Crystal, Castles and more.

We woke up this morning and headed over to the Waterford Crystal factory, they had a little cafe where we had breakfast and then we met up with our tour guide Olive - who took us to the actual factory by bus. There were only about 7 of us which was nice, and the tour was about an hour in length. It showed everything from mold making, to glass blowing, marking, cutting, sculpting, and quality control rooms after every junction. It was really amazing, and we learned so much about it! (For example: Each piece goes through quality inspection after every station, and if it fails inspection then the station that it fails does not get paid AT ALL. So at the end of the day noone is salaried and they only get paid for the pieces they make that pass! The fail rate coming out of the glass blowing area is as high as 20% some days, so the glass blowers have to work really hard to make sure each piece is perfect so that they don't lose their pay. All of the different jobs have a minimum of 8 years of training, with some having as many as 15 to become a master craft, so the workers we met had all been there for around 30/35 years! Also we saw the only other copies of all the waterford custom made pieces like the millennium ball and about 30 different sports trophies. They only make two copies of each piece like these, one goes to the person/company that ordered it and one stays in the factory on display, and then they burn the birch mold that they make them with so that they can't be reproduced! All in all it was alot of fun!

After a quick lunch we headed on to Blarney Castle, a couple of hours away near Cork. This was an un-restored castle (unlike Kilkenny), and offers a gift of life-long eloquence for those who dare to kiss the Blarney Stone at the top of the tower (this involves lying on your back and shifting down a hole to kiss the stone upside down - while hoping the staff member is strong enough to pull you back up) Geoff and I decided we are able to hold a decent conversation and bypassed this coveted opportunity! However we did hike to the top of the very high Tower and look into all the remaining rooms. Then we went to explore the surrounding grounds. There was a huge Druid influence - the remains of which we saw in the form of a Druid circle, a sacrificial altar and a head Druid's cave. They were beautiful and at the same time very creepy. However the further we ventured into the forest the more beauty there was to see including a Fairy's Glade and the Wishing Steps, where people have to walk backwards with their eyes closed both down and back up in order for their wish to come true! (Geoff did try this, but opened his eyes at the bottom because he couldn't get a good grip on the walls!) We also saw a Witches Kitchen, and close by was a witches stone and hat! It was a great place to visit, with so much to see that we spent a majority of the day there before heading to Killarney for the evening. We are now in Killarney for the night and planning to head out to drive the Ring of Kerry in the morning!