If at first you don’t succeed…
Wait for a sunny day.
The last time we attempted to go to Bandon, we got rained out. This time it was the perfect day!
[breadcrumbs track=”143666″]
 
Bike Ride to Bandon
Leave a reply
Our first Cork City FC game and a visit to St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral
We made it to the first home game for the Cork City FC at Turner’s cross stadium last Friday evening. Friday day was, without a doubt, the nicest weather we have yet in Cork. It was warm and sunny. No wind at all. Poor Bret had to work all day, but I had a fabulous walk along the the River Lee to the next town over and back. It definitely got cold by game time, but the people were out and about with the hint of better weather and spring ahead. 5,000 strong at the stadium! Ticketmaster warned us when we bought our tickets not to wear the opposing team’s color. After some research, I determined that our colors are green and white… but the used to be red and white. St. Patrick’s Athletic Club (the opposing team) is blue and red. No wool hats for either Bret or I (Bret’s was doubly offensive being red and blue. I sneaked mine in because it is only red). We got to the game a few minutes early and were lucky to find an couple of empty rows near the front section, away from the cheering section (they were already quite rowdy).
Cork City FC is in the premier division of the SSE Airtricity league, so the competition is pretty fierce.
It was a hard fought draw and the yellow cards abounded, but it was fun to watch and cheer for the home team. Apparently there is a no swearing section (family section), but despite being surrounded by kids, we apparently were not in that section. St. Pat’s (the opposing team) had a small section of loyal fans at the opposite end of the field who were completely surrounded by security guards. We were thinking this was a bit overkill for a city league game before we realized that the rowdy section of home team fans were also surround by a score of security guards. When the game was over, the announcer even asked that all the away team fans remain in their seats for 10 minutes while the home team fans exit to the east side (away fans are on the west). Some serious crowd control measures… Good times, we will for sure head back for more Cork City FC action. Fans for life.
The next morning, we woke up to another gray day. Rather than going for a bike ride in the rain, we opted to go to the church service at our neighborhood cathedral (It’s got a 3.5/5 star rating on yelp (for real)). I was thinking it was Roman Catholic (we are in Ireland), but it turned out to be Anglican (turns out it switched sides during the reformation)… either way a 1.5 hour service. The singing and organ playing that dominated the service were really lovely, as was the church. The lighting and the sound were serene and meditative. I was a little amazed at how few people were there, probably less than 50 (on the first Sunday of Lent!). It was mostly elderly people, which I expected, but I was surprised that there were only about 4 young people (<18ish, including two infants) outside of another 4 or 5 in the choir. Growing up, I went to my share of catholic and episcopal masses and it seemed like almost a social outlet for tweeners (I generally only went with my friends +/- their parents- so always a social outing for me). Not looking good for the long term health of the congregation. We enjoyed the service. Not sure we’ll do that one again, but it was fun and the Cathedral is a fantastic neighbor.
More Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills
The Sportsmans Arms
I was a little skeptical of this pub, but Bret wanted to try it out, so we went to watch the Monday night football game (Man City vs Chelsea) and have a pint. It is a pretty sizable pub, so we walked in fairly unnoticed and grabbed a corner seat with a good view of the game. The crowd here is still a bit older than us, but fairly young. There was a large crowd in the back of the bar playing cards. The first half of the game was fairly uneventful… but some new folks arrived for the second half that spiced things up. They clearly had some from another pub and were very interested in the game. There was a lot of swearing, a lot of yelling at the guys who was swearing (telling him to stop swearing), and a lot of apologizing for the swearing (not from the guy who was swearing). Apparently, I have innocent ears. Bret and I just grinned and nodded and kept watching the game.
I would have given the Sportsman’s Arms a fairly low review for being a bit boring if we had left after the first half, but I thoroughly enjoyed the people watching (and hearing, I guess) in the second half. I would definitely go back to this one for big games… although I would want to get there early to get a good seat.
