Saturday we all woke up around 10am… even Mom and Dad… reigning king and queen of being up too damn early! We had a bite to eat then headed off towards Waterford in the Southwest of Ireland. One of the big things my mom wanted to do was to go see the Waterford Crystal factory. Supposedly regarded to be the best and clearest Crystal in the world. A lot of championship trophies are made by them, as well as the famous Times Square New Years Ball. This, among their wide array of vases, glasses, sculptures and other similar items. I have to admit, I wasn’t too excited to see this, but I figured it would be interesting nonetheless. Indeed it was. The first part of it was interesting to see and compare to the process of making iron. The crystal is kept in a furnace just slightly cooler (and cooler is probably not the word to use) than we pour iron at), and although I’ve seen iron flow like water, it was weird to see the molten crystal be played with like silly putty, then quickly cooled and hardened to be completely shiney. The glass then moved on into the various cutting areas where people with a decade of training cut the various patterns into the glass. Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty cool to see, but in the end where they corral everyone into the store, I guess you have to be a female to appreciate this stuff. My brother and I were just kinda like “What the crap? Do… do we buy something… or uh… what?”… and my dad just sorta held things for my mom.

Afterwords, we stopped at a McDonald’s again and I hopped on the internet while everyone else decided where to go. The consensus was to go to Kilkenny Castle. It took a little while to get there, and once getting to Kilkenny, we didn’t have a damn clue where to go. At one point we were going down a narrow stretch of an alleyway wide enough for about a car and a half. We stopped to ask for directions twice and finally found our way. Kilkenny Castle was much, much different from Blarney Castle. Not only in the sheer size of it, but in the fact that it had been repaired, restored, and renovated through the years. This was definitely a castle in the sense of what the average American thinks of it as. Large rooms, well decorated with art and designed for royalty to be served in. One castle wall had been destroyed over the years and it had been opened up to a large, sweeping field that it seemed a lot of people were just spending the day in. Some playing games, some just socializing, and some just walking by enjoying the day, I suppose. They didn’t allow pictures inside and the only way to go through was in a guided tour, which was definitely interesting and informative, but I did manage to get some lovely pictures outside. By the time we got through the tour and on our way, it was going on 7pm… I think? It was hard to tell because the sky was a bit overcast. I remember they closed the castle up to visitors at 7, and it was looking pretty desolate on our way out.

We drove back as a little bit of rain started to hit and stopped in a town called Cashir to look for a place to eat around 8PM. We found a little restaurant that had a wide array of foods, from pizza, to pasta, from burgers to chicken… most importantly… it was open! One of the cool things about Ireland is that just about any place you can get food, you can get a beer. There was even beer at the cafeteria in Waterford Crystal! They totally pimp the Guinness, as one might expect. Just about every gift shop in any town has Guinness branded gifts. After our meal, we drove back to Aherlow house (where we were staying) and rested a little bit before walking up to their bar and having a few drinks. We talked to an older Irish couple of a little bit about some ideas on what to do tomorrow, and they suggested seeing the Castles in Cahir and Cashir. We drove by both of them yesterday, one on the way to Waterford, and one in the town we stopped at for a bite to eat on our way home, and figured that would be a cool idea. At the bar, I think Joe and I gave dad a good buzz. Cool! Even my mom had a little bit to drink. By 11pm or so, we were all bushed… perhaps too exhausted to drink more, and we walked back to the room. We watched a little TV and then I headed upstairs and started typing up a little bit of this before going to bed.

So yeah.

Sunday morning came and the Fields family all went to church in Tipperary. The church itself was actually similar looking to St. Cecelia, the church Joe and I have been going to in Cincinnati. Just not as colorful. The service itself was the same old service, just with thick Irish accents. It didn’t take all too long and we were back at Ahlerow House to grab a bite to eat before heading off to Cahir Castle.

Cahir Castle was more like Blarney castle, but a bit more kept up and less of a tourist hotspot… more of what someone thinks of when they hear “castle” too, although still primitive. We were free to roam this castle, which was fun. But there was a brief portion that was guided that just pointed out some of the history and features of the castle. I managed to get some good pictures of the town of Cahir from the tower, but I was hoping the skies were a bit more clear. I was actually afraid it was going to be a total mess once the tour started… the castle is mostly uncovered and it started sprinkling as we got started. It seems within minutes though, it stopped and the grey in the sky turned to white.

We enjoyed some time in the castle after the tour, then watched a short video on it, and after popping in a couple of shops, we left to go to Cashel. Cashel is HUGE. It’s pretty much a giant hill, with a wall at top, and an array of cathedrals and a couple other buildings on top. We explored pretty much the whole area, but then took the guided tour to learn more about it. We found out that it wasn’t actually a castle, but it was guarded by a wall to protect the higher ups of the church and the relics inside.

At this point I was a bit pooped of the castle thing, so I just wanted to go back and chill a little bit before dinner. We had reservations for the restaurant at Aherlow House. It was set up as a fancy dining sort of deal, but quite frankly, the Fields family isn’t that keen on proper etiquette and stuff, so we just went with the flow. For reference, if you ever see “black and white pudding” on a menu, it’s a sausage like meat. The black portion seems like the white… just burnt… or something. I was later informed that it is pretty much sausage, mostly byproducts of meat. The black pudding is black because it’s soaked in blood, which is where the irony-metallic taste I got come in. I couldn’t decide whether it was good or bad. It seems like in every Irish restaurant we go to, their menu is pretty much “choose a meat and we’ll take care of the rest”. Americans are spoiled with their menus. We have 4 page menus divided into what type of meal you want, and then about 4 or 5 different ways of doing it. In Ireland you order steak. In America, you can choose the size of the steak, what you want it cooked with, what you want on the side… no dice in Ireland. That, or I’m going to all the wrong places.

After dinner, nobody really wanted to do anything, so we just went back and watched “Mystic River” on TV and chilled for a bit. I think we were all in bed by about 11pm. We planned on getting Dublin tomorrow as soon as we could so we could do two things instead of just one (before everything starts closing down), so we thought it would be good to get to bed early and get up early.