CORK

Cork. "Caaaaark" has been a nice change of pace. We had three whole nights at the
hostel, after having just one or two nights everywhere else, and it
doesn't have the big hustle-bustle of the big touristy cities, like
Paris or London.

Yesterday, we toured the Old English Market to find some breakfast
before hopping a bus to Blarney.

The castle and gardens were bigger than I was anticipating, and we spent all afternoon hiking, climbing
trees, picnicking, exploring, and taking tons of pics. We hiked to the
top of the castle to kiss the blarney stone, which was not at all as I
had expected- we had to lay down and hold on to two handrails as we
lunged our bodies out and down the side of the castle to reach the
stone for a smooch. A little nerve-racking, but definitely worth it!

The rest of the afternoon, we wandered around downtown shopping.

Today, we spent some more time downtown this morning, passed bt St.
Anne's cathedral, and headed for the street performers world
championships at Fitzgerald park. There were five arenas set up for
the performers to rotate around. It was a really fun, laid back way to
spend the afternoon, even though some of the street performers were not that special...

Then, we went to see Monica's friend sing at a Notre Dame glee club
concert at the university in Cork. Tomorrow morning, we catch a bus to
Dublin and fly from there to Munich for a few days...then Italia!

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