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Published: July 15th 2015
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Grass growing out of prison windows
(Wifi is crap out the hostel... so... only one picture loaded.) It's not a trip unless I get a light sunburn on the first day... and go figure, even in overcast Ireland I shall repeat the pattern.
Despite that, it was a wonderful today - first off, slept like a brick which is perfect. Slept so well that I only woke up at 10am... an absolute rarity in a hostel thank you. But that's ok. I caught the next train out to Cobh (pronounced Cove).
Since I arrived a little later than I wanted into Cobh, I headed straight to Spike Island. (Think Alcatraz of Ireland... ish) The boat ride was nice, but in full bloody sunlight which is where I think I got my burn.
The walking tour was well worth it - I don't think I've ever gone on one with that amount of detailed information. So, the island's been everything from a monastery to a jail to a fort - and we got to hear all about it. A lot of the old houses are still there but only in shell form... windows boarded up and such. Unfortunately, since there's no funding and dummies keep boating over at night and breaking into houses, they're going to have to tear the houses down at some point due to health and safety. Boo. Everything is health and safety over here.
The fort itself was interesting to see and the prison. Again, a lot of it is shelled out (mostly from fires), but the architecture is still there. The giant prison blocks, in particular, were interesting - the brick work and the fake levels. One of the buildings looked like it had three levels, but the top level is actually fake - it has windows but is actually a reinforced bomb roof.
They did have one prison cell open that you could visit - they had tv's which was funny to see. Apparently they discovered if inmates had tv's they wouldn't act out as much. Go figure. I also liked the story that they had brought a bunch of "joy riders" to the prison at one point (people who hotwire cars for fun)... but the riders overtook the guard and stole their jeep which they then, of course, hotwired hahaha. Another fun moment was when we were visiting the prison cell, a mom opened this window which made a huge clanging noise and scared the bejesus out of her teenage daughter who spent the next five minutes repeatedly saying "MAMAN C'PAS DROLLLLLE. ARRETE DE RIRRRRRE". I, of course, was also trying not to laugh. I love meeting other Frenchies.
After the tour I meandered around the rest of the island. They have a path that goes around the fort, and I walked down to the graveyard. It's cool, they have an archaeological dig going on at the moment for some research paper - so I watched them at work for a bit. Everyone was super friendly and they were answering our questions as they went about their business.
Back in Cobh, I had to visit the cathedral of course (which was up a giant hill...) and see a few memorials. They have one for the Lusitania - the boat the German U-boats blew up in transit from US to UK. The survivors and the recovered bodies were ferried to Cobh after the ship was attacked, so it's a fitting place to have the memorial. There's also a bunch of Titanic stuff here - it had docked outside the main harbour before setting off for America.
The walk along the harbour was nice - they have a giant park area which is nicely done up with flowers, statues, flags, benches galore and a giant gazebo. I just had to get locally made gelato while I was there as well - very much worth it. (After mint flavoured, yum!)
The train ride back to Cork was funny. A little girl sat across from me (like.. 7 or 8 years old) and she was a chatty little thing and was fascinated by my non-Irish accent. She kept me busy for most of the 25 minute ride.
And back in Cork I forgot everything closes at like... 6pm so that was pretty much it for me. I saw a truck of sheep go by. That was interesting. And I'm now back at my hostel enjoying a dark chocolate bar infused with Irish Whiskey. Yum!
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