Ok so I know I’m very behind and I’m sorry …I thought I never had enough time during the day back home, but here the time goes by 10x faster…A couple weekends ago we ventured on down to the “rebel county” of Cork…(why it’s called the rebel county I’m still not sure). UCD has a travel group for international students to allow us to see Ireland outside of Dublin. The group is run by Irish students and they plan group trips around the country for us. We willingly hopped on board this first trip to Cork. There were about 200 international UCD kids and we filled up 4 “Paddywagon” tour buses. Clearly we did not pick the right bus to get on…during our drive to Cork our door flew open and a side mirror flew off…great-you can only imagine how safe we all felt. We left UCD Friday morning and our first stop was a small town on the water called Cobh . Cobh is a beautiful town on the water about an hour outside of Cork City. The main attraction of this small town is that it was the last port of call for the Titanic before it sank. The Titanic was able to dock here because this port is the 2nd largest port in the world, the 1st being Sydney, Australia. We walked on down by the water because everyone had to take a “Jack and Rose” picture on the railing in front of the water. Also on the waterfront was a statue of Annie Moore and her children… she was the first ever emigrant to be processed in Ellis Island.
Annie Moore and her kids are headed off to America
The town of Cobh-gotta love those colored buildings
We had a couple of hours to walk around the city so we then walked up the hill to visit St. Coleman’s Cathedral. I will never get sick of looking at different churches….and I’ve learned in Europe that is the thing to do. Each one is uniquely beautiful and gets to me in a different way. Here are some pictures of the cathedral in Cobh:
We got back on our bus with our side mirror taped on (that’s how we knew it was our bus) and headed to Cork. We arrived about an hour later and checked into the hostel which all 200 of us took over. There was a little bit of a rooming mix up for me and my friends so I ended up in a hostel room with 5 French girls, their Spanish friend, a guy from Switzerland, and one from Sweden. At first I was upset that I wasn’t going to be with my friends but I got over it and eventually thought it was cool being with all these kids from different countries. We were all starving so once we dropped our bags off we found a place to eat and OH! I got my first Bailey’s Coffee : ) The UCD kids who were leading this trip had organized a pub crawl for us to go on so needless to say we went and had a great time! We stopped at four different pubs- I took a picture of the first three but forgot to get the last place once we got there…woops.
Our first stop on the pub crawl-it was more of a bar than a pub scene but a fun place
Stop numero dos: we weren't there for very long...
Our 3rd stop and where the jenga competition took place the next night
Saturday morning I went on a tour of the Cork City Jail with Kara, Emily, Sydney and Allie. It was about a half hour walk ALL up hill. I never thought I would step foot in a jail of any sort but I guess since it was not being used anymore I could make an exception. The tour was self guided and equipped with a walk man and cassette player-hello flashback to the ‘90s. It was cool, we were able to walk around the jail and even take a peek inside the old prison cells. They had different statues of characters acting out some of the things that would have happened in the jail.
Outside a prison cell-look all the bullet holes
The main hall inside the prison
Don't those look nice and cozy
Outside the jail
Heading on into the jail....dun.dun.dun.....
Our next stop in the city was the English Market-this market was full of fresh food-everything you could imagine and 10 times more. The best part about the whole thing was that it was ALL FRESH and delicious. We all scarfed down the sandwiches we got for lunch and enjoyed every bite of them. The whole time we were there all anyone could say was-“Why can’t Dublin have something like this?” The place was that good we all came back later for dinner aka fresh loaves of Irish soda bread and chocolate truffles for dessert.
Look at all that delicious bread!
After lunch we did do some more walking and burned off those calories consumed from the amazing food at the market. In Cork there is a street called St. Patrick’s Hill which we decided to hike up because you can get one of the best views of the city on the top of the hill. The street was so steep we were questioning whether or not we were in San Francisco.
At the top of St. Patrick's Hill in Cork
As I’m sure you know, rugby is a very popular sport here in Ireland. I’ve been to a couple games at school and watching it you would think it was a complete free for all. In the afternoon Ireland was playing Italy so a bunch of the kids from UCD met up at a pub and watched the match. It was great-we had our own section in the pub and they had a projector on the wall so it was big enough for everyone to see. The game was a close one, and the Irish fans were not pleased with their rugby team. Apparently Italy is not a very good team and they were winning the majority of the game. We did however win the game in the last couple of minutes…”Luck of the Irish” I guess you could say!
The rest of the night was spent back at a pub called An Brog. It was one of the pubs we went to the previous night on the pub crawl. We got there pretty early had a couple pints and relaxed from a long day of walking and touring. Somebody noticed that the bar had Jenga so of course we pulled it out and started playing. After a while a group of Irish guys challenged us to a competition. It was our best 3 players vs. theirs. I was not one of our chosen three but it was just as fun watching. Unfortunately “Team America” lost and had to sing “Twinkle, twinkle little star” to the winning Irishmen.
An intense Jenga game going on right there
Sunday morning we headed to the famous Blarney Castle! Before I left Kelsey gave me a checklist of things to do in Ireland and kissing the Blarney stone was on the list, so I obviously had to check it off for her : ) I didn’t realize we had to climb to the roof of the castle to do it. We climbed up these steep, winding, and narrow stairs and eventually we made it! In order to kiss the stone you have to lie on your back, hold onto the bars above you, and then lean back. I’m not going to lie-it was a little scary because as you lean back you can see the ground below you…not to mention it was raining so it was kind of slippery. But no worries there was a man sitting there to hold on to you and make sure you don’t fall…On the way down the castle there were different rooms you can explore and at the bottom we got to basically crawl through these cave like tunnels…I’m actually surprised I did it, normally I think I would be too scared, but then I realized- how many times am I going to be in Ireland exploring the Blarney Castle. On the grounds of the castle there is a huge Irish souvenir shop-I wish I had more time to look through the store because they had basically everything Irish you could think of. I was excited though- I made my first purchase and bought myself a pair of Irish wool gloves!
Top of the Blarney Castle
Walking up to the Blarney Castle
The Blarney Stone itself
I kissed the Blarney Stone!
Yours truly in front of the Blarney Castle
The gang at the Blarney Castle
(Rich, Allie, Me, Sydney, Katelyn, Kara, Emily, Sarah, Emily, Justin)
After a fun yet tiring weekend in Cork we boarded the Paddywagon and back to UCD we went.
The past two weekends were spent in London and Paris and I promise as soon as I have more time I will update this again. I'm so looking forward to celebrating my 21st Birthday this week in Dublin! Bridgette and Caitlin are coming from London to celebrate with me! Hope this finds you all well. Love, Eileen
