March 17, 2010

As you can imagine, St. Patrick's Day in Ireland was an unforgettable experience. After attending a Mass in Irish, my roommates and I made a huge breakfast of eggs and home fries for our friends. After getting decked out in whatever green and Irish flag-themed articles we had around the apartment, we set out for the parade. We couldn't really see the floats because there were so many people, but to console ourselves, we went the Old Oak after and had a pint of Beamish, made right here in Cork City. We came back and made barbeque and sweet chili wings for lunch-ish and then started the corned beef and cabbage. After a nap, we feasted on the "traditional" Irish meal and watched a football game on TV. The perfect day.

Chuck and I after breakfast and prior to the parade
Photo credit: Mag Tucker


Bought these from the 2 euro store :)


Parade shot


Roomie Kristen, me, and Mag at parade


View of the parade, appropriately looking onto the corner of Grand Parade and St. Patrick's Street
Photo credit: Mag Tucker

Mag, Tracy, and me at Old Oak after the parade

Marie, Marie, Here I Come

On Thursday (after Paddy's Day) I'm flying to Madrid to see Marieeeeee! For those of you who don't know, Marie is my best friend and roommate at Saint Ben's. (See photo at right, shown here somewhere in Spain.)

I'm staying with her and her host family in Segovia, Spain, until Monday.

I think this semester has been one of the longest times we have been apart since we've known each other. So sad. But she's going to take me to all the best spots in / around Segovia and Madrid and serve as my translator. Right, Marie? :)


In other news:
I'm still anticipating the activities of Wednesday, the 17th. There's going to be a parade in Cork City and Mag and I are working on securing some Heineken for our St. Patrick's Day celebration. I've heard some rumors that the celebration here isn't as intense or "festive" as in the States, particularly in NYC. According to her accounts (and the fact that there is a huge Irish population on Long Island, where she's from), St. Patrick's Day is crrrazy there with lots of food and parades and general hootenanny. I guess corned beef and cabbage is a big deal for Mag and her family, so if we can't find any around town on Wednesday, we're going to make some so I can get an "authentic" Paddy's Day experience. I'm still looking for a good outfit to wear - thinking about heading to the euro store to get some green stuff. All classes are canceled on Wednesday (UCC shuts down for the day) so we should have a grand time. Don't worry... my flight to Madrid doesn't leave Dublin until 5 pm on Thursday.

It's inevitable

Going to get my hair cut someday soon - hope I don't end up with an Irish mullet.
Or worse...

Photo credit: http://www.beautyden.com/pics/hair_bad_haircut.jpg

Köln/Cologne, Germany March 3-8

Mag, Callie, and I flew to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport for 20 euro round-trip and took a 2.5 hour bus ride to Cologne. We stayed at a hostel for 3 nights and came back with these pictures...

We slept overnight in the Dublin airport on the Starbucks chairs - started off our trip with a good night's sleep

Köln is Cologne in German

The Dom Cathedral is the most famous landmark in Cologne and it's a World Heritage Site. According to Wikipedia, it's visited by 20,000 people every day. We climbed to the top - 509 steps!

On the way up!

View from the top

Bell on the inside

Inside of the cathedral

Pipe organ on the inside - it's hard to tell, but the windows seen here are all stained glass

At the Bier Museum (and I got this scarf earlier in the day for only 2 euro!)

Fishing outside the Chocolate Museum

Oompa Loompa style

Free samples from the chocolate fountain!!

Hint, hint - Easter's coming soon!

Making truffles

Neumarkt Building with a fallen ice cream cone

Hohenzollern Bridge with love locks - all these padlocks have couples' names and anniversaries engraved or written on them

View of the Dom from the bridge

The elevator on the way up the Köln Triangle Panorama goes 4 meters/second and doesn't stop at any floors - just ground to the roof.

On top of the Triangle - the Rhine and the Dom

The 4711 House is where the first cologne was made - 4711 is the number given to the building by Napolean's forces when they were addressing the city. It's a store/museum that sells No. 4711.

This glockenspiel on the top of building chimes on the hour and Napolean's men and horses go around. We got there right on time to catch it.


No. 4711 always flows from the fountain inside the store. We rinsed our hands in it and smelled like cologne for the rest of the trip!
Photo credit: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/167/406057085_7616322662_o.jpg

The Saturn building is the world's largest record/CD/DVD store. I got a 2-CD Glenn Miller set for 3 euro!

The wiener schnitzel was great!! It came with potato croquettes (the things that look like breaded cauliflower) and salad. Mag got the plain schnitzel and I got Hawaiian schnitzel (the one that looks like it's covered in potato salad) that has cheese and pineapple on top.

Leaving our hostel: Callie, me, and Mag

With our friend Oleg (studied abroad at Mag's home college) who showed us around and translated for us

All the food was great. They have little bakeries on every street with fresh bread, rolls, and pastries. I had Berliners and some streudel and lots of soft bread. I had such a great time here - can't wait to go back and see more of Germany!