Welcome - Take 2

Friday, January 23rd was the second Welcome Pub Crawl in Cork.  The first one was at the beginning of last semester, and this one was to welcome all those who are studying abroad for the Spring Semester. However, it was such a fun experience the last time that my friends and I decided to go again.

Nicole, Julia and I were the three Holy Cross girls who were around that night. We were joined by my roommates Kate, Suzanne, Ines, and Ines' sister, who was visiting from France for the weekend.

It was a really fun time! We got to go back to some of our favorite pubs and then try a couple new ones, as well as meet some of the new Americans studying abroad in Cork.

Pub Lineup:

• The Slate Bar
• Holy Cow
• The Bailey
• Crane Lane 

While at one of the bars I turned around and saw Shannon Buckley.  This is a girl that I played soccer with in eighth grade, and because of the two high schools in town, have lost touch with ever since. She is studying abroad in Galway this semester and not only just happened to be in Cork that weekend, but also happened to go on the Pub Crawl; the world is so small sometimes. 

Shannon and Me at The Slate Bar

Julia and Me at Crane Lane 

Blarney Castle: Wintertime

On Tuesday night when we got back from the Cliffs of Moher trip we were exhausted, so we just grabbed a quick dinner at Jackie Lennox's, which is a fish and chips place that is a minute away from my apartment; quick, easy and delicious.  We were too tired to go out Caitlin and her two friends joined us for a night in where we discussed plans for the next day, and our trip to Barcelona.  We decided to go to the Blarney Castle the next day, however we also decided that before Matt and Seton left Cork for good we need to go to O'Connails one more time.


It was a very rainy day but our visitors got a real taste of Irish weather!

Matt and I decided to recreate a photo that Katie and I took two years ago! 

And because I was recreating photos, Caitlin and I thought it would be fun to have a summer and winter version of the same photo

Blarney Trip in September

Blarney Trip in January

We found four leaf clovers! 

Our group after all successfully kissing the Blarney Stone:

Betsy, Me, Allegra, Matt, Anne, Caitlin and Seton

Seton and Me at the top of the castle

After kissing the stone, our next stop was the Wishing Steps. There is a legend that if you think of your wish, and only your wish, all the while climbing up these stairs backwards that it will come true within the next year. 

 Matt and I in front of a waterfall

 Matt climbing the Wishing Steps

Seton climbing the Wishing Steps (and Caitlin behind her doing the same!)

We spent the entire morning at Blarney and came back to Cork to grab a quick lunch.  Matt, Seton, and I hurried back to the apartment and packed up all of our belongings because even though our flight to Barcelona was not until Thursday, we were leaving for Dublin that evening to stay over in a hotel.  Our flight on Thursday was at 6am so Mom generously got us a hotel room so that we could grab a couple hours of sleep before getting on the flight.  And, the hotel was nice enough to hold Matt and Seton's large suitcases so that they did not need to make another trip back to Cork after we got back from Barcelona.

Fighting the Jet Lag

Matt and I touched down in Dublin around 8:30am and met up with Seton who landed just after us. After getting our luggage we quickly moved through the airport to catch the bus to Cork.  The first bus was full so we had to wait another hour to catch the 10:30 bus, and then we were on our way.  I had tried to get as much sleep as possible on the plane but Matt was unable to fall asleep, so the jet lag was hitting him hard.  As soon as the bus started moving he was out cold. This was incredibly fun to watch.

We arrived in Cork close to 2pm, quickly grabbed a cab to haul all of our luggage and got to my apartment shortly after. At this point we were all dragging our feet a little bit but I did not allow anyone to lie down because they would not have gotten back up.  So we immediately left for the city center to get moving.

Our first stop...can you guess? O'Connails!

My first hot chocolate of semester 2, and a scone to accompany it

Seton and Me enjoying O'Connails

After a quick snack we realized how hungry we actually were, and walked across the street to one of my favorite restaurants, Coqbull.  I was really excited to bring both Matt and Seton there because they are two fellow burger enthusiasts.

