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Published: March 17th 2007
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Steve here:
For those looking for more blogs, I am sorry. I'm having internet problems, both with my computer and the hotels. I'm sending this from an internet cafe.
Second day in Cork, and I don't have to drive anywhere, so life is good. We don't get moving until 2pm or so. It is St. Patrick's Day and the streets are filled with people of all ages wearing green clothing, funny hats and painted-on shamrocks.
After a prolonged decision making process, we decide to eat at Zanzibar. Not because it looks cool or we heard good things, just because we are so hungry we can't walk any further. The food isn't extraordinary, but isn't horrible. I have fettuccine alfredo with chicken. Day 3 in Ireland and I've had a bbq chicken sandwich, a hamburger, a slice of pizza, some french fries, a Subway meatball sandwich and a few power bars...I've yet to step out of my comfort zone with food, obviously.
We decide that we need to do something other than drink and eat, and we head towards some churches that we are supposed to see. St. Finnbar Church is indeed quite beautiful and we take
lots of pictures.
Tragedy is narrowly avoided! After wandering all over the city looking at the sites, we come around a corner and notice that we are very near our hotel. We walk 50 feet past our off-site parking lot when Zappa asks, “think we should check to see if our parking lot is open tomorrow?” I don't think it's necessary, certainly they would have mentioned or posted something like that when we parked. Wrong. Not only were they going to be closed on Sunday, the day we were to leave Cork for Killarney, but they were also going to be closed on Monday, our travel day to Galway. Oh yes, and the parking lot was 20 minutes from closing. If not for a series of truly random decisions to turn left here, turn right there, we never would have happened upon our parking lot and would have been screwed beyond belief. Truly a miracle. I may have to re-think my fondness for Darwin and Carl Sagan and go to church on Sundays.
Being St. Patrick's Day, we wanted to sit in an Irish pub and listen to live Irish music. We thought that we would walk down
the street, listen for the band we liked best, and settle in for the evening. Turns out that live music was hard to find...very hard. We ask for directions (we should know better by now, but we ask anyway) to the nearest bar with live music and we end up walking aimlessly for what seemed like forever. We stop in one bar that has a band playing traditional music. They put the band in a small room that has space for only the band and maybe 5 other people. They then place a microphone in the room and pipe the music to the rest of the bar at very low volume. Only one drink here, and we look for greener pastures.
We finally decide to bite the bullet and wait in the long line outside of Old Oak. This bar was rated “Best” by the MTV guide book and they have a sign advertising live music. The line goes quite fast and we end up in a very cool bar indeed. The band is Blue Moose and they are good. They play traditional Irish favorites like “Sweet Child o' Mine” and “Enter Sandman.” Ok, not exactly what we had originally planned, but fun nonetheless.
Jackie here: I now have the score USA 5 IRELAND 2, I'm not exactly sure what the categories were, but I will update the score as I see fit. Ed's cab driver job interview didn't go that well but we will keep trying. Blue Moose was a fun band and the place was packed. I am acquiring a taste for shots of Jameson and Turnhall Dew to go along with my delicious Bulmers ciders. I don't know why but it seems everything closes so early here. While grabbing some Subway we chat with some Aussies who think our accent is great. This strikes me as funny since we are trying to adopt their accent. After a brisk walk to the hotel, Flint and I try for 1 more drink at a pub next to our apartment- no dice although people hang outside in the cold for an hour in front of our place.
The car park incident was no small deal - as getting our car out of the lot would put a serious dent in our “nooks” and “whacks.” We learn from our friendly guide book that nooks means money and whacks means drinks. Seeing as though these are the most important aspects of our trip, these words will be used quite often.
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s.a.t.
non-member comment
t-shirt idea
why don't you guys get yellow shirts with pink letters on them what read, "We are ignorant American Tourists"? that would be sweet and would take care of the 1% of the Irish population that hasn't figured it out yet. miss you like crazy, -Natalie