Be running up that road, Be running up that hill

Our start today was a little later, and was much appreciated. One of the traditions in Irish Bed and Breakfasts is the "Full Irish Breakfast." Our B&B is proud of the fact that their FIB is locally sourced from the famous English Market in Cork (which we will see later). I must say that after Carrie and My weight-loss journey, food definitely has a different picture for me. Today, when they handed me the plate full of different meats, I was overwhelmed with - wow, did I actually use to eat all of this? I did enjoy the Irish bacon and broiled tomatoes. Not only is the FIB a large meal, but they must have decided I was near starvation, because they gave me double the portion that Carrie received. We asked for simpler meals for tomorrow :)

To work off the extra calories, we went to meet our guide for a walking tour of Cork. We saw some very interesting sites, and the explanation of the landscape of Cork and how it has changed over time, alone was enough

to give an "aha!" moment for me. The roads we were walking on are culverted rivers, and the blocks of buildings used to be the many islands that Cork was comprised of.

The tour then went through the historic English Market. You can buy any animal product (and, I mean ANY), here. Cow's tongue? It's here. Ram's Bladder? They've got it. Ocelot Spleen? Well, maybe not, but you get the picture. They also had a ton of local Irish cheeses, and we tried several. :)

Our guide was awesome! If you come to Cork, you should totally see Jack for this tour. He knows his history. One of the really endearing aspects of Ireland is how knowledgable people are of their history, and also how much they enjoy sharing that knowledge.

After our tour, I headed off to one of the Apple campuses here to meet some of my co-workers that I only usually get to communicate with by email or, sometimes, video chat. Carrie and her parents went to the Cork City Gaol. So, I will pull a George R. R. Martin and separate out the story lines here. The next part will be narrated by Carrie. Take it away, honey!

This part will be short and sweet...Couldn't stand the Cork City Gaol. After such awesome guided tours yesterday, being handed a pamphlet and set free to go through

and read all the info yourself, quite frankly sucked! It took only ten minutes to walk through, so we needed a plan B for how to spend the rest of the day. (Did I mention that we had to walk up hill for a mile to get to the Gaol? That was my parents' favorite part...)

I called a taxi and had us taken to Blarney Castle and Gardens. At the gate, you have to decide what you want to pay for. We chose Castle and Garden, not realizing that Castle meant standing in line for the Blarney Stone...not much else to see. The line was very long up to the stone, and given that I wasn't super excited about laying on the ground and bending backwards to kiss a stone that had been kissed by thousands of lips already just today, we decided to spend our time in the gardens. They were lovely! Called the taxi, went back to the B&B, ate at Market Lane for dinner, and calling it a night early...phewwww! Traveling is exhausting...seriously.