Ireland + 4th of July + friends = AWESOME

This 4th of July weekend I figured that if I couldn't be in the states, I may as well still have some fun! Kristen and I have wanted to go to Ireland for quite some time and so it seemed as good a time as any. Kristen's roommate (and my freshman year squadmate) Greg came as well, and by came as well I mean pretty much planned the whole thing. We flew from Stansted (worst airport to get to/from EVER) to Cork and dropped our stuff at the hostel. Too bad our hostel was at the top of a very very steep hill. Our calves got quite the workout throughout the weekend. We got some advice from the nice friendly man at the hostel and set out in search of some food. He recommended the English market which turned out to be an AMAZING recommendation. It was quite like the Covered Market in Oxford but much much better. We got some scones and bread from the amazing bakery place and then got some lemon and garlic hummus from this cute little Greek stand. After we had collected our food we headed out to a little park in the centre of Cork and ate our breakfast/lunch/whatever meal it was. This was just the first of the many many meals we had throughout the weekend. It seemed as if all we did was eat!!
After we had finished eating we walked around Cork. The city centre of Cork is on an island connected to the mainland by several bridges. Cork is quite small and so in an hour or so we had managed to see pretty much all of it. We saw the Cork Cathedral as well as what supposedly was the old Fort but it is now a police station (Garda station in Ireland) and so we didn't really see much there.

We then decided to go see the Cork Gaol (or Jail for non-Brits). The jail was off the map of the city centre that we had but since everything around Cork was so close together we assumed it was just a short jaunt. Well, we were a bit mistaken. Turns out its a bit of a trek, not made any easier by the fact that it is uphill the whole way. There were several attempts at mutiny from one or the other of my travelling mates but I was determined to get there. Eventually I got fed up as well and decided (in my head) that if it wasn't at the next intersection then I would agree to turn around. Good thing we didn't because, what do you know, at the next intersection there was a sign pointing us towards the gaol! Of course it was up another hill but we finally made it and made our way inside. We didn't know it at the time but as we walked in we were walking underneath the place where they used to hang their prisoners. So thats pleasant.
We wandered about the gaol using audio-guides. The best thing about the audio-guides was the fact that they were actually walk-men. With cassette tapes. I haven't seen one of those in, perhaps, 15 years! It was really cool to hear about the history of the gaol and learn about the people who were imprisoned there.
After the gaol, the fact that we had been up since early that morning (and for me, had been up since the previous morning because I caught a 1am bus out on Ox to get to the airport) hit us and we needed a nap. We went back to the hostel and slept in their "cinema room" on some beanbags that were in there because we didn't have a room yet. We woke up just in time to catch the Germany-Argentina game. I was SO excited to see that Germany walked all over Argentina and absolutely annihilated them. We had wagamama for lunch during halftime, eating outside the pub in shifts so that we wouldn't lose our really good seats!

After the game we went back to the hostel and got into our room. We had a German roommate, we named him Hans, and he was a bit awkward. We took another short nap, getting up in time for the Spain-Paraguay game which we watched in another pub. I was again very very happy with the result.
Following the game we got dinner at a gourmet place. The burgers had really interesting names and, according to the different name or theme of the burger, they put little flags in the burgers that had some sort of connection to it. For example, Kristen had the Translyvania burger (named so because of the garlic it had on it, among other things) and they put a Romanian flag into her burger. It was cute and creative, I guess. After a long long day of walking and eating and not really sleeping we went back to the hostel and collapsed into bed.

The next day we decided to go to two towns near Cork, Midleton and Cobh. We chose Midleton first and were on our way on the train when we started going down one path on the tracks where they split. As per our recollection of the map that we had looked at earlier, we were under the impression that we were going the wrong way. Soon after that the train stopped. Shortly after that the conductor walked past going to the other end of the train. Before we knew it we were backing up and going back to the previous station so that they could throw the switch correctly on the tracks and actually take us to Midleton! That was a new one for me....

We eventually arrive in Midleton and went to the Jameson Distillery. I'm not a huge whiskey drinker but it was really cool to see the process of how whiskey is made and learn about the differences between different types of whiskey.
Following the tour Greg did a whiskey tasting comparing Irish, Scotch, and American whiskey and we all enjoyed our free drink (Greg on the rock, Kristen with cranberry, me with ginger ale). We looked around the shop for a little while and I decided that I should wear newsboys hats more often. Just not one with such a horrible pattern to it.
After Jameson we had some time to kill before our train. Also we were getting hungry and whiskey on an empty stomach is never a good thing. We got some lunch before getting back on the train and making our way to Cobh. No directional mishaps this time.

Cobh (pronounced Cove) is a port city where most ships coming from Ireland to the states depart. Because of this, most Irish immigrants who came to the states came through Cobh and there is a large heritage centre there where people can come to learn about their ancestors and heritage.
Some other ships that left from Cobh included the Lusitania and the Titanic. Both of these ships had memorials to them in Cobh although I was surprised by how small the Titanic memorial was.

Lusitania Memorial

Titanic Memorial

We then walked up another hill (didn't realize Ireland was so hilly) to the Cobh Cathedral. This cathedral wasn't completed until the early 1900s and is probably the newest/most modern cathedral I've ever seen. It was, however, really pretty and the Carillon (bells) were playing the entire time we were there which was really cool.

It was the 4th of July so we I of course had to take this picture. We made sure to "celebrate" by chanting "'Merica" or "USA" every so often just to remind people what day it was. It wasn't quite the same as if we had been in England because, to be honest, the Irish are probably glad that we won the Revolution. We were unable to have a real 4th of July type dinner though so we just settled for some amazing schnitzel at a German restaurant.
When waiting to take the train back to Cork from Cobh we were unfortunate enough to sit near two middle aged women who, shall we say, had a little too much to drink. I have never heard someone slur their words so badly in real life. Furthermore, they seemed to be having some sort of disagreement because they were cussing each other out like mad! Either they hate each other a lot or they're so close that they can say stuff like that to each other with no problem. Either way we made sure to stay away from them on the train.

The next morning we went back to the English market for some breakfast. Man, those scones were amazing. We also picked up some sandwhiches and wraps for lunch that day and got on a bus to Blarney. Kristen and Greg went to see Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney stone but since I had already been and I have to finish my 60 page transfer report, I stayed in a little cafe, got myself some hot chocolate to fortify myself and got to work. I was quite proud of myself because I managed to get 5 pages done which, considering I was in Ireland and "on vacation" was way more than I would have imagined getting done!

We made one more stop at the market when we got back to Cork, got Greg some Irish coffee, had one more pint of Bulmers cider and then headed off to the airport. All in all a great weekend!!


One regret I have for the weekend is that I was unable to find a shirt I wanted. I really wanted to get an "Anyone but France" shirt that the Irish made in honor of the World Cup. If you don't know what I'm talking about you can probably just google "Thierry Henry" and "handball" and perhaps put "Ireland" in there and you will soon find out.