Upon my return from Norway, I arranged a trip down south to Cork with another student teacher, Kathleen, who is from Indiana. My host family must have thought I was absolutely insane, because I arrived back from Norway at 1030pm, and left the next morning by 1000am to make my way towards Cork. I wanted to get as much in as possible during the Easter break. But anyways, we decided to coordinate this trip on our own rather than taking an organized tour of the city. And so we got our train tickets and booked a hostel for a couple of days.
We arrived in Dublin by bus and made our way through town to Heuston Station, the largest train station in the area. We climbed aboard the Irish Rail towards Cork and prepared ourselves for the three hour journey. The train ride was actually quite lovely. There were few stops, and most of the ride was through the countryside. We took that time to pull out travel guides to plan the events of our trip. This was more of a spontaneous trip than the other trips I have gone on. It was refreshing not to have everything so rigidly mapped out. Before we knew it, we had arrived at our station in Cork.
Our first task was to locate our lovely hostel: Shelia's. It was about a ten minute walk from the station. Unfortunately for us, it was also located up a tremendous hill. It was one of those inclines where you can almost reach and touch the road. However, the hostel itself was much nicer than I had expected. The kitchen area and dining room were spacious. The bathrooms were quite clean. And the rooms...well...they were small and cramped, but nice enough for a two-night stay. We dropped off our suitcases and decided to enjoy the remainder of our afternoon in town, doing a bit of exploring to get our bearings.
As we checked into the hostel, we were given a map of Cork with some of the major attractions highlighted. This map had to have been outdated because none of the roads or landmarks could be found as placed on the map. We eventually gave up trying to manipulate the map until it worked for us, and decided to just walk through town. If we saw a shop of interest, we would simply go in and explore. Oh the joys of not having an itinerary! But we began to notice that all the shops started to close their doors around 430pm-500pm. Cork was turning into a ghost town. I found this surprising because it is a fairly popular city in Ireland, known for it's shopping centers. We decided to find a place to eat and call it a night early because the following day was to be packed with adventures.
Back at the hostel, we walked into the room to find new roommates. There were three individuals, all from Australia. They had been traveling for nearly six months around the globe. We chatted about our travels and experiences for a bit before falling asleep.
Kathleen and I woke fairly early in order to catch a bus to the Blarney Castle. Our main goal of the trip was to kiss the famous Blarney Stone at the castle and receive the gift of eloquence. Almost every individual I have ever talked to about traveling in Ireland has encouraged me to kiss the stone. The castle was fantastic! Although it is in ruins, you are still able to climb around inside and get a good sense of the castle design and purpose. At the very top you can find the Blarney Stone. There are many explanations as to the origins of the stone, although most seem to contradict one another. Basically, today, it's just a major tourist attraction due to the thrill of hanging upside down as you kiss the stone. It was quite an experience being held upside down at the very top of a castle as I kissed a giant rock wall. I will never forget the excitement I felt while receiving the gift of eloquence.
We arrived back in Cork after our adventures in Blarney. We had seen an advertisement for a butter museum, not far from the center of town. Kerry Gold Butter is an established brand of butter in Ireland, and we thought it would be interesting to see how it was made. I took some pictures.
After leaving the butter museum, we walked back into town to check out the English Market. The English Market is a small market used to sell meat products and other goods. The stench of meat and fish wreaked from the facility as we made our way through. But I was absolutely fascinated by it. Hanging from the walls were large carcasses of hogs, cows, and fish. And the butchers were working furiously to prepare orders. It was an extremely busy complex. I did not take any pictures of this. I think the mental image was more than enough.
The next morning we woke up extremely early, ready to get back to our homes and rest from the travels. Not getting proper rest after my trip to Norway had officially caught up with me, and I was thoroughly exhausted. So we caught the train back to Dublin by 8:30 am. Easter break was absolutely incredible. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to do some exploring, but am ready to get back onto a regular schedule.