Cork! Let the adventure begin...

Me & Gillian

View from Gillian & Olan's house

Another view from the yard

Last thursday I headed down to Cork via the train to see my friend Gillian. Many of you might remember Gill. Her and Isobel came to Bham for my wedding. Well, she picked me up at the station, and after lunch at a cute farmers market in the city centre, we drove the hour or so to west cork where she is living with her boyfriend Olan for the summer. What an amazing place. I can hardly describe how peaceful it is there. Surrounded by rolling green hills, with the Atlantic on the other side, it was a great place for a get away. Since they are right by the sea, as you can imagine the seafood is fantastic. That night we had fish and chips for dinner, and I had never had fish that fresh. Delicious! She also introduced me to my new favorite after dinner drink, a hot port. This is very similar to the hot whiskey that andrew and I drank the week before, except you use port instead. Quite delightful. After a few of those, it was bedtime.

Back in Dublin

I'm back from the Cork adventure. However, i am at an internet cafe, so i dont have any pictures to post quite yet. Once i get my computer charged, i will upload the photos and share about my fantastsic trip to see Gillian. Updates soon!

Cork Bound

It's time for road trip number two, and this one takes me down to Cork via the train to visit my friend Gillian. She, along with Diedre and Isobel, were at Trinity with me a few years ago. I dont know if I will have internet while i'm down there, so I might not have another post until Monday. But rest assured, you will be inundated with pictures at that point. Have a great weekend, and ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!

St. Stephen's Green

Taking a break from jogging to document the fact that I was wearing a tank top in Dublin.

I love swans

The resident swans of St. Stephen's

This little girl was feeding the birds and getting bombarded by them. It was very cute.

St. Stephen's Green

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Dublin. Knowing that these dont come around that often, I took full advantage of the sunshine. I threw on the runners (as Andrew calls them) and headed down to St. Stephen's Green. I never really spent much time in the park when i lived here, mostly because I always thought it was too cold to stroll in a park. Usually i was hustling from one heated building to another. However, yesterday's weather was simply gorgeous. It was only about 50-55 degrees, but sunny. I started off my jog with a long sleeve shirt one, but soon got toasty and resorted to the tank top i had underneath. It was very surreal to be jogging...outside...in Dublin...wearing a tank top. craziness. After a while i just sat in the park and watched people. 

Once the clouds did roll in and it got more chilly, i headed back to the flat to get ready for dinner with Dee. We met up at Cafe Bar Deli, one of our favorite spots while in college. We reminisced about our crazy trip to Edinburgh, other characters of our M. Phil class, and random nights we had the The Front Lounge or other pubs around town. Dee is working her her PhD in Women and Gender Studies, so it was fantastic to be able to converse with my feminist friend her and hear about her work. 

Macros

During our road trip, Andrew and I took several photos of our magnificent surroundings, but we also took a national geographic approach to some of the flora and fauna of west Ireland. We set our cameras on the macro setting and had some fun. It really doesnt take much to entertain us. I have no idea the scientific name to any of these flowers, except for the hydrangeas, but they are beautiful nonetheless. Enjoy!

Day 4

Westport House

Ruins of the old westport house church

Front entrance of Westport house

Me chillin on the back steps of the house.

I couldnt help but take this picture on our drive home. An irish rainbow.

Westport is a delightful little town, and the stay at the Mills Springs Hotel was fantastic. Traveling in a recession is really the way to go. There is no need to stay in a B&B because their prices are the same if not higher than a bed and breakfast rate at a 2 or 3 star hotel. So, although we were roughing it on our journey, we stayed in some very reasonable and nice places. 

This was to be the last leg of our journey. Andrew needed to get back to Dublin to finish some work for his graduate program, and i needed a day to regroup before heading down to Cork. However, we still got a bit of sightseeing in. Today's big adventure: Westport House and Gardens.  This house is interesting because it is one of Ireland's oldest privately held houses. The family still lives on the estate and manages the properties. It is built of the ruin's of Grace O'Malley's castle. She was a pirate queen during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.  Her ancestors builts on the castle ruins, a beautiful house. We took a guided tour of it and learned all about the family and their role in Irish history. For the nerdy history buff that I am, it was fantastic! The family turned over the house to be viewed by the public in 1960 and also added a pirate theme park for children on the grounds. The owner wanted children to visit the house, but knew they wouldnt enjoy a stuff tour of an old manor. 

