The Most Remote Place on Earth

This past weekend I took a trip to the Aran Islands with API.

It was amazing and probably the most desolate place I've ever been to. I had to wake up at 4AM to get on the bus for the 5 hour drive to Galway. 5 hours! Unfortunately, the drive is only 3 hours but we had to pick up the API group in Limerick and we were given time for lunch so it was very drawn out. Most of the drive I slept, and then took pictures like this outside my window.

Once we got to Galway we had to take a very rocky 45 minute boat ride to Innis Mór, the biggest island of the three that make up Aran Islands. The boat rocked side to side and at times it felt like we were going to roll over! But we made it safely and took a bus tour of the island. I was thankful for the bus though, it was windy and quite chilly. Definitely not walking weather. Here's some pictures from the tour of the island.

These were the biggest waves I've ever seen... A whole lot bigger than the Atlantic waves I'm used to

We even saw seals! there were about 5 of them. This one's for you mom :)

We arrived at the big fort on the Island. It was an old preserved fort on the top of a cliff that is walled in on three sides because the fourth is the cliff edge. We laid on the edge of the cliff to get a proper view from the top. The cliff was a little less stunning as the Cliff of Moher but it was amazing to lie on the edge and have a raging sea below me. The waves crashed into the rocks below us and you can hear the roar of the ocean as it broke against the rocks.

Sunday we ended up going to the Aran Sweater shopping and buying way too much wool clothing, but it was so worth it. Then we just sat in the only pub open, Joe Watty's, and drank tea/ hot chocolate and ate lunch. It was far too cold and windy to explore the island on foot. The boat ride back to the main land wasn't as bad as the first time, thankfully. Over all, it was a great trip. I would definitely go back but this time I'd walk the island and explore the wild side of Ireland up close.

St. Paddy's

Once again, I apologize for not updating in a while. I've actually been busy doing school work for once.

Saturday I made a wonderful Bangers and Mash for dinner with the roomies. I also went one step above and made Traditional Irish Soda Bread just for the fun of it. Surprisingly, it was really delicious.

The St. Paddy's day parade was actually kind of a let down. You would think that it would have been entirely Irish, when in fact it had little to do with St. Patrick's Day. I had no idea what any of the people in the parade were for and everything seemed to be placed randomly in it. There were Italians with cardboard Gondola's, A huge group of Polish people with a giant Polish flag, Brazilian dance fighting, and a group from the Philippine's to name a few. The amount of Irishness of the parade was lacking incredibly. I was definitely not thrilled by it. It makes me want to go to the Boston Parade even more now. And to prove my point... here's a picture. I did enjoy the amount of green that everyone was wearing. At least Cork can do something right for St. Paddy's.

However, Cork at night on St. Paddy's... that's another story. Some friends and I ended up going to one of the pubs called The Bailey. It was incredibly packed. What the parade lacked, the pubs surely made up for. It was great craic though, everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Not sure if it's because they were all really drunk or just happy to have an excuse to party, but either way it was a good night.

A Little Taste of Home

Hello!

I'm sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. I've had such a busy two weeks filled with tons of fun but also three essays due and now three exams to study for. But alas, here's the update from Cork.

Last week began with being woken up by Sini knocking on my door saying the front desk was on the phone for me. I scrambled out of bed, extremely disoriented and realized that it was 10:50AM not 5 like it felt. That meant I missed Gaelic at ten and that also meant..... "Hello Christine, I have you're parents waiting for you down here". I ran downstairs and out the door while simultaneous throwing on my clothes and shoving my feet into what ever boots I found. I met my mom (hi mom!) outside Vic Lodge and it felt really nice to finally get a much needed hug.

We headed down to Kinsale, about half an hour south of Cork. It was a quaint little port town with loads of little nooks and winding roads begging to be explored. We attempted to tour Charles Fort, the best preserved fort in Ireland, but it was (with our luck) closed for the season.... until the following day. We ended up just walking around, mostly finding a place to shelter us from the snow. Yes, the snow. The whole day the weather was either snowing or sunny and then back to snowing. It was fun for the family to see just how weird and crazy Ireland can be sometimes.
Here's some pictures to prove just how strange the day was.

