English Market in Cork, i.e. the Omnivore's paradise!

I think the English market was my favorite place in all of Cork- so much fresh food. I have eaten surprisingly well this last month... I'm going to miss the fresh mozzarella, fruits, cheeses- all of it! When you walked into the market the smell was something you (or at least I) had to stomach at first as most of the meat was fresh, never frozen. So, you could get sheep liver from that morning, the lining of a sheep stomach, ANY part you can think of from a cow, or a pig, including the head, still holding form. I decided to not take pictures of that stuff. :) "The Omnivore's Dilemma" was a book that really changed the way I eat, and this market was great because if I did buy meat- and when I bought cheese- I knew exactly where it came from and in most cases the person helping you even knew the farmer!

Dingle Adventure!

Molly (in picture) and I rented bikes and cycled the Dingle Peninsula! It was about 30 miles, so we left on the first bus Saturday morning, and got to Dingle about 1:00 pm and rented bikes and we were off! We stopped a lot, to see views like this... That was the great thing about bikes rather than cars, the roads are so small, if you're driving a car you can really only stop where they have designated pull-offs.

We stopped at this beach! The water was so clear!

It was pretty cold, but people were still swimming!

Our lunch, blue cheese and wine! A wave swept up and tried to sweep it all away, but after a pair of wet shoes (Molly's) and lifting our cameras' in the air, everything survived...

We watched the sunset on a beach.

We though we'd save some money by not booking a hostel, so we found this place to sleep!

Positive: it was dry

Negative: concrete wasn't the most comfortable/ warm thing to sleep on

Positive: it was right next to the beach!

Positive: We saved $$$

Now I've done the homeless sleeping thing... Not too bad really- after biking 20 miles, I slept well, once I was able to fall asleep!

Inis Oirr

This is the smallest of the three Aran Islands, and we rented bikes to see what we could see... There are only 350 residents on this island, most still speak Irish. This is hard to find in Ireland today. During the Irish cultural revival, there were organizations put together just to teach the Irish how to speak and write in Irish again. It was like a way of regaining what they felt was lost (unwillingly to the British). So many who did speak Irish didn't remain after the famine (either died or emigrated) and because Catholics were the ones who spoke Irish (not the Protestants coming from Britain) and were being suppressed by the English, the language was really dying for a while. Now it's mandatory in school for students and all the signs are in both Irish (first) and English.

Cliffs of Mohr trip

There were a few pubs in Doolin (nearest town to the Cliffs of Mohr and Aran Islands) and it was the best live music I've heard since I've been in Ireland! I was ready to shell out 15 euro for a Cd of this group, but they don't have one! It's just a few men who like to get together and play- I'm thinking they could sell a few Cd's if they recorded one! There were several locals at this bar- there were a few traditional Irish songs they played that had the whole pub singing every word! This pub must have been past the number of people who were supposed to be allowed in the door, so I had trouble getting pictures, and I didn't want to expose the poor guys to my flash any more than I had to, but I got a few pictures... I'm going to try and upload a video, so we'll see if it works...

Kinsale and Charles Fort

It was Kinsale art week, so the tinted windows were to help with acoustics, I think. Apparently they have concerts in the fort...

Kinsale was a great little harbor town! It wasn't exactly sunny the day we were there, but at least it wasn't raining!

Rock of Cashel

This castle was the home of the most powerful ruler in Ireland during the 11th and 12th centuries. Cashel means a stone enclosure, as it was more like a full community within the walls than just a castle!

This was home for the staff.... It was a rainy day when we went here...

Irish Monastery of the High Middle Ages- Athassel

This monastery was built in 1205 by the invading Anglo-Normans (Norman conquerors) who crossed the channel from Normandy in France to England in 1006. They reached Ireland in 1169. You can still see part of the moat that surrounded the monastery! The monks who were here were part of the Augustinian order and their monastery was founded by William de Burgh and dedicated to St. Edmond. ( I must credit this information to one of my professors, Damian Bracken, as I took this information from some information he handed out to us)

A gargoyle!! They used to be all over the outside of the Monastery, meant to keep the bad out. Apparently in that time, gargoyles were either a symbol of bad within the building or to keep the bad out. We'll assume with a monastery it was to keep the bad out...

