Bank Holiday Weekend in Cork
Mood:  energetic
The weekend was absolutely fabulous!!! Starting out Friday with my spa day, which was sooooo wonderful, and then my time in Cork, I think that it was the best weekend I've had while here.

It's been pretty rainy here in Dublin, so to get out of the city for a while was a huge relief. The weather down in Cork is much more temperate and mild as opposed to Dublin. Fairly sunny skies and NO RAIN graced me all weekend.

The train ride down to Cork on Saturday was mostly uneventful with the exception of a bunch of very obnoxious drunk teenagers on their way to a Techno Festival in County Cork. Lets just say they were very excited to be going.

Yet again, I failed to get a map of Cork so that I could easily find my way from the train station to my hotel, but that's just all part of the adventure. My journey would have been a bit easier if the Cork city council hadn't renamed the street from Mulgrave Street to John Redmond Street. The people whom I asked directions from got the most quizzical expressions upon their faces when I asked for directions to John Redmond Street.

I eventually found the hotel without too much trouble. Upon entering my room and after dumping my bags on the double bed :) I inspected the bathroom and I had what can only be described as one of those pure Hallelujah moments. Not only was there a bathtub, but it was HUGE!!!! By the end of the weekend, I had not one, but TWO baths. Hee, hee, hee!

Of course, I was so tired from being on the train that I wasn't up to exploring the city looking for a place to eat, so I decided to avail myself to the hotel's restaurant. Can we say yum? I started off with an asparagus and prawn salad with a light pesto dressing, and went onto a main course of steak and garlic mashed potatoes (with the obligatory side of veggies) and finished off with strawberry cheesecake with chocolate dripped across it. Accompanying my meal was a very wonderful Chilean red, very nice. Needless to say, I was a bit tipsy after my meal!

Sunday I went on a tour of Blarney Castle and the village of Kinsale. I booked it through Roadrunner Tours at reception in the hotel and I couldn't be happier with my decision. Neil, our tour guide, was the perfect balance of giving information about what we were seeing and giving us plenty of free time to explore on our own. As it turned out, a couple of the other students in the program had gone on the tour before me, but I didn't know that at the time.

Blarney Castle was a lot of fun. The grounds are amazing and the castle was pretty cool too. And, yes, I did kiss the Blarney Stone. I had one of the other people in the group take my picture, but it didn't turn out very well as you can see in my photo album, and I ran out of time, so I couldn't get the ?10 picture they took. Oh well, maybe next time!

After Blarney Castle, we went to the village of Kinsale, and I think that I've found the place where I want to live. I haven't posted any of those pictures yet, but I'm sure you'll agree that it is a most picturesque little village. There are lots of little shops and something like 68 pubs! The village isn't all that big, set right on the water with decent marina. Yes, I could definitely live there.

I got back to Dublin midday on Monday, which was a Bank Holiday here. Which essentially means that many places were closed. A bunch of us went down to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dunleary), as our TA Brian invited us out for some snacks and some fresh sea air. While there I got to see Joyce's Tower where his protagonist in Ulysses lives. Whoo-hoo.

Later that evening four of us went to go see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So worth it! I very much enjoyed it. Much better than the earlier saccharine Gene Wilder version. I think that Roald Dahl can stop spinning in his grave now.

Til later!