The Mussels goes to Brussels

Oh Brussels, where do I even begin. First off, this trip comes 4 days after my Amsterdam trip and man can I say traveling is tiring. But, it is totally worth it. I booked this trip with my roommate Kaylin and our friend Aliya. And, if you are lazy and don't like reading my long blog posts because I tend to ramble a bit, I can sum up my trip in three words. FOOD, FOOD, FOOD! Anyone who knows me, knows my obsession with food wouldn't be too surprised by this. When booking this trip, we knew we weren't going there to see the beautiful sites, granted we know we would probably end up seeing them. We thought go to Belgium, hell yes, let's eat tons of waffles and chocolate! Little did we know about their fries, mussels, and beer. 

Day 1

Oh boy, oh boy was day 1 a mess. First off, we met a girl traveling alone in the line to board the airplane and we told her she was more than welcome to tag along with us granted we had no idea what we were going to do when we got there. Her name was Stella and she was from northern California. She was studying abroad in Galway. When we landed, we had absolutely no idea how to get to the hostel. The 3 of us are kind of a plan as we go kind of group, so no one really thought ahead of how to get to the hostel from the airport. We followed the crowd to this extremely long line for the bus, but we overheard some British guys conversation saying it cost the same amount to take a taxi to Brussels. So, we ended up taking a taxi to Brussels-Midi station. Our thought, "at least we are in Brussels now." But, where in Brussels are we, no idea. Probably in the middle, right? Wrong, we were pretty far south in the city. And where is our hostel? In the most northern part. About a 5 minute walk from Brussels-Nord. Sorry, I'm rambling again! We tried to ask the police people where to find Le Grand Place because we knew that was kind of in the general vicinity of our hostel. Well, guess what? None of them could speak English very well. But, eventually we found some random person to direct us in the general direction. So, the walk begins.... and the walk continues... and where the heck are we walking to? but we continue. About an hour of walking, we finally found a street map. This is when we finally found out where we were. Up until that point, not a clue. I'll cut this part short and say that it took us about 3 hours to walk to our hostel. It wasn't a waste of a walk though. We did stop for waffles and fries! And OMG were they heavenly!

We checked into our hostel and literally all of us hit the bed. We were staying in the Van Gough Hostel. We got a 4 bedroom private room cause it was only 1 euro more than the 8 bedroom rooms. We quickly realized how hungry we were though because all the walking we did. So, we walked around aimlessly again, looking for somewhere to eat. We ended up deciding on a chinese restuarant that was just ok. But, we decided we would explore more of the city. We, mapless and clueless, started just wondering around. The phrase comes to mind: Not all who wonder are lost! I think that is what the moto of this trip was. On our walk we spotted these delicious looking waffles, so I just had to have one. 

And then the walking continues again. We saw this beautiful looking tower thing that you could see over all the building and thought we should go check that out. We walked over, and guess what we stumbled upon. It was Le Grand Place, the place we were originally looking for directions to. We were just talking and this girl started talking to us. Her name was Sarah and she was from Canada, but studying in Liverpool. She was telling all about the things to do around the place and showed us the good places to eat. She was really nice, so we made plans to meet up with her the next day for dinner. There were large groups of people sitting around in Le Grand Place, so we decided to sit there and hang out. We quickly learned that there are no open container laws in Belgium. Everyone was sitting around casually drinking their beers on the ground. We quickly took note of that. 

Day 2

Thank god, when we checked in the guy at the front desk gave us a map of the city. It was labeled with all the different attrations, pubs, and places to go out. It had descriptions of all these places as well,  so it gave us an idea of what we should do with our time. Me, wanting to make sure I get to do all the touristy things in the city I'm visiting planned out our walking route. The only downside is that it started to rain as we started out walk. So, we kind of scratched our original plan. We did get to see some cathedrals. We walking into St. Jean-Baptiste Church which was a refugee church. They had posters set up with information about the slavery and immigration problems of Brussels. Close by was the St-Kateligne Cathedral. 

