Weekend of Exploring

Most of the Irish students took off for the weekend to go home to work so once again it was the internationals who banded together. Friday night Agathe cooked a carrot-coconut soup and I made a veggie Curry to go with it. After dinner we decided to go to 2 pubs we had not been to yet. I wanted to go to W.J South's because it is a bar mentioned in Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt which is set here in Limerick.

South's turned out to be a really nice place, very swanky, we felt a bit under dressed. It was very low key in comparison to the other pubs we usually frequent. It was nice to be able to sit with just the group of 4 of us and have a conversation without shouting; so in that sense I feel it was a great place to begin the night at for a casual pint. And about the pint, it was rumored that South's was where you could get the best pint in Limerick. The verdict is that yes indeed that was the best pint I've had since I've been here however the only way to see if it is the best is to go to every pub in Limerick.

After South's we went to a pub called The Bank, one we have always walked past but never ventured into. The Bank had really great music; the band even did requests so of course we had them play Galway Girl. Towards the end of the night the group played an epic song that took maybe 15 mins to complete which had just about one verse from every popular Irish song from Whiskey in the Jar to Irish Rover to I'll Tell me Ma.
It was here at the Bank I realized that they don't do whiskey sours here which is unfortunate though probably better for my bank account.

I called it an early night becasue I had to get up quite early in the morning the following day. I met my friend Maggie Faul (from STL studying at Univ. of Limerick) and her friend Maura (from Jersey) at the bus station where we caught a bus to Cork City, the second biggest city in Ireland. We explored the Cork City Centre for a bit under 2 hours before catching a bus to the nearby town of Blarney. Here we toured the castle and kissed the blarney stone. then we did some hiking around the castle grounds where the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. We did a tradition there called The Wishing Steps, which is a very steep, slippery, long set of stone stairs where they say if you can walk up and down them backwards with your eyes closed while thinking only of your wish then it will come true. The three of us each did it, I will keep you posted on if my wish comes true or not.

We ate lunch which we packed for the trip in the town of Blarney then headed back to Cork where we were just in time for the next us to Limerick.