From the home town of J.K. Rowling...

Safely in Edinburgh. In the early part of my second attempt at a hostel. Hopefully it works out better than the last time. So far, so good.

Yesterday, after knocking around Dingle, we headed to Cork. We found a B&B near city center and went out on the town, which was a different perspective on Cork than I've had on any of my previous stays in town. I made a point track down the Hi B, which was the favored haunt of David Monagan, author of Jaywalking with the Irish, an entertaining and insightful book about his experience as an American free-lance writer who up and moved his family to Cork a few years ago, which I read as part of my preparation and ramp-up for this trip. Its character was exactly as I expected (quirky and VERY local), though it seemed to defy any description.

After that, we headed to a pub called An Bodhran. To make a long story short, Nathan got separated from us and unbeknownst to us, was kicked out of the place for dress code violation. He wasn't back at the B&B when we finally made our way back there. He stumbled back in a few hours later after meeting up with some locals who took care of him for the evening, though, so all's well in the end. Sounds like he had a great, off-the-wall time in the meanwhile, and I'm hoping I might be able to write up something on his night for a bit of a guest spot here, but we'll see.

In the morning, we stopped in for a brief visit with Anne and Bernard, which was great. Unfortunately, none of their kids were around, but it was good to sit and chat with them for a while.

Leaving Cork, we headed up to Blarney. I decided that if I haven't the Gift of the Gab after kissing that damn stone twice in my life, a third time wasn't going to do it, so while Justin and Nathan explored the castle, I figured I'd try my hand at busking.

I put down my hat and sat just outside the gate playing tunes on my whistle for about an hour. Quite a few people tossed in some coins, and though they were mostly of the small variety, I managed about 6 euro!

At one point, a group of college-aged kids walked by, with several of them wearing Notre Dame paraphernalia. I thought about it for a second, then slyly sucked up my pride and burst into Rakes of Mallow, a tune popularised by the film The Quiet Man, which the ND Marching Band plays frequently during games. That got a definite rise out of the crowd which simultaneously made me chuckle and cringe as they came over and tossed a few coins into my hat. When I finished the tune, I looked over smiled and nodded a 'thanks', but couldn't resist holding up the hat they'd just tossed money into so that they could see the bold, maize block M on the front.

We opted out of the hurling match in Tralee or trying to track down the Magic Road in Waterford due to concerns after the traffic horror in Limerick on Thursday, but as hoped/expected, it was a non-issue on a Saturday afternoon, as we passed through town in about 15 minutes.

So, now here we are once again in Edinburgh. After settling in our room at the hostel, we set out to walk around in the misty rain a bit and find a bite to eat, and the first thing we see as we walk out the door is a fight in the making. Fantastic.

Edinburgh is far more lively and trendy than anything in Ireland, other than possibly Dublin. But we are right near the castle and the old part of the town, which is absolutely beautiful. Oh, and we did finally find a quick bite to eat at a local fast-foody chip shop. Not being brave enough to try the "Jumbo Haggis" just yet (though I will definitely try it before I leave), I opted for the white pudding and chips. The white pudding was more or less the same as the white pudding that's a standard to the Irish Full Breakfast...

but it was an entire length of it...

deepfried.

And, then smothered in brown sauce. Wonderfully horribly fantastically disgusting.

Well, that brings us pretty much right back to here and now, but to bring this back full circle with the title of this post, I did pick up one interesting souvenir in Dingle:

Harry Potter agus an Orchloch