Blarney Castle

I had a great weekend with Hannah and Carlie! This weekend I was able to show them around the city centre, around UCC, and give them a taste of the Cork nightlife!  On Saturday morning Hannah, Carlie, and I went to the Blarney Castle.  The Blarney Castle is just 8 miles from Cork City.  

The Blarney Castle was built in 1446 for Cormac McCarthy, the King of Munster.  In addition to the Castle there are many acres of gardens and walking paths.  Walking to the top of the castle took a while because we were snaked through many spiral staircases and rooms of the castle.  Here is Hannah and Carlie in the kitchen.

After making our way to the top of the castle I was quickly reminded that I have acquired a fear of heights over the years.  My legs were a little quaky but the view made it worth it all!

At the top of the Blarney Castle is the infamous Blarney Stone.  Legend has it that if you kiss the Blarney Stone you gain the "gift of gab", or eloquent speech.  You sit on edge of the castle which looks down to the ground 90 feet below.  You grab the bars, lean backwards, and with the help of an old man you reach down to the bottom stone and kiss it!  The stone was quite a stretch and it was very exhilarating!

The man kept telling me that I wasn't close enough to the edge. I thought otherwise...

Doneeeee!

After making our way back down to firm ground we walked through the Poison Garden.  At the entrance to this garden it warned us to keep our children close and to NOT touch, sniff, or taste any of the plants in the garden.  Some are fatal!  Next to each of the plants there was a sign that described why the plant was poisonous, what it used to be used for, and what would happen to you if you were to touch, sniff, or taste it.  It was very interesting!  There weren't any fences around the plants, so weird!

We then went walking around the park and came across the Blarney House.  This home was built in 1874 to house the caretakers of the castle and land.  To this day it remains a private estate.

While we were waiting for the bus to head back to Cork we went walking around in the town in Blarney.  I saw palm trees while driving around the Ring of Kerry but wasn't able to get a clear picture on the moving bus.  I finally snapped one for all of the non-believers.  Palm trees in Ireland!!

Look at what else we stumbled upon!  This is as close to my spelling as I'm going to get here in Ireland...

April Plans!

UCC has a very different way of ending the semester compared to universities in America.  I am done with classes the last week of March.  I have the whole month of April off of school.  Finals are then held for the whole month of May.

During some of the month of April Meghan and I will be traveling.  After many weeks of debating, researching, and planning we have finally chosen where we are going!  We were originally planning on getting a Eurail pass to travel Europe, however, after noticing how cheap flights are within Europe and how long the train rides are between cities we decided to fly around.  Here's the game plan:

April 10: Take early morning bus to Dublin then fly to Prague, Czech Republic
April 13: Fly to Paris, France
April 17: Fly early morning to Venice, Italy then take a late night train to Florence, Italy
April 20: Take train to Rome, Italy
April 23: Fly back to Cork, Ireland

All of our flights are booked and we are in the process of booking hostels.  We are actually hoping to book a bed & breakfast in Florence. Such a luxury for us!

I'll be checked out for a couple days now.  My friend Hannah that I stayed with in London is now coming to Cork tomorrow morning to stay with me for the weekend!  She is also bringing a friend that is on her program with her.  It will be fun showing her around my town because it is so different than London.  

Pancake Tuesday

Today was Pancake Tuesday in Ireland.  The Irish celebrate it every year on Fat Tuesday.  It's just a day designated for eating pancakes!  Tesco the local grocery store had big posters hanging and had all of their pancake mixes in the front of the store.  My roommate's boyfriend Johnny made Meghan and I pancakes for lunch today.  Johnny told us that his family typically puts lemon juice and sugar on top of their pancakes.  That's different!  He had never tried them with syrup and thought that it was so weird when he saw us spreading butter on top of ours.  Funny!

Ring of Kerry-Sunday

Sunday morning Marion arranged for a farmer to come to the hotel to talk to us about sheep.  He also brought a couple baby sheep in his truck for us to hold.  This little guy was just a week old!

After leaving the hotel we hoped back on the Ring of Kerry route.  This stop below was probably my favorite scene.  It was so beautiful and so hard to leave behind.  These pictures do not do it justice.

Check out the rainbow below.  If this picture isn't the epitome of an Irish countryside then I don't know what is!  The only thing missing is the pot o' gold!

Next we made our way to one of Daniel O'Connell's homes called the Darrynane House.  Daniel O'Connell is the guy that I talked about in yesterday's blog post.  His home is now a museum.  None of the museums that we went to this weekend were supposed to be open because the tourist season isn't big during the winter.  Marion some how knew all of the museum owners and they drove to open the museums just for our group!

Meghan and I went wandering around in the forest behind his house after the tour and stumbled across this tree with a tunnel under it! It was so strange.

We continued on the Ring of Kerry.  The road left the coast and drove into an area which I would imagine Colorado would look like.  Mountains and lakes! We stopped at scenic stop along the road called Lady's View for a picnic lunch.

We entered the Killarney National Park.  This park is huge, over 26,000 acres!  Our first stop was the Torc Waterfall.

