Corcaigh agus Bhlarna- Cork City and Blarney (day 2 & 3)

The second day of my weekend, Saturday, I spent the majority of the day in the city Blarney, about a half hour outside of Cork by bus. I hopped on the bus in the morning, and got there shortly after the park opened. I didn't get to see much of the town of Blarney, just the main street of pubs and shops leading from the bus stop to Blarney park and castle. The grounds were just beautiful! Although there definitely weren't the trees that we have at home, the gardens and few trees were gorgeous with the fall colors. I think here is probably a week or so ahead of home, although it seems like maybe the yellow leaves just last longer. Once I paid for my ticket to get in, of course the first thing I did was head up to the castle to kiss the Blarney stone! As an art history student, I loved seeing the castle and imagining all the rooms and how they were decorated or used. I also even braved the tight spiral staircase going up to the top that was jammed with people! Not my favorite thing in the world- the ceiling caved inwards the farther up you went.

When I got to the top I asked the people behind me in line to take my picture, and they did a great job! When I got up there, there was a mat to sit on, and you had to skooch your butt up to the end of the wall, and then grab onto the bars behind you. There is even a man who sits there to guide you back and clean the wall after each kiss. I did it really quick, and I shut my eyes because I was terrified of looking down. You all tell me, my writing and eloquence any better? Haha.

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the gardens and grounds. I even saw what was called a "Poison Garden" that had all poisonous plants, but was very pretty! That evening I spent out around town in Cork again. The next morning it was just pouring. I had planned to do some things around Cork but most of them were outdoor things, so I had to rearrange my schedule a bit. I did, however make it over to where the Cork harbour used to be and briefly saw the outside of St. Finn Bar's cathedral. There was a service going on at the moment, so I wasn't allowed inside, but I reveled in being able to identify saints and calendar scenes and  motifs in the three portal entrances.

I also had the privilege of visiting the Cork Butter Museum. Yes, a Butter Museum! It was actually one of the highlights of my weekend. I met the sweetest Irish old man, who had an accent so thick I could only catch about one in every seven words. my favorite moment was when he was starting a movie for me, and I'm the only one in the museum. He turns to go back to the front desk, turns back and says "Oh, and if you want to take pictures, please do!" He seemed so delighted to have someone come enjoy his small museum, it was fantastic. I think the only thing that would have made that little place even better is if they had slices of toast with Kerry Gold (Irish) butter waiting for you on the way out.

By the time I was done with all my rainy-day activities, I still had about two hours until my train, but I figured I'd pick up my overnight bag from the hostel and leisurely head over to the station. It started out well but after about an hour of walking and getting increasing unsure of the route, I finally found someone along the road who I asked for directions. She looked at me like I had just walked to Ireland from New York, and told me I was going the wrong way. Thankfully she gave me a shortcut that turned out to be immensely helpful, but I was really glad that I had left myself all that extra time. By the time I walked back and headed down the right road, I had about 10 minutes to wait at the station before my train arrived. For all those who don't know many of my travel stories, this is a common occurance. I'm always doing ridiculous things that take me as far away from my destination as possible, but somehow I still always get to the places I really need to be on time (thankfully)!

Anyways that was my weekend in Cork. I will post photo's on Picasa, which means they will show up as a slideshow on the right-side panel of this blog, or in more full screen if you click on that image on the right. I will also post a link to the photos on twitter and facebook. I'd like to let everyone know as well that I have changed the comment format because I heard there were some issues with that, so now everyone should be able to send me a nice warm hello! Also, I have to give a shoutout to my cousin Amy, who has listed my blog on her site Phollowing the Phillips! You can check out her blog and read about her family's fun activities and for photos of her adorable kids! That's about all I have about my weekend, so thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a comment! :)

Cork City (day 1)

As I mentioned I would last post, this weekend I visited Cork and Blarney! I left Thursday evening after class, and arrived at the Cork train station around 8:00. From there I walked to my hostel, where I had booked a private room in case the other guests were sketchy. I followed the directions I had written down before I left on how to walk to the hostel, but next time, I don't think I'd arrive after dark in a foreign city, by myself, trying to find a hostel. It wasn't that the area was a bad part of town, but, being in a typically European city, I didn't exactly follow main roads in a grid or with fantastic lighting. At one point a road turned into stairs, and then led to an alley that had a small path at the end. It was strange, but the hostel was very nice. My room was fine- I shared a bathroom, but also had a small sink in my room. I was even close enough to the computer room that I could pick up wireless, which came in handy for planning the details of my adventures.

The next morning I had the free breakfast at the hostel (which apparently for the Irish means toast and tea/coffee) and then headed just outside of Cork City to see the City Gaol. This is the cities historic jail that is now a museum and supposedly in a pretty area. Well, I followed the vague directions I had, but my lack of a navigation gene meant that I got WAY off track, and after two and a half hours of walking around the Cork suburbs and the University College Cork campus (one of our sister schools) I decided I'd just go back into the City Center for lunch. On the way back, I finally found some signage to the Gaol, but it was no one in sight, so I abandoned my hope of getting there. I did, however, have a wonderful time wandering around Cork's City Center. I found a good sandwich place that had typically Irish sandwiches- they will put anything on a sandwich! The normal sandwich options, besides lettuce and meat and cheese, are mashed potatoes with butter, stuffing, or mayonnaise. Yes, mayonnaise is an option by itself. Heart attack much?