Moks
I love this pub. Bret and I had it on our list of places to go to from our first stroll around the neighborhood of Marguerita Villas (the street we live on). We first popped in on a rainy evening hoping that they served some food. It was a bit intimidating because all seven or eight of the bar patrons turned around and stared at us like we were aliens. I had a feeling maybe ladies were not super welcome, but as soon as we asked the bartender about food, they all got real friendly. Sadly, they do not serve food, but they all had suggestion about where we might go instead. Bret was keen to stay and have a pint anyway. I was, however, on the verge of the hangries, so for the sake of everyone involved, I insisted we go eat some food instead (ended up with take-away fish and chips).
We finally made it back there a few weeks later… I know it sounds like a long time, but there are sooooooo many pubs to try out (including at least 6 between our house and Moks). Again, walking through the door was a bit intimidating, but we found a nice corner, next to the fire place where we could drink a pint of Beamish and watch some football (Man City vs Tottenham?).
The pub had an amazingly large adorable old man: Emily ratio. Although they seemed to be rooting for Man City, they didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the game. Just arguing a bit about bad or good calls and cheering at goals. There were a couple of younger guys there that seemed quite a bit more interested in the game and left as soon as it was over. Eventually, a couple of adorable old ladies joined us near the fire with half pints.
We loved this place. It is definitely a good place to go on a rainy, cool night for a quiet pint near the fire or to watch some football in relative peace. Although, Bret is sure it will be a zoo for any big game (like a Six Nations Rugby game). I am sure we’ll be back.
Northern Ireland and the Giants Causeway
I don’t have too much to say about Belfast. I caught some sort of virus and spent most of the time we were there holed up in the hotel room, sleeping. I did enjoy the Titanic museum. It really covered not only the Titanic, but also the industrial revolution in Northern Ireland and the ship building industry in the UK. There was minimal exposure to Celine Dion.
Street art.
The drive up the coast was fabulous. We had a cold, sunny day and the views got better around every turn. See Bret’s pictures from the trip. We arrived at our destination, Finn MacCool’s right as the weather starting turning back to rainy. Finn MacCool’s is a wee family run pub and guest house. We loved it there.
The Giant’s Causeway
The Giant’s causeway is this 300m stretch of the coast where the rocks look like stacked beehives (Does anyone remember the video game Qbert?) Legend has it, the Giant’s Causeway was built by the giant, Finn MacCool, so he could battle with a Scottish giant, Cuhullin. After building the causeway from Ireland to Scotland, Finn MacCool realized that Cuhullin was much larger than him, so he ran home to his wife, Oona (loosing his shoe in his rush to get home). Oona hid Finn MacCool in a giant cradle. When Cuhullin came to fight Finn MacCool, Oona invited him into the home and showed off their baby, Cuhullin saw the size and strength of the “baby” and was scared back to Scotland. He destroyed most of the causeway during his flight. Leaving only a small stretch on each side: The giant’s causeway in Northern Ireland and Fingal’s cave in Scotland. Of course, there seem to be as many variations to that story as there are basalt columns.
I loved this place…Â could have stayed there all day if it had been a little warmer and less windy.
After we had explored the causeway, we hiked around into the next cove. Passed more cool rocks:
Around the bend, we could see the Chimney Rocks (The chimney to Finn MacCool’s house).
It looked like there once was a path all the way around.
but it was closed off because of a giant landslide.
So, we turned around and made our way (across a much smaller landslide) back to the entrance via the upper route. 
An aerial view of the causeway ( that is as close as I get to cliff edges).
The weather was turning a little colder and wetter, so we made one more stop at Dunluce Castle before grabbing some lunch and heading to the Bushmill’s Whiskey Distillery. 
This distillery got its license to distill “great quantities of aquavite, usquabagh and aqua composita,” under King James I back in 1608! It had probably been brewing whiskey long before then, however. They have made whiskey under the Bushmill’s label since the late 1700s. We enjoyed the tour and the complimentary whiskey at the end.
Well, mostly, Bret enjoyed the whiskey. Dinner beverages were more my style.
