We went to Ireland for a long weekend to attend the wedding of some good friends. The wedding was in a small town outside of Dublin called Clane on Friday. We spent the whole day hanging around the house and had a great time. These pictures will be posted on Izzy´s blog site www.izzyhudgins.com. The stuff here is from our day trip on Saturday to Cork and Cashel down south. Since the bride and groom and most of the others disappeared for Saturday, we and two other friends decided to rent a car and head on south to Cork to see some more of the country. We had a great time in September when we were there but we didn´t head to far south. The rental company was a bit of a mess and the parking situation at the airport is a nightmare due to the construction going on. The Irish have finally realized that they need an additional new terminal and its quite futuristic looking. After a couple of hours, we finally got back to the house to pick everyone up and were on our way. Our friend´s mom gave us directions that only make sense on back roads. They went a little something like, take a right, then a left, go a little ways, take another left, pass the cow chewing grass, wink at him, turn right just past him, go a little ways and when you can´t go anymore, take a right, cut through the farm field and you will arrive at the highway.
The highway connecting Cork all the way to Belfast was recently completed and I marveled at how two of the older Irish guys marveled at the existence of the highway and the ability to go from Belfast to Cork in a relatively short amount of time. We got on the highway going the wrong direction and upon turning around, decided to stop real quick in a small town called Naas to have lunch. We were kind of rushed so we indulged ourselves on some typical Irish cuisine, Subway. There weren´t many Irish inspired sandwiches but the job of feeding us was done. We drove on south til we saw a sign for a promising castle and pulled off in a place called Cashel. We wound our way through the streets and to the parking lot alongside the castle. It was built on a site called the Rock of Cashel and provided a wonderous view of the countryside all around. The site was inhabited by the kings of Munster and has a strong connection with the famous St. Patrick of March 17. It is said Saint Patrick converted the kings of Munster there and the locals have a myth that says the rock landed there from a place called Devil´s Bit when Saint Patrick drove satan out of the cave and the rock landed in its current location.
The tower and complex still standing dates back to the 12th and 13th century and is quite impressive. There is a cemetery with relatively modern graves considering the age of the structure. Around the outside of the area is an old stone wall the encloses everything. From there, we noticed another old church/castle type structure down in the valley in the distance. We found out from the girl taking money that we could walk there in 10-15 minutes and that it was free.
We walked along a path called the Path of the Dead, a path that the people used to carry the dead out of town and to their final resting place. At the bottom of the path, we turned right and walked along the field alongside the building and tried to talk to the cows. They just stared at us and watched us with a suspicious eye as we walked away. We found a plaque at the edge of the road explaing that the building was once Hore Abbey. We entered on the sidewalk to it and discovered a building similar to the one on top of the rock. The building was also roofless and the insides completely empty. It appeared the structure was falling into the hands of local teenagers who used the secluded location for late night partying and probably other things.
Why are cows so amusing to photograph?
After visiting the abbey, we headed back to the car and continued on our journey to Cork. We arrived an hour later and spent half an hour trying to park the car. Every spot on the street required a disc of some local sort so we had to find a parking garage. We walked around Cork for a bit and it was a lovely city except for the part full of sketchy looking characters. The city is a port city and has two branches of the Lee River running through it that feed into Cork Harbor. The area alongside the river is nice and there are several churches there, like Trinity church, with impressive buildings.
Near the port, the city had built a long strech of park so that the locals could sit along the river and enjoy beautiful days, such as Saturday, in a natural environment. The city hall and St. Finbarre´s Cathedral were some of the more impressive buildings that we saw while walking around. The cathedral has a gold angel on top and serves the local Protestant population while the St. Mary´s cathedral cares for the Catholics. This is part of the ever present division between Catholics and Protestants. The city hall was built in the 1930´s after the original was destroyed in local fighting known as the Burning of Cork.
We ended our day in Cork with a visit to a local pub for some food and a drink while we watched the last of the World Cup games for the day. Denmark eventually ended Cameroon´s run at a World Cup title. We arrived back to our friends house late Saturday night and returned to Madrid on Sunday for our last week here.
No comments:
Post a Comment