St-Katelijne

At this point it turned from a drizzle to a down pour rain. We decided it was best to make our way to Le Grand Place. Here we stopped at a fry place where we were told by other international students about their sandwiches. The sandwich was as long as my forearm, maybe longer, and was filled with fried chicken and french fries. Then it was doused in sauce. They had 47 different sauces to choose from. We went with the samurai sauce. The one thing you need to know about their fries is that it is double fried. That is right. It is fried twice. They were so crispy and hot. It was so large, I couldn't even finish it. I was stuffed beyond belief. It was still raining so we were just standing under an awning eating the sandwiches and the faces of people walking by were priceless. They were either utterly disgusted or wicked impressed. 

Mitraillette

The rain started lightening up, so we continued to walk. I wanted to see Le Grand Place again. Turns out, people can get married here. Jealous, right? It's such a beautiful place. I snapped a picture of this beautiful couple standing on the balcony. It was funny how everyone was gathering around to talk pictures of them. We think people thought they were royalty or something. Hey, they could be. We have no idea. 

Couple that just got married at Le Grand Place

The rain started to pick up again. We figured we were already wet, so we kept on trucking. I read in on my map thing that street art is a big thing in Brussels, so we had a bit of fun playing around with the street art. 

We walked down and saw a bunch of people crowded around and decided might as well see what they are looking at. We had found Manneken Pis, who is the national symbol for the country. When we arrived at the spot, some guy was dressing him in this outfit. The national symbol got to protect himself from the rain as well. 

Manneken Pis

Our end destination was the Flea Market, we made it there, but it wasn't very interesting. It could have been cause it had been raining all day, but regardless we didn't spend much time there. Kaylin needed to buy a purse because she had gotten hers stolen earlier that week (funny, but not so funny story that is too complicated to tell in this blog post). So, her and Ailya went to the shopping area, but I still wanted to see more of the cities. I walked over towards the Justice Building, which was huge. I don't have a picture because it was pouring rain and I was trying to protect my camera. But, I don't think I could even fit the whole thing into one picture. I made my way towards the Parc de Bruxelles. Walked throught it, which would have been beautiful to walk through when it wasn't down pouring rain, but hey you can't control mother nature. It slowly started to clear up as I made my way back towards Le Grand Place, so I decided I wanted to go to Parking Lot 58. This was originally on the plan, but when it started down pouring rain, I didn't want to stand on top of a parking lot in the rain. This parking lot is where you get to see the best 360 view of the city.

View from Parking lot

View from one side of Parking Lot 58

After, this I was done. My feet were starting to hurt from walking around all day with wet shoes. I was also a little tired of being wet. I was supposed to meet Kaylin and Aliya at the hostel at 5 anyways and it was getting close to that time. Back at the hostel, I mapped out everywhere I walked and I pretty much walked around the entire city. I was pleased that I got to see the majority of what I wanted to see. The only thing I didn't get to see which I really wanted to was the Atomium. It was like Brussels Eiffel Tower. It was a tall structure of nine metal balls. That was the first thing we looked for on own walk, but we could find it. We were in the exact place it was placed on the map and we saw nothing. Which was weird because this structure is huge. We were joking that it doesn't actually exist, but I saw it when I was on top of Parking Lot 58. I even went on a 30 minute search of it, but no luck.

That night we were meeting up with our new Canadian friend Sarah. We meet her in Le Grand Place. Sarah told us about this street with a bunch of cheap restaurants on it. I later looked it up and it is called Rue des Bouchers and apparently only tourist eat here. It was a narrow street with only restaurants and all the people outside try to lure into their place. It was a pretty interesting experience. We did get lured into a place, where we got 3 courses and a free drink for 12 euros. For what we paid it was a really good meal. Apparently Mussels is must thing to have in Brussels, so of course for dinner I got the mussels and of course they came with a side of fries. They were surprisingly good mussels for the price we were paying for them.

