Our second breakfast at Friar’s Glen was perhaps better than the first because I wised up and stopped getting the full Irish Breakfast and instead got scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and sausage on the side. It was tasty and I didn’t feel terrible anymore. Again, we talked to Brigid about suggestions for the day, and she pointed out some options, but it wasn’t as in depth as her ring of Kerry walkthrough. We decided to see Bantry House which was supposed to be somewhat similar to Muckross house, but hopefully the people there were infinitely more helpful. We were boycotting Muckross since they were so useless.
We drove up to Bantry House which is an amazing manor looking over the lake. It is still used as a B&B so some sections were roped off. We were given packets for the self guided tour around the house. The packets were informative about the different items in the house, but didn’t really detail a lot of history. Still, it was very interesting because it was still in the family, so all the original furniture and paintings were still there and the people working were descendants of the original owners (told us stories of rollarblading over the beautiful mosaic floors). After going through the whole house, we wandered up and around the beautiful grounds.
Next we headed off to what is probably the most famous and touristy spot in Ireland: Blarney Castle (although I have sadly since learned how few people actually have heard of the Blarney Stone - where is your Irish Historical knowledge PEOPLE). Once we got within 5 miles the traffic started to back up and we expected it to be a shitshow, but luckily there was ample parking and no line to get into the grounds. The Blarney Stone is actually at the top of Blarney castle, so you have to wind your way through in order to get to the top. There was a decent line and it took us about an hour until we got to the top. When it is your turn, you lay down face up on the ground, grab these two rails and lean back and kiss the stone which is actually below the floor where you are lying.
It is a little hawkward but not too bad. Your pictures will come out way better if you shoot from the left hand side where they tell you not to take pictures. They don’t really enforce it or care really though so go ahead and do it. Otherwise they want 20 euro per photo if you let them handle it. It is actually interesting to wind your way up and down from the stone because you are seeing the various rooms in the castle. 
Once we got to the bottom, we headed over to the poison garden. This would never fly in the states. This garden has nightshade, poison oak and plenty of other dangerous plants. It is basically a lawsuit waiting to happen. After narrowly avoiding death at the hands of these deadly plants, we headed over to the snack bar for a quick sandwich which we took to go while we explored the druid’s cave area. Once Megan was satisfied exploring there, we headed back to the car to drive over to the Jameson distillery. It was a good thing we had boosted it because we barely made the last tour. They had already started the video by the time we got there, but they let us in and we proceeded around the old factory. The best part was that they select 8 people to get a free comparison tasting of Jameson, Johnny Walker and Jim Beam and there were only 11 people in our tour since it was the last one of the day. Thus almost everyone got to do it. I am in general not a huge fan of whiskey and I’m sure the whiskey lovers will cringe when I say this, but I had a Sprite and Jameson drink that I enjoyed.
Next we headed back through Kinsale to get dinner. We had been using the book Eyewitness Ireland for dinner suggestions and once again it was spot on. We went to Man Friday for a delicious meal overlooking Kinsale. We asked our server about some suggestions for a pub to hit for some live music. He gave us a few suggestions and we headed over to the one that sounded better on the main strip. As we enjoyed some drinks while listening to the guy play guitar and sing, one of the regulars at the pub who was wasted got up and started requesting songs. Or at least attempting to request songs. Mostly all anyone could make out was : “HEY. can you play balhalblhablahlbh”. To which the singer would respond “Don’t know it”. This went on a few times between every song as the drunk guy tried to get him to play his crazy made up song names. Eventually we headed out to our car and then drove up to Cobh. We had directions to our B&B, Knockeven house, but it was pretty dark and we couldn’t find it on the road so I decided to do a 3 pt turn. Luckily for us, where I pulled off was the road to Knocheven house and so we just drove up the path and parked. Pam, the proprietor, was very friendly and showed us to our rooms. While we were moving stuff in, she prepped tea and scones for all of us. It was a welcome change from Friar’s Glen who hadn’t been excited at all for us to arrive late. In fact, after serving us, Pam stayed to chat with us for a good hour before we all headed to sleep. The sitting area is set up with 1800s era items, but all the rooms were more modern and very comfortable. Plus they had wifi so I could drop stupid Peyton Manning from my team after his surgery.
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