Gouganne Barra

You feel cream-think green seep into your senses. Smell the effervescence of a rising mountain as drops of sunlight filter down and make a sound of sighing trees. With a glance, your eyes taste the cool springs, like scent of pine. As you feel the grass, soft like fleece beneath yourfingers, you hear it -- the sound of a thousand rains opening for one brief moment.


Gouganne Barra was the home of St. Finnbarr who set up a hermitage in the folds of the mountains. A small chapel remains in his honor. The place has Catholic ties, including a Holy Well beside the chapel, as well as more ancient Celtic pagan connections, with tales of faeries and banshees haunting the ethereal woods. It was not hard to imagines these sprites flitting among the underbrush of the trees and splashing in the trickling brooks, tricking the ancient Irish taking pilgrimages and tourists experiencing the breath-taking Irish landscape. 


Words cannot capture this place; it was surreal, both exquisitely majestic and intimately magical. I took about 200 pictures, but I have chosen my favorites to take you along the climb to the peak, and the descent back down the river and the chapel, as well as a few from the pub where we had sandwiches and tea afterwards. Slaite! (cheers!)


PS-- if you click on a picture it will become bigger!

Leprechauns have yet to be seen...

Some things about Cork:

It's a real place. I was expecting something... magical, perhaps? At least, I never imagined the not-so-pleasant parts. To show you I am not in Nirvana actually, this post is to update you on the persistence of human comedy.

There is dog "foul" all over the sidewalk. And it smells awful! I thought the first time must be an anomaly, but it kept popping up, over and again. I thought perhaps there was no pick-up-after-your-dog rules here, but no, this happens despite warnings of a 150 Euro fine on the spot for dog fouling.
The people don't seem as insistent on wearing deodorant as those in the US do. Maybe they think it's ok in the cooler weather? Granted, in Would be Much worse in 105 degree heat.
My shower head is broken. I have a system here where you turn on the general water with the top knob and the hot water with the bottom. You can set the temperature by degrees Celsius, with a maximum of 48 at which my knob turned out to be stuck. Couldn't be too bad, I thought, I like hot showers... well 48 Celsius is 118 Fahrenheit and is far too hot, even for me! I told one of the mangers of the apartment complex: "stuck at 48 (fartee-eht) degrees, is it?" he said with a lilt and a chuckle, though he promised to help me get it fixed.

But the sun came out today as I was walking back from the market with my new friends, and it was warm. I had a delicious meal. And this is the view from my room... I think there is some magic here.

Scavenger Hunt around the city of Cork

Here are a few pictures from the trip and from today's activities.
 I have a picture is of  a few of the Euro denominations I have. They use a lot of coins here! 5, 2, and 1 Euro coins, as well as 1, 2, 5, 20, 50 cents. The lowest bill, however, is 5 Euro and the highest is 50. Secondly, this is the plane I took from London to Cork; green for the Irish airline! Shocking, I know.

Today, we had a scavenger hunt around Cork. Our first stop was the "Shaky Bridge," which looked old, but I got on it, and it wasn't shaky at all. In fact, it looked over the Lee river which was quite beautiful. Our next stop was the Cork City Museum where we had to take a photo of Micheal Collins, one of the key figures involved in creating the independent Republic of Ireland, splitting it from Northern Ireland (still part of the UK). He was assassinated because some felt he settled too quickly; they wanted the whole island to be independent from Britain. Our third stop was the Franciscan Well Brewery. I am not sure what the significance of this is, but it shows a monk having a pint.

 

We next traveled to the Shandon neighborhood, which is on the south side of Cork. There we first stopped at Linehan's Homemade Sweet Factory and sampled the butterscotch hard candy upon the owner's recommendation. It was delicious! We visited both the old and new Vibes and Scribes, one of which was a bookstore, the other and arts and crafts store. The original has 6 stories! We crossed the river once again and saw where all the buses originate; our target location was across bus 8 at Quill's department store. Next, we went to the English market, a HUGE fresh grocery store. There was any kind of meat imaginable. We stopped and sampled some Durrus Farmhouse cheese. 

 The 8th stop on the scavenger hunt was An Spailpin Fanac, which we found out translate's to English (from Irish/Gaelic) to the Wandering Laborer, or the Journeyman, thanks to some helpful Irish people (who we have been asking for directions all day!) Then, we headed to St. Finbarr's Cathedral. St. Finnbar is the patron saint of Cork, and was the first bishop of Cork from 606 to 620 AD. It was a magnificent cathedral, and one of my favorite places to photograph. Near St. Finnbarr was the Gilabbey park, which is mentioned in Bird Alone, one of the novels we will be reading.