We then went to Muckross Park.  Driving to Muckross Park reminded me of driving to my cabin!  We were driving along lakes and there were lots of pine trees around! Who knew Ireland could look like this too.

Muckross Lake:

That concludes my Ring of Kerry trip!  It was so beautiful and it will be something I'll never forget.

Ring of Kerry-Saturday

I've got quite the post for you today so get comfy!

After an early rise and a delicious Irish breakfast we loaded up the bus.  We left the main Ring of Kerry route and drove the Skellig Ring, a loop that most tourists don't drive.  We first made our way to Valentia Island, population 500.  In the picture below you can faintly see two islands on the horizon on the right.  These are the Skellig Rocks.  The rock on the right was found by Irish Christian monks in the 7th century.  These monks built a monastery and lived on this rock for hundreds of years before being attacked by the Vikings. In the summer months you can take boat trips out to see the Skelligs.  The monastery on this rock is the best preserved monastery in the world!  There is a Skellig Museum on the island that we visited to watch a video and walk around an exhibit.

The picture above is also the location where the transatlantic cable was brought to Ireland.  The transatlantic cable was the first connection between Europe and the United States.

Next the group made our way to a farm on Valentia Island.  This farm was owned by the speaker that we listened to on Friday night.  These smelly calfs are just 3 days old!

To make more money for his family, this farmer also made path to the top of a mountain on his land to become a tourist attraction.  It was quite a difficult hike and VERY windy but it was the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen and it was beyond worth it.  We had absolutely beautiful weather for this whole trip.  Marion has been doing these weekends for 6 years now and she has never seen weather like the weather we had.  We got very lucky and were able to see for miles (very rare)!

So windy!

We then went to the other side of the island to visit the Velentia Slate Quarry.  Velentia is known for it's slate.  It is very spendy and is used to shingle some of the expensive houses around southern Kerry.  We learned that Venentia slate was used to roof Parliament in London.

Next we got back on the bus and drove through Ballinskelligs, Marion's hometown.  When we were driving through she was pointing to all of her relatives houses, it was so funny! She was like "Oh and here is my uncle's house on the left, there's the house that I grew up in on the right, right next to that is my brother's house, oh look he's in the window waving...everybody wave!!".

We got off the bus Ballinskelligs beach.  This is McCarthy's Castle below.  Marion told us that we couldn't walk out there because we got there too late and the tide was already in.

We then got back on the Ring of Kerry route and returned to our hotel in Cahersiveen.  After lunch we went to an old defense tower just down the road.  The walls were about 20 feet thick.  It had all sorts of staircases and a flat grass top!  

Here's Meghan and I perched on top of the tower enjoying the view:

Here are just some of the millions of sheep that I saw this weekend.  You can't see  it in this picture but all sheep in Ireland have some sort of spray-painted marking in their wool.  Farmers do this on all of their sheep so that they don't get their sheep mixed up with their neighbor's sheep.

We then made our way back to the town of Cahersiveen.  We stopped in the Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church.  This was the first Catholic church in the world to not be named after a saint.  Some members of the church had to visit the Pope and request special permission to name the church after Daniel O'Connell.  

Your history lesson for the day: Daniel O'Connell is one of the most important figures in Irish history.  He played a big role in getting Ireland's independence from England.  He worked with American figures Frederick Douglas and Abe Lincoln to help abolish slavery.  He was also a big supporter of women's rights.  Obama considers Daniel O'Connell as one of his biggest heros.

After dinner we listened to a local Gaelic football player talk to us about the history of the game and how it's played.  Gaelic football is the most popular sport in Ireland.  He brought a few of his sons that taught us a few moves of the game.  They brought balls and we had the opportunity to play with them!  I'll make a post some other time about the game.  

As you can imagine we were quite tired at this point in the night but that's not all!! We then did a table quiz with all of the other students in the hotel pub.  Table quizzes are very popular in pubs around Ireland.  I have never gone to one because I never knew what they were.  I do now and it was fun!  We got into a group of 5 and answered 8 rounds of 10 random trivia questions.  There were questions about geography, history, celebrities, art, music, movies, etc.  Meghan and I were on a team with two Italian girls and a German girl.  It was very interesting with our language barrier and listening to how they said certain words in their language.  It also became quite handy when we had to answer questions about European history and geography!

You can only imagine how great we slept that night...

Ring of Kerry-Friday

Oh wow.  I just got back from a weekend trip that I will never forget!  I have been fortunate enough to see some pretty cool places on this earth before coming to Ireland but this weekend I saw the most beautiful sights that I have ever seen! Before I get to the good stuff let me tell you about Friday.

We loaded our things onto a coach bus at 2:30pm on Friday.  We traveled with 50 other international students.  Most were from the United States but there were also some from Italy, Germany, and Sweden.  When we got on the bus, we were introduced to our guide (more like our mother...) for the weekend.  She was such a sweetheart and had so many great things to share with us.  Her name is Marion and she works for the Celtic Studies department at UCC.  She is originally from a small town on the Ring of Kerry route and has such a passion for southern Kerry. 

After boarding the bus she gave us a rough agenda for the night and took our orders for dinner, dessert, and Saturday's lunch. Fancy!