Matt, Seton and Me at dinner

Matt, his meal, and the knife required to eat it

After dinner we walked to the Franciscan Well, a bar downtown, for an early drink.  This is one of my favorite pubs to go with friends because of the outdoor beer garden.  You can sit outside, enjoy the weather while still being warm, and just talk and relax.  This was perfect because it was where we met up with Caitlin, her two friends from Holy Cross, Allegra and Anne, and Nicole with her two sisters, Kathleen and Meghan, and best friend from Holy Cross who is studying abroad in Scotland, Betsy.

It was so fun to have so many visitors, both siblings and friends.  We had a great time but were getting tired so after one drink we headed back to call it a night and get ready for our long day tomorrow at the Cliffs of Moher.

Sister's Friends Sister

This past Saturday I had a really fun visitor.  Angela Catalano is the older sister of my sister's college roommate.  This may seem like an obscure acquaintance but we have met a few times previously, in Paris both visiting our sister's studying abroad and during Holy Cross's graduation, and she is so much fun.  She studied abroad in Dublin a few years back and she and another friend came back to Ireland this past week for vacation.  The friend she was visiting with had a sister who was studying abroad in Cork, and she was nice enough to look me up while she was here! 

Angela and I at The Woodford 

Weekend Recap: Christmas in Ireland

This past weekend was filled with Christmas festivities and I have to say I loved every minute of it! Cork city has slowly been putting up all of their lights and decorations over the past week but Friday marked the first day of Glow: A Cork Christmas Celebration.  Saturday evening, Caitlin and I took a a break from our work to check it all out.

First stop, of course,O'Conaills 

The city is all lit up, its beautiful and so festive

One of four trees this size throughout the city centre 

Next up, the Ferris Wheel

Waiting in line

As if we had not gotten into the holiday season enough, Sunday I went to Dublin for their Christmas Markets. Caitlin had read online that the Make-A-Wish Foundation was striving to beat the world record for the number of people in Christmas jumpers (that's what they call sweaters over here) in the same place. We decided that we had to be there for that to have the excellent excuse to buy fun holiday themed sweaters.

Dublin's Christmas Markets

I was #645 to register for the Christmas jumper event, it was so fun seeing the crazy, and festive outfits people had on

Its amazing how spirited the country is already, and its only December 1! I love the holiday season and I am having so much enjoying celebrating abroad; Europe definitely pulls out all the stops for Christmas. 

Weekend Recap

Last night our advisor Shane, took me and some of the other HC girls out to dinner and a movie.  He heard of an Irish film in theatres called "Out of Here" that he thought we might enjoy, and to make a night out of it we went to dinner first.

Shane, Caitlin, Francie, Caitlin Powers and I went to dinner at a restaurant called SoHo and enjoyed a wonderful meal out.

Afterwards we headed to the Triskel Christchurch cinema for the screening of "Out of Here".  This movie theatre was very cool because it is a church that has been converted into a theatre.

The movie was an indie film about the process of Irish citizens re-integrating themselves back into society after having moved back from Australia.  It was a very popular trend for young, Irish men to move to Australia for a little while to find work because their economy was a lot stronger than Ireland's.  It was interesting, although hard to decipher some of the accents, and even though it was not a great movie, I enjoyed the experience.

100 Days!

Today marks the 100th day that I have lived in Cork! There are many milestones that I have passed while being here but 100 days for some reason stuck out to me.

Here is a small summary of the past 100 days:

• Countries that I visited:  4
• Munich, Germany
• Brussels and Brugge, Belgium
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Hours spent on a bus to/from Dublin: 32 
• Trips to O'Connails: 9
• Restaurants in Cork I have been to: 5 
• La Tana
• Coqbull
• Market Lane
• Milano's
• Corn Market
• Visitors: 3 
• Emily
• Marty
• Nick
• Assignments for school: 4
• Letters I have gotten from home: 7
• Pint glasses I have acquired: 8
• Times my family has called me:
• Mom - A lot
• Dad - Often enough
• Katie - The most
• Matthew - 2
• Bean - 0 
• Books I have read: 3
• The Zookeeper's Wife
• The Fault in Our Stars
• The White Tiger
• Times I have been sick: 2
• Pictures I have taken: 1,907
• Posts I have written: 60 

A big thanks to all of you who read my blog! 

