The Top Floor Flat

I’m less than five hours off the plan from Dublin and now facing the daunting task of recapping the last four days before I begin to forget all the wonderful details. Suffice it to say, my trip to Ireland was one of my favourites so far (although I find myself saying that every time I return from a new country!). I’ll try to do a thorough recap but one of the best parts of the trip was the great storytelling skills and knowledge of my tour guide, Kevin, and the Shamrockers tour in general which never comes across as well in retelling. All the same, I’ll give it my best effort and hopefully adequately represent my short time on the Emerald Isle.

I left after work on Thursday and raced across town to grab my bags before heading to the airport. As always, I spent nearly two hours panicking that I’d be late and miss my flight, only to arrive ridiculously early and sit around for ages before take off. I had picked a flight that would let me work a full day on Thursday (I was already taking Friday off) and so ended up landing in Dublin just before midnight. I had thought I knew where I was going – and managed to find my bus just fine, but missed my stop and ended up doing a bit of a midnight walking tour through Dublin on my way to my hostel. It was relatively busy, even for the hour, so I wasn’t too worried and as soon as I made it to the hostel I crashed immediately – good thing too, I had an early start the next day.

On Friday morning, I retraced my steps from the night before (it was much more enjoyable in the daylight even despite the rain that had started up while I was sleeping) to meet up with the Shamrocker Tours group. I had picked their bus tour as it was owned by the same parent company that owned Haggis Tours, and I had enjoyed my trip to Wales with them so much that I wanted to try another one of their programs. I was surprised to see that over 30 people would be on our bus and part of our group but was immediately impressed with our guide, Kevin, who launched into a humorous and detailed overview of the city of Dublin before we had even pulled out of the parking spot.

Dublin, however, was not actually part of the trips itinerary which was quite lengthy and didn’t leave much time for deviations. By 8:45am we were on our way and headed towards our first stop, the Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary. The Rock of Cashel, actually a castle on the top of a hill, is a historic site that served as the seat of Irish kings prior to Norman invasion. Some of the oldest buildings on the site were from c.1100.

We only made a quick photo stop – apparently the steep fee for entrance into the castle itself didn’t really show much more than we saw from the outside – before heading further south to the Mitchelstown Caves in County Cork. The caves are part of a huge network of underground limestone caverns and two of the particular claims to fame of these caves are primarily the amazing, million-year-old stalactites and stalagmites which form all sorts of columns, pillars and unique formations but secondly the amazing acoustics in the largest cavern. The acoustics are so impressive that in this cavern, Tir Na Nog, regularly hosts concerts, including a recent performance by the Irish tenors. While on our tour, the guide asked if any of us were brave enough to sing for the rest of the group. Not surprisingly, no one stepped forward when all of a sudden, our bus driver, a Romanian man who had been living in Ireland for the last 7 years, stepped forward as if he had expected it all along. The rest of us shuffled off the naturally formed stage, unsure of what to expect.

What we definitely weren’t expecting, however, was a powerful, almost operatic performance of Susan Boyle proportions. He first sang a song in Latin, then a traditional Irish song and the sound in the cavern was magical. I’m not sure if it’s a requirement for the Shamrocker drivers to be pitch singers in the Mitchelstown Caves or not but he certainly gave us a moving performance that showcased why the cave is so famous as a concert location.

After our spelunking and musical experience, we hopped back on the bus and made our way to the famous Blarney Castle and, of course, the Blarney Stone which, the story goes, gives the gift of gab to anyone who kisses it. I hadn’t seen any pictures of the stone before so had always imagined it as sitting in a throne-room style hall on a table or alter. No, in fact the Blarney stone is built into the wall of the castle – and not just any wall, an outcropping of the highest tower in the castle. What this means is that one needs to lie down, head sticking out over 100m of open air, bent over backwards in order to kiss the stone. Of course, I’ve heard stories about how disgusting the stone is after so many years of tourist action but you can’t go to the Blarney Castle and not kiss the stone! If the length of this blog post is any indication, clearly the gift of gab has been granted!

While at the Blarney Castle, I also had a chance to enact another superstition – that of the Wishing Steps. The story goes,

If you can walk down and back up these steps with your eyes closed – some demand that this be done walking backwards – and without stopping for one moment to think of anything other than a wish, then that wish will come true within a year.

I made it without any major injury so we’ll see how that works out!

Overall the Blarney Castle was amazing but I was most impressed by the gardens and wished I had had more time to wander but all too soon we were on our way again, this time headed towards Killarney where we would be staying the night. It was still light when we arrived so a couple of the other girls on the tour and I made a slight detour into the Killarney Park with a mind to find the mini cows – a breed of black cows that we were told were miniature. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the legendary herd so returned to the town for some traditional Irish stew (another somewhat unfortunate experience as the watery broth we received was not very satisfying – which the waiter came back to sheepishly admit was because the cook had forgotten to add potatoes to the stew) and a few pints of Guinness before calling it a night in anticipation of another busy day….