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Greetings,

This is Mitch Amelio checking in. We just arrived in the sprawling city of Dublin after a four hour drive from Cork. We stopped off in a small town on our way to check out the city which just happend to have another castle.

Yesterday, the 28th of May, we visited Blarney Castle. This historic landmark is home to the internationally known Blarney Stone. Legend has it that the Blarney Stone will give you the gift of the "gab" one you kiss the stone. However kissing the stone is no easy feat. First you have to walk up the narrow and slippery spiral staircases that lead to the top of the castle where the stone is located. Once at the top, you have to sit down, facing away from the stone and lean back and grab ahold of two poles more than one hundred feet high. You then lean downward and kiss the stone; it is an exhilerating experience as you are looking about 100 feet straight down at the ground, and still being upside down. We had to wait in an hour long line to get to the top and kiss the stone, but every person on their way down said the wait was worth it; they were definitely correct. Also located at the Blarney Castle are the wishing steps. The wishing steps are in a pathway close to the castle where it is believed that if you make a wish while doing the correct walking pattern on these steps, that the wish would come true within the following year, as well as good fortune. For your fortune to come true, you have to walk up and back down the 30 steps with your eyes closed. The steps are located in a cave type pathway that gets pretty dark; it was really interesting. Overall, there were many endeavors at the castle that everyone appreciated.

That night, we played in our second game against the UCC Demons. The gymnasium was an exciting and an upbeat atmosphere with a lot of young kids sitting on the sidelines watching. Both Stonehill teams won their games and had pizza and drinks afterwards. It was fun playing against the Demons and good to get another win. We played better in this game as we were a little rusty in the first.

The city of Cork, where we were for the last three days was a fun town to be in. It was much more mature than the previous town we had been at in Galway, which consisted mostly of college students and young folk. It was fun to be there and we are all really excited to experience Dublin!

Thanks again for all the support.

Mitch

Blarney Castle

Team with Blarney Castle as a backdrop