Kinsale, Cork, Dublin

All I can say right now after just returning from my Ireland and Scotland sojourn is wow, just wow. Met some of the nicest people and saw some of the most breathtaking views this world has to offer. My trip was split up into three different sections. The first leg of the trip was Kinsale and Cork, where I stayed with my friend Aifric and her family (I was in Kinsale to ring in the New Year as well). The second leg I went to Dublin and met up with Paige, another friend from Bonn, and then on the final part I went to Edinburgh for a short 28 hour visit. The first two legs I actually didnt take much pictures. This was for two reasons I believe. The first is that since I was staying with locals, I didnt feel so touristy, therefore didnt take pictures of everything I saw; but the second, and more important reason is that for some reason my camera wasnt working most of the trip... not sure why, more on this later, but I did manage to take some pictures and I will look up the rest online and add in some non-christen photos. Anyways, this blog post, as seen from the title, will talk about the first two legs of the trip.

So here is the view from the bedroom that I was staying in. I know it seems so stereotypical, but it was really amazing how green everything was. And when the days were clear and sunny, the green against the blue water and sky was just out of this world cool. It didnt feel like so much of a tourist-run-around-and-look-at-everything stop of my trip, but it was a kind of lazy peak into irish living. The Campbell family was really welcoming. They raise chickens so it was cool to eat fresh chicken eggs less than a day old for the first time in my life.The food they ate was delicious, and i definitely got my fill of irish potatoes. The cool thing about Kinsale was that it was this small little town right on the harbor. One of the days I even got to go sailing with the family. As you turn the bend, you see the Atlantic ocean, and right there was the place where the Lusitania had sunk in WWII, and the Titanic had also passed through the area (landing for the last time in Cork before sinking....who knew?!) 

This bay had actually been invaded by the Spanish armada at one point. I never really realized how many times the Irish people had been taken over by other countries until I went over there. Every part of their history has something to do with another peoples taking them over. It was really cool to get to be on the sail boat and seeing all of these forts (above and below is Charles Fort) lining the side. I even saw a couple of rainbows whilst there!

(Aifric is above in red)

New Years in Ireland was a really cool experience. We went out to the pubs with Aifric's friends and it seemed like literally the whole town, young and old, had come to celebrate as well. I didnt take any pictures that night, but some other people did, so when they put it on Facebook I can put them on here if there is a demand. Although most of the music they played was "Top Charts" music, there was some of the songs that were really cool irish songs, for example:

 

A great way to bring in 2012. The thing as well about the irish is that they really are the friendliest people. I was listening to a Rick Steves podcast and they were saying how Gaelic was a spoken language, not a written one, therefore the culture is based around story telling. You can really tell that people are interested in talking and being social in Ireland, and no one is ever opposed to small talk. In terms of food, obviously I loved the potatoes, but the stew was AMAZING. This is saying a lot, because anyone who knows Christen Corcoran knows that I am not a huge fan of soup (soup Mondays in the winter in our household was not my favorite day of the week growing up to say the least), but I got two different stews (one was a vegetable I have never heard before with Aifric and the other was a potato and onion soup with Paige). The tea was not so bad as well. As a less than enthusiastic tea drinker, I was surprised to find myself drinking cups and cups of tea. In Cork we visited the English Market, which is a little (Findley Market-esque) stall shopping center, and the Queen herself had actually visited this place on her last (and only) visit.

The last night in Cork I spent at Aifric's friends house on campus. The Cork Campus is really nice and, as many people told me, was just recently shown in an episode of "How I Met Your Mother"

(picture courtesy of google images) 

Freya, one of Aifric's friends, was telling me that this university is used as a model for University buildings around the world, which I think one can definitely see from this picture. From here I took a 4 hour bus ride to Dublin, where I checked into my hostel (had two great hostel experiences) and then went to meet Paige.

We took a tour of the city, and then went for a pint:

The next day I went to the touristy places. I learned that the story of Robin Hood took place in Dublin, and the castle where the king lived is now the government building and little John's house was marked on the map. On the video, you can see the harp, which is the symbol of ireland in the tour. Also when we enter a pale green room, our tour guide told us the last person to sleep there was Margret Thatcher. It was really interesting because it was told to me that Dublin was really set up by the Vikings and English and all of the people that invaded/took over Ireland, and the rest of the country was considered savage land of the rest of the irish people, yet now that very city is the crown city of Ireland, and a place that represents Irish pride more than anywhere else. Interesting to ponder. At around 3 I made my way to the airport to go to Edinburgh!

Here is a video of Cork/Kinsale/Dublin

btw, my Youtube account was just approved to upload videos over 15 minutes, hold onto your horses, i consider that a challenge