Beginning to feel like a local

Hello everyone!

Well, today marks the last day of class for me until I go back to class at St. Ben's in August.  Its crazy because I still have two months left in Ireland and Europe!  The school system is a little different here, I am being graded mostly on just a paper and an exam for each class.  The exams are essay exams and my first one was one and a half hours long to answer two questions! We all used up the whole time and we were frantically scribbling words down the whole time as well.  My hand literally cramped up! 

Anyways, the past week we have all realized that April is here! We are like wait, what? Its here already? In one day my parents will arrive in Dublin! ONE DAY!  I am praying for good weather for them as they are only in Ireland for about 5 days total and I want them to love it as much as I do!  Its crazy thinking about being gone for about 4 weeks after I am done showing them Ireland.  Trying to get all my ducks in a row has been a bit stressful but it will definitely all be worth it.  

In the past week I have also realized that I have begun to feel like a local.  I mean I have been living here for 3 months, I'm definitely not a tourist anymore!  During the St. Patricks festival I could tell who was a tourist and who was a local.  All weekend I would hear things that in my head I would either go 'no, don't do that' or 'yes, thats right.'  Things like commenting on whether a certain coffee shop is a chain in Ireland or whether the buses have bathrooms or wifi on them.  Just little things that I have picked up by living here and that I don't really think about anymore!  But I also know that when I speak to real locals I will be placed in the tourist category because of my accent.  

Some things I have really begun to appreciate about living in Cork:

My view from the library.  I actually still can't get over that building and that I had a class in there.  What?! 

Finding a favorite coffee shop or two :)

Sunsets over the River Lee

Indulging in oreo cupcakes and other baked treats from the English Market

Taking myself to out breakfast at a favorite coffee shop while sitting outside on a nice day and watching people, cars and double decker buses go by on the main street.  The half door has not only the best chai lattes but also the best scones I have ever had.

Hot chocolate and girl talk at O'conaills

My fellow Corksters, girls night and wine cafes (Photo courtesy Ana Nugent)

Basically, I don't really want to leave Cork.  I would just love it if all my family and friends would come join me here! I miss everyone so much but I just love it here and I want to share where I live with so many people!  I have been beyond blessed with this opportunity to immerse myself in another country and try and see and experience everything that Ireland has to offer.  I hope I have been able to express my gratitude along the way for everything that I have been given! And to top it off, I am about to embark on a journey of a lifetime in Europe.  You know, just going to casually bop around Europe over to London and then to Switzerland and Italy for a few weeks...   Its fine.  

I am so excited to see and experience other countries and cultures.  My travel mates and I talk a lot about how difficult the language barrier is going to be and we know how tired traveling can make you  BUT I know its all going to be worth it.  The language barrier will just make for better stories once the frustration and confusion has worn off :) 

Today will be of finalizing details of our travel plans and having a final family dinner and trying to see everyone before we are all separated for a month! We are definitely realizing that our time to go home is coming sooner than we wish and trying to make the most of being together while we can.

I think that is all, next post will hopefully be when I get to Prague but we will see! 

Lá Fhéile Pádraig!

Hey everyone! Lá Fhéile Pádraig! or Happy (late) Saint Patrick's day!

This week was filled with more paper writing, enjoying the incredible weather, planning my parents visit and my April travels and gearing up for St. Patricks day! I'm pretty sure it hasn't really rained in about a week. Its been misty a few times but imagine that?! Sunny blue skies for the majority of the week lifted everyones moods I think.  

For starters, there is less than two weeks until my parents come! I can't believe how soon its coming up and I can't wait to show them around Cork! 