Writing The Cork Board has been a great way for me to chronicle my time abroad.  It forces me to truly take in what I am seeing when I am out, whether in Ireland or another country. I am actively looking for great photos which I am so grateful for because I love photographs and I know that I will be so glad that I have those forever.  Then, later when I am writing my posts, it is a great way for me to reflect on all that I have done and really take in and appreciate the incredible opportunity I have been fortunate enough to have. 

But, mostly this blog is fun because I feel as though I am still connected with all of you back home even when the time difference, or technology is getting in the way of us directly speaking to each other.  I love writing these posts as if I were telling the story in person and I hope that as you read it you can imagine me talking to you. 

What I Ate Wednesday

This morning Caitlin and I decided that we wanted to venture out. We had the whole morning off (my first class didn't start until 2pm) so we went into the city center for coffee and a treat.

Caitlin suggested that we try Duke's because she knows that they have good wifi and we wanted to being to plan our trip to Amsterdam. We leave for Amsterdam at 6am on Thursday morning and return late Sunday night so we have a very good amount of time in the city.

I had never been to Duke's before but fell in love with it! We leisurely enjoyed our latte's, talked about plans for the weekend all the while enjoying the festive atmosphere.  I think this will be a great place to bring my laptop and get some of my work done during finals week.

Dukes' Decorations

My Latte

Grabbed a festive shortbread man covered in chocolate and m&m's from the English Market on my way home

We have some great things planned for this weekend, very excited to do it all and share it with you when I get back! 

'Tis The Season To Start Celebrating Early

This is my first weekend in awhile that I have had absolutely nothing to do; and as much as I love traveling, it is so nice to overdose on sleep and television.  Since I have no classes on Friday, I took full advantage and did not leave the apartment all day. 

Today, I woke up in a good mood, and it was a beautiful day outside, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to go into town.  I was on a mission for two things: an umbrella, and warm headgear. 

When I got to the city center, I was blown away with how much Christmas had sprung up in the shops so quickly, and so early. Every window display had a christmas tree in it and many shops had ivy and wreaths wrapped on the outside of the building. My theory is that because they do not have Thanksgiving over here, once Halloween is over the next holiday is Christmas, and that is why they start celebrating so early. 

Outside Bodega

Inside Brown Thomas

Item #1: The umbrella

I have had the same relatively inexpensive umbrella for so long, and it has served me well, but recently the fabric ripped.  I have been putting off getting a new one for awhile because it is one of those things that you don't think about until you need, and then it is too late. However, the forecast in Amsterdam this upcoming weekend looks like rain so I decided I could wait no longer.  I found this one at Penny's for 5 euro so I don't expect much, but hopefully it doesn't break right away. 

Item #2: Warm Headgear 

This one I have no excuse for.  I go to school in Worcester, M, which is possibly one of the windiest, and coldest places on Earth, yet I still do not have a hat/headband etc.  But I found a headband today at Debenhams, a department store here, that I really love, and I think will really help to keep me warm by covering my ears. 

Showing off my City

Wednesday morning Emily, Marty and I made the walk to St. Anne's church.  This is the church Caitlin and I went to earlier this year where you have a great view of the city of Cork and you can ring the bells. We had a lot of fun trying to play various songs on the bells.

Emily and Marty attempting to be musical

Emily and I at the top 

Later that night the HC girls, along with Emily and Marty, gathered in Caitlin's apartment to celebrate Julia's birthday.  She was leaving for Portugal at 3am the next morning where she will be when she actually turns 21 so we wanted to have a small party before she left. Caitlin bought a delicious cake from the English Market and we shared that before she was off to catch a snooze before her big trip. 

Happy 21st Julia! 

Cork's Most Important Hotspot

Monday morning we got up and ready for the day.  Sunday night we had gone to the grocery store to stock up on easy meals and snacks for the week so that Emily and Marty did not have to eat out for every meal.  So after a quick breakfast of peanut butter and toast we were on our way.

Of course the first thing I had to take my visitors to was O'Connails! It was delicious again, of course.

Monday night we were so wiped from all the commotion from that past few days that we decided just to stay in and hang out.  We ended up playing a lot of card games in our common room which was so much fun, and made even better when my roommates came in and shared their excess candy with us! 

 Mara's gingerbread candy bites

We finally got a roommate picture! Kate (Minnesota) is missing because she was sick, but from the left: Me, Mara (Germany), Ines (France) and Suzanne (New York)