cork.

Thursday, March 15th & Friday, March 16th & Sunday, March 18th
(Don't worry... I'll get back to the great Irish holiday of March 17th!)

I took a day and a half off of school in order to head to Cork for an educational and very festive weekend with my friend Kristi.

Thursday:
I arrived in Cork in the afternoon and was met at the bus station by my friend Kristi from ISU who is studying at the University of College Cork (UCC) this semester.  We walked to her apartment, which unlike mine, is conveniently right in town rather than on campus.  We got back in time for me to meet 3 of her 4 Irish roommates before they headed home for the weekend.

We kicked off our weekend by attending a party put on by Kristi's apartment with her roommates and friends.  The party was very casual, but had a pretty high attendance due to the complexes marketing tactics!  We were informed that if we came down to the courtyard at 9:00 we'd get beer, pizza, sausage, chicken fingers and more... free!  So clearly we all went and had a great time!

Friday:
When we woke up on Friday morning to get an early start on our busy way we were surprised to find that Kristi's apartment had been pillaged! Yes, pillaged... the apartment door had been left ajar over night and the guys that live below, who Kristi and her roommates don't know, had apparently let themselves in with a trolley (shopping cart) and helped themselves to whatever they could find.  Unsurprisingly, the alcohol we had in the fridge was gone, but strangely items such as milk, cheese, tomatoes, frozen food, cereal, and rice were gone as well! The ambitious thieves had then pushed the trolley down a flight of stairs, as there is no lift, to their home!  The event made for an frustrating start to the day... but is a great story now!  This is a picture of the freezer... looked like the Grinch had stolen Christmas and only left a  single frozen pea!

After the confusion of the missing food and stopping at a shop for a scone, we come to the true reason that I skipped class to start my Cork weekend early. I had planned a visit with the Boston Scientific plant in town.  As many of you know, I will be working for Boston Scientific as an Industrial Engineering co-op in Maple Grove, MN from May to December when I return to the States.  When I visited my home site in December to meet my future co-workers I was informed that the plant in Cork was the 'sister' plant to my future work place, meaning that they make many of the same products. I worked with Maple Grove and the Cork plants to set up a tour for Kristi and I on Friday morning.

We made the unwise choice to walk to the plant on Friday in the mist and rain.  The 3 miles from Kristi's apartment to the plant was much longer in actuality than it looked on the map!  But we made it, more than a little wet, and enjoyed a great 2 hour tour of a few clean rooms and met some of the IE team at the plant. and needless to say, we took a bus back to town!

That afternoon Sydney and Steph caught a bus from Limerick and joined us in Cork.  After collecting them from the bus station we made our way to the English Market in the center of town.  The market is open from Monday-Saturday and sells fresh fish, cheese, veggies, fruit, and all sorts of treats!  We walked through and looked at all the vendors and I couldn't resist buying a macaroon (pistachio).  We also got lots of fresh veggies for omelets on Sunday!

After the market we had Kristi bring us on a tour of some of the sights close to her apartment.  We started with St. Finne Barre's Church which you can see, and hear, out Kristi's window.

 We then took a walk through UCC and learned a bit about the campus and its history from our very knowledgeable tour guide!

After seeing the campus, we walked home along the river...

We finished the night off with a pint at An Spailpin Fanac pub and enjoyed some live trad music!

Sydney, Steph, me, Kristi, and Meghan... ISU represent!

Kind of a long video, but for those of you who have seen it, 

the movie P.S. I Love You made this song popular!

Sunday:
The Limerick girls got an early start on the day to head out to Blarney Castle.  We took the bus out to the the castle and walked the grounds, had a picnic, kissed the stone, and enjoyed the sun!

For those of you that don't know, here is the tradition behind kissing the Blarney Stone: The stone was set into the castle in 1446 and kissing it is said to give the kisser the gift of gab (great eloquence or skill of flattery)!  Despite tails of the filth of the stone, I climbed the tower, hung over the side of the castle and kissed the stone!

In addition the stone, the castle had beautiful grounds and gardens to enjoy... One of the gardens was purely filled with poisonous plants and flowers, some recognizable from appearances in Harry Potter (Wolfsbane and European Mandrake (I had to resist the urge to pull this out))!

We finally headed back to Cork to say our good-byes to Kristi and grab an ice-cream cone at the St. Paddy's day festival still in full swing... cause who can resist a chocolate and Bailey's on a sunny day!?

I had a great weekend, even skipping over the craziest day of my visit until later!  We headed back to Limerick in the afternoon to get started on out mountains of neglected homework and catch up on some much needed sleep!