Mussels in Brussels

After, we decided we would go out. Sarah knew of a pub with cheap drinks, so that was our first stop. It was like a sports bar and a soccer game was on. We just chilled out there for a little. Then a singer started to play live music and it was just ok. Not nearly as good as the live music in Ireland. Slowly missing good old Ireland, we next went to a pub called O'Reilly's which was an Irish pub. Funny enough, we meet a bunch of Irish guys from Northern Ireland. They all worked for an electrical company, that flies them around Europe to work with shops like Penny's. It was great craic and it made us realize how much we loved being in Ireland. We were only gone for 3 days and we missed it. 

Day 3

Since Brussels isn't that big of a city, we decided we would visit other city in Belgium since we were already there. Kaylin had heard of a place called Brugge. It was supposedly supposed to look like a fairy tale, so we thought we would go check it out. It was a little bit over an hour train ride. But, it was a beautiful ride because we got to see the countryside of Belgium. Once we got there, we had no plan. We just started to walk toward a tower looking thing. It is true what they say about Brugge. There really wasn't much to do there, but it felt like you were in a fairy tale. There was even horse drawn carriages that could take you around. 

Brugge, capital of Belgium

But to make this quick, I can tell you all we did was enter every chocolate shop we found and just stared at the chocolate. And let me tell you, every two shops there would be a chocolate shop. It all smelled and looked delicious, I couldn't resist and I bought myself a small/not so small chocolate box. We also went into the liquor stores to look at all their different types of beers. They had different flavored beer in pretty much anything you could think of: peach, strawberry, blueberry, chocolate, speculoos, and even coconut. I just had to try to coconut beer because I couldn't see it being any good. But, surprisingly it was very good. It didn't really taste like beer, but it definitely had a coconut taste to it. And with there being no open container laws, we causally walked around drinking our beer. It was a very strange experience because I still felt like I was doing something wrong. Then for dinner, we had to have one last waffle and some fries. So we had a pre-dinner waffle and then dinner consisted of a lot of fries.

Like I said at the beginning, this trip was all about FOOD, FOOD, FOOD! I probably gained 10 pounds in that one weekend and raised my cholesterol a few points. But, hey when it Brussels right! Our second moto of the weekend was YOBO! You're only in Brussels Once!

Side Note: My ethnicity
So, I came up twice when I was in Brussels, so I thought it would be appropriate to put it in this blog post! The minute I open my mouth in Ireland, most people's immediate response is oh your American? And none of my other American friends get that. I think here people assume that I am from Asia and are shocked when they hear my English. So, in Brussels when we trying to figure out how to get to our hostel at one point we tried to buy a bus ticket. Here is how the conversation went:

Me: Hey, I would like to know what bus would get me to this hostel?
Guy:.....
Me: close to this area? (pointing to a map)
Guy: where are you from?
Me: I'm from the US
Guy: (points to Aliya and Kaylin behind me) they are from the US. You are not.
Me: Um, I am pretty sure I am from the states.
Guy: there is no bus that gets there
Me: Ok (walk away)

So apparently, I am no longer from the United States. It was just a bit odd to me. I am used to getting stuff like this all the time, but I have never had someone tell me I was not from the US. The second incident was when we were going through border control coming back into Ireland. I got through and I was waiting for Kaylin, who was right behind me, to get through. This Asian women walks is walked over by the security guy to wait behind Kaylin. She immediately starts talk, what I presume to be, Mandarin. I ignored her, assuming she was talking to someone. She keeps gagging away and I look at her and she is waving at me saying who knows what? I look behind me and there is no one there. I look at her and she is still talking. I just look at her and say, "Only English, sorry." She literally just gave me the death stare. I felt so uncomfortable, I moved so I couldn't see her anymore as I waited for my friends. At that situation, I just wish that I could help her. She probably saw that I got through and that I could help her. Just makes me wish that I knew some Mandarin.

Just thought I would add that in! There have been other funny stories talking about my ethnicity around Dublin, but I will get into that a different time!