After a few hours touring the house, we set off back to Dublin. Since we were almost as far west in the country as you can be, we had about a 5 hour drive back to the east coast. We stopped along the way in Athlone to visit and have tea with Andrew's aunt and uncle. His uncle is an avid golfer and was going on about all the golf courses I should come back and play with Jordan. He even offered to arrange the trip...I might have to take him up on that. They were lovely, and it was nice to spend some time with more members of Andrew's family. 

We got back to Dublin at around 9pm and headed straight to our favorite persian dinner spot, Zaytoon. Then to our favorite local pub, the Bull & Castle to meet Andrew's best friend Collum He plays in a very unique band called Anagog. I'm going to try and post some tunes later. The guiness at this spot is, I believe, the best in Dublin. mmmmm, i love it. It was a fitting way to end the Irish World Tour 09. A pint of Guiness, in our favorite pub, with great company. 

Day 3

Mom wanted to see a picture of the towns we visited. This is Sligo at 9pm. Odd how bright it is.

The path up Knocknarea, (I cant get these pictures to rotate correctly on i-photo)

View from the hike. The Atlantic ocean is hardly visable from beyond the house.

cows grazing along the route up the mtn. notice the thick fog.

An example of our limited visability 

Soaking wet but happy, halfway up Knocknarea.

View of Knocknerea once we fog had lifted. We climbed a sand dune to get a better look. 

Surfers in the Atlantic, or as I call them "the crazys" Compare that beach to the gulf...

Beautiful tombstones we found at St. Anne's church. Andrew was a little weirded out that i wanted to check out a graveyard. 

The seaweed baths. You can order their products online. 

Sorry for the delay, we didnt have internet for the past few days. Although we were staying a pretty nice places, for whatever reason, their internet wasnt working or we just didnt have time to mess with it. Anyways, lets continue...

Andrew won. So, the decision was to climb Knocknarea on saturday morning. Sligo was a beautiful county and town, and since we were having such nice weather, and the fact andrew refused the existence of horses altogether, I agreed. However, we quickly discovered that on this particular morning, the weather was not so agreeable. Despite the fact that we couldnt even see the mountain from the car park, we embarked. The first 10 minutes were fantastic, the scenery was simply breathtaking and the rain and wind were minor. However, about half way up, things started getting hairy. First, andrew realized his rain resistant parka was not actually resistant at all, and was soaking wet. Mine was still holding up, but the wind was picking up so violently, I couldnt feel my ears. Then we saw it. About 20 yards ahead, blocking out path was the sheep. Normally a sheep would not keep up from continuing, but this one was quite different. We called it the killer sheep. It starred us down with a very evil look and would not move out of the path. At that point we were already exhausted, drenched, freezing, and had no visability of the peak. So, the killer sheep was the final straw and we decided to abandon this hike. It was probably the best decision, bc frankly, i did not want to get any closer to that sheep and i really wanted to regain feeling in my ears. So we didnt make it up Knocknarea to see Queen Maeve's tomb, but we felt good about the attempted hike. 

To make us feel even better and to simply relax from the hike, we decided to partake in a seaweed bath. Andrew remembered hearing about these baths, and luckily they are located in the town next to Sligo called Strandhill.  Voya Baths is located right off the Atlantic coast, so not only are the views amazing, the treatments are quite unique. Although we both were apprehensive, it was a very cool experience. You have your own room with a steam shower and a free standing bathtub already filled with a bucket of fresh seaweed. They harvest it themselves from the coast right outside the shops doors. So, you steam first to open the pours, and then you get into the hot slimy seaweed bath. It sounds gross, and it kind of was. But, eventually you get use to it and relax. The seaweed is super hydrating, and after 50 minutes, you feel like a new person. 

After the bath, we regrouped, watched some surfers along the coast, and headed out of county sligo, and into county mayo. This whole trip we have stayed along the coast, so the views have been amazing. We drove all the way down to the town of Westport and called it a night.