I made it to the fort, it just wasn't open! 

Beautiful day, blue skies and calm waters

Less than an hour later.... Hello snow

The next day (Tuesday) I finally got the chance to show someone my new home away from home. We wandered Cork City and it felt like I could have passed off as a local knowing where to go to get to certain places... namely O'Conaill's (of course I need hot chocolate!). I really do know what I'm doing here :) After we toured the city we headed out to spend the night in Kilkenny.

Kilkenny is a county three hours away from here, closer to Dublin. I don't really know much about it at all so i'm not going to pretend that I do. I only know two people from there... probably like the only 2 Irish people I talk to here... anyway......

We stayed at a nice little B&B and got dinner at a place called Kyteler's Inn. It reminded me a lot of something that you'd find in Salem. It was an inn owned by a woman who was eventually accused of being a witch. They had classic live Irish music to complete the atmosphere. Two musicians, who had the quintessential Irish voice sang songs like Tell Me Ma and Galway Girl. I loved it, of course. It kind of felt like I was transported back home for a night. I'm not sure if it was just being with my family or if it was the odd familiarity of it all but it felt really nice.

Wednesday we started the day off in a cave. Yup.
There's a cool little cave up the road from where we stayed called Dunmore Cave. It was a bit different from the Crag Caves I went to in Kerry. This one was more like a hole in the ground with chambers to walk in and look at all the rocks. There were lots of calcite on the rocks which I enjoyed.

Then we went to Kilkenny castle which is fully furnished with a ginormous park and rose garden. There's not a whole lot to say about the castle. It was fun going into a castle that looks like it's still working instead of a ruin from some century long ago. I wanted to go to the Smithwick's Brewery but, in keeping with our luck, they only had tours on thursday friday and saturday. We were there on Wednesday. I wasn't too thrilled about it but at least I got a picture outside the brewery.

View of the castle from the Rose Garden

Spring is here!

Finally we ended up back in Cork, I slept pretty much the entire way home (oops I meant Cork, but it's my home now so it doesn't matter). Before the family left me, we ate dinner at Oliver Plunkett and watched as the new pope was elected. I didn't really care too much about the Pope as I did for how cool my plate looked when it came out...

It's like a little french fry house!!! How cute

Then they were off, leaving me back at Vic Lodge in my cold apartment. It was back to the same old grind. Which to be fair, is pretty entertaining since I'm in Ireland, but you get used to it and it soon becomes just another day. And that's what it felt like I was going back to. It was weird. I felt like it could have been a dream, like I wanted something from home so badly that I saw a mirage or something. But regardless of how strange it felt being left here instead of continuing the family vacation, my week must continue. And continue it did, because it was St. Paddy's weekend. 

The Half Way Point

A Chara!

This coming week is a very, very exciting one! It marks my being here for 2.5 months! That's half way!  I feel mixed between extremely excited at the thought of going back home but also sad that my study abroad adventure is waning. I feel like there's still so much more left to do! But I do have a whole month a head of me that's entirely free and only two exams in May!

Also, this week my family is coming to visit!! In fact, they are heading to Logan as I write this :) It's going to be so much fun showing them around Cork, it'll make it feel more like I live here. And I can't wait to see them! :) :)

And finally, I can't forget...... IT'S SAINT PATRICK'S DAY ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!

yes that needed to be in all caps and loads of exclamation points. Everyone knows how much i love st. Paddy's, and this year, I get to spend it in the motherland :) St. Patrick's Day in Cork is celebrated by a three day festival.That's more than I expected since before I came here I heard they didn't do very much to celebrate. But anyway, there's a bank holiday on Monday so we have no classes! There's also a parade on Sunday in the city center that i'm looking forward to. I'm anticipating a huge drunken mess of Cork city this weekend the way the Irish party. It should be interesting. Don't worry, I'll take pictures of the craziness.

