Catch Up Post

Not related to ketchup. Which will not be a post, because I don't like it.

I know I have been neglecting the blog, but I swear its not my fault. Blogger has been, well, problematic, and hasn't let me log in for a couple weeks. I have a few free hours today, so I am going to post up a storm and get caught up.

After the Aran Islands, we had a regular week of school, including our first legit assignment. True to form I put that off until the last minute, and stayed up until 4 writing a paper about the British Occupation of Ireland, and their cultural resistance to said occupation. Gross. But I did get to listen to a lot of cool Irish music for "research" so that was fun. I guess.

We also traveled to Cork the weekend before last. Cork is the second largest city in Ireland and the third most populous. It has been a hub for commerce since the aforementioned British occupation, and it some of the mansions on the surrounding hillside really show off the wealth of that era. The "Corkonians" refer to Cork as the real capital of Ireland (fuck you Dublin!). Its status means it has a lot of interesting cultural aspects to the city, some of which we got a chance to explore.

Upon our arrival, we traveled to a pub (where else) for a complimentary lunch, and then were treated to a poetry and storytelling session with some prominent local poets. The star of the show was the storyteller, who was likely a bit drunk, and had several very passionate stories about his life, and the city of Cork. After lunch we checked into our hostel, and were free to explore for the rest of the day. Most of us took a nap, and then Torsten and I met up with some of the lasses for dinner at a awesome little bistro in town. We went out to a pub for the evening, and listened to American rock music before turning in.

The next day we were up bright and early for a trip to Cobh (pronounced Cove), a city to the northeast of Cork. Cobh has a unique place in history as it was the boarding place for most Irish emigrants as they traveled to America or Canada. They had a really interesting museum of emigration on the docks. After that, we were free to explore the town of Cobh. For three hours. Which was more than a little too much free time. There were some really cool houses to photograph, and a really big cathedral (though we got kicked out for a funeral), but in the end we found ourselves with sitting in the part with store bought sandwiches, a bottle of champagne, and the lovely sounds of Jack Martin playing Lady Gaga on the tin whistle. We departed Cobh, and headed for a city tour of Cork, including a stop at an abbey, another cathedral, and the local university (much nicer than NUIG. Damn.) The real star for me was the English Market though. We passed through for a brief glimpse on our tour, and I almost just left the tour behind. Though it can't match the bustle or selection of Pike Place (my first love), the English market has a great selection of local meats, cheeses, fish, vegetables and wine. We got back to the market with only 5 minutes till closing, so we scampered around looking for cheese, bread, fruit and wine for dinner. We ended up with a gouda, two cheddars, a soft french cheese (like a earthier brie), goat cheese rolled in chives, 2 kinds of salami, a loaf each of stoneground wheat and sundried tomato/fennel bread, and three bottles of wine. We feasted back at the hostel before heading out to a bar/club for the night.

The next morning we were up early again for a drive to Blarney Castle, home of the famous Blarney stone. Blarney castle sort of rises off of a rock promontory, and provides some pretty incredible views of the countryside. The stone itself is on the top floor, so you kind of self tour your way through the castle and then get to bend over backwards to kiss the stone. I did it, yes indeed. We all did, though its not the most sanitary thing to think about. After that we toured the grounds including a really incredible rock garden (best shown through pictures, next post.) After the castle we traveled to the Cliffs of Moher, a really intimidating set of cliffs down the coast from Galway. Again, these are best shown with pictures. Mind blowing. We traveled to Galway in time for the Superbowl. We hosted the Superbowl party, so I whipped up some Garlic/Ginger/Soy Chicken wings for the masses. Delicious, and baked wings are so easy.