Oh Blarney!

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, but we went to see the Rock of Cashel on our way to Kilkenny. It was amazing, soooo historical. It's weird to hear about all of the dates that things were built or events happened here because the dates are in the 1100's which is way before any historical things we have in America. The Rock of Cashel is a castle that many different groups of people inhabited over the years. It's really famous for the original cross of St. Patrick, or the remains of it, which was amazing to see. The cross is hollow and it's believed that people hid valuables in the cross during times of invasion and war. The landscape was beautiful and so picturesque, as you can see from my facebook page haha. After touring Cashel we ate at a small pub in the town responsible for making Bulmer's cider, my new favorite non-beer drink! After we got to our hotel in Kilkenny, we went to see the Kilkenny castle but we didn't take a tour of it because it cost six euros and you werent allowed to take pictures so we just walked around outside and took pictures which was just as good if not better. One of the girls on the trip turned 21 yesterday so after dinner we went to the underground club at our hotel. It was like a real American club, with rap music and all! We had so much fun and it was the first time that I really drank here, but not too much ;), and I'm glad I did! Everyone had a great time dancing and even our professors were dancing at the club with us! Dr. B knew all the words to "California knows how to party" so she was rapping for us all haha. Today we started off with a trip to the Cobh Heritage Center which was the port that most immigrants left from to go to America and was also the last port of call for the Titanic. They had a great exhibit with wonderful pictures and information that I put on facebook. It was really interesting and gave me a new appreciation for their history. Our next stop was Blarney Castle! The spiral stairway going up to the top of the castle was terrifying because it was insanely narrow and you couldn't fit your whole foot on the steps. I made it though and I got to kiss the stone twice! I had to lay on my back and hang off of the top of the castle to kiss the stone. They had recently installed bars so you couldn't fall because someone had died so that was lucky for us because I don't think I would have done it otherwise. There was a garden behind the castle called the "poisonous garden" with a sign saying not to touch, smell, of eat anything in it! That was enough for me so I didn't go but apparently it had marijuana among other things in it. I got to Cork late this afternoon and had dinner at the hotel restaurant which was really nice! Tomorrow I have an early day because we are getting up to go to the University College of Cork to meet with professors in global health which should be interesting and is my last site visit for the trip, yay! I'll update when I can :)