Sorry, guys!

Ok guys, I'm soooo sorry I didn't have time to post. But I was totally worn out from walking like 3 miles, climbing a spiral staricase, and kissing the Blarney Stone ;)
Yup, we rented a car yesterday and went to Blarney, just outside of Cork. We got lost twice and driving on the wrong side of the road made sense to me so I navigated.
Anyway, Blarney Castle is huge, with acres and acres of estate. The castle itself is like 7 stories high, and you can find a little map of it and the grounds here.
Here's a picture of the castle exterior:

And a little of the awesomeness involved in the interior. This is the spiral stairs:

Anyway, I kissed the stone (Nope, no pics of that) and we went back down, looked through the "poison gardens," an exhibition of various toxic plants, and then went to the newer, presumably English-built Blarney house. Oh. My. Word.

It's open for tours, but we got there too late. Shouldn't have stopped and eaten this cheese-and-mushroom crepe on the way:

(It's just a really thin buckwheat pancake with stuff folded up in it. I'm gonna have to try making some soon.)
It also had an amazing lawn. The grass really is greener- and softer- in Eire. Although the landscape itself is amazingly similar to the Ozarks in places.
After the House we went to the rock close. There are just too many things to include pictures. It's a natural park full of little paths and huge rocks and amazing and strange trees, you expect a couple of fairies to rustle the bushes next to you and giggle. There was the druid's cave, the dolmen, which I didn't get to see, and the fairy glade. Then there was the Witch's Kitchen and Wishing Steps. Legend says the Blarney Witch is allowed to take firewood from the estate in return for granting their visitors' wishes- so if you can go down the wishing steps and back up with your eyes closed, your wish will come true. The steps are between rock slopes, and with your eyes closed and your thoughts on your wish, you feel a weed scrape your sleeve and, for a moment, you think, "Could that be the witch reaching for me?"
Oops, it's becoming more story than blog. Back to reality.
The last place we went was the Badger Caves, right under the castle. When Lord Cromwell's general broke through the tower wall and tried to steal a rather expensive gold plate, he found only two old butlers- the rest of the inhabitants, and the gold plate, had fled through the badger caves. They say there are three passages in the cave. One goes to Cork, one to the lake behind the castle, and one is said to go all the way to Kerry. These passages, as far as I know, have never been confirmed.
The entrance:

So, when we got out of Blarney, we stopped at McDonalds and ate 100% Irish beef burgers and curly fries. We went straight to bed afterward, so that's why there was no blog.
Oh, by the way, I have a video up. It covers the 20th-21st. The song is Dulaman, an old Irish folk song about seaweed.