I am now blessed with the gift of eternal eloquence! Those of you who know me to be shy and retiring and rarely uttering a squeak, wait until I come home! I've kissed the Blarney Stone and I shall be a veritable raconteuse for the rest of my life. Or so they say.

I went on my tour to Co Cork yesterday - got up at 6am (having gotten to bed at 3.30 - the pubs here are too good!) and walked the Heuston Station where I met my guide, Bob, and the four Americans who were taking the tour with me. We caught the train to Cork, and watched the Irish scenery speed by on the way. This is such a lush country, so green. From Cork, we took a coach out to Blarney and had a couple of hours to explore the castle, kiss the stone and then have a look around the town.

Kissing the stone was not as scary as I might have expected. The guy whose job it is to assist you has clearly kissed the stone himself (I'd say more than once), and he got me laughing so much that I forgot that I was hanging upside down off a castle ruin 19 metres above the ground! I did the tourist thing and bought copies of the photos they took of me while there, will scan them and add them to this when I get home.

Blarney is a sweet town, though not large. Two of the Americans (Cynthia and Frances) and I checked out all the tourist shops and then had a pub lunch, but I'd have liked to spend that time getting more of a look around Cork City. We did drive through the City and passed several places of note, before going onto Cobh (pronounced Cove) to see where many people left Ireland to sail to places like Australia and the US. Reckon some of them must have been pretty desperate to spend 4-9 months in those sorts of conditions.

I slept on the train back from Cork, and then went out in Temple Bar and had the best kebab of my life (Of course! Where else would you expect to get such a great kebab than in downtown Dublin?). Saw some fantastic buskers and joined the crowds milling around them, then headed back to the hotel for an earlier night.

Today I went to the National Archaeology Museum. It was heaving with school groups (some of them German and French), but I still spent 2 1/2 hours there, it was a fascinating place. The exhibits were arranged in such a way as to let you really see the evolution from the first hand tools through to vessels, clothes, jewels, etc. Some really beautiful things. And, I can now attest to the fact that the material 'jet', which I saw in several examples of jewelery, does in fact have some colour variation and some brownish and white-ish bits. This will mean little to anyone who hasn't met our dog, Jet, but should be of interest to those who have.

After that I had an afternoon of people-watching and walking around the less touristy parts of town. I got it in my head that I wanted to walk to the end of the river and see the sea, but abandoned it when I found that I couldn't go any further because the headlands on both sides are covered with gantries and other industrial-looking things. The Liffey is a tidal river and the centre of town here is not that far from the coast (closer than the Sydney CBD is to the beaches by a fair margin I think), but the headlands aren't exactly Watson's Bay or Manly. Very industrial, still it took me a ways from the centre of town and I got to see some of the residential areas on my way back.

I also saw the Famine Statues on my walk along the river. Harrowing, really terrible to think what the famine must have been like.

As for my people watching, I have noticed a steady growth in the number of green garments and accessories visible on people as they walk down the streets. Quite pleasant on the eye. Funnily enough, though, most tourists I have spoken to are leaving town this weekend even though the big day isn't until Monday. Yes there's a jump in hotel prices over Sunday and Monday, but I think it's possibly a little shortsighted. Still, all the more fun for the rest of us!

I have heard that there is a great market at Black Rock, which is a 20 minute train ride away, and so I plan to check it out tomorrow.