When in Amsterdam

Day 1

Oh the excitement was unreal! My first trip outside of Ireland was finally arrived and none the less it was to Amsterdam to visit my good friend Michael. I was a bit nervous that something was going to go wrong so again and again I checked to make sure I had everything. My flight was at 2:50. I made sure I was out of the door of my apartment at 11:00 because apparently there was a bus that comes around called Air Coach that will bring you to the airport. It comes around every 15 minuted, but I was unsure. I have stood at that bus stop for half an hour before and never saw this so called bus. After standing at the bus stop for 20 minutes, I was getting nervous. Then, the sight of a big blue bus made me so happy. After that bit of uncertainty, everything after that ran smoothly. I ended up through security with 2 hours to spare. I noticed in a lot of European airports, they don't tell you your gate number until 30 minutes before boarding time. So, I just sat in a seating area and read my book. 

On the plane ride there, I got a nice window seat. it was only a hour and 15 minute plane ride, but I still managed to fall asleep. After departing the plane, this is where my second adventure started. I went through the border control, but the guy checking my passport gave me a bit of sass. This is how it went

Security guy: Hello, what is the purpose of your trip?

Me: I'm here visiting

Security guy: No kidding, what is the purpose of your visit?

Me: oh, uh I'm here visiting a friend

Security guy: are they dutch?

Me: no, she's american. She is studying abroad here.

And that was the general gist of it. I was a little thrown off when he said no kidding I was visiting. Seeing how that was the purpose of my trip, I didn't know what the appropriate response would have been. Regardless, I got stamped in and then I turn to my phone where I have a screen shot of the directions Michael gave me to get to Amsterdam Central which was where I was meeting her. The nice thing was the train station was in the airport. I was literally just following where the majority of the people where walking and it just turned into a giant train station. I had some nice dutch man help me buy the right ticket and pointed me to the right tunnel to enter. Then after that I just got on the train with all the tourist. It is pretty easy to spot them. They are the ones with a large amount of luggage looking confusingly at the train map. 

Seeing how I didn't have a working phone or wifi and Michael and I didn't set up a meeting place within Amsterdam Central, I got to aimlessly walk around for a bit. I walked outside, then back inside, then back outside, then back inside. There were multiple entrances and finally I thought "huh, maybe she will be in the one that says Amsterdam Central on top of it." Sure, enough I saw her, standing staring at all the people coming in. I ran up to her back and yelled BOO. The amount I scared her was extremely funny. I was almost on the ground laughing, but it was great to see her again. The rest of the day, we pretty much just caught up talking about of fun adventures abroad. Then seeing how it was Thursday and she had class the next day, it was an early night.

Day 2

The next day, for the most part I was on my own because Michael had classes. I decided to do some tourist things while she was in class that she had already done. But, first off I had to get myself some food.

 Michael pointed me in the direction of a place called Bagel and Beans. It was a delicious breakfast. I had a bagel sandwich with some ice coffee and just people watched. I tried to read a newspaper, but shortly realized that it was written all in Dutch. Then I started a note on my phone about the differences I noticed between Amsterdam and Ireland

Amsterdam vs. Ireland

                                     Dutch                                     English

                                     biking                                     Buses

                                   pay for water                         water free

                             people more reserved            people very friendly

                               outdoor seating                      seating indoors

That is pretty much how far I got before I decided, I should get a start on my day. 

I decided a must do thing would be to visit the Anne Frank House. Michael showed me how to get there and said it would probably be about a 45 minute walk. And it took me about 2 hours. It wasn't because I got lost. For the most part it was easy to find, but the photographer in me took over. Every 2 seconds I was stopping to take pictures. The canals are just extremely beautiful. It was so picturesque. It is hard to capture the beauty in a picture, but I tried the best I could. My main subject was the bikes. Everywhere you look there were bikes parked everywhere. My analogy for the biking in Amsterdam is driving in Boston. It was unreal how aggressive the bikers get and how often they ring there bell to tell you to get out of their way.  

