Classy and Wild

As I described in a previous blog, I have a few friends here in Ireland that I’ve known for over five years now. We met through the Tempe Sister Cities student exchange program during the summer of 2005 and have been fortunate enough to visit each other and stay in contact over the years. All four of my Irish friends (Niamh, Brendan, Ross and Meave) are living in Dublin, which is about 3-4 hours away from Cork by bus or train, but that hasn’t seemed to be a hindrance at all! I’ve seen all of them at least once so far and have been so lucky to spend loads of time with Niamh. 

The Living Room - Me, Ruby and Niamh

A couple weekends ago, October 7-9, an American friend of mine from UCC and I went up to Dublin for a fun get-a-way to visit Niamh and spent out time seeing the city as a “local” instead of a tourist. Thursday night we went to a pub called The Living Room to see some friends of Niamh’s perform. They played extremely well and kept us entertained all night long with a wide selection of popular cover songs, new and old. 

The following day we spent our day in the city eating delicious food (sushi for lunch, candy milkshakes in the afternoon, coffee before dinner, and Italian for dinner with a glass of wine) and shopping on Grafton Street. Grafton Street is the most popular street in the city for shopping with a fantastic selection of designer stores and great deals. We also met up with Brendan for a little walk through St. Steven’s Green; a well known park close to Grafton Street that I like to think is a mini-version of Central Park in New York. 

Grafton Street

Hanging out in Steven's Green (Brendan looking weird...)

The following weekend, October 16, Niamh drove down to Cork for an afternoon at Fota Wildlife Park and a fun night out in the city. It was a nice change of pace to have her down to my place as a guest in “my” city and show her around Cork as if I was the local! We spent our entire afternoon at this wildlife park which is very similar to a zoo, minus the cages. (Except around the cheetahs!) It was awesome to see so many animals up close and realize how harmless they really can be. 

Taking the train around Fota Wildlife Park

Silly penguins

My big sassy kitten

Giraffe being chased by an Emu?

Pretty zebras. Sorry about the one on the far right :)

The illusion of a giraffe licking my head? Kind of!

That night we went out with my big group of friends to celebrate a handful of birthdays. It was a great night out and Niamh definitely enjoyed her time down in Cork, but we only got about 5 hours of sleep that night because I had to be up by 7:30AM for my Sunday hike! Bless Niamh’s heart for not minding the early morning rush and even dropping me off on campus just in time to make the bus with the mountaineering club!

A New Lens

Recently I’ve been feeling the urge to get outdoors and see some of Ireland apart from the residential and city sights of Cork. Last Saturday (10/2) I was making dinner with my good friend Chelsea and told her about my absolute craving to get out and hike or do something outdoors and it had to be fate because she just happened to get an email that day about a club at UCC leading a hike for students the following day. She felt the same way about getting out of Cork and seeing something new so we decided then and there, no questions or hesitations, we were going. Which is how, last Sunday, I became a member of the UCC Mountaineering Club.

Kristin, Carolyn, Me and Chelsea before our first hike

Every Sunday during the school year they meet at 8:30am on campus and bus about 50 students to various mountains around the southern region of Ireland. Yes, there are actually mountains here, not just hills. Usually the bus rides are between 1 to 2 hours and the hikes last around 5 hours with a break for picnic lunch at the top of the mountain. Once we return to the base of the mountain everyone puts on a fresh pair of clothes and shoes and on our drive back we stop at a local pub for dinner and a pint.

Comeragh Mountains

The first Sunday I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I’ve done quite a bit of hikes in Arizona and a few in Southern California, but climate changes everything. I’m used to dry, dusty gravel and large boulders and rocks, but over here you’d never believe how rugged the terrain can be!  One moment you’ll be trudging through swampy tall grass and the next you’ll me scaling the side of a mountain! I’ve been going for the past three weeks and it’s been an absolute joy. In a couple weeks we’ll be heading to an area called Dingle for a weekend trip. Enjoy the pictures!

