Hello helllo everyone! So sorry it took a little bit for these posts, it is so hard to keep up sometimes with so much going on, but I got a little break in the day and am writing these posts for you guys! So enjoy! Monday was the day we were heading west to go to West Cork and stay in a little town called Bantry. Lucky for us, we got out own little mini bus (a mercedes bus, which most busses are relatively new busses so I heard the driver saying people won't allow for bad busses) but anywho, it was lovely and I decided to take up space in the very back because no one else had :) five seats straight across all to myself for most of the journey! It was quite a long drive to finally get there even though there were a few stops on the way but it was very interesting getting to see the scenery change and the weather go from beautiful and sunny to stormy and dreary all in one bus ride :)
So after about two hours of driving or so, we were only about half way there. We stopped in a town called Cashel, where there is the "rock of cashel" and in this place there are two churches, a castle (very mini) and other stuff that I cannot seem to remember off of the top of my head. It looked very pretty though and had a graveyard throughout it. I learned lots of things there, but before I tell you that, we went to go get lunch beforehand. Three of us decided to go to this little restaurant called Grannys Kitchen. It was very quaint like a little old cottage with about six tables total and had pretty good food for cheap. I just loved the front of the place though because it stood out in a lovely little town with its bright pink front.
This is a photo of part of one of the church on the rock of cashel and the part above that has fallen off (the fallen piece still remains on the ground and was due to one of the "great winds" which the lady says happens more often than not when you are up in those hills!) was originally part of the home for the people that lived there. As well, we also learned about where spiral staircases come from and why they are the way they are. It was quite fascinating for anyone that does not know, I will explain it either way. spiral staircases for starters are always heading in clockwise manner. The reason for this is because the "defender" of the house was going to be defending by facing down the staircase and the invader would be coming up the staircase. So when the defender is swinging their sword around they have full range (pending they are right handed) to swing the sword around and attack the invader. The invader on the other hand who (pending they are right handed as well) will be swinging their sword right into the pole that goes up the middle of the staircase and doing no damage except to themselves. Also they used to make the steps uneven so that the invader, who would not be used to the uneven steps, will trip up them as the defender is used to them with no worries. Just a couple interesting facts there for you :)
This next one is from a different building on the rock of cashel. The tour guide referred to this as the first ever credit card that was used (approximately around the 12th century... i think) and it led to the first example of credit card fraud. This is because there used to be a choir that was housed in the building there and the king at the time was in charge of them. The all mens choir was to live in that building and their wives and families were to live in town. The king had given them this much smaller plaque type thing that looked just like this and when they went to town it would mean what they were buying was to be put on the kings tab. Well, they of course got the ingenious idea to replicate these plaques and give them to all of their friends and family members to use, putting EVERYTHING on the kings tab. And of course money was not kept quite as well and looked after in quite the same manner as our credit cards are nowadays and it was not until much later that the king realized he was running up a HUGE tab. Needless to say that was the end of those things!
So after some more driving we finally made it to Bantry and are staying in a lovely four star hotel called the Maritime Hotel and this is the view from our bedroom out onto Bantry bay!
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