Green, Green, Green!

That's what I think of Blarney Castle. Everywhere you look is beautiful greens. The grass, bushes, and trees. It was lovely. 

When you get there you cross a small bridge and look up to see a Castle looming over everything in sight.

This isn't a tiny little thing like the other castles we've seen to date. This thing looks like it could actually be up for a battle. Having heard about horrendous lines, our plan was to make a beeline straight for the Blarney Stone in order to miss the crowds. We need not have worried though as the line wasn't very long at all.

The way up consists of a tiny stone spiral staircase with a passage or two splitting off. The adventurous among us would exit the staircase to explore, only to return a short while later and beg our way back into line. A sly man behind us began actively coaxing people to leave the staircase to see all of the passageways they were missing out on behind him in order to make room for himself and his family in the staircase.

Some people might take comfort in the fact that they are walking across huge pieces of stone that has withstood millions of people walking before them. Not me. The only thing I was thinking while walking along the skinny battlements is how unfunny it would be when im the first fatality after having so many other lucky individuals make it just fine. Palms sweaty? Check!

The actual top of the castle wasn't as bad. I mean, the fear that at any given moment a Sean-sized hole would open up beneath me was ever present... but I had a bit more room to strategize my limbs in hope that I would be able to grab hold of something before fully falling to my death. Small comforts you see...

Actually kissing the stone was a walk in the park. You lie down backwards and lean in for a spiderman esque kiss while the attendant hangs onto you. It's oddly enough a blessing that you lay backwards as it let me look up at the sky rather than down at the ground (im really just afraid of edges, being high up doesn't bother me as long as I look up). Unfortunately my phone seemed to have a hiccup and only the video of Amanda kissing the stone survived:

With that done we had the opportunity to walk around the Blarney grounds. We checked out the poisenous garden and walked down to see the caves under the castle. We will definitely need to go back at some point, not only to get a video of me kissing the stone, but also to better explore the gardens/town.

After Blarney we set off to Cobh (pronounced Cove). This was the final port for the Titanic before she ended up sinking. It's a tiny little town, but we really enjoyed it. At the top of the hill is an awesome cathedral, and the walk up and down was very cool (albeit hard on the calves).

Our final destination ended up being a surprise. The tour was only supposed to go to those two locations, but the bus driver told the bus that we could be dropped off at the Jameson Distillery for a tour. Helllllll yeah we want to go!

I'm not sure what else needs to be said there... We did the thing, we saw the stuff, and then we drank. It was actually pretty cool, learning about the process and then culminating with a nice glass of whiskey. Well worth the stop.

We left Cork today and made our way to Dublin. We've got a nice room right by the airport because we have another early flight on Sunday when we leave for London. Tomorrow we head into the city center to see the Guinness storehouse and hopefully the Book of Kells at Trinity college. I'm definitely excited :D