While we were on the bus, I wrote my two postcards. One for my dad and one for my Camin.
'Please read my blog, love Calla'
After leaving Killarney we were set to visit the Blarney Castle, kiss the stone, and view the gardens. I couldn't decide if I should kiss the stone or not. Kissing the stone is said to give the gift of eloquence and the ability to speak Irish. I believe kissing the stone will give you mouth herpes. While I mulled over my decision, we got off the bus and walked up to the castle. Blarney Castle was really cool looking. It was built in 1446 and housed Cormac MacCarthy, the King of Munster. Back then if you controlled Munster, you controlled the south of Ireland.
If I take off my jacket, will anyone recognize me?
When we first walked into the castle there was some sort of dungeons area. The dungeons area had a long, thin cave like hallway with an end I couldn't see. Maria, Mia and Kaitlyn didn't want to go down there. I couldn't tell if it had an exit or not. No one was going down it and it was lit only by artificial light.
I went down the tunnel. The ground was wet and I had to squat down and walk with my knees to my chest. It was large enough for me to pass with only minor discomfort. Someone called out and asked if there was an exit. I saw light at the end that was white like the outside, not yellow like the few lights along the wall.
"There's an exit!" I told them and continued to squat walk. I rounded a corner and hit a dead end. The light that I thought was to the outdoors was just a white light.
I'm so happy to not be claustrophobic.
Of course by then I had three people coming towards me in the cave who were all expecting an exit to the outside. Things got a little awkward. I had to exercise shillelagh law to ensure my well being (everyone made it out fine).
I left the dungeons and was back outside. I didn't see the other 3 girls anywhere so I moved on by myself. The blarney stone was at the top of the castle, however many floors that meant. I had to go through lots of rooms and climb many stairs. It was really cool. Besides the rope that you could hold to climb the stairs (I'll talk about that later), there was nothing but castle wall and the occasional sign that talked about what room you were in. You could just climb the stairs straight up but there were little landings to climb onto that led to an empty room (all the rooms were empty) where you could walk around and look out the small window. I didn't have anyone in my group with me so I didn't ask anyone to take my picture.
The staircase was spiral and incredible cramped and small.
Mind your head
And it went straight up with tiny steps. People would hop off on one of the landings to catch their breathe. My legs were burning a little from crouching in the dungeons tunnel earlier. My mom couldn't have been able to do it, the spaces were just so tight and my bag kept getting caught on the wall and jerking me back. Ian would have had to crouch down so low, he would be too tall for this entire castle really.
I was truly having all the fun. My legs were burning and my head got bumped and it was great.
There was the occasional sign on the wall that explained what your room was about. I like to take a picture of the sign and walk on. When I'm back on the bus later I can read about it then in my pictures.
Thank gods you brought your umbrella.
I didn't have anyone to take my picture which was unfortunate because I had some GREAT ideas with posing and facial expressions.
Night gathers, and now my watch begins.
When I got to the top there was a fast moving line to kiss the stone. You could get your picture taken and pay like 25 euros for it and I didn't want that. At this point I still wasn't sure about kissing the stone (it's disgusting). But I made it this far. You had to get into a really awkward position to kiss it, like on your back with your head hanging off the castle wall.
Here's what it looked like:
DO NOT TAKE MY PICTURE
It took me a while to find the blarney stone on the wall. It really looks like nothing. I got on my back and had to hold onto railings and lower my body off the wall to kiss it. The first thing you see is the ground below you upside down. A little unnerving, but then the guy directs you where to kiss. I pinched my lips together tight instead of puckering them out and kind of touched my mouth to the stone. Then I got up and left. So gross. Now I have mouth herpes.
The walk down the stairs was much faster than going up. Back on the ground I didn't see the others girls and I didn't care. I walked around the castle and saw a sign pointing the way to the Poison Gardens. I was more excited to visit the poison gardens than to kiss a blarney stone!