 2 hours later, I made it to the Anne Frank House to find a long line. Then an hour and a half later, I made it to the interior of the Anne Frank House. It was an incredible experience. I realized how little I knew about the Holocaust and Anne Frank's story. You actually get to walk around in the house that they were staying in. They had picture of a recreated version of the living spaces they had. All through out the walk, you get to read snippets from Anne Frank's diary. They had videos of people who knew Anne Frank and the people who helped them hid. At the end, there was an exhibit with the pages actually from Anne Frank's diary. There was also a video of Otto Frank talking about his daughter. The message that I remember the most from what he said was he thought he was very close with his daughter, but when he read her diary he realized how much he didn't know about her. All her internal thoughts and he said it was a very different daughter than he knew. You could be really close to someone, but you will never truly know what their inner thought would be. Walking through the house was a great time to reflect back on life. Being in the house, it was hard to imagine being in an enclosed area for that long of a period and not be able to make any noise. It gave you a real appreciation of how we have it now. But, after that time of reflection, Michael met me right outside of the Anne Frank house because her class was actually close to the area. I decided, since biking was such a big part of Amsterdam's culture, to rent a bike for the weekend. One thing I should also probably mention is that Dutch people tend to run large. They are extremely tall. The smallest bike they had was still a little to big for me. When sitting on it, I had to shift to the side a bit to get even the tip of my toe to touch the ground.

 The rest of the day was chill. I was extremely tired for the amount of time that I spent on my feet with the walking around and walking around the Anne Frank house. We found a pub close by to get dinner at. I asked Michael what was the Dutch food that I need to have. The one thing she could think of was called Bitterballen. She described it as a fried ball of meat. It was really good, but it didn't taste like meat. It was more starchy than anything. That night I got to meet some of Michael's friends and we biked to a pub. We had a few drinks, chilled out, and people watched. I also learned that apparently the Dutch think that apple pie is there thing. They have it everywhere, but it isn't quite like American apple pie. I might be a little bias, but American apple pie is better and I have to admit having withdrawals from it. As in always having cravings for apple pie.

Bitterballen

Day 3

The night before we decided we weren't going to set an alarm and were going to sleep in. I think we woke up around noon. We pretty much spent all day biking around to all the markets. That day, I got to hang out with Michael and her friend Christina. We started off at Vondelpark, which to compare it to anything would be like New York's central park. We just walked around a bit and then headed off to the markets. The first one we went to was Albert Cuyp Market. We walked around there looking at all the different stalls and eating food. We got some really good freshly squeezed juice. As in you could walked them squeeze the juice right in front of you. I also had these things that were like mini pancakes. I forget what they are called but I guess they are another dutch thing. 

So, I guess this is a good time to bring up what Amsterdam is known for. When you think Amsterdam, you think weed and prostitution. Well I can tell you it is a true assumption. If you see anything with the label Coffee shop, that is a place where you can buy weed and smoke it. You can pretty much smoke it anywhere. I thought it was just legal there, but it is still illegal. It is just not enforced. To say the least, every night I got a good prospective of what life in Amsterdam is like. I will wait to talk about the prostitution bit. 

Day 4

We thought it would be a great idea to do Sunday brunch with Mimosas or Bloody Marys. So we looked up a place that had those and found a place called Little Collins. We biked there and we got to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful fall weather. We were originally going to get Mimosas, but they had these interesting variations on Bloody Marys. We thought we would have to try them. We got a Mexicana Bloody Mary. It as tequila instead of vodka and had lime and chilli powder. It was one of the best Bloody Marys I have ever had. That really isn't saying much cause I haven't had too many, but it was good. For brunch, I got Coconut Crumble French Toast (Dad, I'm starting to turn into you! everything coconut). I must say it was a great brunch. 

 With our bellys full, we were ready to get on with the day. Seeing how it was my last day, I wanted to make sure I got everything I wanted to do in. So first, I wanted to get a picture with the Amsterdam sign. It was so crowded with tourist and if I put the time and effort into I could have gotten a cool creative picture. But, I was feeling lazy, so I just did something simple.

So, now to Amsterdam's prostitution. I didn't get as much experience in this department then I did with the other one. But, we had to make a visit to the Red Light District. Granted, we were there at like 3 in the afternoon, but in the windows, right in plan view, were prostitutes standing there half naked. Michael was telling me about the sex shows they have. She was saying it is a little bit more than just live porn. They make it artistic. There was something about a candle, but I'm not going to get into that. 

