Cork

I have to say even though i hate the bus ride itself the scenery is quite nice so i kind of makes us for the smelly people and children crying, well sort of. Cork is a lot bigger than Galway but still not massive. i like the city center, there are parts of it that actually remind me of Melbourne, mainly because the laneways have lots of cafes, restaurants and bars down them. its quite nice just to walk around them and take it all in. something i've found interesting in not only Cork but throughout parts of Ireland are the signs are in both English and in Gaelic. i've heard there are parts where its only in Gaelic, which could make it a little tricky getting around. where i'm staying is in a good central spot across the road from me is a furniture and homeware store, the woman that owns the shop is really nice and we had a good chat about the stuff she stocked, alot of her stuff is from all over the world, not just Ireland. i was looking at a pattern on a chair and i recognized it from somewhere, she told me it was a Florence Broadhurst design, no wonder i knew it, she's Australian (if you haven't heard of Florence i recommend checking her out, her story is amazing and the mystery around her murder is intriguing). The people i'm staying with in the hostels are pretty cool, heaps of Aussies and New Zealanders and they all seem to be looking for jobs here at the moment. whenever i look at the news here, people are being laid of left, right and center. good luck to them, i hope they find something. but best of all on a Friday night they put on a free sausage sizzle. as i was biting into a gourmet sausage i couldn't help but think, 'i'm living the dream'. but it was short lived, i had to share a room with a guy who snored all night long, i didn't get a wink of sleep.

while i was here i went to a church where you could ring the 'bells of Shandon'. because I've never rang bells before, my ringing was rubbish, but kind of cool to do. you can ring them whenever you like which must be heaven for the people that live around the area. the poor buggers have to listen to piss weak bell rings all day long. while your climbing up the bell tower you can see how the old clock works which is quite interesting. the view from the top was really nice, i was lucky because it was pretty clear when i got up there and could see quite far. the old bloke that worked at the church was good value, i had a chat to him for a bit and he showed me how to get to the university, because he said it was worth checking out, and it was. The university is a mix of old and new buildings but is really beautiful, they have a gallery there too, but the work in it wasn't pretty average. while i was there i wandering into some building where they had all these stones on display. i asked the guy what they were and he explained to me that they were Ogham Stones and the markings on them are the first signs of writing in Ireland. they are pretty much lines at different lengths that sometime over lap. they were used to mark out land. supposedly the university has the biggest collection so stumbling across those was an awesome find!
not far from there was the Cork museum and when i got there it was closed for lunch, which i found a little strange, but i went into the cafe to ask when they open again, the girl behind the counter asked me where i was from and she ended up writing me an itinerary of things to do and bars to check out while i'm in Ireland, i didn't have the heart to tell here i probably wasn't going to do it all, but it was very nice of her, and it killed some time until the museum was open.

St Finbarre's Cathedral is quite interesting and you may have noticed from previous blogs i'm much of a fan of religion. anyway, i walked in there and there were some very excited catholics inside that couldn't wait to show me around, i pretty got a guided tour around the place. supposedly this was the site where a monk started his monastery here and where Cork was founded from. there were a couple of churches built here over time but were demolished to make room for this cathedral. the lead lighting was quite interesting, the left side of the building had the old testament and the right and toward the back had new testament. i really respect that kind of work, i think it would take alot of talent to design that stuff. they had a huge pipe organ which had over 1000 pipes in it, which was pretty impressive. something i found a little strange was there was a cannonball hanging from the ceiling. story goes, there is a fort next door, and during a battle one of the original churches got a caught in the cross fire and a cannonball got lodged in the side of the tower.

One day i took the bus out to Blarney to see the castle and of course kiss the stone. as i said in my last blog, i'm a little over castles but i made an exception for this one. i was actually surprised to find that there was more there than just the stone. the Castle is really cool and has a labyrinth of caves under it which were amazing, they came about for people attacking them trying to burrow underneath the castle. the gardens around it were quite pretty too. in them they had a few strange things to explore like 'the wishing steps', 'the witches kitchen', 'druids cave' and 'druids stones' which, as the story goes, is where witches were said to congregate and snakes were involved in there rituals so thats why they St. Patrick got rid of all the snakes in Ireland. but of course you don't go to Blarney and not kiss the stone. the stone is right up the top of the castle and so you have to trek up some pretty small steps to get up there, the view its self is worth it. by kissing the stone your meant to endow the kisser with the gift of the gab (god, like i needed anymore help, i think your born with it if your a Hendrick) you have to lay on your back hold on to some bars behind you so you don't fall then you lean right back and pucker up! i spoke to the guy who worked there (he was a classic) and he said originally you would have to hang from your feet to kiss the stone, but since then then they have taken out part of the wall to access it easier. Blarney is a pretty little town too, when i say little i mean little, only a few streets really. i went to the local pub there and had an Irish stew for lunch, it was really good but so big, i think my stomach has shrunk! i'm a little bit surprised but the lack of potatoes, i thought i might be force fed them but there are hardly in many dishes. in fact the Scots loved them more i think, they were always selling stuffed potatoes or chips of some kind, still its early days.

during my time in Cork a took some time out and did a tour of the Ring of Kerry. i got recomended by a few people at the hostel i was staying at to check it out, the scenery out there is amazing, i'm really glad i went. something i thought was good was the EU (European union) make countries do a certain amount of conservation, here in Ireland they have put a lot of money into there native animals to helped boost numbers. if they don't they don't get funding for things like roads etc. i think its really responsible and a great idea. i stayed the night in a little town called Killarney which is cute. while i was there they had a great little market going on with people playing music in the street, for a few of the songs they got some little kids to do riverdance stuff to the music which was brilliant! they were pretty good considering how young they were.

its funny, since i've been in Ireland theres been plenty in the news about a girl called Katy French, she was an Irish model that died a year ago from a cocaine overdose, which is pretty tragic. they had a memorial for her the other day. but i can't get over how much the media is making her into a martyr, they have double page spreads in newspapers and TV specials like she was Princess Diana, i think its pretty wrong. lets face it, she died because she was doing illegal drugs, but i feel the media seem to gloss over that fact because she's got a pretty face. now don't get me wrong, i think its terrible that someone so young dies, the media just shit me, they make out like some one else shoved a few kilos of coke up her nose, somehow i get the feeling she wasn't a first time user. i don't really know the full story, she may have been a saint.

I'm off to Dublin next, which i think could be really good, even though the locals tell me its 'shite'! more when i get there.