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Published: February 11th 2009
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So these entries are about two different events over the past two weeks!
The first is The Super bowl. Now normally i'm not really into American football but with being friends with so many American's it was inevitable that I ended up in a pub in Limerick watching the game and "jumping on the bandwagon" so to speak. It was a really great night! The game wasn't on until 11:30pm here and didn't end until 3:30am and by the end I was practically falling asleep on the table but it was well worth it! The pub (the only one we knew of showing the game) was packed for the game. A lot of the American students from UL but also quite a bit of Irish people a well. The Irish American Football team from UL was there and we're really into the game. Going to the pub I knew of which teams were playing but I didn't like one more than the other. But being there I had to pick a side so I went with who most of my friends were cheering for so I ended up siding with the Steelers. Good thing to cause they won! I have
Superbowl
Sarah, me, Christine to say it was a really good game and got pretty intense there at the end! But that's what makes those games great (and worth staying up till 3:30am in the morning watching)
The second great event was heading to Cork this last weekend. We found this great (and cheap) hostel right in downtown Cork. Me, Sarah, MK, Kaelyn and Becca left Friday early morning since we don't have classes on Fridays and got in around 10:30 and Gabby, Christine, and Angela met us that night. Cork is an absolutely beautiful place. The drive there was great, we passed a lot of little towns with old stone buildings. That day we spent walking around downtown Cork and headed to the English Market. It reminded me a lot of Seattles Pike Place Market but a bit smaller. We went into a lot of shops (Cork has some really nice shopping) but since we're all on a budget no one bought anything. That night we decided to make dinner at the hostel since it had a kitchen. So to make things easy we bought six pizzas and the fixings for a Caesar salad (but all we could find was the lettuce
and dressing so really it was lettuce with sauce...). When we went to go cook our pizzas, however, we were informed by some French guests at the hostel that the oven is ancient and is one of those that has to be lit on the inside. The heat only came from the flame at the back so things take 3 times as long to cook. But all we had were these pizzas so we spent about 2 hours cooking the pizzas and eating them as they came out... a little soft haha. But its all the same going down as long as it filled us up we were happy.
After dinner we decided to head to a pub in town. Since we couldn't find the one my book suggested (later to find out that it was because i read the wrong address) we took the suggestions of two old Irish ladies and headed for a pub at the top of the road (We actually found it with those directions this time Lauren!). The pub was the typical traditional irish pub tucked away in an old building with old stone and wood walls with comfortable fireplaces and big wooden tables.
The atmosphere in these pubs is always great! We all order beer except for me. I was really craving a coffee and Baileys. Though I paid almost 7 Euros for it, it was the most delicious thing i've ever tasted.
The next day we headed to Blarney's castle! It takes about 4 or 5 hours to see the whole castle and the grounds. It was amazing. We really lucked out on weather and it was a clear blue sunny day. The great thing about this castle is that its not barred off at certain places so you can touch anything in the castle! There was all these tiny winding stone staircases that you get to walk through which was scary but amazing. The history of the castle is really cool and of course we all went to Kiss the Blarney Stone. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it since of my balance issues but you're only in Ireland once so I risked it. The stone has to be kissed from upside down (while your being held on to) and its at the very top of the castle so when you kiss the stone
your body is dangling off the side of the castle... they recently put some bars in encase you fall.. haha! But i did it and of course didnt know which way was up afterwards but like I said you're only (probably in my case) in Ireland once.
After the castle we went to the caves. There are these caves on the castle grounds that you can wonder through. At a lot of places you actually end up almost crawling through them since they're so small. We all came out incredibly muddy but had a lot of fun going through them.
After the caved we wondered around the grounds which have a lot of other stuff to see such as the Blarney House, the Wising Steps, and the Gardens. In the summer the gardens would probably be a little fuller but during this time of year i'm so use to snow it was nice!
The next day some of the girls headed back to Limerick and Kaelyn, Gabby and I stayed in Cork to go see the Cork Prison. This prison was closed in 1923 but for most of its like was used to keep people who committed crimes
of poverty. The prison was built to look like a castle so its mostly stone. We got headsets to go through most of the castle and there are recreations of people (actual people from the records) put in the castle so we could see what it was really like for people. All I have to say is they must have frozen half to death because we all came out freezing! I was also a little depressed coming out of the prison but I think that means that it's been set up wellas a museum!
After that we headed back to Limerick where I finally got to a bit of school work.... its going to be hard to fit school work in with all thetravelling we have planned for the semester but luckily it's pass/fail and the best way to learn about the culture and get the cultural experience is by travelling.. at least thats what we tell ourselves when school work gets pushed aside haha!
Mackenzie
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