Fota Island Zoo

The past few days have been beautiful here in Cork!  Sunny, blue skies, and 70 degrees.  On Wednesday Meghan and I set our alarms just to walk to this park to sit on a bench and sit in the sunshine.  I got sun burnt!  It's never felt so good. 

Andrea got here yesterday morning!! It was a great reunion.  I barely let my sister drop her bags off before Meghan and I whisked her off to Fota Island Zoo with us.  Fota Island is about 15 minutes away by train.  This was our first time on the train!  The train was an experience and it wasn't exactly what we were expecting.  Meghan, Andrea, and I came to this conclusion: the train looked like a train on the outside, it looked like a subway car on the inside, it rocked like a boat, and had the speed and sound of a bus.

Arriving on Fota Island:

Waiting for the train!

Feeding the birds...

This thing is called a Mara.  It's the weirdest looking animal!  We concluded that if a deer, rabbit, and dog somehow reproduced it would look like this...

Pengin!

Dublin-Sunday & Monday

On Sunday we got tickets for the On and Off Bus.  This is a double decker tour bus that drives around to the different tourist sites in Dublin.  We got on and off as we pleased.  The second story of the bus didn't have a top so we were able to sit in the sunshine all day between stops.  Ever since Sunday the weather in Ireland has been incredible!  It has been 65 degrees and blue skies.  It sounds like it isn't even this nice in the summer here.  By the looks of the forecast I will be enjoying the sunshine all week!

Here are some pictures from Sunday and Monday in Dublin.

Christ Church:

The bus drove us through Phoenix Park.  This park is twice the size of Central Park in NYC and is the home of the president of Ireland.  Does this house look familiar?

One of our stops was The Old Jameson Distillery.  We watched a video of the history of Jameson whisky, learned how it was made, and had a sample of course!

Below is one of the most famous streets in the center Dublin, O'Connell Street.  This street is named after Daniel O'Connell the revolutionist that I learned about on the Ring of Kerry trip.

Next we made our way to Trinity College.  Trinity College is essentially the Harvard of Ireland.  The campus was absolutely beautiful!  Trinity College library holds the Book of Kells.  The Book of Kells are the four Gospels written by Celtic monks in the year 800.  Both the Matthew and Mark books were on display.  I was not able to take pictures inside the exhibit but the calligraphy and drawings inside the books were amazing!

Next we got off at the Kilmainham Gaol.  This prison was built in 1796.  It housed and was the execution location of many famous revolutionists during Ireland's fight for independence.  Our tour guide had many gruesome stories to tell!

The part of the gaol shown below has been in a lot of different movies.  The original Italian Job and In the Name of the Father both have scenes shot in this wing.

On Sunday night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.  We headed to The Temple Bar afterwards for drinks with Meghan's mom.  Here we met some interesting and friendly Romanians, Bulgarians, and Italians.  

Walking to the bus stop on Monday afternoon:

This is the Ha'Penny Bridge.  It got its name from the fact that it used to cost half of a penny to cross.  This is Tipperary River that flows right through the middle of Dublin.

I have no school this week so I have been enjoying the sun the past couple days!  I am also running errands and cleaning my room before my sister gets here on Thursday morning! I cannot wait to see her!  We have a lot of fun things planned for the next week including the Fota Island Zoo, the town of Cobh, and another visit to Blarney.  We will also be going to Killarney to see the Gap of Dunloe and our last stop will be Galway.  Stay tuned for posts about these trips!

Dublin-Friday & Saturday

This past weekend I traveled to Dubin with Meghan, her parents, younger brother, and grandma.  We had a great time!  I could have certainly spent more time in Dublin.  On Friday morning we made our way to Dun Laoghaire, a town just south of Dublin.  We stayed at the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel.  This hotel was very nice!!

After checking in we walked just down the road from the hotel to this lookout of Dublin Bay on top of Victoria Hill.  Even though it was foggy, it was a great view! Just down this valley and to the right is one of Bono's (from U2) houses!

On Friday night we had a great dinner at the hotel restaurant.  After this we had drinks and listened to music in the lobby bar.  We ended the night with a trip to the hot tub!

On Saturday afternoon we made our way to Dublin.  We stayed in an apartment in the middle of the Dublin city centre.  Our first stop that afternoon was the Guiness Storehouse at the St. Jame's Gate Brewery.  This brewery is still fully operational and is the largest brewery in Europe (64 acres).  It was founded in 1759 by Aurthur Guiness.  The Storehouse is the 7 story tourist attraction attached to the brewery.  

Below is the infamous 9000 year lease that Aurthur Guiness signed for St. Jame's Gate Brewery for just 45 pounds a year!

As we walked through the storehouse we learned about the different ingredients of Guiness and the process that they take to create that perfect pint.  We also saw all past Guiness bottles, glasses, and advertisements.

At the top of the Storehouse is the Gravity Bar.  This is the bar where we drank our complementary pint of Guiness.  I've had a few Guiness' now since I've been in Ireland and I seem to like them more and more with each pint that I try.

The Gravity Bar has glass walls which showed a 360 degree view of Dublin!

That night we went to the Arlington Hotel for drinks, traditional Irish music, and a little Irish dancing.  Watch the video below!  The Arlington Hotel is in a district called Temple Bar, the most famous row of pubs in Ireland.

More tomorrow.  It's past my bedtime.

More of St. Finbarr's Cathedral

Last weekend I finally made it onto the grounds of St. Finbarr's Cathedral.  This is the cathedral right outside my bedroom window.  Here are some pictures!

Some of these tombstones date back to 1806.

It was absolutely stunning inside!  It was huge.  Each and every wall had so much detail to it!  The stained glass was also amazing. 

I haven't had much to share this week because it was my last week of class! I had four finals and a presentation.  I've been more scholarly these past few days than I've been in these past few months combined.  I have one test and one paper left of the semester, both of which will be done in May.  Meghan's parents, brother, and grandma have been here this week and Meghan and I are going to Dublin with them tomorrow morning!  I'll have lots to share when I get back.

Enjoy your weekend!

St. Patrick's Day!

The long awaited St. Paddy's Day post has arrived!  Here we go...

This past weekend my friend Laura from Iowa State came to Cork with two of her friends.  They are all studying abroad at the University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland.  

When walking around the city centre on Thursday afternoon I noticed that many vendors and children were selling shamrocks on the side of the road.  When Laura and I stopped at the English Market for food for the weekend we asked the cashier why they were doing this.  The cashier told us that people buy fresh shamrocks to pin to their shirts and hats on St. Patrick's Day. 

We went to the Spailpin Fanac on Friday night to listen to some traditional Irish music or "trad".  This guy was great!  

We were up bright and early on St. Patrick's Day morning!  We drank mimosas with a 3 Euro bottle of champagne. Classy!  Some Irish wear green on St. Patrick's Day however most of the gaudy stuff is worn by the tourists.  I picked some where in between...

All of the major streets in Cork were shut down Saturday-Monday.  The streets are filled with food, jewelry, and clothing vendors from all over the county. 

Patiently waiting for the parade to start!  We arrived early to get a good spot.

Bagpipes in action!

Look at these little hurling players, so cute!

St. Patrick himself...

After the parade we went to a pub called Old Oak to watch the rugby match against England.  We started our afternoon off with a green pint of Carlsberg.  

After a nap and a good meal we went out again for round two!  Left to right: Steph, Sydney, Laura, Meghan.

The streets remained closed on Sunday and Monday for live music and more vendors.