Finally, A Real Irish Experience

I guess I shouldn't say finally. But my day on Sunday was authentically Irish. Well, sort of. There are 17 students from my university studying abroad in Cork this semester without a program director. Even without a program director, we've decided to do some of our activities together. This past Sunday the majority of us headed over to the bus station to buy tickets to Blarney. Blarney is home to the Blarney Castle and, of course, the famous Blarney Stone.

Fittingly, Sunday started off pretty dreary. It was raining nearly all morning. Our group, decked out in rain gear, decided to make the trip anyway. I was really excited about the rain, because up until Sunday, we hadn't really had any. And what's an Irish experience without rain? That's about the only thing that made it Irish, and the fact that we were headed to the Blarney Stone. We missed the 10:30 am bus by about 3 minutes, so we bought tickets for the next bus to Blarney. Luckily, the little village is only about 20 minutes from Cork by bus. I don't know that I'll ever get used to their crazy driving here!

Once arriving in Blarney we walked up to Blarney Castle. I wish I had more of the details about its history--it was beautiful and rustic. We explored the dungeon, the family rooms, the watch tower and then trekked up the most narrow, winding staircase you can imagine. Lucky for us, the steps posed an extra danger since they were so slick from the rain. The staircase led us to our final destination--the Blarney Stone! Now, if anyone talked to me about it before the trip, they would know that I was very hesitant to kiss the stone. There are people who warned me that the locals, um, pee on the stone because it's such a tourist attraction. Megan and I had a combat for this, however. We were planning on putting antibacterial gel on our lips and kissing the stone anyway! Once we were up at the top though, there was no time for that. I figured I'll still be okay since it was raining. Kissing the stone is quite the experience. You have to sit on the ground and bend backwards while holding onto two posts. The helper slides you down into a little dropoff where you kiss the stone. By kissing the stone, you are supposed to receive the "gift of gab." You tell me if my speech is better! As the tourist books say though, you surely leave the experience talking a lot anyway! After everyone took a turn, we meandered back down the castle and walked around the grounds for another hour or so. We didn't stay long, because of the rain, but we still had an extensive look at the grounds with a lake walk and up the wishing steps.

That night, the whole clan got together again for a family dinner. Everyone made something--we had everything from french fries to a salad and of course, Matt's wonderful pork chops. It was great, and definitely the most food I've eaten since I've been here. I have pictures that I plan to put up soon, but unfortunately my computer fell victim to a little incident and is currently being repaired. With that, I'll leave you to imagine our little excursion to Blarney Castle.