Dublin--coffee and the post

 so as I mentioned before, we were staying at the Clontarf Caslte Hotel--from the outside I thought it resembled the Chicago Art Institute--and that was before I saw the lions!

 It was really nice staying there and seeing my mom after along school year right before all the stress of final exams.

 How lucky was I to have such a cool mom--she not only supported me in all the re-enactment I was doing, but she participated with me!

 funny story: the heel of her shoe broke so she whipped some electrical tape out of her purse to fix it,and even put a matching stripe on the other shoe. Being the wife and mother of engineers has its perks!

 Here I am at the general post office--it was amazing seeing the bullet holes in the walls--a lot of history happened here--to the left of the entrance is even a little museum to learn more!

 I got some stamps while I was there...

 Because the tour we wanted to go to that day didn't work out we went to the museum instead--I loved seeing the artifacts I had been learning about all year. Pictured above is a 'weaver's sword' which I found particularly interesting since I do some weaving at working the summers... not pictured are all the other Neolithic and Late Bronze age artifacts I was so taken with.

 I especially loved the temporary exhibition the Battle of Clontarf, seeing how I was going to be participating in the 1000 year anniversary reenactment shortly.

 We are fans of Porterhouse. They are not that common,they can be found in only a handful of places: there is one in London, New York, Cork, and 2 in Dublin. We stopped in for a pint upon finding this one!

As we were waiting for the bus for  our second attempt at a Newgrange / Hill of Tara tour we found a snug cafe across from St. Steven's Green called the Beanhive. the owners were really nice--gave a homeless man a meal and made us some (really yummy) carrot and coriander soup...

Not to mention some really super coffee! I am not a huge fan of coffee--but this was really nice. We made sure to give them a nice review on Tripadvisor!

Of course,be a larger city, Dublin had its fair share of  street performers! I figure, of someone makes you stop on the street, you owe them some change! One music group was so cool that I bought their CD!

By now I was getting really excited for the Battle of Clontarf--pictures (hopefully) some video and stories about that are to come!

Post-finals catch-up part 1

So I know that I haven't posted any photos since the trip to Fota. I was quite distracted with preparations for my mother's visit, the Battle of Clontarf, and Final Examinations.

Now I shall attempt the impossible, the game of "catch-up" to return to current  events. 

Here we go!

 Archery Club at UCC only had 2-3 meetings left, but now that I had Gwen (My English Longbow) with me I was going to make the best of it!

I even brought Michelle along to the last meeting for some fun!

She'll deny it, but she was a pretty good shot!

 I like this picture Michelle took because of the epic hoodie of yer man standing next to be. it reads "switches be trippin'". All my engineering friends will understand it...

 Walking around town with Heather after looking for fabric dye and stuff to complete or kit before the Battle of Clontarf we ran into this--an artist installation on the street--she was asking passers-by to add to the quotes about what they liked and didn't like about Cork.

 For me,this was during the news of all the -50 degree weather back home, so I was simply grateful we weren't buried in snow-drifts and freezing our arses off!

 My next order of business was meeting my mum in Dublin!

 we mainly walked around the Christ Church and Temple Bar areas--seeing places we were familiar with from our visit 7-8 years ago.

 I particularly had a new-found interest with the Fishsamble, Winetavern, and other streets associated with the Woodquay excavations as they gave quite an impressive amount of insight to Norse Dublin.

 The excavations cannot be seen anymore except for the outline of a type 1 house put into the stones behind Christ church and the various plaques along the ground...

 We were staying at the Clontarf Castle Hotel. I should have taken more pictures of the inside--it was absolutely amazing!

 My mom always finds the signs regarding 'dog fouling' to be interesting/funny--this one in particular because it was in Irish...

 Downtown Dublin!

 More pictures and updates to come soon! 

I can't wait to share with y'all the Battle of Clontarf!

ZOO!

 Our misadventure to the Fota wildlife Park...

Our day began after Michelle turned in her paper... we were looking for a bus that would take us to Fota with no luck, Finally I called Ciara and she said we should just take the train--it would drop us off right next to the park! (wish I had known that hours ago).

We get to the station in Cork and buy our tickets at the machines...we get tickets for Carrigtwohill because that is where Google Maps said Fota was. Sadly,we hadn't checked to see if there were tickets specifically for Fota. That would have saved a lot of time in the long run...

So we wait on the platform for our train, Michelle takes a few pictures of/next to the train that was there for her boyfriend's brother who likes trains... little did we know that we watched the train we needed leave the station.

The trains break off into two branches. One goes to Carrigtwohill and Midleton, the other? to Fota...and eventually to Cobh. Yup.We would figure this out all to late.

At least the train ride was fun. I am used to the Chicago trains. This one was just...quaint.

 So we stopped in Carrigtwohill...and there was NOTHING. A train platform,a small parking-lot, and nothing. We walk a ways down the only road to ask a jogger passing by where we go to get to Fota. She told it was little over half an hour by foot,so we should take the train. Well then. We go back to the platform and buy new tickets to Fota.

 Not 10 minutes later did another train leave the station going back the way we had come from--little did we know we had to get on that train...

And now we wait... We sang, a lot. We played sticks and ninja and all manner of games we played in marching band while waiting for gigs.

 So we waited some more...

 ...and waited...

 "Sir? I've sent 3 letters to my sister and have gotten no reply. She's being anti-social. What action do you suggest?"

 Our train took us tot he end of the line, to Midleton. The nice man we sat next to on the train told us we were on the wrong train...again.

 So the train started taking us back to the junction where the branches split...

 And we would go down the other branch to Fota, not 10 minutes away.

 After doing our fair share of waiting again, of course.

Huzzah! We were there!

 We could tell by the leopard print fence if nothing else.

 In fota, the animals can just about walk around wherever they like. There are upsides and downsides to this...

Tee hee, Saki :)

Miss you baby! <3

pretty birds

We thought it funny how the sign shows a (not terribly brilliant) individual giving candy to a crocodile/alligator, neither of which are at the park.

" Me, and you, and Zabumafoo! "

This one just sat in the middle of the path, content to stare at passers by...

This adorable thing is called a Mara.

Here is what got me--it's a bit difficult to see in this picture,but there is a section of rocks and then an exposed electric fence. Yes, there was usually another (wooden) fence beyond the electric one and people, but in many sections there was NOTHING--I saw two young boys walking over the rocks and I thought, "If ye boys fall now you're all but two inches away from death! Where the bloody hell are your parents?!" but apparently I was the only one who thought so...

 Maybe it's just me, but I am not used to folks walking up to kangaroos to take selfies...

 On another note, here is a cute penguin!

 I like the little guy on the front, he was just lying there as if to say, "yup, I'm done for the day."

Overall, it was an interesting day. I now know how to get there (in under 4 hours) and will be revisiting soon to see the gardens and other sites nearby!

Thanks Michelle and Francis for the fun day! (and tacos!)