Sunday in Cork/Midelton

Today we went to a small town east of Cork called Midelton. It is the home of the Jameson Whiskey Distillery and museum. We did the guided tour, which was pretty darn fun, and then went to the main house for our complementary drink of Jameson. Now I remember why I don't like whiskey. It gives me the shivers woo. At least they gave us a coke with it so we all wouldn't be sitting around the distillery making horrible faces after each sip...that's just not good for sales. Adam, Kylie and Allison volunteered to do a whiskey taste test and then became "official" whiskey tasting experts. Or at least their signed and dated certificates say so.

After purchasing some Jameson for the back homers we all wandered into a nice little pub and had lunch and watched old guys yell at the horse races on T.V. Okay, imagine the movie "Snatch," do you remember how no one could understand Brad Pitt's character? Well that is exactly how the Irish in Cork sound. "Ya gotch dur hurse n de gruss wit de leg ore de ting n he won n ye ga yaaah"...WHAT? Exactly. Go horses is basically what he was saying.

So after my meal of roast turkey with 7 different kinds of potatoes we took a stroll over to the bus station to wait for our ride home. After waiting for a bit we start to hear a rumble coming down the street.... I am thinking, what the heck kind of muffler is on this car...oh but it is not a car with a crazy muffler rumbling down the street, it's a HUGE tractor looking thing driven by 2 teenagers. AND who follows them up, another crazy tractor with more kids driving. They drove up and down the main drag of Midelton about 3 times, and then probably got bored of me running after them taking pictures and went home. Ireland is crazy.

New friends and a night out in Cork

After my awesome 3 hr nap at Adam's, he took me up to meet his friends that live upstairs. Two girls, Allison and Kylie, and two guys, Scott and Rob, all from the States. We also met Tex and Jeff from Boston and Marlu, Tahan, Uli and Martina from Germany. Fun, fun bunch of folks. Scott made Aliison, Adam and I dinner (Chicken Ceasar Salad and garlic bread) in his apartment, so so good. Especially after the plane food I had eaten 8 hrs prior. After dinner we played quite a few games of Euchre and made fun of the crazy things on Irish televsion before we went out on the town.


We made our way over to Old Oak, a great pub in downtown Cork, and danced the night away to one hit wonders from the 90's and a slew of other "past their prime" american music. The guiness was good, the hard cider was better...Balmers Cider is what everyone drinks over here, sort of funny cosidering how much Ireland is tied to beer. We will check out more clubs later in the week, but this was a good intro into the Irish nightlife.

Oy, ya finally made it eh?

So after the debauchery at the airport Thursday I finally made it to Ireland early Saturday morning. Did you know the flight from Philly is only 5.5 hours? Yeah short, I know. I attempted to sleep the majority of the time, but to no avail. So I just did about 17 crossword puzzles and talked to my row mate for a few hours. She was the guest of the Education Ministry here in Ireland...trying to revamp Irelands secondary education programs and get the kids out of bars, or something like that.

Once I arrived in Cork and whizzed through customs...there was a lovely customs agent that decided I looked Irish enough to pull me out of the non-EU countries line and throw me into the super short line with all the native Irish ladies and gents...I continued on my way out to the #51 bus to Cork that was just about to take off. Woo thank god for that customs guy, he saved me an hour wait time for another bus. Thanks for the red hair mom, it comes in handy every now and again haha!

Bus ride = 2 hours. Slept. Got to the Cork bus station where Adam was waiting for me. He lives about a 5-minute Irish walk...or a 7-minute walk from the bus station. (The Irish distance/time perceptions are a little short of target for the most part...everything is "Oh ya, it's right down there, 5 minutes and you'll have it.") Got back to Adam's place and got myself a nap. All in all, it was a good traveling day.

And I really do LOVE US Airways!

Okay, so the trip has been put on hold a day. My flight to Philly was grounded do to rain. Come on, I am sure the pilots have flown in the rain a million times. I think they are just out to ruin my vacation....LOL.

So, US Air, I have decided to let you fly ME to ireland tomorrow. HOWEVER, haha check this out....I have cancelled my return flight with you (with full refund) and have taken my business to American Airlines. How can you go wrong with anything American? Well actually, I guess you can go wrong.... look at all those people in 1978 who bought a Chevy Chevette. Yikes!

So yes tomorrow, at half past high noon, I will be at the airport sitting at my gate waiting for those words I love to hear from US Air....*static* "uhhh folks, well, uhhh the flight deck tells us we have an hour delay, so uhhh, just sit tight, and uhhh we will be boarding soon." Good news is though, that I was able to extend my trip till next Monday....so Saturday to Monday is much better than Saturday to Saturday.

PS - many thanks go out to my hero Enrique "the bull" Medina. Mostly for flashing his military ID and giving the desk agent "a line" so that he could come through security with me and hang out at the gate. AND thanks for holding my bags for me while I sprinted up and down the airport twice, once with shoes on and once without. You are the best ever.

Leaving for Ireland

I leave for Ireland today at 6pm. Fly into Philly at 7pm, then off to Shannon, Ireland. It's an overnight flight, so we shall see if I can sleep a bit. I did bring my sweet OU blanket, so I am sure my row mates on the plane will be jealous since I will be so cozy LOL. Kidding, I will share :)

I get into Ireland at 8:30 on Friday morning and then take the 2hr bus trek to Cork, Ireland where I will be staying for half of my trip. I am sure I will be sleepy when I get there, but I will try to take some pics and post more Friday.