To say the least, my trip to Amsterdam was enlightening. I got to learn all about what my friend's experience has been in Amsterdam and live that life for a weekend. I got to take a journey through Anne Franks life and see the beauty for the Amsterdam's canals! In the end, it was a great time spent with one the best, oldest friends of mine.

Cork Weekend

So I was so good about my blog posts and then my camera's card reader decides it wants to stop working. I have been very busy, so I haven't been able to get a replacement yet. I am going to write my post, but then update it later with pictures.

With so much going on while studying abroad, my weeks and weekends are starting to get jumbled up. But hopefully, I can remember everything that happened by writing it all done in the blog (good job thinking ahead Amanda!). So the last weekend in September, we decided to do a roomie trip. The international society was having a weekend trip to Cork and we thought it would be the perfect thing to do.

Day 1
The trip started off with us waking up at 7 in the morning to catch the bus. To say the least, I was not feeling the whole morning thing. But us thinking that they will be running on Irish time, got to the bus stop right on time. We were rushed into the bus as we were one of the last people to get on the bus. The international society booked us with a bus tour with a company called Paddy Wagon. I just have to say, the tour guide was hysterical. Seeing how we kind of got there late, the 5 of us and we could not find anywhere to sit with each other. I ended up sitting next to a guy (me being bad with names have no idea what his name is) that is from Munich, Germany. And of course the first thing I asked him after finding that out was if he was upset he was missing Oktoberfest. He said it wasn't a big deal to him cause he goes almost every year, what a lucky duck. I wanted to take that nice 2 hours bus ride to take a nice nap, but we ended up talking the entire time. I couldn't really tell you what about, but you know basic stuff like food, best places to travel, and the education system.

After our nice 2 hour ride, we made it to Cahir Castle. It was the castle used in the movie Braveheart. I was still really tired, so I have to admit I did not listen to much of the tour. It was a beautiful castle though. It was interesting to see how medieval castles have so many different features to stop a sieging of the castle. The funnier thing is that I learned about all these things last semester in my Architectural history class. It was great to see it in person vs in class with only pictures to look at.

Cahir Castle

We only spent about a hour or so there before we got back on the Paddy Wagon bus and went to the Mitchelstown Cave. Literally in the middle of no where, which made the views beautiful. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take picture in the cave. Apparently the owner patented the cave. Regardless, it was really cool to walk through the cave. At one point the tour guide turned all the lights off and you could not even see your own hand in front of you.

Fields outside of Mitchelstown Cave

Then we moved on to what I really want to see which was the Blarney Castle. The myth is that if you kiss the blarney stone that you get the gift of gab. Blarney has come to mean flattery or clever. So of course we all wanted to go kiss the stone. The good thing was that we got to spend the most time on the Blarney Castle grounds. The grounds are huge. I wish we were able to spend the whole day there because there was so much to see and do. The first thing we did was go up all the stairs in the castle and kiss the stone. It was extremely awkward as on elderly man held you steady as you lay down on your back and bend backwards to kiss the stone. Then we looked at the poisonous gardens and went over to the rock close. Close to the Blarney Castle was Ireland's largest gift shop.

View from top of Blarney Castle

                           Having fun in the Rock Close       View from inside Blarney Castle

After a long day of visiting all these different tourist attractions, Paddy Wagon set up food/drink deals at this pub called Thomond. That night they had live music to come and boy were they good. It was two local boys around my age singing a bunch of American songs. They went as far to sing Wagon Wheel and Friends in Low Places. It was a blast singing my lungs out with a bunch of international students.

Day 2
The best thing about the second day was that we didn't have any activities planned until 12. We did end up waking up at 9 so we could get the free breakfast at the hostel, which was just toast. We had some free time, so we decided to walk around Cork City. Our trip leader ended up in my room and told us we should check out the English Market. At first we couldn't find it because you have to walk down kind of an alley way to get there, but the place was huge. They had everything you could possibly want. There was so many free ingredients and baked goods. We couldn't resist. I bought a raspberry scone, which was delicious.

