Ireland Part 3

Several people have asked me if I kissed the Blarney Stone, to which I reply, "Quit jumping ahead!" While planning our adventure to Ireland, Fashion and I were warned NOT to kiss the Blarney Stone. Fashion's sister had heard that the locals will pee on it as a joke to the tourists. We thought maybe we would just touch it... and bring hand sanitizer. But as we ventured out the Blarney, Pat addressed this issue... "You may have heard some rumors regarding the locals and the Blarney stone. Let me assure you that they are all false. Once you get up to the stone, you'll understand what I mean." I was intrigued.

The legend of the Blarney stone goes a little something like a handsome, valiant prince saw a maiden drowning and rescued her only to find out that she was a witch. The witch was so grateful that she offered the prince a gift through a kiss. The prince was disgusted by the witch and refused to kiss her directly so they agreed to each kiss a stone in the same place. As a result, the prince was given the gift of eloquence or "the gift of the gab" as they say. The prince then built the rock into the highest point of his castle - in a crazy spot, if you ask me - and all who kiss it are said to receive the same gift. So we climbed... to the top of THIS
Up a stairway that wrapped around and went all the way to the top and looked like THIS
Notice the rope so you don't fall because it was so narrow and steep! And then, once at the top we learned you have lay on your back, slide over an opening in the roof, grab onto two handles and a man will hoist your face to the stone so you can kiss it. Did I mention I was TERRIFIED of heights? Still...
Let me assure you - I was scared out of my wits! I couldn't even walk up to the railing without getting extreme vertigo, so I was very pleased with myself. Even now I get a little weak in the knees when I look at the pictures. And back to what Pat said about the locals... I find it very hard to believe that anyone would take that 45 minute walk up to the top of the castle in the black of night, journey up that treacherous staircase for the sole purpose of peeing on a stone?! Doubt it. Besides... the bigger threat comes from the dozens of people that kissed the same spot I did immediately before me. Gross. Fashion had no fear and kissed the stone without a thought. That picture is on her camera, but here are some shots from the castle itself.



It's hard to imagine that people actually lived in that structure. I'll think twice the next time I snuggle up in my down comforter atop my pillow-top mattress and complain about being uncomfortable or cold.

The more time I space between the trip and the story of it... I forget what we did on what days. My photos are organized by date, so that helps me to keep things straight, but some of the pictures are of something important... I'm sure of it! But just can't remember what it is! Following the Blarney stone we ventured to the Blarney Woolen Mills, but Fashion and I were thoroughly unimpressed with the whole thing. Those were some SERIOUSLY overpriced sweaters and scarves! Which I may have had a different opinion of if I had an appreciation for such things, but I'm not much of a sweater/scarf girl. There was ONE thing there that I got a kick out of:

This sort of became my obsession - taking a picture of anything that said "Murphy" on it. In fact, everyone began pointing things out to me. Starting with Pat on the bus pointing out Murphy's Pub in Killarney. So, when we got back to the hotel, Fashion and I decided to - yet again - venture out and look for something before dinner. And, yet again, chose the absolute WRONG direction to go in. We were trying to find Murphy's Pub to get a picture and instead wound up walking all over Killarney, completely unsure of where we were. We did find something things Murphy, though

And the town was absolutely precious!
Here's a Methodist church that was right next to the hotel

Here's a Guinness sign in Gaelic that I thought was awesome, but still have no clue what it says... I'm guessing "Guinness is good for you."
We even found Dora the Explorer
But no Murphy's Pub. As we came to the edge of town and almost into a neighborhood that had more satellites than NASA, we decided we probably went the wrong way and headed back to the hotel - once again chilled to the bone - for dinner... which was delicious, but I still don't know how the chef could have placed these two potatoes on the plate with my fish and not giggled.
That evening we planned to go out! We wanted to find an Irish band playing Irish music and drink Irish beer and really experience Ireland! We 1st learned that to get to Murphy's pub you need to go right out of the hotel and not left. Figures. We did find Murphy's, but once again - that picture is on Fashion's camera. (I will post a final blog that includes all of the missing pictures.) We even went into the Murphy's, but it was boring so we left. Finally we found ONE PUB that was playing music... ironically it was an American band that played Irish music - Highland Reign. Weird. They didn't suck, but they were from Indiana and I think we were all a little disappointed. However, the evening was still fun! We were with a couple of people from the group - Katie and her mom, Sheila and Alex and her mom Jackie. We really enjoyed the time we got to spend with them! Pat even showed up at the bar with a friend of his from the hotel - he gave us his name, but we didn't pay attention to it. He looked like a smaller version of someone we know so we just referred to him as "little Garrish." Fashion got hit on by two guys - a VERY Drunk Irishman with sunken in eyeballs and another less drunk Irishman in a decorative scarf. I am not a fan of a guy in a girly scarf and when I asked Little Garrish about it his response was, "I hate it. It's too French." Hilarious. We drank beer and watched the Americans (the band traveled with a crew of about 30) make fools out of themselves by performing Irish dance and a conga line and then went back to the hotel to sleep! The next day was the Irish sheep dog trials and the group picture and HILARITY. I'm so excited to write the next blog!

Too be continued...