a blog full of eloquence.

It's your life...

After some rest at the hostel, Emily and I journeyed to the center of Cork to buy bus tickets to Blarney. I realized today that I have NO idea how to use the public transportation systems in good ole Springfield, but I'm becoming a pro at catching buses in random countries! We made it on our bus without a problem, and we were off to Blarney! We even got off at the right stop without any problems, thanks to the driver actually announcing what the stop was! The city of Blarney is small but welcoming. It's really a little village full of little shops and bustling people. As you can see, it's just as green as the rest of the place:

We walked a short distance from the bus stop to the Blarney Castle!



Here's what greets you as you approach. Let's just say this this castle is WAY better than the one we visited yesterday (Blackrock)! A castle has been rebuilt on these grounds 3 times, and the current one was erected in 1446. There were a lot of signs throughout telling about the history of the castle and the rooms within. For a nerdy girl like me, it was interesting. Oh, and there was a dungeon, which makes me think of a certain dungeon master... :)
Here's a back view of the castle.



And here's a view from the very top of the castle. A river runs through the land that the castle sits on, which makes the greenery even more outstanding. Of course, the real attraction to Blarney Castle involves the famous BLARNEY STONE! Discovery Channel Travel has listed kissing the Blarney Stone as one of the top 99 things to do before you die, and I did it today! It's on the very top level of the castle, and you have to lay on your back and bend down over the wall to kiss it. Being slightly freaked out by heights, I was sort of freaked out, and I wrapped myself around the little old man who was holding onto me. Seriously, I have never been more happy to have a little old man wrapping his arms around my waist; plus, he was Irish, so he had a cute accent! He said, "Show me how you kiss in the daylight!" and he leaned me back, and I kissed it! It's kind of gross to think about the millions of people who have also kissed it, but it's really cool to think that I kissed something that Winston Churchill has kissed!! Yeah, that's right, I practically made out with Winston Churchill today! :) Supposedly, if you kiss the Blarney Stone, you will receive "the gift of gab", which means all of your words will then be eloquent. I'd say Churchill's words are full of eloquence, wouldn't you? Is this blog more eloquent than yesterday's?


Yeah, it was scary, but apparently people used to have to be lowered by their feet, so this was much safer! :) And I kissed the Blarney Stone!! How sweet is that! :)


Here's a from from atop the castle of Em and me. We kept saying, "This is soo much better than Blackrock!", and it's true; it is! If you ever come to Ireland, skip Blackrock and go to Blarney! However, I have realized that people back in the time when this castle was built must have not been very big. The ceilings are all very low, and the stairwells are narrow. If I ever buy a castle, I will make sure it has heat (It was cold!!) and an elevator. For sure. :)

Em and I found cheap Pepsi in Blarney (hooray!!), we caught the bus back to Blarney. We really enjoy bus rides. It's nice to sit down after walking all around the hilly city all day long. When we got back to Cork, we did a little shopping in the center, but it started to rain, so we searched for food. We ended up eating at some little pizza place near the hostel, and then we returned to the hostel to grab some stuff. We left the hostel and were yelled at by drunken hostelmates ("HEY, ARE YOU FROM AUSTRALIA??" No, does it look like I'm from Australia?) Then, we headed back downtown (via taxi because it was cold and still rainy. It was my first time to flag down a taxi. How exciting?) in order to go to an authentic little Irish pub. Although this one was far away, we chose to go there because we heard they played real Irish music. What we heard was correct! We were greeted by fiddles, banjos, harps, and more.

It was incredible!!! It reminded me of the music off Titanic -- haha! It was just a bunch of college students sitting around and playing. After they were finished, this old man started singing acapella, which was also pretty neat. I can't get over how cute their little voices are! I'm not a fan of the Irish beer, but whatever... we were there at midnight, which was when Em turned 21, so we had to drink some!

Of course, a trip to Ireland just really wouldn't be complete without kissing an Irish boy, right? I found a cute little red head in the pub, and he was wearing a green shirt. You can't get anymore stereotypical than that, can you? This, of course, was practically screaming, "KISS ME! I'M IRISH!", so I did, and here's the picture to prove it (Mission accomplished!):


Don't worry, Dad. I didn't even get his name. :) As for now, I should probably head to bed! Tomorrow we're taking a tour of a distillery, seeing the Tower of Shandon, and flying to London, where MSU people are nice enough to pick us up AND let us stay with them!!! I'm excited to be back in the presence of Scholars kids.. what a happy day! Anyway, that's all for tonight! Happy 21st, Emily!!!

...it's now or never!