Fota National Wildlife Park
April 14th

The next day we went to the Fota National WildLife Park. It was a tiny little park, compared to the ones we have in Ontario. We walked around the entire place within 2 hours. They had tons of animals though, and some where running free around the park. We saw three huge Lamas’ (one spooked Dave while he was taking its picture) and there were these rabbit type things called Mara’s running around the park too. It was a cold rainy day, but we had a really great time.

Cork City Centre:

Blarney Castle- County Cork
April 13th

Earlier this week we headed over to County Cork. It is a city much like Dublin, and I believe it is one of the biggest cities in Ireland. It was a lot less crowded then Dublin, and the people were a lot friendlier as well. On our first day there we went to Blarney Castle, which was absolutely beautiful. Blarney castle is known for the Blarney stone, which is said to contain magical characteristics and that whoever kisses the stone will receive the gift of eloquence. In order to kiss the stone you have to lay down on your back, hold two metal poles on either side of the stone and lean over a gap in the castle to kiss it. (don’t worry, the gap has poles running through it to prevent someone falling!)
Because I am such a chicken I bypassed kissing the stone and instead took pictures of Dave giving it a kiss! I did by an authentic piece of the stone at the gift shop though! So hopefully that also bestows the same gift.

Around the castle is a lovely garden called the Rock Close. There are tons of legends surrounding the garden and a witch who lived their. There are Wishing steps, and it is said that if you walk up and down the steps with your eyes closed thinking only of your wish then it will come true within a year. Hopefully it works! Haha. They also had a druid circle and a rock which looked like the shape of the witches face. It was a great day.

Dave Kissing the Blarney Stone

Howth and Bray

April 10th

On Friday we took the Dart (which is like a commuter train that runs up and down the coast) to two sea side towns, Howth and Bray. They were both beautiful little towns and we had a great time while there. Howth was about 20 minutes from Dublin and Bray was about 30 minutes in the other direction. We walked along the harbour and the beaches and in Bray we walked up the mountain a bit (we were going to do the cliff side scenic route…but it was closed…) But it was still fun. We also had some of the best tasting fish and chips we have ever had in Howth! It was great. Here are a few pictures.

Howth

Bray

Newgrange and Trim Castle

On April 4th we went on a trip organized by the SWAP program to New Grange and Trim Castle. Our first stop was at the Castle in County Meath. We got to wander around the ruins before heading into the main building and were taken on a guided tour. Trim castle was built in 1176 and took over 30 years to complete. Its main purpose was as a defensive castle, so most of its attributes were built for that reason. The stairs inside the castle were built to make an invasion difficult (and proved to be very difficult for us to climb as well). They were spiral staircases with “trip and tumble” steps. All of the steps were built in different shapes and sizes to make if difficult for enemies to gain access. We had a very hard time making our way up and down them but the view from the top was worth it. This Castle was also used in the movie Braveheart, and the tour guide told us a funny story about Mel Gibson and Irish extras throwing things at him.

NEWGRANGE

Next we went to Newgrange, which was one of our top things to do while in Ireland. It was a great experience. The tomb was built before the pyramids, about 5000 years ago. Newgrange was built in the Neolithic period and they believe that it was built by a farming community. The do not know too much about the tombs purpose but they believe that it may have been used to mark the beginning of spring, when days begin to get longer. Above the entrance to the tomb is a small window (called a roof box) that during the winter solstice aligns perfectly with the sun and it illuminates the entire tomb. We were given a demonstration during our tour inside. It was really neat and would be amazing to see the real thing! Sadly we weren’t allowed to take any photo’s while inside the tomb. But it is really small inside compared to the size of the mound.