Cork: The Land of my Fathers

The Finnigans are from Cork

Before I left home to come to Ireland, my grandfather gave me one of his old guidebooks from when he and my grandmother visited Ireland.  He also told me a little bit about Irish history, and our own family’s heritage.  For one thing he told me that the Finnigans (his father’s side) were from Cork, and the Comiskys (his mother’s side) were from Sligo.  Well, this past weekend I had the opportunity to explore the county of my ancestors when I went with a group of friends for an overnight trip in Cork. 

We left Galway Saturday morning on a 10:30am bus headed for Cork.  After a week of somewhat questionable weather (it had been pretty cloudy) it was an absolutely gorgeous day!  The Irish countryside seemed to gleam green through the bus windows…well that is until I passed out about half an hour into the bus ride.  I dozed on and off for the entire 3 ½ hour bus ride from Galway to Cork.  At one point when I woke up I heard a couple of the girls doing a “psychoanalysis exercise” where one girl asked the other some questions that the other had to answer quickly without thinking about it.  I decided to join in, and here were my answers.

1. You are walking through a forest and run into an angry Grizzly Bear, what do you do?
   I run away! 
2. After you see the Grizzly Bear you are walking through the forest and you happen upon a key on the ground, what does this key look like?  Give a description.
   It’s small and old-fashioned. 
3. Suddenly you come to a clearing and you see a cottage.  You enter the cottage, what does it look like inside?
   It’s welcoming and comfortable.  
4. Right next to the cottage is a beach.  What does the ocean look like?
   It’s a calm day, with very few waves.

Now #1 apparently stands for how you react to conflict, #2 for your ego, #3 for how people see you, and #4 for your love life.  All in all this was relatively accurate for me.  I do have the tendency to run from conflict in order to avoid it, and my ego/self-confidence is relatively small.  Usually people do seem to think I’m welcoming, and it’s a calm day at my love life beach!  All in all this was kind of a funny activity, especially when some people’s were so spot on.  One girl said that she would curl up in a fetal position if she saw the bear, and she definitely tries to hide from conflict!

Cork!

Anyways, we got into Cork City Centre at about 2pm.  Immediately after arriving we all marveled that Cork looked so different from Galway, and even from Dublin.  It is a much more modern looking city, appearing almost European, however with the massive hills and brightly colored houses it looked almost like San Francisco to me!  We got off the bus at St. Patrick’s Quay and walked only about 3 blocks until we got to the Killarney House hostel where we would be staying.  The 8 of us were put into a 10 person with the promise that 2 random people would be stuck in later that day, however they never showed up, so we didn’t have any awkward sleeping arrangements.  This hostel was pretty nice, our room had its own bathroom that was clean, so already it was a step up from the hostel we stayed at in Paris, and free breakfast was served from 7-9:30am. 

After checking in and dropping off our stuff our group pow-wowed about what we really wanted to do while in Cork.  The two things that everyone had really locked into were visiting Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone, and going to Fota Wildlife Park.  At first it was kind of unclear whether or not both were going to be possible, as with our late arrival we worried that we wouldn’t be able to be admitted to either place on Saturday afternoon.  However, after a quick survey of the bus schedule to Blarney we realized we could get there in plenty of time.  So, the 8 of us walked down the street where our hostel was and hurried to get a quick bite to eat before our bus ride to Blarney.  As we walked down the street the bells from the nearby cathedral began to ring…suddenly I realized that the bells were playing the tune of “Three Blind Mice!”  After grabbing a quick bite from a hole in the wall fast-food joint, we walked down and crossed the river to get to City Centre, and the bus station. 

A quick 10 minute bus ride later, we were in the small town of Blarney.  It was green EVERYWHERE, and from the bus stop you could see Blarney Castle in the distance.  Now I can’t quite describe to you the beauty of Blarney Castle’s grounds.  The castle itself is impressive, that is for sure; there is a reason that it is Ireland’s most photographed spot.  First of all, there is no guided tour through this castle.  No, you get to climb around for yourself.  Go through every passage that you want, climb through secret passages, and into the dungeon (I did!).  The staircases are winding, steep, and narrow, but everytime you peek out of one of the slit windows your breath is taken away by the vastness of the rolling hills and the lush trees.  After exploring the banquet hall, the chapel, the numerous bed rooms, and many other old rooms, we finally climbed to the top of the castle.  The view was spectacular.  You could see the Irish countryside for miles around you, with colorful dots of houses far off in the distance, and the flora of the region lush and green.  Then we noticed an old man kneeling at the wall of the tower…he was the helper put there to ensure that tourists who want to kiss the Blarney Stone don’t fall to their deaths.

