Well everyone says I'm the Princess, so of course we had to visit our first of many castles on second weekend!

Pucker up! Al, Holl and Han ventured into Blarney, about a half an hour bus trip from Cork to kiss the Stone and walk the grounds of Blarney. We walked into the grounds and immediately thought, where's the castle? We started walking along some trails and POOF! There it is. The castle popped up out of nowhere. Honestly, I thought that this was going to be similar to the Plymouth Rock in the sense that it would be a total tourist thing and anti climactic. I was SO wrong. The castle and experience were beautiful.

We entered the main parts of the castle after checking out the dungeons and definitely exploring parts of the castle that we weren't supposed to, but it was so worth it. We crawled into some really small parts of the dungeons. They were so cold and damp. There was water dripping everywhere. After the dungeons we walked into the castle and climbed up the scariest flight of stairs I've ever been up. They were so tight, windy and wet- and we all had on really cute boots with big bags and our cameras so that didn't help us at all!

After getting to the top of the castle it was a little nerve wracking because it was SO high up and wasn't enclosed at all. We chose the perfect day to go because the weather was so nice! It was clear in the 40s and really sunny! We were able to see a lot of Ireland from the top of the castle- all the rolling hills and green that we don't see in the city.

Now it's time to pucker up! Thinking that I was literally going to be in an upright position and then LEAN over smooch a boulder (the Plymouth Rock) and call it a day. BUT that is not how you kiss the Blarney stone. To kiss this stone I had to LAY DOWN and slide back OVER the castle edge with some guy making sure I don't slip and THEN you get to smooch the stone. Nobody told me that part! All and all it was so fun and I am so happy that I did it.

After going back down the scary and narrow flight of stairs we strolled through the poisonous garden. Yup. A LEGIT POISIONOUS GARDEN. We weren't even allowed to touch anything, but everything's just out in the ground even though it could KILL you. So that was a little unsettling. From the Poisonous Herb Garden we walked through the rest of the grounds and saw the Blarney House, which was also so beautiful.

I can't wait to take Mom, Auntie and Alyss here when they come visit! Cheers! and BESOS to my lovely Theta family,

Al

PS. Make sure to check out the photo album!