Who has kissed the Blarney Stone? I have!

It was stone cold and scary up at that battlement tower... scary since you have to do it upside down for you to have the power of eloquence according to the legend. If you miss a step, it means your luck just ran out since there's nothing that would break your fall.

I shouldn't be darn proud of that feat, I'm still waiting for the special powers to kick in...

http://www.iol.ie/~discover/blarney.htm#Blarney%20Stone

Oh now there's a couple of bars under it...I didn't notice it back then.

http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/irela ... stone.html

"There is a stone that whoever kisses,
Oh! he never misses to grow eloquent
'Tis he may clamber to a lady's chamber,
Or become a member of parliament."

- Francis Sylvester Mahony


"I don't need to be in a heated debate
about same sex-marriages and Iraqgate
This time I just want to kiss a prince
Oh yeah, bring it on, its getting late!"

- Alsf

OK, after that last post here, I just realized I am in serious need of sleep...goodnight and Happy St. Paddy's Day Shanes and Erins of Istanbul and to those who are related to he Kennedy clan. Enjoy your parties tonight.

yeah. what a load of keck that was. drove down on a Sunday to queue up on the steps of that battlement tower in anticipation of what to find at the top. halfway through, it started pissing down rain making the steps very treacherous, them becoming very slippery. when finally at the top and watching others perform the 'ritual of kissing the stone' i nearly wanted to go back. but couldn't of course because of being uttered forward by the elderly American couple who had been behind me on the stairs all that time, telling me about all their day-trips they had made in Ireland with the organised tour they were on.

feck it! i didn't came all that way, standing in queue in the rain for what seemed like an eternity just to go back now. if only for the sheer fact i could tell people i kissed the Blarney Stone, on a forum like this what made me think initially to go back is the fact the stone had been slobbered off that day already by hundreds of people at the same exact spot, let alone the millions of them before that i was now silently thanking the weather Gods for the rain.

any how.. when i told my colleagues the next day in the office what i had been up to that Sunday, they were sooo not impressed. 'what a typical tourist thing to do', they said. many of them had never ever been to the Blarney stone, which i guess is understandable 'cos if you'd ask me what tourist places i have been in my home country, i have to admit that i haven't been to that many places either. it's just something that you don't do when you've lived somewhere most of your life, i guess.

FD

Agree with FD and have been there and done it. A load of grap to grab tourist dollars if you ask me. I wonder what health and safety say to the bending down backwards down a hole several floors up. There was some iron bars to stop to you if you fell but still...

That was a Blarney as big as Barney!!! I went up there (luckily no lines!) all the way but realized it must be sanitized before I even touch it with my hand... I didn't pucker up, I chickened out - that was what really happened. Really.

It's a beautiful sunny day here in San Francisco! Everybody started partying at 8 am today at the Irish Bank, an (you guessed it!) Irish bar in downtown SF. But not me...I can't drink so I am staying away from the Guinesses today

[quote user="AlSF" post="39039"]Who has kissed the Blarney Stone? I have!

I shouldn't be darn proud of that feat, I'm still waiting for the special powers to kick in...

[/quote]

I visited several times Ireland and my experience was, that most of the "powerful places" are not powerful at all. At least not for me. On the other hand, I found places which really hit me... a small Dolmen far away from the street, a derelict graveyard in North Ireland, a small well behind a stone...

So, since that time I am avoidng the touristic places. In general, I ask the people in the pubs if there are old stories about mystic places nearby. That works better than the touristic guide.

Wolfgang

Wow Wolfgang, those stones posed nicely for you!

OK, in all seriousness, I suppose it makes sense to stay off the beaten path. As for me, it was my first and only time in Ireland so I did a lot of touristy stuff. We drove all over except the northern side. I remember the cliffs of Mohar well. The sea was so powerful, it was spraying water almost all the way up the cliffs that day. It was an awesome, natural sight. We saw some lovely villages with thatched roof houses. We also visited the Waterford crystal factory, stayed in Adare Manor in the lord's room no less. We also went to an awesome resort, the K Club in county Kildare on the way back to Dublin. Unfortunately, we didn't stop long enough at one place (except to have a mean and sleep) so I didn't get to find a deeper connection with any particular site but I surely appreciated the natural, rugged beauty of many place places we passed through. I find that I am deeply connected to Turkey though that's why I keep coming back there.

Very nice description from Ireland you gave here... if you ever plan to go there again... try to get a bycycle at least for two days and discover a small area in that way. It is surprising how many nice places can be found if you just take the time to enjoy.

There is just one big dissapointment for me now: When I first visited Ireland in 1985, Newgrange was a sleepy place, with one guide who showed yoo the way in the passage tomb. Last time I was there they made a tourist center out of it... an irish Disneyworld. My god... what a shame...

It truly is a shame. Is that the 17th hole up there?