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!