Our first stop was the Kerry Bog Village Museum.  This Museum displays a traditional Irish village just before the potato famine hit Ireland.  All of the homes in the village were true to size and had real artifacts on display. 

This was as traditional Irish home. While Ireland was under British rule Parliament thought that the Irish did not deserve light so homeowners were actually taxed for the number of windows that they had in their homes.  Most of these houses had only one small window.

The "bog" in the museum name refers to the land that surrounds the area of the museum.  Bogs are the marshy lands where these poor Irish men would harvest peat.  You can see a stack of peat leaning against the left side of this home.  Peat was soil cut out of these marshes that was dried, stacked against their homes, and eventually used as fuel.  Marion told us that since the current recession in Ireland may Irish people have returned to using peat as fuel.  She also told us that there is a wealthy BBQ restaurant owner in California that comes to Ireland every year to purchase 4000lbs. of peat.  He has it shipped home and uses it to to smoke his meat.  He says that it gives a unique flavor that no one can resist!


Inside one of the larger and more luxurious homes:

The museum also has two Irish Wolfhounds.  These are massive dogs that can grow to up to 5 feet tall.  They were traditionally used as hunting dogs.  They were so friendly!

Traditional Irish pony:

We arrived at The Ring of Kerry Hotel in Cahersiveen around 6:30pm.  The bus ride was so beautiful!  We drove through the Irish countryside, many small Irish towns, around mountains, and alongside the ocean.  After dropping our bags off in our hotel room we went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner.  I had salad, rolls, lasagna, and Baily's Irish Cream chocolate cheesecake (heaven).  This home cooked meal tasted so good and it was well needed!

After dinner we listened to a local farmer talk about growing up in County Kerry.  He talked about his childhood, the farm he has now, and the local ferry business that he now owns with his neighbors.  After that and Irish band came in and played traditional Irish music.  We learned how to Celtic dance.  It was so much fun!  We learned 4 different dances.  Fortunately I don't have any videos to share of this experience. 

We went into the hotel pub after this to have a pint and talked with the other students on the trip.  We all headed to bed pretty early though because we knew we had a long day ahead!

Another Weekend Adventure

Good morning everyone! I'm packing my bags right now for another weekend adventure.  I'm going on the Ring of Kerry Heritage Weekend trip that I talked about in one of my first posts.  This trip is put on by the International Student's Office at UCC.  I've heard that County Kerry is one of the most beautiful places in Ireland.  In addition to driving around the Ring of Kerry we will be learning how to Irish dance, playing Gaelic football, and eating traditional food.  Students that went on this trip last weekend said that the food is amazing!! I'm very excited.  The Ring of Kerry is on the south west coast of Ireland.

I will be bringing my laptop with me this weekend since the hotel has internet so I should be able to update you during the trip. TGIF!

London-Sunday & Monday

Later on Sunday we found our way to the infamous Tower Bridge or "London Bridge".

Next it was the Tower of London.  It is the prison and torture and execution site of all those who misbehaved in London since the 1100's.  It is also where the crown jewels are currently held.

The crowd on the left is the location where three queens and many others were executed.  There is now a memorial there.

A member of the British Royal Guard guarding the crown jewels.

This was our tour guide.  He is known as a Beefeater.  That term used to be used for someone who watched over the prisoners and the crown jewels, however, now it's just the term for the tour guides at the Tower of London.  Beefeaters are actually required to live on site and are housed with their families at the Tower of London.  He was a pretty funny guy that told us many gruesome stories.

View of the city from the Tower of London.

The crown jewels were absolutely stunning!  We stood in line for about half an hour and had to walk through safe doors that weighed 4500 pounds each.  Security was very tight and I was not allowed to take pictures.  I saw every kind of jewel you can think of including diamonds the size of golf balls!!  

Next we made our way to Harrods.   Harrods is a 7 story luxury department store in London.  It is huge!  Inside there are departments for every top designer in the world.  Everything is very expensive and only the very wealthy shop at this store.  I felt that it was too tacky to take pictures inside but we walked through the designer departments, touched $10,000 gowns, looked at shoes (of course), walked through the chocolate shop, looked at expensive puppies, and drooled over the designer handbags.  Above the "H" in the picture below you can kind of see the royal crest.  This signifies that the royal family shops at Harrods.  The royal crest is also placed on other shops such as grocery, jewelry, and even lingerie stores showing that that's where the royal family buys their stuff.  There were also two Princess Diana memorials inside.

On Monday before our flight Michael brought us to the ritzy neighborhood of South Kensington.  This is where the wealthy live in London.  I could definitely tell by the kind of cars that were rolling around this neighborhood!

We made our way to Hyde Park, a huge park in this part of town.  It was so beautiful.  I can only imagine what it would look like in the summer!

Hyde park holds the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain.

Well that's all that I've got for London!  Today was a beautiful day in Cork.  It was 50 degrees, blue skies, and sunny!  Such a rare day!  Meghan and I went out to listen to traditional Irish music tonight at a pub called The Rock.  We need to write a paper about these music sessions for our traditional Irish music class. We figured this was a good enough excuse to go out and have a pint!