Blarney Castle

In order to prevent Monday depression, the evil, from attacking already on Sunday it's a brilliant idea to make a day trip to a neighboring town. You'll feel like you're on a holiday and holiday makers are well known for being less stressed than their working fellow creatures. Some time ago we decided to visit Blarney Castle, which is known for the Blarney stone. The rumor has it that if you kiss the stone you will be given the gift of eloquence. But because such gifts are not fore the scaredy-cats or those with a weak spirit, the stone is placed at the very top of the castle on the wall so that you'll need to lie down on your back and lean over a gap in order to accomplish the task. So no thanks, I don't mind about the gist of speech that much, I'm perfectly happy just writing my thoughts here.

The castle itself is in quite a shameful condition, only a skeleton of a castle has survived the times and because in Ireland we are not in the habit of building anything new (and I plan to write another critical post about the housing situation and financing construction of apartments in Ireland, so keep following this site), nothing has been done to better preserve this particular piece of history.

Blarney Castle

The castle is surrounded by beautiful gardens, druids' coves and there's even a witch's kitchen and stairs that will grant your wish, certain terms and conditions being accepted and met. Standing in a druid's circle you'll be safe from the evil spirits for a while. There's much to explore, so be sure to book a whole day in your calendar for Blarney. These crazy Finnish immigrants spent hours walking in the forest and taking photos of impressive trees (yes, trees, as we don't have forests and trees in Finland :D ) Anyway, in Finland you hardly ever see a palm-like fern or massive trees imported from North America, so Blarney garden was an exotic experience for us.

Flowing water has a good feng shui

Next to the castle there's the best tourist attraction ever called the poison garden. At least I felt an instant relief thinking about the plant that could possible solve all my problems in no time at all. In poison garden you can make friends with everyone's favorite, marijuana, poison ivy or foxglove. Poison ivy and marijuana had been isolated in their own little cages as they are generally seen not suitable to be a part of the society but foxglove was allowed to freely grow on its own little flowerbed. Just pick a couple of leaves and cook your own medicine.

All time favorite

Marijuana in a prison

Poison ivy can cause a nasty rash..