Blogs from County Cork, Ireland, Europe - page 44

Here are a few pictures of another church designed by Pugin, Ss. Peter and Paul in Cork. The Blessed Sacrament was exposed for adoration, so I was somewhat limited in what pictures I could take. I had intended to hear the traditional Latin Mass here at 10 a.m., but my €2 alarm clock failed to wake me in time. Oh well, at least I got a good, solid nine or ten hours of sleep. I inadvertently deleted the pictures I took there this morning (I'm not used to moving files on Windows Vista), so I went back this afternoon for a few shots. I also picked up some political literature in the back of the church about the "abolition of the Irish Nation for the EU Dictatorship." The other pamphlet was titled "A Godless Empire." I ... read more

I'm in Cork now, flew over from Cardiff eight days ago, which means I'm on day 5 of 7 here. So far I have learnt and forgotten some Gaelic (aka Irish). The government people in Ireland are trying to reintroduce it as a widely spoken language (as if that's going to work) so they've put the Irish translations onto road signs etc, and in some places everything's in Irish (which is very confusing when you're looking for the toilets but walk straight into the staff office!). Anyway, I can't think of anything else to write, except Iva, if you're reading this, thanks for being great! (by the way Iva is the person who's spare room I'm renting for the week that I'm here). Maya xx... read more

I've put up pictures on my picture site. I've set up folders for them, so peek through the folders to the left. dropshots.com/imaginarygill Go look! PS... the site went funny on me and scooted everything to the left. So, some of my captions or the pictures might be missing letters because I ws blind typing. There's also a caption of a scenery pic saying "Cows!"... that's not supposed to be there lol But the site won't let me edit it right now, so it's going to have to stay that way for now.... read more

While we were in Cork, Ireland, we took a daytrip to a wildlife park that we had read about randomly in an atlas. My friend Kate and I thought it looked like a really cool place, the other girls weren't interested but they dropped us off on their way to a different tourist destination. The park was amazing! The moment we entered we could see giraffes and they had a huge field and even though there were fences, it was nothing like the zoo. Everything was much more open! FOTA has a lot of endangered species and a lot of them are able to roam free around the park and get along well with other animals. The giraffes also had ostriches, oryx, and zebra in the same field. They had a lot of cheetahs too! That's ... read more

Today was the big one for us; Blarney Castle! And it was not a disappointment. On the way out of town, we hit some rain and thought it might be another rainy, windy day. But, luckily, it cleared up as we got outside the city and the drive turned out to be incredible. The Irish country side never disappoints. Passed through several small towns which each had it's own magnificent cathedrals, no matter how small the town. The driving was nerve-racking as always, but passing through hillsides and seeing the view, the ruins, the cathedrals, and even the sheep, makes the near collisions worth it. Our first stop of the day was Blarney Castle. It is just outside the town of Blarney and located on a beautiful track of land which also has picnic areas, a ... read more