Cork

                                                                        Cork City 

This past weekend Natalie and I traveled to Cork City, which is in the southeastern part of Ireland. We took a bus on Friday afternoon and arrived in Cork that evening. The ride there was wonderful. We got to see rolling green hills and lots of sheep and cattle. Everything here really is very green! Once we arrived we didn’t know where we were going to stay, but easily found a hostel to stay in just up the hill from the main part of the city. Cork is much smaller than Dublin and we quickly found our way around the city and to a nice pub with good music. On Saturday morning we took a bus to go and see Blarney Castle (it is only about 20min. from Cork). The castle was really neat and we got to kiss the famous Blarney stone that is as the very top of it and supposed to give the gift of eloquence to all who kiss it. The grounds around the castle are very beautiful and we walked round for a while and enjoyed them. We then took the bus back to Cork. For the rest of the afternoon we walked around the city, saw the main cathedral and went to a small museum. There were other things that we could have done but we were sick of spending money, so we decided to just go back to the hostel and rest for a while. Latter we went back out and got dinner and then went to another pub and listened to some more good music.

                                                         Blarney Castle 

Me kissing the silly stone (the man in the pic is a guy that works there and I guess he has to over see people or something)

 Just a glimpse of the castle grounds 

Sunday morning we took a train to Cobh (pronounced cove, the b-h combination in Irish makes a v sound and yes Irish is a language for those of you that didn’t know), which is a little island in a bay area near the city. Since it was Sunday morning not much was open, but we just walked around the town and along the coast and enjoyed the view. Latter in the morning we watched the end of the Cork to Cove 15 mile race that was going on and that was fun to see. We hopped back on the train and went back to Cork, collected our things from the hostel and then headed to the bus station to catch a ride back to Dublin. The ride was about 4 ½ hours, which was long, but again I got to enjoy the beauty of the Irish countryside. It was nice to be back in Dublin and once I got back to my apartment, after being gone for the weekend, it felt surprisingly like home. I liked that.

                                 View of the bay from Cobh 

 Bus ride scenery 

All of my classes are going well and time is going by fast. My professors have started to give me my assignments that will be due at the end of term and will act sort of like a final, which will make up the better part of my grade. Thankfully things haven’t been too tough and I don’t foresee them getting to terribly difficult. I have started reading Lord of The Rings for fun and am starting to get really engrossed in the first book. It is a bit dangerous when I start reading a book, especially one that is long, because I tend to get a bit detached from real life and just want to read all day until I finish it! Oh well, I am trying to have self-control, but it is quite good. Today was the first day that is has rained since I have been here! This is very remarkable since it normally rains very frequently; I have been told that it practically rained straight through July and August. I guess I have just been lucky to get such nice weather thus far. I am going to post a video soon of my apartment so you all can see it. It is very small, so it won’t be long, but I know some of you would enjoy seeing it.

Well I hope that you are all deeply enjoying your lives and not taking for granted the wonderful gift that life is. Being away from everyone that I love has made me appreciate them even more than I did before and I am very grateful for the life that has been laid out before me and am excited to see what lies ahead.