Day 5 ~ Ireland

I woke up at 3am and never fell back asleep because I went to bed early the night before and some drunk assholes were being loud outside our window. We had to get up at 5am again to catch another cab to the city center for day trip #3. We got there very early again but only had to stand around for about a half hour before our tour bus came. We drove a couple hours through several small towns to Blarney. I was excited about this trip already because I remembered my grandma and grandpa telling me about going there and kissing the Blarney Stone and about how cool it was. The drive there was very scenic (as I figured out basically all of Ireland is) and it was a gorgeous day. Its the first day I didn't have to wear any kind of jacket and I was even hot sometimes. I don't know for sure but I would guess upper 60s. The castle was even better then I thought it would be. It was huge! We had to climb up to the very top to kiss the stone so we got to see all of the different rooms and the view from different heights on the way up.  I don't think I could have done it if I was at all claustrophobic because to get to the top you had to climb up a very narrow winding staircase made of stone that was barely wide enough for me to raise my elbows and the stairs were small and right on top of each other. Towards the top it was more like a ladder then a staircase. It was exciting to get to the top because even though I'd heard of it I really had no idea what to expect. Turns out a guy really does hold your legs while you lay down and bend backwards over the top of this tower. There is a pole thing above for you to hold on to and there are 3 small bars going across like a big grate a couple feet below where you hang over which would catch you (more like you would hit it, they were bars not a net)but it was clear that if you fell to that point you were kind of fucked. It was badass! I got pictures and they also had a camera up above which was awesome because they got a birds eye picture of me hanging over to kiss the stone. The story goes that if you kiss the stone you get the gift of the gab which i guess means you're able to speak really well or something. I was more focused on hanging off a castle then learning the legend haha  After we climbed back down the tower we walked through some caves we found on the grounds and along the stream. It was really pretty and I didn't even think to freak out about spiders and snakes until after we were out. We spent the rest of the time there sitting on a bench by the gardens people watching, it was very pretty. Then it was time to get back on the bus and head to the town of Cork. Cork ended up being the most stressful experience of this trip and I hope it's the most dramatic this trip gets .Our bus driver basically drove by a random place he would pick us up then drove around the town and dropped us off in a market on the other side of the town. We looked around in the food market for a little while and then walked to a store to get gifts for people and went to get pizza to go. ( no places in Europe have to go boxes or let you take food home no matter how much food you have left unless its specifically a place that says carry out on the sign, it's so fucking dumb). We left the pizza place to walk to the bus with 20 minutes left until we had to be back, I was in the back of the group originally so I didnt hear the name of the place we were supposed to meet in front of and she couldn't remember the name of it. We remembered it was by the river though so we walked there but the bus was nowhere in sight and nothing looked familiar. She thought the hotel we were supposed to meet in front of started with an M so I stopped a man and asked him if he knew of any hotels that started with an M by the river (I'm always the one who has to ask, I guess it's become an unspoken rule or something) and he gave us the name but said it was a 20/30 minute walk and the town was technically an island and we were on the wrong side of the river. At this point we had less then 10 minutes left to get to the bus. We started walking in the direction he pointed (someone was starting to freak out and shut down at this point but surprisingly I was calm. I was so stressed my body couldnt actually process it but either way in my head I said "okay, worst case we can't find the bus and we have to find another way to get back " so I asked another man if there was a train to Dublin from there and he said yes and it even leaves every hour. So I thought "great! If we miss the bus we can take the train and just call the company to tell them we made it back and ask to pick up our stuff  later (luckily I only left my jacket on the bus) and if for some reason that doesn't work out we can get a hotel room and take a morning train" my travel partner wouldn't hear it and looked like she was about to lose it but I already had a plan in mind so I was good to go ( pretty fucking amazing seeing as I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder a couple years ago and used to have daily panic attacks mere months ago). So anyways, we kept walking but were clearly lost so I had to stop a woman on the street and ask for her help, she said we were headed basically the right way but the hotel was another 30minutes away ( at this point we had 5 minutes to get to the bus) so I suggested we just grab a cab and have him take us since at that point we were pretty sure we had the right name but my travel buddy clearly didn't want to. We walked a little farther and then I said this is ridiculous we need to get in that cab so we did and he drove to the complete opposite of the town, he started to drive away from the river so we made him turn around a do a U turn and pull over because we saw the hotel a couple blocks downthe road (still not sure that it was even the right place) so she jumped out and started running to see if the bus was there leaving me to pay the driver and wait for him to give me change.  I power walked down the road with bags in hand and luckily there was our bus with everyone standing outside of it in front of the hotel. Somehow by the grace of god after all of that drama we were only 10 minutes late to the bus. I seriously have no idea how that happened, we got ridiculously lucky. Her hands were literally shaking when we sat down on the bus and I had such a rush I haven't been that proud of myself in a very very long time. I feel like every day of this trip I surprise myself in some way and the fact that I kept my cool while completely lost and about to miss our tour bus in a foreign country in a town hours from where we were staying is huge. I mean come on, we found the bus with just that maybe it started with the  letter "M" to go on but we weren't sure and that it was by the river!Not to brag too much but I feel like that would be a horribly difficult situation for anyone and I did it without freaking out and I got us there. Anxiety can go fuck itself. I was close to doing a little victory dance right there on the bus, I never come out on top. Literally.  I constantly fail at everything I try and watch people do things that are so hard for me easily but I think I may have finally found my thing. The thing that makes me special. I know lots of people want and love to travel but it turns out I'm actually pretty good at it. I finally have my own thing that I can be proud of and that I truly succeed at ~ not with my parents help or with the people in charge feeling sorry for me and making things easier or with my boyfriend carrying me through it ~ but something I'm doing on my own and let me tell you, it's the best feeling in the world. ~So back to the day trip, after we were back on the bus we drove for about an hour and a half (I slept for some of it) to a really really old cathedral (hundreds of years old) that the queen herself visited and that was really cool. (I should know all the names but sadly I dont ) We had to climb up a steep hill to get to it and my favorite part was definitely the cemetery in the back. I was at the top of a mountain and it overlooked a little town and fields with cows relaxing in the sun and mountains In the distance. I feel like I keep saying this (and I do keep saying this) but I could have stayed there forever, it was so peaceful ~ like the rest of the world didn't exist. We only had about 45 minutes there and then we had to make the drive back. When we were back in Dublin it was just like the day before but not quite as close, we walked to our bus stop and within5 minutes our bus pulled up and we drove back. I stayed up until 1 or so