The poison gardens were small and outdoors. They were also my most favorite thing I have ever seen.
My playground.
Oh my god there was so much to look at. It was fantastic and absolutely beautiful and I was in love. I took pictures of every sign that had a description so I could read about it later.
Each plant had a name by it but not all had the description. There was so many wonderful things. I saw a yew tree, hellebore, wormwood, marijuana, bleeding heart, hemlock, opium, mandrake, nightshade, castor oil plant, lilies of the valley, larkspur, Indian tobacco, foxglove so much foxglove, skullcap, stinking hellebore, birthwort, rue, lupin, hembane, black cohosh, rhubarb (wait, rhubarb is poisonous? Learned something new), wolfsbane... Oh my god it was amazing.
Mandrake
Bleeding hearts
Weed in the middle
Skullcap
Japanese holly
Monkshood
(from left) Herb paris, solomons seal, himalayan mandrake
I was so happy and everything was lovely that I asked a stranger to take my picture.
Best day ever
They had poison ivy too. I think every child in America has had some run in with poison ivy at one point in their lives so it didn't impress me. But it had a big cage around it and and its sign was more extreme.
The poison gardens felt huge but they were really small once you looked back at it.
I had to be back on the bus at 12:30. 1, 2, 3, that was how I remembered it. I was worried about the clock since I was by myself and had to get to the bus on my own. It was only 10:30. I was doing great for time! After I got my fill of poisonous plants twice (I had to back for seconds), I left. I had an option to go left for a walk around the lake or go right for a walk through some tree garden. I went with the trees and it was like a forest. Trees of importance had plaques on them that said what they were. There were so many photo opt moments where you could get an amazing picture. I was alone from anyone (I guess the tree garden wasn't as popular as the lake) so I had to settle for selfies. I guess that was okay though. I still look like a homeless youth, not the fairy princess that would inhabit this forest.
It was just really peaceful and nice. You were surrounded by plant life and the deeper you went the less you heard anyone until all you heard were the birds and you were covered in shade from the trees overhead.
Once I was out of the trees I had another split path where I could go to the Irish gardens or the lake. I went to the Irish gardens which was just like the tree garden except everything was native to Ireland or Europe. I saw ash, holly, foxglove, primrose, sycamore, ivy, royal fern, club sedge, yew, and even shamrock. I was alone the entire time.
The path got weird and I wasn't sure where to go a lot of the times. I kept finding these things that would make a GREAT photo but there wasn't anyone to take my picture.
Please take my picture.
I walked over a small waterfall. I felt like a fairy. This walk was called the Himalayan Walk, I later discovered. Leaving that I found a fern garden and had to walk through that as well.
After I got out of the woods there was a flower garden so I went it. The smell of flowers was almost intoxicating but I loved it all the same. It was the most color I had seen this whole week.
Hello new phone background
I left the flower garden and saw a sign that pointed me to the exit, the first I had seen this whole day. Right next to it, pointing opposite direction, was a sign to the Blarney House. I took the Blarney house route, keeping in mind where the exit was. The Blarney House wasn't open until June. It's this big beautiful building and I don't know what goes on there.
Let me in I'm a homeless youth
Maria texted me at 11:30 while I was staring at the house like a creeper. She and Kaitlyn were having lunch at the cafe and asked where I was at. I told her the Blarney House and she gave me directions to the cafe which I fully intended on following except when I left the Blarney House I saw a cool walkway with flowers overhead so I had to walk through that. They had more flowers along the walls and I looked for calla lilies but didn't see any. They did have several different kinds of azalea, African queen and some cute little plant I didn't recognize or see a sign for.
WHAT ARE YOU?!
