What a load of Blarney!

So after missing my alarm, waking up late, and scrambling to get ready in 5 minutes, I was on my way to Blarney Castle this past Sunday! Typical. It was an API excursion so that means that nearly everything on it is included in what we paid to API. Our bus driver actually started with a tour of Cork which was pretty interesting. I'll definitely need to go back to certain places like this:

and hopefully get better pictures, rather than ones where I'm whizzing by. This is part of St Finnbar's Cathedral who's the patron saint of Cork.

Anyways, once that was done we made out way to Blarney which is only 15ish minutes away. It's actually a tiny itty bitty town with nothing more than a main square where it seems all the shops are and one big built up outlet thingy. Oh, and the castle. That's important.

It's pretty and all but it's really just a big hollow ruin:

 I really liked the benches they had though. You can sit here:

and then catch things as they fall out of peoples' pockets when they kiss the stone!

But if you're afraid of heights,

look at that drop!

 claustrophobic,

gotta love that tight squeeze!

or you get sick if you go on a long spiral staircase (as little Erika did when we went up the Statue of Liberty that one time),

 then maybe making the trek up there this isn't for you. There's also the matter of once you get up there of lying on your back and then dangling lordy-knows how many feet in the air, backwards, to kiss the wall. I was the brave soul who half volunteered half was the only person not to move backwards in line so I ended up going first.

It's not actually as dangerous as I make it sound though. There are bars at the bottom to keep you from falling (instead you'd just get clonked on the head and probably a nice concussion as a souvenir) and a cute old Irish guy that you can't understand holds onto you. The whole thing really isn't bad at all and actually quite fun. You quickly get to know the people you're with better as you're constantly bumping or tripping into them on the way up and down or laughing at them because they don't know where the actual stone is and end up kissing the entire wall on their way down. Even if that's not your thing, the grounds are pretty and worth a good walk around I bet.

After that we ate lunch on the way to Cobh. I was also introduced to the magic of Taytos:

which are probably the most delicious potato chips (or crisps as the Irish say) I've ever had which is strange because I usually don't like potato chips. I don't know if they tasted so good because I missed breakfast when I was running late in the morning and starving by this time, or whether they were actually that good. I think it's a little of both but if you ever come to Ireland, try them. Especially the cheese and onion flavor.

Our first stop in Cobh was at St. Coleman's Cathedral which is you're typical cathedral in that it's very large and very impressive:

with cool patterns on the floors too:

There was also an awesome view since the cathedral is up pretty high on a hill, but it was overcast (as usual) and the pictures weren't coming out the best. After that we meandered our way through the town down to the waterfront area. Cobh is actually an island in Cork harbor so there's quite a bit of waterfront area. As we were headed down the gigantic hill from the cathedral, we passed by some houses that are known as a deck of cards because each one is supported by the one below it:

I wish I had a better picture that didn't have that gate thing in front of it but we were driving by too fast. Pretty cool still, and they're painted ridiculous colors which is SO my style. We then stopped at the Heritage Museum which was all about people emigrating from Ireland. It went through the history of all the different type of ships people took and blah blah blah. It was definitely interesting but a lot of reading. There was one placard that stuck out to me:

At first I did a double take and was like "WOW! What a coincidence!" and then I realized that Mary McGovern was probably a very common name in Ireland. Congrats, mom. You're apparently going to visit cousins in New York.

After the museum we decided to walk around a bit. SInce it was a Sunday, most things were closed or just closing as we were strolling by. It would've been nice to go into some of the shops but it was still nice to see the town. I was also surprised to find palm trees:

because I thought it was waaaaay too cold for them. Apparently not. But there it is ladies and gentlemen! My first excursion here in Ireland.