On Friday, two of my friends and I decided to take a day trip to a town called Ballycotton.  It is in county Cork and was about an hour bus ride away from the city.  The main attraction in Ballycotton is the cliff walk.  Some of our friends had done it a few weeks ago and suggested that we go, and I am so glad we got that suggestion! The town of Ballycotton was so cute.  Its a little fisherman's town with beautiful views of the sea and there is a lighthouse not too far off the coast on a little island which made for a really cool view.  The cliff walk itself is about 3 miles (?) not really sure.  All I know is that it took us an hour to walk back without stopping so I would guess we walked about 6 miles total.  The path winds along the coast and part of the way the path is on top of a cliff and there are views of cliffs as well, hence the name 'cliff walk.'  The walk was so beautiful that I could have kept going for hours without tiring except for the fact that I got hungry.  Of course.. We found a pub slash B&B to eat lunch at.  It was very cute and even had a fireplace.  The owner of the pub's name was Mike and he was so very friendly! He knew the few other customers by name and he was very kind to us.  He kept the fire going, showed us picture books of Ireland and talked to us for awhile.  I think we maybe ended up hanging out there for almost two hours! 

This town and area is my favorite town in Ireland by far.  I think I just like the easy feeling of the sea and exploring beaches and cliffs.  If I could live there I totally would! Maybe I wouldn't have a job, but I could hang out by the ocean and do the cliff walk every morning and eat seafood a lot? Sounds pretty good to me.  

Ballycotton cliffs!

On top of a hill that overlooks the sea!

Picturesque Ireland :)

There were some really cool purple rocks at one of the beaches!

On Saturday the St. Patrick's day festivities began!  There was a festival that started on Saturday and ran through Monday.  It consisted of SO many food vendors and stands.  This was like a dream come true.  I loved it! There was fish and chips, sausages and potatoes, hamburgers, pizza, asian food, paella, homemade ice cream, candy, fudge... you name it! It was fun just to look at all the food even though I knew I couldn't possibly try all of it.  There were also stands selling jewelry, stands for face painting and many street performers either singing, playing music, blowing balloons or painting.  The weather was incredible on Saturday so we went to get lunch at the festival and then we spent a good amount of time sitting in the sun next to the river and just relaxing.  I was also surprised at how many tourists St. Patrick's day brought to Cork.  There were so many people speaking different languages everywhere! It was really a fun holiday to experience.

On Sunday we did more hanging out by the food and listening to music and watching street performers.   Then I went to work on homework and prepare for St. Patrick's day by making some green colored cupcakes to bring to the party that our group decided to throw.  We went to one of our favorite pubs that night too for a special deal they had on for one of their local brews.  I actually made friends with a few Irish people, so that was fun! St. Patrick's day is a bank holiday so school was canceled and most people don't have work so everyone is able to attend the parade in the afternoon.  In the morning my friends and I got dressed up in our green clothes and painted four leafed clovers on our faces and then stuffed our faces with yummy treats that everyone brought to share.  After awhile we headed over to the parade and it was packed! There were so many people we didn't really know where to stand but we ended up in a decent spot.  

The parade itself had an interesting variety of floats and groups walking through.  There were a lot of dancing schools or baton twirling groups, bands, drum-lines and military personnel and also floats that were symbolic of the holiday.  For example, there were ladies dressed like snakes and doing gymnastics and using hula hoops.  They were to symbolize the legend that Saint Patrick banished all of the snakes from Ireland by chasing them into the sea.  There were other floats that we had no idea the reasoning behind them.  There was one large float of a dragon accompanied by a man blowing fire.  Super cool, but not sure why it was there? After the parade we grabbed lunch and just kinda hung out the rest of the day.  

Some of the food stands on St. Patrick's street

Sausage and roasted potatoes!

Lol?

SO excited about the fish and chips

Probably the best fish and chips I have had! YUM

Homemade fudge

Fairy with the kiddos

Me and my roommate, Megan in front of the Irish flag

Parade selfie!

Fire breathing man

Bagpipes and kilts! (thought of you, dad)

Also, this week I went into a cafe where I usually go to get THE BEST spiced chai lattes and right when I walked in, the barista knew my order! Not sure if I should be excited or embarrassed about this but we exchanged names and who knows maybe we'll be besties before I leave.  I mean she does make the best spiced chai latte I have ever had so she is already kinda my best friend! 

