fulbright blog.: February 2014

After leaving the glitz and glamour of rag week behind us, Hannah and I took the bus to Cork. Highlights of that trip include me switching seats because the sun was shining in on me. The sun feels more intense the further north you go, so it was worse than in Germany. Basically it felt like I was sitting under a machine designed to give me a sunburn. Then the bus started to fill up and Hannah had to sit by a stranger, which I felt kinda bad about, but I would feel worse if I had skin cancer of the face.

We finally arrived in Cork after about 4 hours of this nonsense. The city didn't look too nice from our drive in, but I remembered that every German city every looks super horrible from the train station. Maybe this was true for Irish cities and bus stations as well! (It was not true.)

It was 1999 in Cork.

Our hostel was near the bus station - it had a pub in the first floor and was rooms upstairs. It seemed pretty okay at first - nothing fancy, but clean. After checking in, we went to go buy food for dinner, which was a really good idea because everything closes really early in Ireland. We went walking around for a bit and found a bookstore, which was cool because all the books were in English! (except for the Irish language books) Then we went into Penney's, which was neither related to JC Penney or Penny Markt. It was, however, related to Primark, so everything was super messy and super cheap. They had some really cute stuff, but luckily the store was about to close because it was almost 6:00, so I didn't buy anything.

When we got back to our hostel, we made our dinner, and then went and sat in our room for a while. The kitchen area of the hostel was pretty interesting because there were a lot of people who were down on their luck and lived there. They made us feel awkward for using the kitchen like normal backpackers...

First view of Blarney Castle!

Anyhow, the next day we got up and headed to Blarney! We took the bus out there - it's a few miles outside of Cork. The weather was pretty great, and the place itself was beautiful!! We paid our admission fee and started walking around. We hadn't got that far inside the grounds before it started to sprinkle...then rain...then pour rain. So we ran inside the castle and hung out in the entrance hall before starting our climb skywards.

What a beautiful day! It definitely won't
start raining in 10 minutes.

The castle itself has been abandoned for quite some time, but you can still climb through all the rooms. I explored every single room (that I saw) in the place. It was very nice. There were some obnoxious Americans who were a bit unfit for the climb, and they kept quarreling with each other. After that I saw this group of German guys about my age who I identified as German before they ever started speaking. (They had the look!) Then I stayed near them for a while to eavesdrop. I'm a classy lady.

I mean, the sky has clouded over, but it definitely won't rain,
right?

Eventually, I got to the top. Hannah made it before me since she wasn't focusing on being creepy to other people. She was a bit nervous at the top because she doesn't really like heights, but I'm a bad person so I took my time reading all the signs before I finally made it over to the wall with the Blarney Stone.

Inside an old tower!

There was an adorable old man sitting there to hold on to you while you leaned back to kiss the stone. You sat down on this mat, then he grabbed you around the waist and told you to grab the bars, lean back, kiss the stone, then sit back up. It was really cool, although I did bump my nose into the Blarney Stone as well. Hannah got a picture of this momentous occasion since she didn't want to do it herself.

Weird eyeball art.

After that I took my time at the top, reading the signs, taking pictures, and listening to this pair of British families kiss the stone. One girl, who was about 8 or 9, almost started crying and decided she didn't want to kiss the stone. I felt so bad for her because that's exactly what I would've done at her age. It reminded me of the time my family went to see the USS Batfish and I was scared to go inside the submarine. I saw her on the way down as well. She was holding onto the handrail with both hands.

Hannah went down ahead of me - I think she'd had enough of high places for one day.

Inside the castle - raging storm outside.

After that we wandered into the Poison Garden, which had poisonous plants in it, including tea, tobacco, every plant ever mentioned in Harry Potter, and marijuana. That's right....marijuana. What is this, Colorado? (They also had opium poppies, but they were dead since it's February.)

Someone left a card from a funeral in one
of the castle's nooks.

After we walked the grounds a bit more, we decided to leave and go find lunch. (I also needed to find an ATM.) We walked around for a while before stumbling upon this giant cafe/fancy hotel area. The cafe wasn't that expensive - I got potato and bacon soup. The place reminded me of Cracker Barrel, which was nice.

After lunch we walked around the paths at the castle for a while before deciding to head back to Cork. We just missed our bus back into town, so we got some food at a grocery store in Blarney before going back to Cork. (They have BAGELS in Ireland. Germany doesn't really have bagels.)