Outside the flower area I had just been in I saw my second exit. But there was also some stuff going on opposite of the exit. I still had time to check things out and go back. This new place is hard to explain, I think I missed some major sign telling what it was. I think it was called the Rock Close and Water Garden. The first thing I saw was a "Fairy Glade". I walked around looking for fairies. It felt magical but I didn't catch any fairies. I did see a plant called Frosted Mouse Ears
There's a Mickey Mouse joke in here somewhere.
There was more seriously perfect photo opt moments here.
Hello fairies? Are you there?
Then I saw a "witches kitchen". The myth is that the wishes people make over the wish bridge gives her power to light her fire at night. I went into the witches kitchen and there was some twigs placed like in a fire. So spooky.
This is some serious Blair Witch shit
Breaking and entering
Then I went over the wish bridge! I'm having so much fun today! The bridge was flowing waters and had coins in it. I didn't make a wish because I'm poor. My apologies to the witch if your fire burns less bright tonight. Then I went to a druids cave, saw another waterfall, and went under another canopy plant thing.
I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN!!
This was really tiring. There was a lot to take it and see. I saw druid stones too. I checked my phone and was starting to run out of time. It was noon and the bus left in 30 minutes. I still had to get lunch. I had trouble finding the exit and started to get a tiny bit nervous. It just kept going on and on... I put my headphones in a listened to Hozier because I was nervous about getting out. The gardens reminded me of Eden.
Just as I was about to break down and start crying (kidding), I saw a sign pointing left to the exit and right to a Sacrificial Altar. It was one of those moments in life where you have to choose between what is right and what is fun. On one hand, I hadn't seen an exit sign in legit 20 minutes. On the other hand, I hadn't seen a sacrificial altar in my whole life. I choose the altar.
Virgins this way
The chair reminded me of a toilet and I sat on it.
I am so brave.
I hustled over back to where the exit sign was, got a little turned around, then I found the cafe. No one I recognized was there. I had 15 minutes still so I ordered a ham and cheese and onion baguette for 4 euros. It took 10 minutes for them to make, it was ridiculous. Once I got my food I ate it on my way out of there. It was really good! I got turned around again and texted Maria for help. She didn't reply for a while so I ran around trying to find the exit out of Blarney Castle.
I ended up back at the Poison Gardens when Maria finally replied. She gave me directions, it was 12:31. I ate my food as quick as I could so in case I ran into someone looking for me I wouldn't have food in my hands. Then I could just pretend I hadn't stopped for lunch to cause me to be late. If anyone asked about my onion breath I could blame it on the Pringles.
I got out of Blarney Castle and couldn't find the bus. Maria gave more directions and I was literally running. Everyone was waiting on me and I felt bad.
I found our bus at a quarter to 1 o' clock. I didn't make eye contact with anyone and sat next to Maria and we took off. Maria kept asking what happened and I didn't want to talk about it. She said they wouldn't let her off the bus to come find me.
We drove on. Tom our tour guide likes limericks (poems that go AABBA) and encourages us to write them. Maria wrote one about us and he read it out loud.
I loved it
Next on the schedule was The Rock of Cashel. We pulled into a town and I saw a big cathedral up on the hill. There was construction going on and it covered a lot of the building. We got off the bus and walked up the hill.
A guide escorted us around. We saw St Patrick's original cross, or something like that. It wasn't the Celtic cross that we've been seeing this trip. This one was roman and had stands to hold up the sides of the cross. Only the right side remained. The cross was made out of sandstone, which isn't a very durable mineral. Years of weather and people had made the cross not look like a cross.
We walked off into the castle and she talked about stuff there. Several feet above our heads was a walkway for the holy guys. It was so when they walked by they were always above you in a way to establish their status. They didn't talk to the people on ground level. They were above you.
Then we went to a church thing and she talked about stuff there. It was really interesting but I was still thinking about the poison gardens and having trouble retaining information. What I did retain was the faces on the walls. The 2 statues on the right were probably of the architects. The one in the middle and the one in front of it were pagan creatures. When introducing the whole 1 God thing to the people, they did it by incorporating old pagan stuff. It made the 1 God thing seem like an older concept (when it wasn't) while also making it more familiar to everyone. To the pagans these faces scared off fairies. To Christians it scared off demons. Same thing.
