Update from Aug. 16: Emerald City

WARNING: This is the World's Longest Post!!! Sorry! It would be shorter, but this blog doubles as my journal for the trip and I had a lot to say...

Friday morning (the 15th) we got our rental car—after waiting on the side of the street for like 20 minutes with all of our luggage!—and began our trek across Ireland in search of the pot of gold. Abigail had been rather nervous about this whole driving on the other side of the road thing, so the second we sat down in the car she promptly suggested that we say a quick prayer. I think there was quite a bit of wisdom in that, seeing as how today we nearly died because we ran a red light. These dang traffic signals are so hard to see here! They’re always hidden! On the plus side, we did leave our mark on Ireland—skid marks on the road!

Honestly, driving hasn’t been much of a challenge…says the girl who has yet to drive. It’s probably just because my dad is such an expert driver (he paid me to say that). Seriously though, the roads here are so crazy! They are ultra narrow, winding, steep, and altogether insane. All I have to say is three cheers for Brigham Young and his brilliant idea to build wide, straight streets in a grid pattern!

Our Friday drive was fairly long…probably about 125 miles. We did get a little break though—we stopped at Waterford Crystal factory to take a tour. We read about it in a guide book and since it was on the way we decided to check it out. I think it’s safe to say that we were all very pleasantly surprised with how cool it was! And get this—the tour was actually given by a live person! They took us through where they make molds of wood and iron (I think it was iron, but I’m not positive), then it was on to the area where they blow the glass. It was so cool to see how they blew it with such precision and could make it into all these sweet shapes and such.

Here’s a little factoid I betcha didn’t know…it takes about 8 years to become a master crystal-maker. So basically, if becoming a doctor isn’t really your thing, just take up crystal making and you can train for just about as long! Along the tour we also got to see them put designs into the glass with these diamond-tipped blades and make monograms with other tools. It’s a pretty long and extremely precise process to make just one bit of crystal, so it’s no wonder it costs so much! After this neat little stop we drove some more. Ah what a thrill.

We did find ways to entertain ourselves without killing each other. My personal favorite was playing the ipod game. For those of you that don’t know, basically you put the headphones on and someone chooses a song off of your ipod. You turn it up full-blast and have to sing along. It’s hilarious because you’re just in your own world jamming out to music, but no one else can hear what you’re singing along to. My mom got the award for most tone-deaf. Mallory adequately compared her performance to a Chinese deaf person trying to sing along to Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” I laughed so hard I nearly died.

We finally made it to the town where our Bed and Breakfast is located (Kinsale, in County Cork). We’ve been heavily relying on our trusty GPS for navigation. We have named it…or her, I guess…Liah, which is short for Liahona. She didn’t quite get us to the doorstep of our place, so we ended up getting really really really lost on the winding streets of Kinsale. Cars just park halfway into the street, people drive like maniacs, you can’t ever see around the corners, and 2-way streets are as narrow as our one way streets in Utah! It was definitely an adventure to say the least. Oh, and just to clarify, it wasn’t Liah’s fault that we got lost. Having that GPS has been a total life-saver! I would highly recommend it.

Luckily we made it safe and sound. We’re staying in a gorgeous bed and breakfast called Harbor Hill Farm. When the clouds aren’t too low, it overlooks a harbor filled with sailboats and the hill-side town of Kinsale. Seeing the beauty of the Irish countryside with your own two eyes is even better than the pictures. The place where we’re staying is a dairy farm (no worries, it doesn’t smell like cows at all…in fact, the living room I’m sitting in smells of delicious freshly cut flowers). There are cows and sheep everywhere…grazing on the green grass, green trees, green everything! It really is like Emerald City!!

We got ourselves settled in the rooms and headed into town for a bite to eat at The White House. George Dubbleya wasn’t there, but we were still able to enjoy some food despite our disappointment for not getting to meet the president. After dinner I was mega tired (all that driving is exhausting!) so we hit the sack fairly earlyish. I must have slept like a rock because apparently there was a crazy loud thunderstorm during the night but it didn’t wake me for a second. Breakfast this morning was quite a treat. This B&B is a family’s house and they’ve converted the upstairs with rooms for visitors to stay in and the front end is like a living room and dining room for visitors as well. Anyway, they just take your orders of what you’d like and got whip it up in the kitchen.

