emerald_away

Kalen and I needed a break from Dublin. We really needed a break from Dublin. So we packed our bags and took off (metaphorically...we took the bus) for an inexpensive weekend getaway to County Cork, which is on the southern coast of Ireland. It was a rough non-stop 4 hour bus ride (with no washrooms) to Cork but we made it alright. We stayed in Cork City at a place called Sheila's Hostel which we forgot to take a picture of (oops!) but I can assure was nice enough, considering it was very very cheap. I have to admit that I had never stayed in a hostel before, and it was a little like being at camp. More fun than camp though. One thing that Sheila's forgets to mention on their website is that it's on a hill. A very steep hill. Nearly vertical. This was not welcome news at 10:30 at night after sitting on a bus for 4 hours. But we did it! Hooray! We found out the next day that nearly all of Cork is on a hill. It was less than thrilling. I must say, I wasn't really taken with Cork City. It was very industrialized, not particularly clean, and seemed pretty rough. I have to admit that there are actually worse places than Dublin City. However, the rest of County Cork is quite lovely. Blarney is pretty much my favourite place ever. But I'm jumping ahead. There's a LOT of pictures to go into this post, and even more to go up on facebook (eventually).

Cork City is much prettier at night when all its flaws are hidden. This is what we saw as we got off the bus.

Not a river, unfortunately, but a quay. But you can't really tell at night so it's all good.

The next day, we set out to do some exploring around the city in the morning before heading to Blarney for the afternoon. This pretty church was just around the corner from the hostel.

We made our way over to the other side of city centre to check out St. Finbarre's Cathedral.

We saw some of the city along the way:

This is the Beamish Crawford Brewery. It is apparently known for its "eye-blinding architectural awfulness".

...Yeah, it's pretty bad (and this picture is just a tiny piece of the brewery). However, Beamish is really really awesome beer and if you ever get the chance to try it, I would highly reccomend it. For serious.

We made it to St. Finbarre's. Apparently, they're in the process of restoring the spires, so all my pictures are kinda ruined by the scaffolding. 'Tis a shame. :( Still, it was a mighty impressive church, and you get the general idea.

The front door. Do we burst into flames this time?

Nope! Hooray!

This pulpit (HA! I know the word now! Go me!) is made made almost entirely of red marble.

As are the walls. O.O

Pretty ornate for a protestant church.

The ceiling.

Love that shade of green.

That's a lot of different colours of marble.

David's Door

Cool cannon ball from the Middle Ages.

Could use a good dusting though.

Back outside, we walked around to the other side of the church.

The church (like many things in Cork) is up on a hill, so we got a view of the city. That weather vain with the fish was a very good landmark so we didn't get lost.

Then we ate lunch here. It was fantastically delicious. I heart vegetarian/vegan/organic restaurants. I would even go so far as to say that this one is slightly better than Mondragon in Winnipeg, and that's saying a lot because I love Mondragon.

Phew, this is a very long post. I've decided that it would be a good idea to break this up into 3 posts. So stay tuned! Coming up tomorrow...Blarney!

Here's another picture-heavy post for you about my Valentine's weekend with Kalen. (Totally just realized that makes it sound like we're dating, but we're not. Really.)

We decided that we would make Valentine's Day fantastically morbid by going to see the real remains of St. Valetine himself. I had no idea that these were kept in Dublin, but apparently they've been here since 1826 when the Pope at the time gave them to an Irish priest as a strange gift. "Here, have this dead saint. I'm not using it." (?) Apparently, when that priest died a few years after, poor St. Valentine was shoved in a box and put into storage for a hundred years. In the 1950s, they decided to dust him off and build a proper shrine for him at Whitefriars Church in central Dublin. And that's where he stays now. Kind of an interesting story, so I just thought I'd share that with you.

We decided to begin our adventure at St. Patrick's Cathedral since neither of us had seen it yet, it's just around the corner from Whitefriars, and St. Patrick's closes earlier. Here's St. Patrick's from across the street.