I think I'm gonna take a minute here and actually explain what St Patrick's Day really means to the Irish. It's not all about parades, and dressing up in crazy leprechaun costumes, and boozing hard. It's the celebration of Christianity in Ireland, brought here by St. Patrick. Ironically, St. Patrick is not actually Irish. He is a Roman British that was captured by the Irish at a young age and held captive here until he escaped when he was a teen. It was only later, when he was a bishop, would St. Patrick return to Ireland, bringing Christianity with him. He taught the Irish about the trinity using the shamrock as a symbol. He pointed out that the shamrock has three leaves, which stood for the Father, Son and the Holy spirit. The Irish took to his Christian teachings and it is now the main religion of Ireland. To honor him, they dedicated a feast on the 17 of March to him as that is the day he passed away.

But why is it that we dress in green from head to toe? Green symbolizes the color of christianity. It is customary to wear shamrocks in St. Patrick's honor as it is he who made them so special to the Irish.

Today, we celebrate St. Patrick's day less as a religious feast and recognition, but more of a national pride kind of thing. It's Ireland's one true day to shine. To me, St. Patrick's Day is a day to celebrate patrons like St. Patrick, the brave men who fought for the Irish revolution and the innocent who fell victim to the war, the Irish in the rural country that died from the famine and those that were forced to relocate (many never returned home), and my own Irish ancestry. It's a day to celebrate Irish heritage and be thankful I have the Luck of the Irish on my side. So on Sunday, when you're drinking you're green beer take a few minutes to actually appreciate the day and say "Sláinte, la Fhéile Pádraig Shona Duit!"

Blackie

Hello! Sorry it's been a little while since I've posted anything. Its been such a busy week! We've had three birthdays this weekend in API... ironically they were all turning 20!

Birthday Girl, Emily

Yes we had party hats and everything.

Over the weekend, on Saturday, we went to Cork's national park Gougane Barra. It's the origin of the River Lee that flows through Cork City and cuts it in half. The Park is beautiful and it was right on the edge of Kerry so it reminded me a lot of my trip to Killarny.

Here's the lake with the tiniest church I've ever seen. It could hold about 50 people in it... very squished though. Apparently there's a 5 year waiting list for weddings at the church. It's a bit crazy but the pictures would be worth it I guess. (Amanda and Derek wanna sign up here? hahaha)

 Then we strolled through the national park and along the way we found a friend. Meet Blackie.

 We don't know where she came from or who she belonged to, but she followed us on our walk the whole way. She smelled so bad though, like wet dog mixed with some other weird disgusting smell. But she was incredibly sweet.

We went for a little hike up a "mountain" as the Irish would call it... but really it was just a hill. And of course Blackie went exploring with us. We pretty much adopted her for a few hours.

We hiked along this stream....

 We walked over bridges...

 We crossed the stream over stepping stones....

 We walked up the path, and Blackie followed....

Until we got to the top. The view was so pretty. You could even see the lake we were at to the right (just missed the picture unfortunately). 

 After walking back down the hill, we recharged ourselves with Sandwiches and Cadbury Chocolate bars. Of course, Blackie was there begging for scraps. I think some of us gave more of our sandwiches to the dog than actually eating it. At least she was happy. We even found out that she sits only when you say it in Irish. I might have to teach my dog a trick or two in Irish. It was sad to leave her behind though.

We headed for Bantry after leaving Gougane Barra. Bantry is a port town, that is in South Western Cork. It was so little that we walked a circle around the town center in about 15 minutes. There wasn't much to do so we went to a little café and got soup and tea. 

The whole time I had Star of the County Down stuck in my head though "From Bantry Bay, up to Derry Quay and from Galway from Dublin town..." Now I just need to go to Derry Quay and I'd have been to all those four places! 

Bantry Bay

 It was a great weekend. Celebrating birthdays is always a good time :) But now it's time for me to do real work. Finally school kicked in and I have essays due and exams to study for. I can't wait to see my family next week though!