July 17

"As you can see on the left, we have a small giraffe factory, mainly used for export."
- Tour bus driver, Ross.

We started early this morning. Our bus left at 7:45. But we thought it was 7. So we were early. Which gave us time to grab a muffin. Today's plan was Cork. Siobhan thinks I am seriously crazy for cramming stuff into short amounts of time like I do. When I told her we were doing Cork in one day, she laughed and said "Crazy Americans" as she always does. We are always absolutely 100% knackered all the time, day in and day out, but we are quickly running out of time here. We have to cram as much in as possible! The bad part about doing Cork in one day, is that it is SO far away, that the bus tour is a good deal, but it doesn't leave us much time to see the sites, and we have fewer stops we can make. It takes about four hours to get there, so we did what we could.

Our first stop was in Cobh (pronounced Cove) which is about 40 minutes outside of Cork. Some fun facts we learned on the bus about Cobh:
- The round stone towers are called Martellos.
- They were built to help defend against England. During Ireland's war against England, France came in to help. The French could care less about helping the Irish, but they hated the British. Hence their involvement.
- The Titanic was made in Belfast (Northern Ireland) but it's last Port Of Call was in Cobh.
- The famous sinking of the Lusitania by German U-boats took place right off of Cobh's coast. All the survivors were brought into Cobh. There's actually a museum about the Titanic and the Lusitania sinking in the old train station, where we had lunch.

(The old train station.)

(Cool old signage, but you think they could have taken care of it a little better than just taped on a board.)

(Old train postings.)

(Trying not to get caught while Vana showed off the next sign.)

(Lunch. Kim's so nice.)

(Walking around the cute little town.)

(Precious.)

(Bandstand area.)

(haha, I don't know.)

(We like group photos with water in the background.)

(Canons, of course.)

(Pretty.)

(Climbing to the top of an enormous hill to get to the monstrous cathedral.)

(It's pretty giant, on a giant hill, overlooking the tiny town, and scaring arriving visitors.)

(St. Coleman's Cathedral.)

(Beautiful.)

(The pictures don't do it justice.)

(So ornate. This cathedral could fit all the others we've seen inside it.)

(Couldn't really stop taking pictures of it.)

(So pretty.)

(Giant organ.)

(I get kinda obsessed with stuff like this.)

(Back outside overlooking Cobh.)

(One more.)

(Restaurant about the Titanic.)

Our next stop was the one you waited for. The one you anticipated. The whole reason we went to Cork in the first place... to go to Blarney. In case you were wondering- Cork considers themselves the rebels. They call themselves "the people's republic of Cork" instead of County Cork like everyone else. They also have signs when you enter reading "Welcome to Cork; a nuclear free zone." Well I feel safer already. As soon as we entered what is considered Cork, we headed straight for Blarney.

If you don't know the legend about the Blarney Stone, shame on you. Google it. But a brief explanation anyway: There's this famous stone, basically, and it is said in Irish myth, that if you kiss the Blarney Stone you will be granted the "gift of gab." This basically means you will talk alot for seven years. Kinda a weird gift, I know, and one I don't particularly want, but it's something you just need to do in Ireland. So we did it of course. The Blarney Stone is located at the top of Blarney Castle. In order to kiss it you have to lay on your back, hang upside down over a gaping hole, and grab these bars to lower yourself down far enough. Adventurous to kiss a rock eh?

(We named him Edgar.)

(Making wishes.)

(Blarney Castle.)

(Cave dwelling for a few minutes.)


(I hate caves.)

(Climbing the castle.)

(Where they would shoot arrows out of the castle.)

(People must have been smaller back then, the stairwells were so, so long and twisty and skinny. Good thing I wasn't claustrophobic.)

(Finally at the top.)


(Kim's excited to be at the top, too.)
(The grounds below.)

(Wait, a little more climbing.)

(Ahhh.)

(The top of Blarney Castle.)


(Julebu.)

(Castle and Rachel.)
(Looking down.)

(Manders.)

(Maggie is the first one up kissing the stone. This was before the official cameraman let me stand on his side. This man here guides you so you don't fall through the hole below.)


(Julie puckering up.)

(Mandy layin one on the rock.)

(Jenny necking with the stone.)

(Kim- wearing a dress- realized the wind picked up when she laid down on the ground haha.)

(My turn.)

(Castle pictures.)

(Heading back down.)

(This is called, no joke, "The Murder Hole." The entrance is right below, so they would wait for approaching enemies and dump boiling water and arrows and rocks through the hole on them.)

(I want this bench.)

(Going to explore the rock close, which was actually amazingly awesome.)

(Waterfall pictures.)

(They're awkward sometimes, on purpose.)

(Pink, black, pink.)

(Group.)


(Cool.)

("Harry Potter stored his belongings under here!!")

(Another Irish legend... The Wishing Stairs. You're supposed to close your eyes, walk up the stairs, and back down them backwards, thinking of nothing but your wish the entire time, and it will come true.)

(The Irish are very superstitious.)

(We had to try it, to be safe.)

(So pretty.)


(Climbing a wall of course.)

(Jump!)

(Jenny failed as photographer. Hehe just kidding. But not really.)

(It looks like a witch, you see.)

(More group shots.)

(Instructions: "Stand in the fairy ring")

(Instructions: Be a farm animal.)

(Instructions: You're in a band!)

(Instructions: Be a clown!)

(Instructions: Sumo wrestlers!)

(More cool benches!)

(Attempts at tree pictures were a FAIL, cause some people couldn't get up.)

(Best we could do.)

(Hahahhaha.)

(Falling/jumping down.)

(Umm.. Kim? Keep your clothes on?)

(Big rocks.)

(Mandyyy.)


Then we drove the four hours back to Dublin. The end.