Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle - Friday

Started raining as soon as we arrived, and poured (luckily) just before we started up to the castle, so we were able to stay (relatively) dry at the gift shop.

It's a harrowing climb to the top - the stairs spiral and get smaller the higher you get. The only railing is a thick rope running the length of the spiral from top to bottom. There are many cubbies and small rooms you have to weave in and out of before you make it to the top portion, and the "inside" of the castle is hollow - meaning there are no floors in the center. Once you get to the top, there is nothing but the outside castle wall on the one side of you, and a sheer drop down 3 stories on the other side. With all the cubbies and rooms, it'd be a great place to play hide and seek!

I've read there can be up to an hour wait to "kiss" the Blarney Stone, but luckily (again!) for us, there were no crowds and we more or less just walked right up to the kissing spot. Emma started to get anxious, but not because you have to lie prone and bend backwards 4 stories high with your head through a gap between the floor and the wall of the castle to reach the stone with your lips, but because she was afraid of... getting swine flu!

I finally persuaded her that she wouldn't get sick, after all, is anyone in line coughing or sneezing? And so she joined the rest of us with getting the "gift of the gab". I have to admit it was scary, both leaning back like that and the thought of catching swine flu, but we didn't drive all the way there to chicken out at the last minute! (check out that gap! There may be bars down there, and some guy holding on to you, but everything in your brain is telling you that this is not right!)