Hanging Around in Cork

My weekend of kissing the Blarney Stone did not actually end at Blarney Castle. From there, 150 of us made our way to Cork.



Cork is a southern city in Ireland, and it seemed to be bigger than Limerick. We got into the city and checked into our hostel. Hostels are a lot nicer than I had suspected, and we were lucky. We got an eight person bedroom- some people had to share with fourteen others. It was the first time I had slept in a bunk bed since I was about twelve. Good times.



We took a walking tour of the city, and our guide was kind enough to fill us in on a lot of the history of the city. The city itself is pretty cool, and it is host to one of the few indoor markets. You can buy fresh chicken, seafood, beef, liquor, and shirts inside. I personally would recommend the chocolate.

There is a park in the middle of the city with an interesting fountain. While we were there, they were hosting an art exhibit with huge angels decorated in a variety of ways. For those of you from Eau Claire, it is similar to the hands scattered around our city.

One of the oddest structures is a building that looks exactly like a city hall building, but for the haloed Mary at the top. When it was built, the Catholics were not allowed to make any towers on their cathedrals, so they embellished it as best they could.

We did some fun window shopping and ate at Supermac's, which is a combination ice cream parlor, Mcdonald's, and Papa Murphy's. No Irish outing is apparently complete without some form of alcohol, so everyone went out to one of the many bars at ten. Most of our roommates called it an early night and I had the privelege of going to a Centra and sharing a pint of Ben and Jerry's. My favorite kind of pint.