I got to see the lovely Emily Maskas, and we had great adventures: we kissed the Blarney Stone, which is actually kind of terrifying. Nobody told me the Blarney Stone was part of a wall of a castle. I had kind of assumed it was just a stone. But no, it's in a wall high up in a castle. And the way you kiss it is you sit on the ground and lean backward into an abyss and kiss the stone while upside-down. Terrifying! But it was worth it. Whether it actually bestowed us with the gift of gab remains to be seen.
We also went to Dublin, where we saw an amazing Cathedral--I'm blanking on which Saint's it was, oops--and attended an Anglican (I think) service, which I didn't realize was Anglican until Emily told me afterward. I thought it was weird that there was no Communion. Dur.
Other than that, I had my first Guinness, which was like drinking bread. Thick, liquid, smokey bread. I also met some neat people and heard many lovely Irish accents. Cork and Dublin are both adorable places.
Thanks to the lovely Emily for hosting me and showing me around! I had a great time, even though it was terribly cold after having been in the Mediterranean for four months. The New Englander in me was shamed.
Anyway, love again!