The next stop was a visit to the Ogham stones at UCC (University College at Cork). The Ogham stones are believed to be something like burial markers, or memorials for the dead from the ancient Celts. The scavenger hunt required a copied message. I found "Cronun Mac Bait." Cronun means brown and is a family name and Mac Bait means something like foolish and could be used as a personal name. So this marker was for someone named Foolish Brown. Next stop was the O'Rahilly building where I will be going to class every morning, Monday through Thursday. Our last find was a Monkey Puzzle tree. These trees were imported to Ireland from South America and are so named because the leaves look prickly and sharp (though they are actually quite soft), which fools monkeys so they leave the trees alone. 

  

The Flight

The flight

British Airways out of Houston to London Heathrow*Boeing 777*Aer Lingus out of Heathrow to Cork*Airbus 220

I flew out of Houston on July 7, 2012. Getting though security was no problem, and getting on the plane was easy. I found myself greeted by the most charming English accents. I was flying British Airways, so that probably should not have been a surprise, but the “How ah you, madam?” just delighted me. My bag had some issues getting in the overhead storage, so one of the crew members (CM) offered to move it for me. The two CMs began to banter about my admittedly rather heavy bag.

CM 1: Is it too heavy, now?

Me: Well… I got it up there…

CM 1: (lifting my bag) Oh my, what do you have in here?

CM 2: I hope it’s not home baking!

CM 1: Everything you need in-flight I suppose!

CM 2: Gold bricks, perhaps?

As the cabin door closed and we began to taxi down the runway, I noticed something out of place. Or at least something I didn’t want in this particular place and time: lighting.

It’s only one flash, it probably won’t delay us… well, one after another flashed and we were delayed. We sat on the runway for about 45 minutes as the inevitable rain fell down on the Boeing 777.

Finally, the storm cleared a bit, and amidst English-accented announcements and safety videos, we took off. We were just beginning to cruise and the crew was offering the first round of refreshments when the scariest part of the trip began.

The plane began to shake and vibrate. The book I had on my tray bounced clear off, and the drink carts rattled angrily. The heavy turbulence shook like an angry fist for about five minutes. When it finally cleared, I was thoroughly nauseated. I have never been sick on a plane, but I wanted new experiences, right? There were spots of small turbulence throughout the rest of the eight-hour journey, but none as extreme as that first bout.

The meal service was exceptional. I don’t know if it was British Airways or the fact that the flight was international, but I got a full dinner, choice of chicken curry or cheese pasta (I got the ravioli) with a small salad, dinner roll, and a slice of cheesecake for dessert. They even offered complimentary white and red wine, so I tried some sauvignon blanc. The food wasn’t the very best I have eaten ever, but it was the best I have had on an airplane. I saw a movie, the remake of 21 Jump Street, but I slept for most of the trip, waking up about an hour and a half before landing, when they were serving yet another meal; a muffin and coffee for breakfast.

Alas, we were still a full hour behind our scheduled arrival at Heathrow airport. Still, seeing peeks of Ireland beneath a blanket of clouds, and coming upon the west coast of England, I couldn’t stop being excited. We landed, and I set foot in the UK. I had to catch a bus to change terminals, and make my way through immigration, which was a bit slow, but I had no problems. I now have an English Visa!

Still, the delay was too much. I was trapped in the snail’s pace security line five minutes before the plane was scheduled for takeoff. After security, I found my way to the Aer Lingus connection desk and got on the waiting list for the next flight, three hours later.

I lingered around the shops and airport pubs for a while. I bought some postcards, and eventually decided to stop in the Tin Goose. I was thirsty, and tired. (by this point my body was feeling 4:30am!) So, not feeling like eating,  got a Coke and sat on the couches in the pub. It had snarky hangers with ckeeky sayings on it, and a sign remembering the Beatles: “All you need is love! And I love Gin!”

Then, I decided to make my way through the last security check point and spend the remaining hour and a half my gate and write a blog post. They told me the 1:30pm flight was full, but I am at the top of the waiting list.

I made it on the 1:30pm flight (it was actually 13:30, for those of you who prefer that)! Got into Cork and got my passport stamped once again, then exchanged my US dollars for some Euros which still don’t feel like money… I took a cab; at this point I am too tired to try to navigate the bus system. The cab driver had a perfectly Irish lilt and drove on the left... very glad it wasn't me driving! Now as I finish this, I am sitting in my apartment room overlooking a river. It’s beautiful!

I made it. Now the adventure begins!