In this same room with the pagan faces, the ceiling still had some of the original paintings. The blue ink (can't remember the name because I'm retarded) was from, what we now know as, Afghanistan. Back in Cashel Rock's prime that stuff was worth more than gold. Their ceiling was painted with it. They were trying really hard to convert people.
Once the tour was over we walked around the cemetery. There were a lot of graves but it wasn't super cool or spooky.
Here lies Calla Nelson's hopes and dreams.
We got on the bus and drove back to Dublin. We were at our old hotel but had different rooms. It was the four of us again and we had 3 single begs and a queen sized bed. It was amazing. I took the single that was on the opposite side of the room from the other three because I need some space.
We had an hour to chill before it was time to go to dinner. When I payed for this trip I had the option of going to an traditional Irish heritage dinner and show that cost $70. It was at this place called Taylors and in addition to our group there were 2 other tour groups there. One was full of older people from Spain, the other was older people from Canada. They didn't have wifi. We were all really tied and just sat there quietly.
We had a menu and I got a lemon chicken caesar salad.
Fancy.
Salads are one of my favorite foods and I've been a little weary of the salads this trip. The dressings are on the sweet side and I don't like sweet meals. But this salad was good! We sat around and waited for our dinner. I decided to order a proper Irish meal and had lamb stew.
It very good for a meat stew. This might have been the first time I've ever had lamb. Someone noticed I had lamb and mentioned the lambs we had petted the other day. Now I feel odd about eating this. They even gave us dessert (forgot to take a pic but it was a mini brownie and a mini fruit cake). During all of this, on stage three men were playing instruments and singing Irish songs. They were good. The music was upbeat and some people danced.
Wipe the floor, your trotters shake
They played Wild Rover and we all clapped along. I was awful at the clapping. I just couldn't get it and would clap an entire second after everyone else.
After the singing, dancers came out! They were excellent. There for three men and three ladies. They were pretty entertaining and pulled people from the tables to join in. I took videos but forgot to take a picture, I'm such a silly. I was so tired but they really got us on our feet clapping and yelling. Lots of fun!
Once they were done the singers came back. One guy played on the Irish pipes. The difference between the Irish pipes and the Scottish bagpipes are that you can still drink and play the Irish pipes (cue laughter). Irish don't have the mouthpiece. The guy was very good but it was very calm. After the dancers we were all ready to party and take over Dublin. This guy was singing us a lullaby to sleep. And it was working! I was back to being sleepy!
They served us an Irish coffee pretty late. I didn't get mine until 9:30 and by then everyone but my table had one. The few people I watched took a sip of theirs and made an awful face. Apparently the coffees were shit.
But they weren't shit. I tasted mine and it tasted like coffee and whiskey. I liked it! It makes me think. I bet the free Irish coffee we had a couple days ago didn't have whiskey. I couldn't taste it and no one else could. AND it doesn't make sense for a business to just give out free alcohol to people who walk in their doors. There's no way that had alcohol in it. Anyways, this DID have whiskey in it and maybe less than 10 percent of the Irish whiskey glasses were empty.
The dinner ended at 10. We were all so tired. We got on the bus and Tom played us Irish music. The song Wild Rover came on. Mia and I were sitting together and we tried to clap along at the right parts. We also tried to sing around the hand clapping parts and it was a lot of fun. Slowly, people started joining in (the clapping, not our singing. No one would sing with us). When the song ended Tom said we were a mess so he played Wild Rover again! Mia and I never got the clap down. The bus clapping in unison was loud and people walking on the streets would kind of jump when we were stopped by them.
At the hotel I took a shower and finally updated the blog. I got the past 3 days updated but not today. I called it a night and went to sleep at 2.
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