I also let myself browse the shopping downtown. There were a lot of higher-end American stores there, and I think half of the island that is the City Center is one big Dunnes store (something like a Macy's or FNAC with a supermarket on the lowest floor). I also stumbled upon a lot of smaller, independent stores, which were adorable. I'm glad to see a revival of women's dress hats here- I've seen at least one hat shop in both Cork and Dublin. Really wild, outrageous hats too, worthy of the royal wedding! I also stumbled upon the Crawford Art Gallery, a free art museum for the city that I had on schedule of things to see anyway. They had a great collection of work by Irish artists, which is something new to me and very cool. They also had a few old rooms with 18th century furniture and glassware that was great.

Heading back in the afternoon to have a quick break, I also happened upon one of the churches open to visitors in Cork. It turned out to be the building next to my hostel, and while I didn't get to go in- I had missed the opening hours- I walked around the outside and spent some time in this lovely park adjacent to the church. I also heard throughout my three days there the tourists ringing the bells, sometimes even creating a tune. I heard the American anthem a few times, and some Christmas carols. That evening I went back into the City Center for dinner, and I was also on the lookout for Culture Night events. Culture Night is apparently something they do all over Ireland, and there are activities and festivals and concerts for anyone in all the cities. Well, I was looking for a concert, but yet again got lost and couldn't find it. But I did find the English Market instead, which I had been dying to see. It's the oldest open-air market in Europe, 150 years older than the one in Barcelona (although much smaller) and it was open for culture and serving small portions of different foods for cheaper prices and giving out free wine. It was so packed it was hard to move in the three alleys that made up the market, but the energy was so fun and people were so relaxed and not aggressive that it really didn't matter. In fact I waited in a line for food for like 45 minutes, and everyone was really polite to each other and I struck up several conversations with people.

It was sort of late when I finally got out of there, so I wandered around a bit, and walked along the river before heading back to my hostel. I also had to plan out the details of getting to Blarney the next morning.

Ok, well this is already long and I have to go to class in a minute (Folklore and then Irish class). I will post the rest of the weekend later! I did take lost of photos though, so that will be a post too! Have to have something to entertain my readers during the week, when all I do is homework and class (ok, not ALL the time :-p). Hope everyone else had a great weekend! Now it's class, then GNIB to get my real visa and afterwards weekly shopping!

Fresher's Week & Happy Guinness Day!

This is now my second week of classes and the Drop/Add period is almost over. It's also what's known as Fresher's Week, meaning the week when we all sign up for clubs and sports. Mostly this seems the same as home, but what's really different that all the Americans can't get past is that you have to pay extra to do anything. They have a dinner event for International students- you have to pay 5 euros to get in. Clubs- you have to pay 2 euros to join to get the opportunity to buy tickets for later events. Want to join a sport? You have to pay 10 or 20 euros to join, and then if the team travels or anything, you have to pay your way on that too. The campus gym- a special before October, 89 euros for 3 months. I guess its a good system for those who don't want to do anything on campus, but I think all us international students feel broke just hanging around on campus! It's definitely a cultural difference, because what I hear from my Irish roommates (and this one friend who sort of lives here all the time, but it's ok because she's very nice and a bit exotic to us Americans) is that they only pay a fee of a few hundred euros for admission when they get in, and don't have any ridiculous tuition most of the time. Can you imagine?

Well, I know what you're wondering. What clubs did I join? Well, I only had 6 euros so I only joined three clubs, haha. I joined the International Student Club, the English and Literary Society, and the campus LGBT Club. I'm hoping to join the Capoeira sports club. I'm guessing they don't have traveling matches? UCD has some of the most ridiculous and awesome sports clubs I've ever seen at a school. There's the normal team sports, including Gaelic football, Hurling, and Rubgy (both men's and women's). And then there's the water sports, like windsurfing, para-sailing, sailing- as if it weren't cold enough here! Actually, if the meets weren't on weekends, I'd totally join the sailing club! Then we have the completely strange: climbing and potholing, riflery, archery, trampolining, etc. They all seem awesome to try, I'm sorry I don't have more time here to give to doing non-schoolwork stuff, haha. I'm excited to try Capoeira again. Just before I started high school I traveled to Costa Rica with a teacher who introduced me to the sport, and I was hooked from then on! I even brought my white pants- the usual requisite uniform. In case anyone hasn't heard about Capoeira, it is a sport that is also a dance. It comes from Brazil, supposed created by slaves who weren't allowed to fight, so they worked out all their feuds by participating in this martial arts, contact, dance set to drums and other rhythmic instruments. Anyways, I'm excited to see it growing in popularity and that I may get to practice it every week!

Finally, the last bit of news I have is that this weekend I will be traveling to Cork. I have my hostel and my train ticket booked, and I continue to plan out my 3 days there. I am certainly planning to get to Blarney to kiss the Blarney stone, and I've read up on a lot of fun things to see in Cork City. If anyone has suggestions, I'm always looking for new things to try! I will be stopping in City Center tomorrow to buy myself a cheap camera (still unresolved technical issues with my phone...) and then I will be sure to log my weekend for you all.

Just a random bit of trivia about the goings-on here in Dublin- tomorrow is Arthur Guinness day! He is a very important in the cultural history of Dublin, and tomorrow will be celebrated properly by, of course, going out and drinking way too much Guinness. I don't know if they celebrate in Cork, but I may stop into a pub in solidarity. You are welcome to follow my example :)

That's all for tonight! I have to get up a little early tomorrow for my gym orientation so I can finally have a set place to work out! I'm so thankful I'm in the one dorm with a free gym! And it's next to the laundry- two birds with one stone. Goodnight everyone! Happy Arthur Guinness day tomorrow!