Cork City

Entrance to English Market

The first stop on the agenda for the day was Fota Wildlife Park. It was pretty much a zoo, but it was different then the ones in the US. The animals were not caged up, except for the dangerous ones. For the most part the animals roamed in their designated areas. One of the zookeepers was saying that the ferrets run the zoo because they freely explored the park area. Zoos were kind of ruined for me because I went on a Safari. It just isn't the same after you have experienced seeing the animals in their natural habitat. My favorite animals were the gibbons. They were so cute and lively. I sat there for about 15 minutes just watching them play around. They also gave us a bit of a show. To claim their territory, they have a "song" they sing. They puff out their throats like a frog and let out howling noise. We also got caught out in the down pouring rain. It was the first time since being in Ireland, I have seen it rain which is pretty impressive. The next stop was the Jameson Distillery. Honestly the best part of it was the free shot you get at the end. Our tour guide was probably the driest, uninterested guide I have ever had. And I have been on a lot of tours, so that is saying something. That night we had the option to eat at the same bar as the night before and get the same deals. But one of my roommates and I didn't want to do that, so we walked around looking for something else. Everyone in Ireland is so nice, that we decided to go up to a local couple and ask them were we could get a cheap eat. We got directed to an all you can eat Chinese buffet. It was just what we needed. We stuffed our faces full. We had to sit there for 30 minutes cause we were too full to move. Then we made our way to the bar we were at the night before. It turned out that we were such a great crowd to those two local boys that they changed the schedule around to have their dad play. Too say the least it was a fun night!

Barrels at Jameson Distillery

Day 3 (the last day)
Well we got to do Amanda's favorite thing and wake up at 7 in the morning. The plans for the day were pretty chill though. We started by going to Cobh harbor aka Queensland which is where the Titanic was last docked. We did a thing called the Titanic Experience. We got a ticket of a passenger that got on board at this port and what their actual ticket would look like. We got to see what is was like to be on board the Titanic. Then at the end we got to see if our person made it or not. I was Katie McCarthy. She was 24 and traveling 3rd class. She was one of few lucky ones to survive. She was the second to last person to get on the last life boat. Can you say lucky or what? It was an extremely cool experience and even with all the information I already knew about the Titanic, there was still a lot I learned at the exhibit. I spent most my time reading about all the different facts about the Titanic and the people aboard. When we left the building, it was funny cause we were right at the end of a race that was happening. Everyone from the town was out and about watching the race and meeting up with the runners. We explored the town a bit and walked up to a Cathedral on top of the hill. You got an incredible view of the harbor from there. From there we made our way onto the Paddy Wagon to go to our last stop.

Houses in Cobh

View of Cobh Harbor

We went to the town of Kilkenny. We pretty much got 2 hours to do whatever we wanted in the town. There was the Kilkenny Castle, which was huge. The night before I met these two hysterical french students who were on this trip with us. I ended up walking around the castle with them and then went out to explore the town. We walked around and found an Abbey and a Cathedral. They were both so beautiful. I also had great conversations with them about what they thought the stereotypical American was. It was interesting what they had to say. Some of them I understood, like us always talking about money and food. Then there were things like we are too friendly. Me being from Boston and being the whole Masshole thing didn't quite understand that one. The best one was when we were passing a shopping plaza, the french guy asked me if I was drawn to it. I was slightly confused and he followed up with that they think Americans are obsessed with shopping and huge shopping malls. Eventually we caught up with my roommates and they told us that there was a parade going on. The day before the All Ireland finals happened, which is like the Super Bowl for Ireland and Kilkenny had won. The All Ireland finals is for hurling, which I know I talked about in previous blog post. But, the way the league works is that you play for your town. There is no salaries or trading involved. It is all about playing for the pride of your town. So we stayed and watched as buses brought the team through the town and all the townspeople cheering them on wearing their team jersey.

That pretty much sums up my weekend in Cork. We did a lot and we exhausted when we got back. It was a 2 hour bus ride back and I was asleep for the majority of the ride. Hopefully, I can soon get my picture up, but the pictures I do post are just the ones I had on my phone. For my next post I will talk about my weekend in Amsterdam visiting my friend Michael!