Dublin Day Three- Blarney Castle

My official first day but my third day travelling started pretty early. And by early I mean early 5am I was up to catch my 6:15am train. The train station was a 30mins walk from my hotel. I'm pretty hopeless with the maps so I do tend to get lost alot. At 5:30am (the sun is well and truly up) there is funny enough not a lot of people that you can ask for directions. I managed to get to the train station just in time. Before I left Australia I booked a return to to Cork to go and visit the Blarney Castle. The fast train takes 2 hours to get to Cork.

I got off the train and got to cork at 8:30ish and walked out looking for the best way to to get to the bus station to catch the bus out to cork to the Blarney Castle. I asked a bus driver and he gave me a free lift to Parnell Place which took a few minutes. If I had pre planned the directions to the bus station I could of walked to the bus station.

When I got to Parnell Place I brought a ticket for the 215 bus that goes to the Blarney Castle. I got on the bus and it took roughly 30mins to get to the Blarney Castle.

In the movies Ireland I have always seen Ireland is green full of flowers and castles. Blarney is how I envisioned Ireland to look like. Flowers, castles, green meadows, water falls and little shops. Out of all the places that I went in Ireland Blarney was the most beautiful. When I hoped off the bus I walked through the little town and found the Blarney Chocolate factory. Yum.

 They had so many choices of chocolate. I may have brought a few. I then walked to the Blarney Castle. The Castle takes about 5 mins to walk to from the bus stop. It cost 12 euro's for adults and 5 euro's for a child. The castle was amazing. I spent 3 hours on exploring you could definitely spend half a day here. 

The grounds themselves were spectacular. They have caves, walks around the castle, waterfalls, and of course the Blarney Stone. If you want to kiss the Blarney stone and get the gift of the gab I would suggest doing this first as there is usually a bit of the line. Kissing the stone was a really cool experience.  To get to the stone you have to walk about a shiteload of step steps and pull your self up with a rope. When you get up the top it will only take a few minutes until you kiss the stone. There is a person at the top that will help you to do this. There was a man at the top. He got me to lie on my back and he holds you as he pushes your towards the stone. They also take 2 pictures while you were doing this. I asked a man in the que behind me to take a photo of me doing this. 

I spent the next few hours on site doing the wonderful walks and looking at the views

I then went into the town to get some lunch. They had a few different restaurants for you to choose from. I choose The square table. The restaurant was gourmet, reasonable priced and the food was amazing. 

I then catch the bus back into Cork to do a bit of shopping and jumped on the 6pm train and I was back in Dublin about 8:30ish. It was an amazing day.