Ahenny

You can find these high crosses at Ahenny, and they date back to the eighth and ninth centuries. I'm going to briefly explain the gist- but first let me say there are students/ scholars who earn their masters and PhD's studying these crosses and everything about them- so my explanation is just that- a gist...
The early Christians who built these crosses were on a mission to Christianize the world, and at the time, (there wasn't, to their knowledge, a North or South America), Ireland was the farthest point from the center (the center being Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified), so as far as they were concerned, the mission was completed and the world would end very soon!
The stone crosses have elaborate detail, one could only imagine how long it took to complete this. The center, which I just explained, is why the horizontal part of the cross is lower than traditional crosses we see, to symbolize the center, and that He is at the center of everything, the center is where everything begins and ends. The omphalos (navel, center point) is there to symbolize how important the Crucifixion is for salvation history.
The crosses have Bible stories carved in them, and start at the bottom and go up, as whoever was praying would be on his knees.

Kissing the Blarney Stone!!!

Molly leaning over the very top of the Blarney Castle!

Allison and I on our way up the tiny, winding staircase to the top, to kiss the stone! Blarney Castle... Legend has it there is cave, starting under the castle, that went all the way to Cork, and one to another town 15 miles away. (Cork is about 6 miles) We went in part of this cave, but most of it is blocked off.

The Silver Lining....

Discovering the silver lining after buckets of rain.

Cove- Queenstown- Cobh

This was a wonderful little town, and I felt like no matter how many pictures I took or what setting my camera was on, I couldn't capture the beauty. Especially since it was a beautiful day with no rain, and those days have been few. This is part of Cobh's park by the river. The flowers! O the flowers, the rain keeps them blooming! I may have overdone it with pictures in this post, but there are several here just looking out from the town, and where the Titanic (and many other ships) docked.

The prettiest colors! All the buildings on the waterfront were different colors.

This museum is here to remember the Titanic, but also all of the ships that left during the Famine. The population in Ireland before the famine was eight million, afterwards (while some scholars dispute this) it is agreed by most the population was a mere four million. One and a half million emigrated from Ireland during the Famine, headed for America or Canada, but many died along the way of Cholera or various diseases. Ships that had significant deaths were named 'coffin ships.'
Thousands of prisoners also left from Cobh, headed for Australia, where they would work and eventually be free. These ships were in awful conditions for a long time, and many also died along the way. It's hard to imagine through a blog posting, but after going through this museum (I took longer than most and read every single bit of information!) you (or at least I did) just have goosebumps and tingles from learning first about how much hype and excitement the Titanic had caused (it was to be the ship that only God himself could sink) then hearing that there was somewhat of a competition going on for ships that could travel the fastest, carrying mail and things back and forth from America. Then, you being to feel and imagine the struggles, severity of conditions and hunger that those felt when fleeing the famine. So while some were elated with the speed and size and audacity of the Titanic, several more were just fleeing for their lives, trying to allow their children the chance the live and not starve! The potato crop had failed 4 out of 5 years, and although most families could make it through one year of failure, not four or five. These were people who were eating 15-20 lbs. of potatoes a day-literally living solely off potatoes. There was some shame in the decades following the famine because those who could have helped (mostly the Protestant landowners) didn't because they didn't eat that many potatoes- to some extent, they didn't even realize the severity of it. Also sadly, some thought it was God's divine way of getting rid of those who they thought shouldn't be around anyway. After all this, you can almost feel how loved ones must have felt with news of the Titanic and waiting to hear if their loved ones had made a lifeboat. Sadly, most had not.

Queen Victoria first came to Ireland and named Cove Queenstown, in her honor. In 1920, after Ireland's long struggle for Independence, her own identity, and freedom from Britain, it was reverted to its original name in Irish, Cobh.