Gougane Barra Mountains

Horse's Glen 

Belfast ... Whiskey ... Stockholm, Sweden!

To finish up my Irish History class, we took a 3 day trip up north and spent two days in Dublin and an afternoon in Belfast (the Capital of Northern Ireland). I’m going to be honest, the historical stuff wasn’t all that interesting, so I’m skipping over most of it, but the one cool place we visited was the Parliament building in Belfast. Of course my camera died on this trip so I didn’t take any pictures of the place, but below is a picture I found online because you have to understand how magnificent this building looks.  All kinds of political meetings and important decisions take place here, but the one interesting fact I pulled from the tour was that the building was completely covered in a mixture of cow manure and tar during WWII to make sure it wasn’t an obvious target for fly-over bombings. The roads leading up to the building were also covered with ash and soot every night to help keep it concealed. They consider the strategy a success because Belfast was the 3^rd most popular city in the UK to be bombed during the war and the building was never struck. However, some sections of the building are permanently stained from the tar and poo mixture. Success? Eh…

Triple distilled !

During some free time in Dublin my friend Michael and I toured the Jameson Distillery. It wasn’t the original (I guess the original is in Cork!) and the set up was a little tacky, but we got free samples with the tour, so I’m not complaining.

Flying into Stockholm

Streets of Stockholm

The day after I returned back to Cork from my class fieldtrip I hopped on a plane to Stockholm, Sweden! The travel to and from was a little rough (spent the night in a couple London airports), but the weekend was magical! Upon arrival I immediately fell in love with the country for no reason other than the look of it. There was an endless amount of vibrant green trees sweeping over the land only broken up by sparkling sapphire rivers. On Friday, the day we arrived, we toured City Hall and the Music Museum. Stockholm’s City Hall is particularly famous for being the host of the annual Nobel Prize Banquet/Ball. The architecture of the building is outstanding and very fitting for such an event, however, for the number of guests it’s required to hold, it did seem a little on the small side in the main hall. And to think of all the esteemed people who’ve been there before was a crazy feeling as well. The Music Museum (Musikmuseet) was an amusing, interactive place to visit. The exhibitions never seemed to end and our musical creativity never seemed to cease either.

City Hall!

Banquet Hall Stairs

Gold Room where the Nobel Ball is held

Ceiling in meeting room designed to look like a Viking Ship

Music Museum

Having too much fun...

On Saturday we used the practical means of transportation in the city of Stockholm to get around: by boat! In case you didn’t know, Stockholm, and most other boarder cities in Sweden, is made up of little islands. Taking a hop-on/hop-off boat wasn’t only a great way to get from point A to B, but also an enjoyable activity in itself just to see the city from the water, rather than being a small pedestrian on a major street surrounded by huge buildings. Our first stop was the Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet), it holds the only preserved 17^th century ship in the whole world! The unfortunate thing is the ship sank on its maiden voyage in 1628… completely capsized right in Stockholm Harbor. The story is, the King at the time was too hasty to get this ship out on the water and rushed the builders. During the balance/buoyancy test the ship didn’t seem properly ready to sail, but the King told them to go forward with it and before they knew it, the ship was swallowed whole by the bay and no one ever bothered to salvage it until 1961. Quite ridiculous if you ask me, but the story doesn’t make the ship any less majestic.

Vasa Ship

Front side of the ship, lined with cannons

Decorated model as the ship would have looked with actual ship in the background

We finished up Saturday at the Photography Museum (Fotografiska) which was hosting the “Annie Leibovitz; a Photographer’s Life 1990-2005” exhibition. If you don’t recognize the name, you’d recognize her work. She was the chief photographer for Rolling Stone magazine for 10 years and has also been commissioned to do personal family photos for several high-end entertainers and politicians. Her exhibition actually made me speechless at times because of the extraordinary level of emotion she captured in her images. If you ever hear that her collection is coming to a museum nearby you must, must, MUST go see the exhibition. You will be amazed.