The half door cafe where I get my 2 euro take away spiced chai :)

No big plans for this week besides studying and paper writing and finalizing my April travel plans! I will give you a spoiler on what I mean when I say April travel plans…

UCC gives us a 3 week break for easter and spring break and a week for studying before we take our finals.  That means a 4 week break! I am going to see so many things and I can't even believe it.  First, I am headed to England with my mom(!), then I will meet up with my friends and head to Prague in the Czech Republic, Munich in Germany, Interlaken in Switzerland, Milan, Rome, Florence and Pisa in Italy, and Brussels in Belgium.  WHEW!  I can't even believe it still.  Its going to be such an adventure!

Thats all for now, thanks for reading everyone! 

                      

Sarah comes to Cork!

Hello everyone!

So this week my little baby nephew, Charles Timothy Holmberg, entered the world! I am an aunt! Every baby item that I see in Ireland, I want to buy for him because what are aunts for but to spoil their nephews? :) I can't wait to meet him in May!

As you can see from my post title, my good friend Sarah Harrington came to visit me in Cork! She is studying in Rome this semester and her ancestors are from Cork so she decided to take a visit up here for part of her spring break.  It was so fun to spend time with her as I hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving! She and her two friends got here on Friday afternoon and first we walked around the English Market and got some yummy Irish sausages.  I also showed them around my campus, which they loved.  I still can't get over the fact that I go to school at the most beautiful campus.  Every time I walk past the quad I am still in awe that I go to class in that building!

On Saturday they went to see Blarney and I had an archaeology field trip to the Rock of Cashel.  The Rock of cashel is an early medieval fortress the over looks the southern Tipperary plain.  It was used by the kings of Munster before it was handed over to the church to be used as an archiepiscopal center.  It is stunning to see it from below.  It was actually closed due to high winds (classic Ireland) so we couldn't go tour the inside of the grounds like we planned.  Our professor took us instead to an early medieval ecclesiastical monastery. The high winds were incredible.  You would think since we were not on top of a hill or anything the wind might be a little calmer but it was a struggle to move forward sometimes!

Anyways, that night I brought Sarah and her friends to a pub with live Irish music.  Its my personal favorite pub so I enjoyed sharing the traditional Irish music and cool atmosphere with them.  On Sunday, I brought them to a cafe for traditional Irish breakfast and then we headed over to the Shandon tower to climb up to the top and ring the bells! I hadn't done this before so it was fun to have it be a first time for me too.  The stairs going up to the top were extremely narrow. At times you had to duck under some rafters and step over some more just to get up to the viewing deck.  The view was incredible though! It wasn't even a really sunny day but it was so cool to see my whole city!  We could see the rolling hills behind the city as well and it was just so very Irish.

Sarah's friends went off to do some sightseeing in another town.  She and I got to do some shopping and much needed catching up over a cup of the best mocha in the world at O'connails :) We met up with the other two for dinner at a chinese restaurant.  On a side note, they were all so excited not to eat pizza or pasta all the time! So it was funny to see how excited they were for something like nachos or chinese.  Anyways, lastly I brought them to a pub that brews their own beer and its actually located right across from my apartment.  Its also another favorite.

I sent them off this morning on their way to Dublin and said goodbye until I make my way to Rome in about a month! Being able to show someone around was very fun for me.  It was interesting to hear how their life is different in Rome and what they thought of Ireland.  It also made me begin to appreciate Cork even more for is unique character.  As I fall more and more in love with Cork, the harder I am realizing it will be to say goodbye in what will be a short two and a half months.

I am also beginning the countdown for my parents visit and my three week spring break adventure through Europe! It will be less than three weeks until I meet my parents in Dublin.  And we are finalizing all of our flights, trains, buses and hostels for my five country tour of Europe! I still can't believe everything that I am going to see.