Kissing the Blarney Stone

For those of you who don’t know, the Blarney Stone is a famous tourist attraction in Ireland that holds a mythical place in Irish folklore.  It is said that if you kiss the Blarney Stone you will be given the “gift of gab,” in other words you’ll become more eloquent.  Now, no one of ever told me that kissing the Blarney Stone was going to be half a work out, and half a terrifying feat.  You can’t just bend over and kiss the stone, no you have to grasp two metal bars and bend backwards with the assistance of a trained helper in order to kiss the Blarney Stone safely.  This helper didn’t rush his job, no no.  He flirted with every single girl that went up to kiss the stone, which let’s face it, mostly girls went to kiss it.  Man he was enjoying himself!

Climbing the Wishing Stairs

Well after having the gift of gab bestowed upon me (although looking back on past blog entries I wonder if the Stone could actually do much?), we set out to explore the castle grounds more, and wow they could stand alone as one of the most amazing places to visit.  We walked through what truly seemed to be an enchanted forest; it just seemed to be magical…like something you’d see in a Disney film about fairies!  I swear Tinkerbell was about to pop out of nowhere!  Here we came upon what are known as the “Wishing Stairs.”  You are supposed to walk up the stairs, and then down the stairs backwards thinking only of your wish.  If you do this then your wish is supposed to be granted within the year.  Most of us decided to do it, and boy it was a tad bit scary going down stairs backwards!  If you want to know what my wish was, sorry.. it’s bad luck to share a wish!  I’ll let you know when it gets granted though. ☺

St. Finn Barre's Cathedral

After thoroughly roaming Blarney, we all headed back to Cork where we all agreed that we were starving and ready for dinner!  Now, one strange thing about Cork that again reminds me of San Francisco, is that there are Asian restaurants EVERYWHERE!  Now, one thing that Ireland is lacking is some legitimate Chinese food, and we were all kind of craving it, so we went and at a place called The Golden Chopsticks.  Not bad at all, now they didn’t have my beloved potstickers, but their Mandarin Beef wasn’t half bad!  After eating ourselves silly we all went back to the hostel to get ready for a night out in the “Dance Capital of Ireland.”  To cut a long story short though, one girl didn’t get into the club that night because she didn’t have her Passport with her and she doesn’t have a Garda ID Card (Irish government registration card) because she has dual citizenship, so a bunch of us went back with her to enjoy late night milkshakes at Eddie Rockets instead.  I hadn’t been that excited to go out, so for me it was kind of the perfect ending to a fun day!

Sunday morning one of the other girls, Meg, and I got up and went to 8am Mass at a nearby Catholic church, the Church of the Ascension.  Now we had no idea this service would be so short, but I guess since it’s all pretty much old people at this time the priest cut out the music from Mass, so it was all done in half an hour.  After that we roamed the streets of City Centre until everyone else was up at about 10.  We saw the famous St. Fin Barre's Anglican Cathedral, and found a pub called "Sober Lane" that had rock paper scissor tournaments!  Then we all packed up our stuff from the hostel and went to the railroad station that would take us to Fota.

All of us at Fota Wildlife Park
From Left to Right: Hannah, Katrina, Logan, Jaime, Sally, Me, Cassie, Meg

Petting a Kangaroo!

Now, to clear up any confusion… Fota is not a zoo.  No, I did not go to Cork to go to a zoo.  Fota is a wildlife park, and yes there IS a difference.  At Fota many of the animals are roaming free in very large spaces, and they can interact with visitors.  For instance the monkeys and birds are all pretty free to roam; even the kangaroos can hop where they wish!  Now, the cheetahs and giraffes are still separated, and the zebras have an electric fence keeping them in, but still the experience is very different.  At Fota I saw everything from the mundane duck to a red panda (I hadn’t even heard of this animal before), and capybara (the world’s largest rodent).  It was somewhere that honestly both adults and children would love…I absolutely loved it, and I could see my 7 year old sister being in complete awe.  The highlight of the day: I PET A KANGAROO!  That’s right.. I actually pet a kangaroo..in Ireland!  The kangaroos were just hopping around eating food from the grass, and I just let one sniff my hand (much as you would a dog) and then it let me pet it.  It was such a cool experience!

After going to Fota there wasn’t much time to continue exploring Cork before our 6pm bus back to Galway (and we really couldn’t miss the bus because it was the last of the evening).  So we headed back to the city and divided into 2 groups for dinner.  One group really wanted to go to Thai food, while my group didn’t want Asian food again.  So Meg, Cassie, and I grabbed our bags from the hostel’s luggage room and headed off in search of dinner.  We found Gambienis, a small Italian restaurant, and we gorged ourself on pizza and pasta.  I had a Spicy Meat Pizza with jalepenos on it…it was not only delicious, but it was also the first legitimately spicy thing I’ve eaten in Ireland (the Irish don’t really know REAL spicy food).  After dinner we hustled back to St. Patrick’s Quay and hopped on our bus.  I was all prepared for a nice nap, when the girl behind me began to talk.  Loudly.  And she didn’t stop for the ENTIRE trip home….oi vey.  Oh well, I managed to drift off for a few minutes at a time!

It was really fun to explore Ireland more instead of just going off to mainland Europe.  Stay on the look out for more Ireland adventures, because this coming weekend I’m off to Northern Ireland!