And as quickly as it started, the storm blew over.

Back in Cork we just made our dinner, then talked for a while in our room before going to bed. Like I said, Cork wasn't really the best city I've been to. Everyone was walking around dressed like Jersey Shore and puffing on e-cigarettes.

The entire castle was carved with initials.

But lucky for us, we weren't staying in Cork any more! We were headed out for one more day in Dublin (for me...Hannah's still there) before I flew back to Germany on Sunday.

View from the top!

Dublin, Part II did not disappoint! We got back into town, went to our hostel, then met Hannah's friend Claire, who is also working in Germany this year. After that we went back and found the National Library of Ireland because I wanted a picture of its sign. Then we went to Tesco so I could buy NutriGrain bars. (I basically dictated the terms of the evening since it was my last day there.)

We went back to Pablo Picante's for another round of Tex-Mex, which was still delicious. England was playing Ireland in rugby, so the entire downtown area was even crazier than the first time we were there!

We eventually went back to our hostel, where we talked for a bit and I arranged for a ride to the airport the next morning. I wanted to get to the airport by 8:15 for my 10:15 flight, but my only options were to get there at 8:30 or 7:30. I chose 7:30 because I didn't want to be late!

The shuttle picked me up at 7:00. On our ride to the airport, we drove past the house that was Girl's house in Once! It made me really happy. Then I got to the airport at about 7:15 in the morning. The counter where I could check my backpack (for free!! Thanks, SAS) wasn't even open yet. Because there was nothing to do, I walked around munching on the last of my bagels and wandered on over to Terminal 2, which is mostly Aer Lingus (the Irish airline). I then saw the place where Guy checked in for his flight at the end of Once and got a bit jealous of the people I saw who were checking their baggage through to the US. (But then I saw on the departures board that every America-bound flight had the phrase "proceed to pre-US security area" posted for it and I was less jealous.)

Steep windy Blarney stairs.

Once my counter opened up, I checked my bag through to Berlin then went through security. Both of those processes took about 5 minutes total. So then I went to explore the terminal. I found the Starbucks, and since it was early and Erfurt doesn't have a Starbucks, I got a drink. The guy put "Chelsea" on my cup, but the lady announcing it said "Cheslea," just like all the ladies at church used to call me when I was little.

Hannah waiting patiently for me to finish
poking around.

Then I had time to just sit and wait for my flight. It was kinda nice to just relax for an hour. Eventually, my gate number was put up so I headed to that part of the airport. Then my gate number was switched, so I headed to a new gate. While I was at the gate, an airline lady came up to me and asked me what country I lived in. I paused for a second before saying Germany. It still sounds weird for me to say that!

Finally my flight left for Copenhagen. The airline was Scandinavian Air, so the announcements were made in Danish and English. The people around me were mostly speaking Danish. It was very odd. When we were about to land in Copenhagen, we got very close to the ocean, which made me a bit nervous. It turns out that the airport there is very close to the ocean. (I believe everything in Copenhagen is probably close to the ocean, but I'm not an expert. I've only been to the airport!)

The Blarney Stone! (The hole in the wall above the two sets of windows)

Copenhagen's airport was nice but odd. It looked like the 1970s, and it had wood floors. I did get my EU reentry passport stamp there, which was cool! Then I was hungry because it was about noon, but I realized that I didn't have any Danish money and I didn't know the conversion rate. Eventually I found a place advertising a meal for xx Danish and xx Euros and used that as my exchange rate to decide that the bags of chips weren't outrageously overpriced and I could grab one and pay with my debit card.

"Just mopping up my Hellebore, Professor."

My flight was very empty, but that was really nice! The airline gave us all juice boxes, which made me feel like a little kid. I thought it was funny that the airplane said "SAS" on it because "SAS" always makes me think "SAS FOR ARKANSAS" because of our fight song. (The actual line is "For it's AAARKANSAS for Arkansas! Fight! Fight! Fight!")

Marijuana.

Anyhow, I eventually made it back to good ole Deutschland. I had to take the bus from the airport to the train station, where I also had the foresight to get groceries because only stores in train stations are open on Sundays in Germany! Then I got on the train back to Erfurt. It was a good trip!! I can't wait until the Fulbright Berlin Conference next month and Easter Break in April!