Fried Food and English

Flying to Cork on Friday was quite the experience. Leaving campus at 9
in the morning was like a vacation of its own since we have been so
used to 5:00am wake up calls for flights. We got to the airport with
ease and zipped through security. Then we waited. Rome was having one
of its famous strikes, this time by airport ground workers. Our plane
was over three hours delayed. We survived and made it to Cork. We
checked in to our hostel (after going to the wrong one next door) and
called ROSEMARY to meet up.

Once we were together, it was magical, all joking aside it was really
amazing to see Rosemary in the place she's talked so much about. We
walked through Cork to St. Fin Barr's Cathedral and through the downtown.
Cork was everything I expected it to be, small mid 19th century
buildings everywhere, and pubs abounded. There were also a seemingly
large number of male barber shops, I should have partaken, but I did
not. We got dinner, and all I can say is, Fried food was reintroduced
to my life this last weekend. After seeing essentially nothing fried
in Rome, everything here was fried. It was weird to have a
cheeseburger again, I liked the idea, but by the end of the weekend my
body didn't. Believe me.

After being tuckered out by travel and a lot of food we went back to
see where Rosemary lives, and just sat and chatted for a whole before
walking "across town" 10 minutes to our Hostel. Saturday we woke up
kicking, had an excellent breakfast, met up with our lovely tour guide
Rosemary and got on the bus to Blarney Castle.

We got to Blarney in 20 minutes, how far away everything seemed to be
in Ireland. The castle was cool, not that amazing, but what was
amazing was the grounds surrounding the castle. They were gorgeous,
huge lawns, awesome trees, waterfalls, a creek; it was the place to
be. I didn't kiss the Blarney stone. Don't tell anyone. It was a weird
position and some old guy like held on to your hips while you did it.
I wasn't into it.

We went back to Cork and caught the first bus to Midleton, (yes, it's
spelled like that, annoying I know) to tour the Jameson factory. It
was cool to see how it is made, plus I loved the phone PR aspect of
the entire "Jameson Experience", making it almost a pilgrimage for
Jameson lovers. Well done Jameson. Well done. Turns out that although
it is bottled in Dublin, every drop of Jameson is made in Cork,
something our tour guide David was very adamant about. After getting
through with our tour we got a tasting and Rosemary and Olivia became
official Jameson tasters.

We went back to Cork, collected some dinner, and went to Rosemarys
apartment for some libations. We enjoyed some Irish TV with "Mr and
Mrs" where hilarious couples such as Brian and HILDEGARD answered
questions like "what is your favorite explorer". We then went to the
movie theater to take full advantage of the fact that we were in an
English speaking country and saw the Vow. Romantic Comedy for the win.

Sunday we went to Cobh (pronounced cove, you know, Irish) to see the
ocean, and take in some views, we got there to find a sleepy town that
we walked completely in 40 minutes, but that has some really
interesting history. First of all, the first person ever to be
processed at Ellis Island left from Cobh, and the Titanic's last port
of call was Cobh.

We went to the Titanic museum which had recently been renovated for
the upcoming 100 year anniversary of the sinking. It was cool to walk
through exactly where the passengers went, although it was also kind
of odd. We got some souvenirs, including Titanic branded white
chocolate (it was tragically delicious) We then took a train back in
to Cork, a tiny train mind you, of only two cars. It was rather funny.

We stopped by Rosemary's favorite place, a place that serves only hot
chocolate; it was sinfully delicious. We almost got a second round but
decided against it. Later on, we went to an Irish pub, and watched
Rosemary play fiddle with 6 other musicians in this bar, it was quite
the experience. It was really enthralling to see her play, seeing as
one of the reasons she came to Ireland was to hone her fiddle skills,
let me tell you, I watched for two hours and she is talented! We
walked back and had to say goodbye to Rosemary, and get in bed for our
4:45 wake up call to fly back to Rome Monday morning. It was unreal to
see Rosemary in Ireland, and I hope to see her in Rome and Switzerland
in April.

Ireland was awesome, I will most definitely be back. I was obsessed
with the old houses, that aren't super old and breaking into pieces
(cough cough Rome), and all of the old cars I saw around town. I'm
obsessed with old cars, there's this 27 year old black station wagon
by grandpa has at the lake, and I've been eyeing it for years. One day
it will be mine (mark my words blog reading family members).

Now on to Roma to do that Italian homework I should have done
Thursday. Andiamo.