Last day in the beautiful city!

Sunset just before boarding the plane - gorgeous.

Overall, Stockholm is by far the best city I’ve ever been to in Europe. It’s truly a hidden treasure and full of so much to do and numerous things to see (I’m already making a list of things I want to see the next time I visit Sweden), the people are splendid, and the food is to die for. Trust me.

Ice Bar - don't think I mentioned it in the entry - but SO COOL!

Even our glasses were made out of ice!

New Places and Familiar Faces

I apologize if you’ve been checking my blog frequently and noticing my extended absence. However, I feel like no one actually reads this thing, so I haven’t made it a priority to keep up with it very much. But for those of you who do like keeping up with me, I am extremely grateful for your interest and I’ll do my best to fill you in on everything!
  

As of today, September 21^st, the semester has officially started! I’m more or less finished with my Irish History course and am now moving on to bigger and better things. These first couple weeks of classes are really a grace period for all students to check out classes they’re interested in and see if they like the professors (lecturers is what they’re referred to here). October 2^nd is when we all have to have our schedules ironed out so we can officially register for all our classes. This is very different than what I’m used to in the States, but if you want to tell me that the first 2 weeks of my 12 week semester aren’t really going to count for anything, I am not complaining!

   

To rewind a couple weeks, my History class took an all-day field trip to West Cork to see a couple ambush sites from the War of Independence and a very historic estate in Bantry Bay.  First we visited the Kilmichael Ambush site of 1920 where an IRA (Irish Republican Army) battalion ambushed and completely wiped out a group of 17 RIC Auxiliaries (those fighting to keep Ireland under British rule). It’s an incredibly historic (and controversial) ambush because of the IRA’s success, and the ambush has actually been studied by many armies around the world, including German Nazi troops during WWII. In general, it’s seen as a heroic event in Irish history despite the fact that it can be interpreted as a brutal massacre on Ireland's own people. 

Kilmichael Ambush commemoration

Kilmichael Ambush site

We also visited the ambush site of Michael Collins who was an Irish revolutionary leader in the early 1900s. He served political roles as well as military positions during the movement towards Nationalism and is recognized as a key contributor to the foundation of the Irish state. His memory is held in very high esteem by all of Ireland and is recognized as the movement’s founding father. He was unfortunately shot and killed in 1922 right before the end of the War of Independence.
 

Michael Collins ambush site

Michael Collins commemoration 

Our final stop was to the Bantry House and Gardens. It was built around 1700 and was later bought by the Whites (a family) who were very loyal to the British crown. In fact, at one point they trained and housed a militia to fight off Nationalist who were expected to land in Bantry Bay. Today the house and gardens are really just a beautiful place to visit (reminds me of an estate straight out of Pride and Prejudice) and it even offers B&B accommodations! 

  

Bantry Bay in the background

View out from inside the house

Bantry House

Side entrance to the gardens
   

The following weekend I had the chance to visit some old Friends in Tramore and Carlow. They’re both small towns in the Southeast part of Ireland that most tourists don’t know about. I met these Irish friends through Tempe Sister Cities 5 years ago, but luckily have stayed in excellent contact with all of them and visited them here in Ireland 3 summers ago. I also had the opportunity to see Niamh, one of the girls, last summer when she visited me in Southern California for a couple weeks. I spent Friday night in Tramore (a city I would love to live in if I ever moved to Ireland) with Brendan’s family and Saturday and Sunday with Niamh’s family up in Carlow. The weekend was absolutely wonderful because I got to spend some quality time away from Cork and see familiar faces and feel completely at home with my Irish families. :)

Keep an eye out on my facebook page for more pictures! I promise to upload them all very soon! 
   

Tramore - view of the Celtic Sea

Tramore - view of the beach

Reunited with Niamh (left) and Maeve (right)