Well, thats all for now.  No big plans coming up in the next few weeks, maybe a day trip or two? We will see.  Thanks for reading!

Baby Charlie :)

Irish sausages at the English market

Sarah and I at UCC

Rock of Cashel

My professor, Tomas, talking about an ecclesiastical church that we saw

This is pretty accurate..

Sarah and I on top of the bell tower!

Overlooking Cork city from the bell tower.  You can see my pink apartment building in the distance.  

Me, Sarah and Iryna getting some chipsy kings

Sarah with her mocha :)

We even got to chat with Jason for a bit!

Tourist Status: More of Cork and Dingle

Hello readers! This post actually ended up being a bit longer than I expected but here goes..

As I sit here I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new baby nephew! I get excited every time I get a text message and hoping every time that it will be from my parents telling me that its time! Rooting for you Kristin from across the pond and I SO wish I could be there with everyone.  I cannot wait to meet that little nugget.

Well, this week I turned in my first assignment for school.  Yes, my first assignment.  It was a paper.  School here is very different than my hardcore nutritional biochem class back at St. Ben's! Its a nice break from the rat race of nutrition nutrition and more nutrition.  But, I miss my nutrition classmates and teachers nonetheless.  Yes, even Amy for you fellow biochemists :)  I have a few more papers due in the next few weeks so that will keep me semi busy during the week along with sleeping in, drinking a lot of coffee and chai lattes and loving Ireland :)

So this weekend my roommate, Megan, was gone for most of the weekend and a lot of my other friends were busy jetting off to cool places like Scotland, London and Rome.  Not that Cork isn't cool, its very cool.  Anyways, I decided to do some touristy things in Cork that I hadn't done yet and probably won't have time to do with my parents or other visitors.  I'd like to think that after living here for 2 months I wouldn't be considered a tourist anymore, but I can't deny the fact that I am an American!

First off, I toured the Cork City Gaol (pronounced Jail).  I actually didn't mind going alone because then I could walk and read at my own pace and not worry about taking too long for someone else.  It was absolutely gorgeous out on Friday so I am glad I took advantage of the weather and did some walking around.  The outside of the Gaol was really pretty which is a stark difference from the inside of the old cells.  When I walked into the grounds, I was literally the only person there.  But I kinda like it when I have parts of Ireland all to myself :)

The tour itself was self guided.  I was given a brochure with a numbered list of the exhibits in the jail and a short description of each one.  Throughout the Gaol there were life-size replicas of people that would have lived there or worked there.  Some of the exhibits were replicas of inmates and there was a short description of their backgrounds like what they were arrested for and what their punishment was.  Many of them were put in jail for crimes like stealing some cloth to make clothes to make a living but there were also inmates that were arrested for things like murder.  The inmates also had severe punishments of hard labor as well as the harsh conditions of living in the jail.

Entrance to the Gaol.  The sky is so blue!

You can see the different levels of the inside

Inside of a cell

Another shot of the inside with the two levels.  The doorway on the very left would have been a cell.

Selfie with a fake guard man

My apartment building is the pink one on the right.  It was such a beautiful day and the river is usually not this calm so you can see the reflections in the water. 

View of the river Lee from my apartment at sunset.  I think I have the best view :)

The other touristy thing that I saw this weekend was the Cork Butter Museum.  Why is there a butter museum you might ask?  Dairy was/is a huge industry in Ireland.  Irish butter is actually so good too, full of fat maybe? :)  After the potato famine, many people were not so keen on growing potatoes so they began to focus more on dairy products and bread.  The butter museum told about the history of the butter industry, how butter is made and what it is made with.  There were many old butter churns and boxes that were used to ship butter when there wasn't refrigeration and some barrels used in early medieval times for churning butter as well.  Again, I didn't mind going alone because I was able to actually read everything and spend as much time as I pleased looking at the artifacts.

