it's marchmas in killarney...

greetings from the quaint, country town of killarney! Kevin and I haven't had much time to explore the town because we've been about in county kerry exploring ring forts and beehive huts. Hopefully we'll be able to rent some bikes this weekend and explore the national park.

highlights: high mountain cliff sides and daring bus drivers

Kevin's own take away

dry masonry and ring forts
a waiter saying 'and here's a salad for yerself'

Posts will be sporadic since we have to pay for Internet...but we hope to fare better in Galway.

Goodbye, Cork...Hello, packing!

Well, it's our last night in Cork City, Co. Cork. We've had a grand time this past fortnight. The city is of a nice size, clean, colorful, and without any overly offensive odors. The last few days, in particular, have brought us plenty of enjoyment. Jeff emerged from his hole to rejoin the herd, as it was determined he posed no real threat to the others. I continued about in my normal routine. There were trips to various places--Cashel, Kinsale, Cobh--that I documented thoroughly, so I could tell Jeff about them afterward. We have been going on some nice walks around town, now that he's feeling up to it. Yesterday, there was a picnic in the park, which, after finding that there wasn't much of a park, turned into a picnic on the street. Today, Jeff and I walked up a big hill. We felt a strong sense of accomplishment. The photo included was taken from the crest of the hill, in a small, green patch of vacant land that had no earthly business being in a developed neighborhood overlooking Cork. The other photo is of Jeff eating his "man-sandwich."

On another note, classes seem to be going well, and I think the professors may be taking a shine to us. Then again, it could just be that they are forced by the nature of the program to interact with their students. Either way, they're starting to associate me with Jeff, and vice versa. I suppose I don't really mind, as long as there aren't any unseemly insinuations made. Moving right along, we're waking up early tomorrow to go to Killarney, where we will be staying for a week, I believe. I hear it's nice there. It's a fairly small town; we'll probably be taking trips to surrounding areas, which will make for good stories and stimulating journal entries. So there's that to look forward to. In the meantime, I should finish packing and get some sleep. So long, from Cork.

just my luck...

hey everybody! what's the worst thing that can happen to you while in a foreign country? Getting lost? Pirate attack? deciding between the steak or the veal?

try getting chicken pox! That's right ladies and gents, i'm the proud new owner of the worlds most contagious illness and what can be better than spending the next 3-4 days in isolation?

for all of you concerned, i'm ok and surprisingly not itchy. But i'm now known as the elusive, spotted JLR.

on a lighter note, here's a cool picture of wender lounging in the forest outside blarney castle

St. Patty's Parade

Kevin and I went out to see the Cork parade today. St. Patrick's day is quite different from what I'm used to in Chicago. The parade celebrated different cultural groups and there weren't so many of the"native Irish" walking the parade route as I would've expected. I think St. Patrick's day in Ireland is more about national unity than anything else (hint: the Irish flag is supposed to represent peace between the catholics and protestants). Also, it seemed that the whole day in general was geared towards children, while adults mostly kept to the pubs.

The Wearin' o' the Green

Oh, Paddy dear! an' did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground.
No more St. Patrick's Day we'll keep, his color can't be seen,
For there's a cruel law agin the wearin' o' the green!

I met wid Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand.
And he said, "How's poor Ould Ireland, and how does she stand?"
She's the most disthressful country that iver yet was seen,
For they're hangin' men and women there for wearin' o' the green.

An' if the color we must wear is England's cruel red,
Let it remind us of the blood that Ireland has shed;
Then pull the shamrock from your hat, and throw it on the sod,--
And never fear, 'twill take root there, tho' under foot 'tis trod!

When law can stop the blades of grass from growin' as they grow,
And when the leaves in summer-time their color dare not show,
Then I will change the color, too, I wear in my caubeen,
But till that day, plaze God, I'll stick to wearin' o' the green.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Ireland

Ich am of Irlaunde,
Ant of the holy londe
Of Irlaunde.
Gode sire, pray ich the,
For of saynte charité,
Com ant daunce wyth me
In Irlaunde.

I thought I'd start with a few old lines of verse. We've been seeing a lot of really old things lately, so I deemed it appropriate. Yesterday we went on one of the more touristy adventures, taking a trip to Blarney Castle. We had the day off, so a few of us got together and hopped on a bus to the town of Blarney, a small and fairly charming place with a lot of elderly folk. I wasn't sure what the castle would be like, or whether it would be worth the price of admission, but it turned out to be pretty cool. It's situated on a pretty large piece of property, with lots of woods and forking rivers. The castle itself had a lot of winding passageways, narrow staircases, and even a dungeon-like structure. Kissing the stone was sort of anti-climactic, and it turned out to be probably the least exciting part of the whole trip (yes, I am aware of the stories of locals "sullying" the stone). We walked along some scenic trails to this clearing full of rock formations. It was a lot like a playground, but with witches stones and druid circles. That part was a lot of fun. It's a really cool place, if you don't spend all your time at the stone or the in-castle gift shop. I reluctantly included a picture of myself kissing the stone, so you could all see what it involves.


Last night, Jeff and I took a few people to a local pub with a dartboard, as Jeff recently purchased his own set of darts. There was a party in the back, so darts didn't happen. I went up to the bar and started talking with this Irish guy who grew up in America. This was nice, as I could actually understand what he was saying. He told us that his buddy was coming with his band. We decided to stay and hang out for a bit. The band was awesome. They played mostly blues rock, with a few Beatles covers thrown in. The old man on the right is the lead singer, and he plays a pretty mean guitar. We got the chance to talk with him a little, real nice guy.


Well, I'm going to go for now, I think the St. Patrick's Day parade is starting. If you want to know, I'll tell you about it later.

Cork un-corked!

We've arrived in Cork and received an upgrade in accommodations. Kevin and I now have internet access in our room, so blog posting should become more frequent. We've taken a tour of the city already and even visited a really cool farmer's market. Cork has a much more "small town" feel to it than Dublin, and the city is filled with many small shops and alleyways. Classes are going great and we're spending a great deal of time on the political history of Ireland.

On the way to Cork, we stopped at several historical sights. High crosses, roundtowers, and an old monastic site comprised our long commute to Cork.

I've posted all of my pictures on the kodak easyshare online site. See my pics here. If the link doesn't work, send me your e-mail address at Coodman085@yahoo.com and I'll "officially" invite you.

Dawn breaking over Dublin. I took this picture on the rather long plane ride, since I wasn't busy sleeping. Needless to say, the jetlag hit us pretty hard. But we're here, and we're trying to stay awake as much as possible. Today mostly consisted of walking around the city, which is very urban, comparable to Chicago and other major cities. The weather is mostly cloudy, the people are nice, the traffic is heavy. We walked to a beach called "the strand" by some, apparently it's mentioned in Ulysses. There has been much talk of Joyce. On the way back from this faraway beach, we stopped in a pub and had a Guinness. There was a "football" match on TV, so the locals were a little rowdy. We also took a trip to St. Stephens Green, a verdant oasis among cramped apartment buildings and shops. There is much more to tell you, and many more pictures, but I don't have much time left, Internet isn't free, and it doesn't work well at all. I have already made many attempts at posting. We'll try to update when we can, there will be more once we leave the expensive Dublin for the smaller cities. I'll leave you with this image, which I took after it had started to rain a bit.

Picture Test

Hey look everyone! I figured out how to post pictures.

This is how me and Kevin will look roaming about Ireland.

They're showing "Rocky" on our flight tomorrow...