Ireland...day 5

Today we went outside of Dublin for the first time, and we ventured
west to the Blarney Castle. That is about 3 or 3.5 hours west of
Dublin. So I got a good chance to practice my driving skills.
Yesterday I picked up some frosted mini wheats, so I ate a bunch of
those to tide me over until lunch in Blarney, Ireland.

First though, the trip there was moderately decent. We did see some
sheep and sheepdogs, that was sweet. Actually we saw a lot of sheep,
they were everywhere! Our GPS is pretty much the worst ever - we
thought it was just due to being in the city at first, but for like an
hour it was constantly confused about where we were. Lots of
recalculating.

Also this morning I thought it would be sunny...ha, not the case. It
started raining on our way west and continued all day. So we made it
to the castle, which was way awesome. It was legit castle, with all
kinds of castley things. The stairs up the castle were insanely small.
I tried taking a bunch of photos, I hope they can convey the
ridiculousness of these steps.

Brandon kissed the Blarney stone, Pete and I elected to fight the
swine flu and not kiss the stone. We also checked out the castle
grounds, which included a fern garden. Apparently ferns grow with a
massive trunk, which I never knew?

On the way back from the castle we stopped in Cork to check out the
shopping district. There was one of the scariest non- weather related
driving incidents ever. Due to the awesome GPS, we ended up taking the
tiniest street ever. It would have been wide enough for two cars,
barely, except for the cars parked on the street. I had to take
evasive action on the curb at one point. Insanity, absolute insanity.

The Cork shopping area was pretty cool, similar to the Dublin areas.
Brandon was looking for some shoes. Strangely enough, there were a ton
of shoe stores, but none for athletic shoes.

On the way back was a lot of driving in the dark, in the rain. I
realized that here, there a lot of things painted on the pavement.
Like directions, one way notifications, etc. Sadly, in the rain and
dark, that is impossible to see. So it was quite a challenge to tell
what was happening for a foreigner, but we made it.

Adding to the trouble, I noticed in the dark the brake trouble light
was lit on the dash. It wasn't quite that easy though, as the light is
hidden behind a sticker - so I only noticed it in the dark, and it
took some sluething to figure out what light it actually was. The
brakes are pretty bad too - not quite as bad as that one time in the
Alero, but getting there. I believe the brake light caused some random
beeping, also annoying.

So tomorrow, I've got to get in contact with the car people. Not
positive how that will happen, but it probably will be an expensive
call. Other than that, sounds like we'll be doing some other random
touring tomorrow, I'm not positive of what quite yet...

Mark D