WE KISSED THE BLARNEY STONE! On Friday, February 2nd, Meghan, Joe, Emily, Connor, Gabe (roommate of Connor and Joe), and Tori (Gabe’s friend) went to Cork City for the day! We arrived at about 11:30am and immediately waited for a bus to Blarney, which was at noon. On the way, we walked past the river, which reflected the shoreline like a mirror.

We arrived in Blarney at about 12:30 and headed toward the castle. Kissing the

Blarney Stone has been on my bucket list basically forever, so I was super, super excited. When we arrived on the castle ground, there was a diversion from the main path which meant that we had to take the scenic route. It was beautiful! Ireland is insanely green everywhere (obviously) but there are certain places that are astonishingly green—and this was one of them. The grass was vibrant against the gleam of the river. After the walk to the castle was the walk up to the top of the castle. The stair case was spiraled and EXTREMELY narrow. As we went higher, it got progressively even narrower and, thereby, more dangerous. We passed a

room called the “murder hole” which literally just had a whole in the ground (it’s covered now), but it used to just be a pit for unlucky folks back in the day. I was surprisingly not scared at the height of the Blarney Stone when we reached it. There was construction (hence the detour) so when we looked down, I saw wooden blocks rather than a large drop. Meghan went first, then me, then joe, and so on. After that, we were all so chatty and thrilled to have received the gift of gab. I’m never going to stop talking now! (Just Kidding)… It was very exciting though! We descended the tower down a less narrow, but still steep and winding staircase.

When we returned to Blarney town, we stopped in the BLARNEY CHOCOLATE

FACTORY! It smelled amazing! I did not get anything from there, but Connor and Emily got hot chocolate and said it was phenomenal. I went to a little Italian place while everyone else went to a different Italian place. We were getting our food to go, so it did not matter if we stuck together and I wanted to find a cheaper restaurant. The lady who took my order was an angel! Actually, everyone in Blarney was INSANELY nice! We determined that that town has the nicest people—or maybe they just all have the gift of gab! I ordered what I thought was a personal pizza, but it ended up being 12 inches! This was great because I could share with everyone on the bus back to Cork.

When we got back to Cork, we had yet another bus to catch. This one would take us to

the Jameson Distillery for a tour! I did not know what to expect from a tour of a whiskey factory, but it was one of my favorite experiences. At 4:20, we arrived and met up with our tour which had started at 4:15. We are very good at almost being late! The tour was actually so educational. I have a whole new respect for whiskey! Did you know that is has to be stored in barrels for at least THREE YEARS? Yet, most whiskey is in there for NINE years! That is wild! And now, there are over a million barrels of whiskey in the Jameson Distillery! I seriously will never look at whiskey the same way.

We learned about how different barrels give whiskey different tastes. Jameson most

commonly uses old barrels from Kentucky and Spain. In fact, making whiskey is so complicated that it amazes me that it has been being made so long. I bet there is some type of liquor that has not yet been discovered. I mean, I would never think of throwing some beer in a “still pot” and then putting it in a barrel. (The tour guide informed us that the difference

between a brewer and a distiller is that the brewer got lazy because whiskey starts out as a super strong beer).

At the end of the tour, the guide asked for eight volunteers to test the whiskey.

Obviously, there were a lot of takers! He said to make it fair, he would pick four gents and four ladies. He picked the ladies first and chose Meghan, Emily, and two random girls. Then, he picked Joe, Connor, a random dude, and ME! He told me “I know you’re not a gent, but I can’t split up the twins.” I thanked him for knowing I was not a gent. Once again, being a twin has worked to my advantage.

We tasted Jameson Whiskey, Scotch, and Jack Daniels 7 (the most common whiskey

sold in America). I didn’t like the Scotch at all and was not a huge fan of the Jack Daniels, either. The Jameson was AMAZING, though! I don’t know if I will ever be able to appreciate Jack Daniels again. After the whiskey tasting, we still had free Jameson drinks waiting at the bar. I got a Jameson Ginger with lime.

By now, all of us who had done the whiskey tasting were a bit tipsy unintentionally.

We were all just very giggly. Poor Gabe and Tori were not feeling quite as good as we were! Yet, we had to head to the bus station. The bus was not until 7:00 and it was only 6:15, so we decided to get a quick meal. We tried Murphy’s Pub, but didn’t sell food so we ended up at McDonalds. I got the wrap of the day (it was hot peri peri and oh boy was it hot!), because that is the best bargain. Then, we headed back to Cork and got there around 7:45. I snoozed on the bus, so was a little out of it when we returned to the city. We just kind of walked around, but many places were closed, so we explored the shopping center which was very similar to the one we have in Galway. Because we started walking around at 8pm, we did not get to see as much of the city as I would like, but that’s because we were doing so many other fun things!

Before we knew it, it was time to catch our 9:30pm bus back to Galway. This was a quiet ride, as we had covered quite a bit of ground and were exhausted. Life here is amazing and exciting, but REALLY exhausting! We got home at around 12:30 and I slept for 10 hours straight. It was lovely.