The Waterford Crystal Facory

The Waterford Crystal Facory, originally uploaded by jawsmurphy.

The first stop on our trip was going to be the Waterford Crystal factory in Co. Waterford. On the car ride over, each of us travelers crashed out. Jeff, in the front seat, probably slept the least of us all. Coll and I in the backseat, however, spent a good amount of the entire trip snoozin’ in the Peugot. Admittedly, I did the majority of said snoozin’. But on this first leg of the journey, we all had nap time.

The Waterford Factory pretty much rocked. Coll gets the most giddy at factory tours, but I think that we all found it equally fascinating. Especially because we got to walk through a relatively small factory, where we were standing less than 20 feet from the workers themselves. Sometimes much less. Put it this way: I could feel the silica entering my lungs while we were watching them carve the crystal (I know....nerd). Which was pretty bad ass, by the way. We also got to see them blowing the glass, attaching handles to pieces that were already carved, etching designs, and constructing a gigantic chandelier.

The tour guide confessed that it was only her second week on the job, with the first week being comprised entirely of training.

Needless to say, it was a good thing that we had our own personal tour guide along with us.

Posted by *erin* | 11:32 PM