Meaghan: So you can expect the blog posts to get even better from now on (betcha didn’t think that was possible!). We have kissed the Blarney Stone and we are now extraordinarily eloquent! (S: Apparently after you kiss the stone that’s what you gain). Blarney Castle was strikingly GLORIOUS. We got there just after it opened to avoid the lines so there weren’t many people there. Unlike lots of other castles or museums where everything is roped off and behind glass, at Blarney you can climb into all sorts of nooks and crannies. It was sensational. Other people have clearly taken advantage of this though, because alongside the words written on the wall hundreds of years ago, tourists have written names and dates too.

We went to Woolen Mills next, where Savanna promptly had an existential crisis about whether to buy a sweater.

Savanna: Okay first of all it wasn’t an ‘existential crisis’ it was a ‘I love this but I’m saving money for our trip and also it’s been five days I probably shouldn’t try to jam a massive sweater in my bag’ crisis. That sweater would have changed my life though. Just saying.

Anyway yes Blarney was amazing and it was a shame that so much graffiti was everywhere… Though it didn’t diminish our excitement in any way. The woollen mills was great, except the hat I wanted turn out to be acrylic….. So we had to take it back and exchange it for a wool one, obviously. Meaghan bought a beautiful scarf and was pleasantly surprised at how much she enjoyed the mill.

After this we caught the bus back to Cork and walked around this busy area for awhile and we decided to go to St. Anne’s Cathedral where the Shandon Bells are housed. We waffled for a couple minutes on whether to go in but it was only a few euro so why not right? Best decision ever! We got a set of earmuffs and made our way up and up and up with little museum displays on every floor, and then a room where you can play songs on the bells that ring out on to the streets! Meaghan played Frère Jaques and I played The Wedding March. We ran upstairs up and up again to the 5th story (5 church stories is very different from 5 regular building stories…) and finally we were watching the bells being rung by other tourists… Like we were literally watching THE bells as they rung right in front of our faces! Then we went up another story to the top of the church outside on the balcony and looked out over the city of Cork.

M: We bused from Cork to Galway at night and watched P.S. I Love You. It was pretty good! Savanna cried, but that’s to be expected since she cries at everything (including diaper commercials). When we arrived in Galway we walked around the little streets. It was a happening place! We got some gelato and watched some street performers, and we watched as guys paid 10 euros to try to hang on a bar for 100 seconds to win 100 euros. It was surprisingly entertaining, and unsurprisingly none of them could do it.

S: we walked around some more down to the promenade and then back up towards the Galway City Hostel where we are staying. I broke my shoe so I had a limp the whole way up the hill… Which Meags thought was HILARIOUS the entire time but whatever haha. Down to 2 pairs of shoes… Guess I get to buy another! Finally we went to the pub under our hostel and got a beer and chatted the night away. The live music in Ireland is incredible.

S&M

P.s. M may have used a thesaurus for all adjectives used in the Blarney part of this post hoping to be eloquent..