Saturday afternoon I also went on a date with Jason!  It was a Skype date of course but it was nice to 'talk' to him somewhere other than my stuffy apartment.  It was more like silent video chat with typing so we didn't annoy everyone around us :) but still fun.  I found a really cute cafe on the far side of city centre that is called the Bookshelf Coffee Shop.  The entrance to it says 'Cork Library' so I am wondering if it used to be a library?  Anyways, I got to sit in a big comfy chair and the barista even did a little latte art on my drink!  So cute.  Although they probably do it for everyone, it still was a nice surprise.  One of my favorite coffee places for sure!

Butter Museum

Latte Art

Cutie boy :)

The entrance to the Bookshelf Coffee Shop

On Sunday I did a day trip bus tour to the Dingle Peninsula!  My friend, Nicole, and I booked tickets through a company called Paddy Wagon.  They have multiple tours going all over Ireland and they pack as many things as possible into one day which makes it a good deal for tourists.  Our main focus of the trip was to get to the town of Dingle because we had heard really good things about it.  But we were pleasantly surprised at everything else the tour had to offer!  We saw the longest beach in Ireland called Inch Beach (ironic?), drove through the Dingle Peninsula and the Slea Head drive.  We were able to see the basket Islands, an island called the sleeping giant, and the small, sleepy little gaelic speaking towns that sit in the middle of all the beauty of mountains and sea.  Throughout almost the whole drive there were sheep dotting the Irish countryside.  I love that part of Ireland!  We also were able to see some of the places where Far and Away was filmed that starred Tom Cruise.  Haven't seen the movie, but now I will definitely put that on my to do list. 

The town of Dingle itself was everything I thought it would be.  It was honestly such a typical Irish town.  Colored buildings, a harbor full of boats, every pub advertising fresh fish and chips, all surrounded by beautiful rolling hills.  Nicole and I were excited about the fresh seafood and we ordered seafood chowder at a cute family owned cafe.  It was the perfect way to warm up after being in the wind all morning. YUM.  We had about an hour and half in Dingle so we wandered a bit through the town after we ate and made our way to an ice cream shop that is well known in Dingle called Murphy's.  There is a reason it is well known people.  Let me tell you! It was probably some of the best ice cream I have ever had.  Sea salt and caramel honeycomb ice cream mixed in a cone.  

Maybe it was because I was in the cutest town I've ever seen, or the fact that I am in Ireland?  Doesn't really matter.  It was good.  

To top it off, our tour guide/bus driver was very… silly?  And big! He sang a wide range of songs for us and probably never stopped talking for more than 5 minutes.  He even had this little Irish doll that people could take pictures with if they wanted.  I won't be forgetting about him!

Inch Beach

Nicole and I at one of the stops

Slea Head

Seafood chowder.  We weren't exactly sure how to eat these, but eventually the meat just fell out.  Soup is also usually served with traditional Irish brown bread and butter.  

Harrington's! 

Murphy's ice cream

My two flavors were sea salt and caramel honeycomb.  The salt is made from the sea right there in Dingle and they use a rare breed of cow to make the cream for this very special ice cream.  It was a really good combo, YUM.  (Thought of you dad)

Dingle Harbor

Dingle Town

It was a really good way to end a fun and relaxed weekend.  Now that Dingle is checked off the list, I only have a few more places in Ireland that are on my 'visit for sure' list.  Still can't believe how fast the time has gone and everything that I have already seen! And yet I have so much more adventuring on the horizon and I can't wait.

 Next weekend my good friend Sarah Harrington is visiting with her two friends and they are all studying in Rome this semester!  I know Sarah from my first summer working at Trout Lake Camps.  I cannot wait to have my first visitor to show around Cork and try to give her a feel of Ireland in the short few days that she will be with me.  We are gonna have so much fun Sarah! I can't wait!

Thanks again for reading!