Anna Murray and I (with some well-timed help from Liz, Anna’s mom) took the hi-speed train to Cork, Ireland, and Cormac picked us up in his car right outside the station. We immediately got a little tour of Cork by car and foot. We walked around the University College Cork campus where Cormac goes to school, and saw some crazy old stones which had carvings in them that were supposed to be one of the oldest written languages in the world (called Ogham).

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The second day in Cork was a doozie, and we covered a lot of ground. Having a car really changes things! Our first trip was out to the Blarney Castle. We saw the prices to get into the grounds, and almost immediately began walking the perimeter of the grounds to find our own entry point. Two spiked fences, barbed wire, electrified wire, 2 regular fences, and one river later, we were on the inside. Anna pulled a decent cut from the barbed wire, but she took it like a champion. We toured the grounds for a bit when I saw this tiny little entryway into what is something like a basement for the castle. There weren’t any signs or anything, and it was far too small to stand up inside, but curiosity got the best of me and we made our way through the caverns underneath Blarney castle. We got to the end of the cave and there was a bit tall enough to stand up inside, and all over the walls were people’s signatures. We found the bathroom in the castle, too, which just had a hole in the ground that led to the outside. You could look through the ‘toilet’ and see the ground about 100 feet below, it was pretty tempting to use it, but there were too many people around. On the way out we passed over several streams that were filled with coins, but I could see on the ground next to the water there were a bunch of coins from people who had missed, or who had made it when the water was higher. I poked around and found some British and American coins which found their way into my pocket as souvenirs.

Having turned a small profit at the Blarney Castle, we were back on the road heading for the coast. We stopped at some little town whose name I have forgotten, but were cut off by construction from the old military fort that people usually visit, and then drove further to the most massive coastal cliffs I have ever seen. They were definitely taller than the cliffs at Black’s Beach in San Diego, and the sight of the Atlantic Ocean pounding against the rocks combined with the powerful winds, the mist, and the scent will be a very memorable experience. Driving more along the coast we came up on a sandy beach that had lots of surfers. It was pretty surprising to see them all out because the weather wasn’t that nice, and neither were the waves, but I guess that’s my spoiled inner-San Diegan talking now.

In the evening Cormac took us out to a little pub near his high school where his parents already were, for an experience that Cormac coined “the tourist’s wet dream.” The pub was filled mostly with older people, about 30 people in total, all of them very blatantly Irish. Everyone was basically taking turns singing, or telling jokes, or playing an instrument (often traditional Irish instruments). Everyone else in the pub was pretty quiet when someone was performing, and nearly everyone in the pub did something. It’s apparently a very Irish thing to sing unaccompanied, and most of the singers did just that, singing sad old Irish songs over some chips (french fries) and a beer. It was a totally unique experience that was capped by one of the men in the pub doing some Irish dancing for everyone. Cool.

Cormac’s mom, Honor, also cooked up some seriously delicious food for us, and we definitely got a good amount of pampering in combination with adventure. Then after only a couple days Anna and I were on the road with Cormac back to Dublin!

Shortly after returning to Dublin, Anna Murray’s house was joined by Stephen Naschef, another I-House alum who had just finished traveling in Central America and was on his way home to England. The four of us went on a good long walk to a pub in the next town over and enjoyed a few beers and some live music being played by random locals in the pub. Stephen had some seriously cool stories from his travels in Central America and Cuba, and I really hope to be able to visit the region someday soon. The walk back from the pub had us drenched with rain (it IS Ireland), but we made it home in decent time to do some late night youtubing.

The next day we had another short walking tour of Dublin which included the insides of some of the buildings at Trinity College Dublin, including one that housed an 8-foot tall deer skeleton, and another known as “the long room” which is the epitome of epic old-school university libraries. Think rolling ladders, stone statues, and gargantuan ceilings. We also were treated to yet another wonderful mama-Murray creation, this time it was Lasagna.

My time in Ireland was great, and I really enjoyed all of the scenery and the castles and whatnot. For sure the best part was the people I spent a majority of my time with while I was in Dublin. The people really do define the experience, and writing this almost a month after my stay in Ireland has really allowed that to sink in.