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All of a sudden, the nice weather seems to have appeared here in Ireland...something I hadn't really seen nearly the entire I've been here so far. After surfing on Saturday, I took a trip up to Kilarney on Sunday, which was pretty nice. I've posted some pictures that I took there. The ride there was almost as cool as the town itself. There were "huge" mountains, which I didn't even realize existed over here. The town, while really nice, is quite tourist-y and I ended up only staying there a few hours. That was fine though as I was exhausted from the previous day.Yesterday, as the weather continued to be great here, some of the guys from work and I took a trip to the driving range down the road from work to hit a few golf balls. I believe we are going to hit the driving range again on Thursday, but hopefully next weekend we are able to play a round or so on the 9 hole course that Pfizer owns over here.Last night I finally decided what European city I wanted to visit and I made plans for a trip to Rome on Easter weekend. I will be leaving the Saturday of that weekend and return on that Tuesday. After making the plans, I realized that it is a religious holiday and with the Vatican City there, Rome could be quite busy that weekend, but it should still be an awesome time. I'll make sure to post tons of pictures from that trip when it comes.
So it's been a pretty exciting weekend so far I'd say. On Friday, right after work I headed to the local movie theater to see the movie 300, which was just released over here in Europe on Thursday and was an awesome movie. I didn't end up doing else that night because I had to get a good nights sleep for today...when of all things, I was going to attempt surfing. I never thought the first time I tried surfing would be in the middle of March, in Ireland, but apparently that's where it took place. This afternoon, the weather was pretty much perfect (by Ireland's standards), so a guy I work with invited me to go with him to try our luck at surfing. His brother surfs, so we were able to borrow his board and we ended up renting wet suits down at the beach. The beach was in a town called Garretstown, close to the town of Kinsale that I have mentioned in earlier posts. The place is amazing, as you can see by the pictures I took. At the beach, the waves were about as big as you would want if you have never surfed before, probably similar to the waves at Misquamicut or something. I was able to stand up a couple times, but only for a few seconds. Long enough that I can proclaim that I have surfed before though...hah. Maybe I'll have to buy myself a board when I come back to the States and make it my new hobby. After "surfing" for a bit, I wandered to these bluffs that were right down the road. You can also see these in the pictures, but they were amazing. Some of the bluffs had about 50 foot drops, with some caves and deep holes in them...pretty crazy stuff. I'm exhausted now, but tomorrow I might take a drive over to Killarney, which is supposed to be a real nice town about 2 hours from here or so. If that falls through, I might be going to play my first game of Squash with another guy that I work with. I have no idea how to play, but it should be fun none the less.
Last night I ended up going to a comedy show over here in a town called Clonakilty with one of the guys I work with. The town is about an hour outside of Cork, so it ended up being a pretty late Wednesday night. The club we went to was called De Barra Folk Club and was just a small pub with a stage section in the back. The main comedian of the night was David O'Doherty. At the show, there were pretty much 3 acts. The MC, who did an opening gig, was pretty funny. I was thinking that it would be a pretty good show after that. However, once the next guy came on stage, I was wondering what my buddy had gotten me into. This comedian, who I forget the name of, was either a terrible comedian...or part of his gig was pretending he was a terrible comedian. Either way, he wasn't so good. His whole routine consisted of him trying out new jokes that he had written on a few scraps of notebook paper. After he was done though, David O'Doherty came on and he was hilarious. I would definitely recommend you see him if you ever have the chance (i.e. You're in Ireland, in Clonakilty or some other small town, and he happens to be performing...hah). Nearly his whole routine was generalized and not Irish-centric, so I didn't have to know all about Irish pop culture and history to get the jokes, which was definitely a plus. Also, he didn't have a bad Irish accent, so I could understand all the jokes...another plus. Anyways, if there's any other shows in the near future, I'll definitely head over as it was a great time for a Wednesday night.
Today was a Bank Holiday for Ireland, to celebrate the official holiday of St. Patrick's Day, so I ended up working from the apartment. I was thinking of doing a little driving as well, but the weather was pretty insane. From the time I woke up till right now (9:00pm), I've seen blue sky about 8 times, hail 3 times, rain twice, mixed with heavy winds on and off. I'm not sure what is going on here with the weather, but it makes it very difficult to plan any trips, knowing that you could be wandering the streets of Dublin in a hail storm. I'm still trying to plan a trip to Dublin. I'm not sure if I'll get up there this coming weekend, but the next weekend for sure. Definitely need to hit up the Guiness Brewery...I mean the beautiful sights and sounds...hah.