Plus they had gouda cheese, so that made it an instant winner. I even snagged some and ate it later in the day. Yuuum. We finished getting ready and somehow managed to get out doing some touring by 10am! That is pretty miraculous considering the fact that we’re 4 girls with only one blow dryer.

First on the list of things to do: kiss the Blarney Stone. We drove up to the castle, which isn’t too far from where we are, and the heavens started pouring out rain. This kinda goes without saying, but if you’re ever planning a trip to the UK make sure a high-quality umbrella is at the top of your list of things to pack. The castle is pretty amazing. I’d give a brief history about it, but since I’m already blabbing on too much, I’ll let you google it yourself if you feel so inclined. What’s neat about it is that it hasn’t been restored or anything to its original state. In London everything is rebuilt so visitors can get a feel for what it was like. I liked how this has just been left as it is because it gives it kind of a more mystical feel.

The Blarney Stone is located at the very top of the castle and you have to climb a narrow, winding staircase to get to it. It’s pretty slippery when it rains. To kiss the stone, you have to lie down and bend over backwards while this old man holds onto you so you don’t fall. Legend has it that after you kiss the stone, you’re blessed with the gift of Blarney, or more widely known as the gift of gab. Blarney is a word created by Queen Elizabeth that means eloquence in speech. (oh, and to whom it may concern…you know who you are…I did indeed wear the schvetta while kissing the stone. Pictures are forthcoming.)

We spent some time wandering through other parts of the castle and the grounds around it. Our adventure was cut a little short when Mallory slipped and fell on the grass. For some reason this made her REEEEEALLY ornery, so we thought it would be best to get out of there asap.

Our guidebook mentioned that there was a butter museum in Cork, which is the big city very near to Blarney. It sounded kind of quirky, so we jumped on the opportunity to go. After all, there aren’t many people in the world who can say they’ve been to a butter museum, and we were all itchin to be numbered among those who have. I dare say this was one of the weirdest places I’d ever been. Let’s just say the Gale History Museum in South Jordan is faaaar better than this bizarre museum. It was a bit of a waste of time and money. But hey, ya live and learn, right?

We didn’t let this weird museum dampen our spirits a bit. And lucky for us, the rainclouds even blew over and the sun started to shine! It turned out to be a beautiful day. After a quick lunch, we ventured back over to Kinsale to a place called Charles’ Fort. It’s located just a short drive from our B&B, right on the banks of the harbor. Not many people are aware of this hidden treasure. We felt like we were just about the only people there! So if you come to Ireland and are in the area, make a point to stop here. You won’t be disappointed.

We took a tour and our guide was this old guy with a really strong accent…I had to concentrate really hard to understand what the heck he was saying. He did give a ton of really interesting information though. He had an endless supply of really cool historical knowledge—the kind of stuff you wish you could learn about in history class when instead the teacher is just rattling off names and dates. The fort setting and his stories really brought history to life. This fort was used from the 1600s all the way until 1922! It’s even haunted by a lady in a white dress. She was the governor’s daughter who killed herself after her father accidentally killed her husband on their wedding day.

I tried to convince everyone to return there with me at night for a bit of ghost hunting, but Mallory about wet her pants at the idea. The fort closed in the early evening, so we headed into town to just wander around and get some food. There were a lot of really cool little shops, but unfortunately most were closed.

There was an ice cream/chocolate shop still open, and we couldn’t resist the opportunity for a treat. We bought a little sampler pack that included white chocolate with lavender—kind of an interesting combo, but pretty tasty. Dinner was at an Indian restaurant and it definitely hit the spot. My personal favorite was Chicken Korma and lemon rice. I can hardly wait to get home and try making it myself!