And up close.

It has a lovely little garden on one side... (please ignore the surrounding super-slummy neighborhood)

with a fountain...

and flowers! In February! I had to go touch them to see if they were real. They are.

More flowers on the other side.

And a wee little cemetary.

We're going in. Here's the part where we hold our breath to see if we burst into flames. Hasn't happened yet!

This neat little crest is mounted on either side of the door.

We made it inside without bursting into flames! Hurrah!

The floor is like a tiled quilt.

Damn, I sure do love vaulted ceilings. (Yeah, that's right. Huge nerd.)

And I love stained glass. Not for the religious imagery, but for the pretty colours and appreciation of the mad skills needed to create this.

One of the impressive scenes just inside the door. I'd like to point out that this is built right into the wall and is about 20 feet high.

Down the mandatory Hall of Important Dead Guys.

This is a little wooden model of the cathedral. I'm guessing it was probably just as difficult to build as the real one, and the miniature was made by just one person.

The Door of Reconciliation. It's very old.

This chest dates back to the 12th century. I love it.

Part of the church. That (lectern? pulpit? uh...carved thing with the marble columns underneath) is quite impressive. Oh man, St. Mary's would be so ashamed of me right now.

Anyways, here it is close up.

This is a memorial to all the people who have died in all the wars, ever.

These flags are hella old. Pretty neat-o.

One wing of the cathedral.

Random super cool spiral staircase in the middle of the church. Kalen and I wanted to go climb up it so bad, but it was roped off. :(

Over on one side of the church is St. Peter's Chapel. It has a beautiful cloth on the altar.

From the chapel, you can look through these windows to the main church.

There are lots of references to St. Patrick's knights in the cathedral. Pretty cool. Also, I think I might have to start writing "of" like that from now on. I like it.

Do you see the knights?

Here they are up close. Sweeeeet.

I don't know who this Whatley fellow is, but he has the most frightening tomb I've ever seen.

Doesn't it look like he could just open his eyes, get up and walk away? *shudder*

Hard to see in the photo, but this is a stone carved with the celtic cross, and it dates back to the 10th century.

There's a lot about Jonathan Swift (think Gulliver's Travels) in the cathedral as well. This was the document that Queen Anne signed to appoint him as the Dean of St. Patrick's.

They also had some weird things, like his death mask...

and his skull.

And that was about as much St. Patrick's as we could handle. So then we left and walked around the corner to Whitefriars Church to go visit St. Valetine. Now, Whitefriars is a Carmelite church, and I'd like to just say right now that it is officially the strangest church I've ever been in. It was oddly modernized. Here, let me show you.

This is the front door.

When you go in, there's a little room off to the side with this in it:

You guessed it, those little taps dispense holy water. Into...yogurt cups?

After finding more amusement in the holy taps than was probably appropriate, we went down the hall to the chapel. Through these doors...

Once through the doors, we discovered that, in this church, Mary lives in a styrofoam rock wall. (I sincerely apologize to the guy lighting the candles in the picture. But I'd also like to point out that I wasn't the only one taking pictures.)

Some things were sort of similar to a regular church. Very ornate.

That dome is all done in mosaic.

And those columns are made of marble.

They were missing a lightbulb. It really bothered me.

Love that gate.

Fancy Schmancy.

I liked this copper crest on the wall. The three castles is the symbol for Dublin.

There's St. Valentine! He's really in there. Creepy.

Happy Valentine's Day! <3

Back outside the church, I noticed this plaque. I think perhaps the church has changed a bit since 1274.

Today we went to the market and then walked down by the pier in Dun Laoghaire since it was a really nice day out. When we stumbled upon a little rocky beach area, we suddenly regressed to being four years old again, and skipped stones and left with lots of little rocks and shells and beach glass. *joy*

These ducks (or maybe they're terns?) were drying their wings in the wind.