Weekend in Cork

Leigh's Birthday

One of my flatmates had her 21st birthday on February (the rest of them are not yet 21). We went out to dinner at Attica Venizia, an Italian restaurant near by. Just a head's up: a nice dinner out in Dublin costs about the same as I spend to eat in for a week. The rest of the group wanted to stay out after that, so I tagged along for a while. Everywhere we went was packed. I wimped out and went home to bed, so that I could be rested for a very busy Friday.

Newgrange

Friday morning, our class trooped on to a bus bound for Newgrange. It's only about an hour out. For a 5,000 year old Neo-lithic burial chamber, it sure is a pile of rocks. But it sits just above the Boyne river and is surrounded by miles of gorgeous farmland. Our tour guide told us that any Irish farmer would give up a limb for just a few acres of land in the Boyne River Valley.

Monsterboise

We stopped off at Monsterboise on the bus ride back to look at some Celtic crosses. The site is still a functioning graveyard; we saw a woman and a little girl bringing flowers to a grave while we were there.

Back in Dublin

The bus got back to Dublin, and I had to run to get all my errands done before leaving for Cork. One was to the IES center, where I managed to check my mail, and found my new glasses! And I managed to catch up with the Cork-bound group and run to the bus station. We made it on to the last bus of the day: the 6 p.m. express. It's a four hour ride from Dublin to Cork.

I slept for part of the ride. I also read the next book required for my creative writing class: The Book of Evidence by John Banville. Like The Butcher Boy, it centers on a murder and is written in stream of consciousness. It's a far more refined book however -- it has complete thoughts and punctuation (two of my best friends). I probably wouldn't suggest it as light reading, but it's readable.

Evening in Cork

We got into Cork at 10 p.m. and checked into our hostel. We then met up with another group at a pub: a couple of other IES people, the brother of one of the IES Dublin guys who happens to be studying in Cork this semester, and an American fiddler who is currently wandering Ireland and met a couple of IES people in the Aran Islands and now seeks us out.

We hung out for a while and then went out in search of food. We found Hillbilly's, a cheap fried chicken joint. They only do takeout, so we obtained our chicken and proceeded to have a picnic on the sidewalk.

Blarney Castle

Saturday morning, we caught the first bus to Blarney. We went up to the castle and did the requisite kissing of the stone, then wandered around the grounds for quite a while. We grabbed lunch at the local pub (Dad, I think we ate there when we visited, but I remembered the fish and chips being a lot better than they were on Saturday). We caught the 12:30 bus back to Cork.

Wandering Around Cork

We made up our own tour of Cork. First stop was St. Finn Barre's Cathedral. It's Church of Ireland, meaning that it is an Anglican cathedral. It's a gorgeous gothic style building. Next up was the Art Museum, featuring works by Harry Clarke, Robert Gibbings and Louis le Brocquy. Somewhere in there we found a used bookstore and I picked up some reading material for the ride back. Unfortunately, the Cork Butter Museum was closed.

Evening in Kinsale

We decided to head to Kinsale a little early so we could get dinner and check into our hostel. It's an amazing little village. We walked around looking for a restaurant and probably walked 90% of the town in under 30 minutes. We found a good Indian restaurant tucked into a small side street, right across from this pub. Renee, it's official -- you'll have to come visit. They have live music so we went there after dinner.

Charles Fort

Sunday morning, we hiked from Kinsale to Charles Fort, passing by some of the most amazing scenery. We took the guided tour, as well as wandering all over the fort on our own (it's huge!).

We heard the story of the White Lady: In the 1700s, the daughter of the fort's governor married one of the officers stationed there. During the festivities, they slipped off to the wall to be alone. She saw some flowers at the bottom of the wall and asked him to get them for her. He took her back to the party, and went back to the wall. The officer ordered the sentry on duty to go fetch the flowers and took the sentry's coat. The officer dressed as the sentry and made himself comfortable in the guard house. In the meanwhile, the governor, a real stickler for duty, went up on the walls to check all the sentries. When he wasn't challenged, the governor looked into the guard house and saw a sleeping sentry, whom the governor immediately shot. The "sentry" was dragged down to the parade ground, next to the governor's house. Everyone attending the wedding party came out to see what was going on and the bride realized her husband was the dead soldier. She ran back to the top of the walls in her wedding dress and jumped, falling 45 feet to the rocks below.

People, mostly men, continue to see her if they're in the fort in the evening, wandering still in her wedding dress.

Back to Kinsale, Cork & Dublin

We walked back to catch our bus back to Cork. Mom, you know your plan to find some house to live in with Aunt Jenny when you two get old? How about here? See the little yellow house on the left? Absolutely ideal. Everything's in walking distance, including lots of pubs and a few tourists. You could even be sure of me coming to visit.

The bus we planned to catch was the last one that would get us to Cork in time for our bus to Dublin. We had a really scary minute when that bus was completely full. Luckily the bus company brought up a second bus, and we made our connection.

So I'm back, all in one piece.