My Travel Adventures

This morning was the first cloudy morning during my entire trip, and I was very thankful for it. While it meant my pictures would not be full of beautiful azure skies, it also stopped my bouncing from shade to shade like a desiccating frog. My first stop today was the Gate of Dawn, which houses a prominent icon of the Virgin Mary in a chapel facing the inner part of the city. When locals walk through it, they often turn around and cross themselves, sometimes adding a short prayer. Right in the vicinity are the Church of Saint Theresa and the colourful Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit, and farther along the same road one can see the imposing baroque-era Church of Saint Casimir and the city’s neoclassical town hall.

I began the day writing my blog in bed while waiting for the opening times of the places I wanted to visit. At nine, I arrived by Blarney Castle; or rather, I arrived at a nearby street and parked the car on the side because I completely missed the giant parking lot in front of the castle. Due to this little mishap, I walked into the grounds a few minutes past nine, a negligible difference in all other circumstances, but not at Blarney.