Yesterday morning I figured I'd head down to the Cork City St. Patrick's Day parade. The parade was pretty good, even though as a person not originally from the area, I didn't quite understand all of the groups that were in it (i.e. the giant monsters and such). You can see the pictures from the parade here. There was no floats, which for a city the size of Cork I was hoping that there might be, but it was still entertaining I guess. Sort of like a glorified Mystic parade, minus the 50 fire trucks. After the parade, the weather was fairly nice (see: not raining), so I decided I'd head down to Kinsale to see what it looks like in the daytime. After traveling down a windy, narrow road for about 10 miles, I was able to find my way to the old fort that is there. I have posted pictures I took of the fort along with other pictures of Kinsale. The fort was pretty cool...there were some great views of Kinsale as the fort is at a higher elevation than the town and it's positioned across the harbor. After a tour of the fort, I headed into the town and walked around for a bit. My conclusion from looking around Kinsale is that it is Ireland's version of Mystic. It's pretty much the same idea, as it's a small town on the water, with small shops and bars. It was good to see the ocean again though. Today I was going to do a bit more traveling around Cork, but the weather seems to be out of it's mind currently. Since I woke up, I've seen blue sky 3 times, but it's also down-poured twice. I'd prefer not to be caught in a storm if I'm walking around trying to explore somewhere. Maybe tomorrow the weather will be more cooperative...we'll see.
So last night I want to go out and do something for the night and I see that this metal concert is going on at a club near my apartment. The band is called 3 Inches of Blood, and from their website they look like a cheesy 80's metal band similar to Iron Maiden or something. So I drink a couple Guiness (it is St. Patrick's Day weekend afterall) and head to the club to see if they're any good. After suffering through 2 terrible opening bands, who in Ireland are apparently allowed to play full hour sets, the main band finally hits the stage at around 11:45 or so. Within 3 songs, I decide that this band is equally as terrible as the opening bands and end up leaving the place right then. Apparently the club has different types of music almost every night of the week though, so maybe I'll head back when a lame metal band is not playing and see if the scene is any better. This afternoon is the Cork City St. Patrick's Day parade, which runs really close to my apartment. Also, the weather looks pretty nice for once, so maybe after the parade, I'll take a trip down to Kinsale or something to get some pictures before returning to see what St. Patrick's Day night is all about in Cork, Ireland.
Well after a long week of work, it's almost St. Patrick's Day weekend here in Ireland. It's a Bank Holiday so they get Monday off for the festivities. Although I would like to participate in my fair share of "celebrating", I might spend the weekend driving to different places and taking tons of pictures. I'm sure that I'll have a few Guinesses though. I'll make sure to post pictures and blog entries as I visit different places.
Thursday was my roommate's going away party, so we went out in Cork for the night. I definitely over did it and suffered the consequences all day Friday. Luckily I could work from the apartment and didn't have to go into the office to suffer. Friday night we went down to the south shore of Ireland, to a port city called Kinsale. We had dinner at a really nice place called Man Friday. I'll have to head down there during the day time, as it's right on the water and is supposed to be real nice. Today, I picked up my Opal Astra rental car and decided to take a trek to the Blarney Castle, since it's only about 15 minutes from Cork. I have posted about 50 pictures of the castle and surrounding areas on my Pictures site, so make sure to check them out. I was worried about the weather, as it was gray out all day long, but it held off and I was able to tour the whole grounds of the castle without getting rained on. The castle is pretty cool...very claustrophobic though. The stairwell going up to the top was barely big enough for me to go up. I ended up kissing the Blarney Stone, so we'll see if any good luck comes my way. On the way back from the castle, I took a detour through some little city outside of Cork and really put my opposite side of the road driving to the test. The streets here are generally narrow, but these roads were two way roads, but with room for only one car. I was lucky I never met up with a car coming the opposite direction halfway down a street...could have been very interesting. We'll see how the weather is tomorrow... maybe I'll go down to Kinsale to take some pictures of the water and a fort down there.
The past few days I've been driving to work and I must say that if you already know how to drive a manual, it's pretty easy converting to the other side of the road. The only issues I have had have been with maneuvering around tight spots (i.e. our parking garage). You perception is a little different when you're on the other side of the car...but eventually I'll pick it up. This weekend I plan to do some traveling outside of Cork, as I pick up my rental car Saturday morning. It will probably be an Opal Astra(o) or whatever, as that seems to be a favorite of the rental agency we're using here. It was either that or a Ford Fiesta...hah. I plan on visiting the Blarney Castle, among other locations, but we'll see how that goes. Hopefully the weather is a little better than yesterday, when it was pretty much monsooning all day long.I continued the trend of non-Irish cuisine this week, with a few American dishes, including a KFC-ripoff called HillBilly's and a nice steak dinner at a hotel restaurant. I guess I eat "Irish" meals every day for lunch at Pfizer, but who knows if I'll ever eat at an Irish restaurant for dinner on purpose.
Well, I've now been in Ireland for about a week. It's been a pretty good time already, even though I have been working a lot of the time. Today I took my first driving lesson on the wrong side of the road and it seemed to go off without any issues. I get my rental car, an Opal something, this Friday so we'll see how I do with city driving. A couple of observations I've made or experiences I've had so far:1. I've eaten at 4 restaurants so far and they've been the following: a) Mexican b) Indian c) Turkish d) Japanese e) Tonight I might be eating Italian You'll notice the lack of "Irish" on the list2. It rains at least twice a day. Today it rained 2 times, but at all other times the skies were blue and the weather was great.3. There is about 1% trucks and SUV's...almost every other car is a 3 door hatchback.Make sure to view my pictures, which I'll try to update every day that I take them.-bMarshall