After dinner, we decided to finish our tour of the night life of Bushmills. We had started the night before with a pint and a game of snookers at the Bush House, so we finished up with pint at the Scotch House Inn and Bistro. I have a hard time believing there was any bistro associated with the Scotch house, but we did make some friends. Barney, sidled up shortly after we walked in and offered up a fist bump to me after telling me how drunk he was. The rest of our conversation alternated fist bumps, with him telling me how drunk he was or him asking me the same few questions over and over. It was quite amusing. Then, we met Stephen, who was really nice and give us some insight into Bushmills, in general, and the Scotch House Inn, in particular. It turn out the bar maid at the Scotch House may be the sassiest in the region. After we finished our pints, we returned to Finn MacCools for some night caps.
The next morning, we picked up early and took the long road back to Cork in some light rain. Super weekend. We would definitely like to make it up that way again. Perhaps when the weather is a bit better, but then, it seems, there are a lot more tourists to contend with.
Northern Ireland’s East Coast
A map of our trip (We rented a car)
The pictures below are from the drive between Belfast and Bushmills.
Belfast and Conference
The infamous Hotel Europa which is know as the “most bombed hotel in Europe” and “most bombed hotel in the world” after having suffered 28 bomb attacks during the Troubles.
Conference…
Scotland brought their A-game by providing shots of Scotch during the conference….
Belfast has a very large and impressive Titanic experience. It is kind of weird that such a tragic event is so celebrated…
I got to see it twice, once when Emily and I went, and it was part of the conference.
The road to Belfast
Bret had a conference in Belfast last week, so I tagged along. We spent a day driving up through the Irish country side, then spent a few days after the conference exploring Northern Ireland. Lots of fun and impressive scenery, so I am going to break it up into a couple posts.
First stop, Trim.
Trim is located on the River Boyne, about 30 miles northwest of Dublin. The big claim to fame for the town, in recent history at least, is that the town of York (England) was portrayed by the Trim Castle in the movie, Braveheart. This fact is advertised heavily around the town. The Castle is the largest Cambro-Norman style castle in Ireland and was built over a 30 year period in the 12th century, so I imagine that some much cooler stuff has happened there in its lifetime.
We stopped in Trim, because the guidebook said it was pretty much dripping with cool, old stuff. We were not disappointed when, shortly after parking the car, we saw a sign for a castle and didn’t have to look far beyond the sign to see this.
Bret posted much better pictures of the castle (and river) here. Clearly, however, we did not arrive during tourist season, because neither the castle nor really anything listed in the guidebook were open. We had to admire the castle from the trail that wrapped around it. I really enjoyed this painting while rambling around town.
Yes, that is a bloody hand reaching through the door (of an elementary school, no less).
After lunch, we moved on the Hill of Tara.
I have been reading a bit about the history of pagan Ireland and the Hill of Tara plays heavily in it. The hill was known as the Ard- Righ and was generally considered the seat of the high-king of Ireland from at least 5000 years ago until the 11th century. In reality, it seems that Ireland had a dozen or so tribes that were pretty independent, but when a strong leader emerged, he was seated in Tara, and other tribes played tribute to him.
Bret thought it was a strange place for the High-King of Ireland, because it is far from a river or coast. Despite being fairly easy to access, it has an incredible 360° view for miles, so we decided it was probably easy to defend. Although, there do not appear to be any defensive structures on the hill, so that theory is probably wrong. 
A little strange phallic (and/ or aggressive?) structure at the main mound. Apparently it is not actually original to the hill, it was placed here in the 1970s (I think. It is old though). Of course, there were the requisite sheep grazing.
Cormac McCarthy was one of the most renown of the Pagan Irish High-Kings. He has his own mound.
The most visible remains are the mound of the hostages, built in 3000- 2500 BC. There are 250-500 bodies buried in there!
And of course, the illegal camping in the parking lot, right next to a nice grassy area, where camping is apparently allowed by permit.
The hill is flanked by St. Patrick’s church (a mere 200 years old).
We tried to make one more stop at Newgrange to visit a neolithic tomb, but winter visiting hours were over by the time we got there, so we continued on to Belfast…
Traveling to Belfast
We made two interesting stops on our drive up to Belfast for the conference. First was the city of Trim where we had lunch and saw this pretty sweet castle…
Then we stopped at the hill of Tara which has much historical significance for Ireland.
