Blarney Castle

Hello my fellow Americans!

I hope you all are doing well.  I finally got my photos up of Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone.  Erik, Allison and I went to Blarney Castle and explored the ancient ruins and grounds.

Here on the left is me kissing the famous Blarney Stone for some special Irish good luck.  It was terrifying...if you can see from the photo it is a long way down.

The castle was really fun...you were free to roam around and we found lots of corridors and narrow passages.  My favorite room had to be the murder hole.  It is a little room with a hole in the floor.  Apparently if unwanted guests were 

coming in someone could throw rocks and other dangerous objects at them through the hole.  I thought that was very funny lol.

On the right is my best view of the castle.  On the left side of the picture is the watch tower and

 we walked all the way to the top of the castle to reach the Blarney stone.

There was alot of grounds for us to explore.  We found some caves, the battlements(also known as a defense wall) and a dungeon.  The three of us also discovered the the Blarney Mansion that is still occupied today so we weren't allowed inside.  I have decided that mom and I should buy the mansion and move there lol...hint hint mom!

We walked along this trail behind the mansion to a lake on the back grounds.  It was a little flooded from the rain but it was still a pretty sight.  

We were very lucky in that the rain managed to stay away our whole time on the Blarney grounds.  It only rained during our bus ride to Blarney and the way back to Cork.  I was very happy about a successful day of sight seeing.  I hope my Irish luck will stick with me throughout the rest of travels.  Although asking for less rain in Ireland is like asking for less sun in the desert.

Allison, Erik and I are planning our trip to Galway this weekend.  We're hoping to do a tour of the Kylemore Abbey one day and the Aran Islands on another day.  I wish we could spend more time there but hopefully we'll get alot in!  

Thank you all for being interested in my travels!  It's very exciting to share my experiences with so many!

You are all in my thoughts!

-Erica