what.

I planned to sit up and say "oh I say, that was a dashing experience!" but when I sat up, all that came out was a garbled "Keeewl". Very nice. Maybe it takes a while to work, like painkillers or chemo haha. Nate wasn't prepared for what I got him in for at that time of the morning, and to see him on no sleep hanging upside down was a very funny and cool sight! He was a great old chap, and very pleased with himself after coming back up. He thought it was a right old laugh. Back on two feet he flashed me a grin and I high fived him! That's another notch on my life belt for me. Yeah! I rule!
On the way out, exploring the castle I referred to the latrine opening against the wall as a poo-hole so I guess the stone's magic isn't working yet.

After that tomfoolery, we drove down along the bottom of the Irish coast heading west. It got prettier and prettier and much greener as well. We reached rivers an dlakes with pinetrees as well as trees perched on rocky shores diping into the silky water. (On one way we got diverted as a bus was on fire - that's pretty much an car catastrophe in each country and one in each city for the States. By the way, in Wales we passed a massive beef on the highway that had happened two seconds before we arrived. It was on the other side of the road and stuff was still skittering onto our side, and a guy was running up to the smash trying to yank open the door. Nate and I must be bad traffic charms or something!)

There were lots of sheep and cows and fishing boats and small towns with terraced Irish houses. Every corner was a picture and it was so hard to capture! Also the air was cooler than England and much fresher - except from the occassional REALLY bad farm smell of piggery or cow or sheep crap. We took a detour down a coastal road to Drombey Stone Circle. It was cool, but the gravel detracted a bit. Also, I was trying to convince Nathan to be ahem, naughty but more people rocked up so that was out of the question haha!

We tried to reach Glengarrif but got tired and Nates got some weird Harry Kewl injury which keeps firing up at weird moments. So we stopped at Skibbereen, a fairly largish town (for Irelands standards - did you know that there are only approx 3 point something million people living in the whole of Ireland? Thats Melbourne right there!) Skiberreen was quite industrial and fishy which was kinda cute in its own way. There were B&B road signs so we ust followed one to a place just out of the centre on large landscaped gardens called Whispering Trees. aaw. The lady who answered was 60ish and had a kind of stern mama-ish manner, but was friendly enough. It was weird for our first B&B coz you are really in someones home, and it feels much more odd than the anonymity you get from a hotel. The lady had a very heavy Irish accent so I didn't catch her name, and she spoke so fast that it was really impossible to understand her! I heard a bit of "diddle dee dee potatoes" which at some points could be translated to breakfast times and that her son was in Australia, and to watch my head on the stairs. THat was about all I got I think out of a fair bit of chatting. Nate was the same. We had to kinda help each other coz if one person managed to pick up a bit, we'd turn and quickly translate to the other who had a streak of confusion across their face.

As we hadn't showered since yesterday morning (yummy) we did that, and headed out to dinner but got cornered on the stairs by the husband! All I could think of after 36 hours and no sleep was "foodbedfoodbed..." but he seemed to want to settle into a right old country chat. I was polite as I tried to decipher what he said (which was "diddle dee dee potatoes" amongst other things). He didn't get the Aussie sense of humour of taking the piss out of people, as when he broached the subject of hard to understand accents - I said "yeah like yours haha!" He did not seem too pleased.

We went down to a local pub and had a really delicious roast dinner. Nate had a pint of Guinness which he had never had before. He didn't find it too bad! "Smooth and creamy with strong burnt malty flavours" says he. Easy drinking too. Then we headed straight back all eager for bed! The room was upstairs and so country-cosy-homely that it was a dream! Mmmm sleep...

PS> I'll tell you now to set the scene over the next three days: from the moment of the ferry till when we left Ireland we talked to each other mostly in bad Irish accents, especially when driving. It got quite addictive and it was hard to turn off when we got back to Wales!
"I'd be tinking you'll be turning left on the A31 laddie"
"To be sure to be sure!"
"And diddle dee dee potatoes to you too!"