Final Days in Ireland

Our fourth day in Ireland was devoted to exploring Cork. Our first stop was the Gallery, which was free to the public. There was a kind of strange exhibit on called "The United States of Europe," about the interconnectedness of European countries and identities and cultures, and a really lovely sculpture room. My favourite rooms were the gallery of Irish countryside landscapes over time, and the gallery devoted to Harry Clarke, an artist from the arts and crafts movement, which I've always loved. He's mostly known for his stained glass windows, but I am seriously enamoured with his drawings and watercolours. He illustrated quite a few fairy tale collections, such as this one, and some of those were included in an exhibit in Dublin I saw the next day!

Inside the sculpture gallery with lots of sunlight!

After that we walked 2 km to the Cork Gaol (we didn't realise it was quite so far away :-p). It was pretty cool, literally! It was freezing in the old stone building and all the workers were wearing coats and gloves inside. There were mannequins in different rooms that matched up with scenes described on a guide, so it was a bit of a different museum experience than others we'd had. The Gaol is supposed to be haunted and there are night ghost tours, and while we were looking around, there was a ghost hunter doing something with audio samples on his laptop! So that was exciting as an avid Ghost Hunters fan.

Entrance to the Gaol

Inside the Gaol museum, definitely looks like something from Ghost Hunters :-p

And here's our own ghost hunter, hard at work.

The walk back to town was all downhill through a residential area so we got some nice panorama views towards the city. We then went to the English Market, the oldest covered market in Ireland, to find some lunch. I bought some "Irish parmesan" from a local farm's stand (it wasn't really parmesan because that comes from Parma, Italy, but it was similar!) and some freshly baked bread for lunch, it was lovely. The day had become rather grey and dreary, but we still trekked on to see St Fin Barr's Cathedral on the other side of town. It was a really lovely cathedral, and the old man working there was very accommodating and told us about the history of the building. They had just installed a new organ and the organist was pracitsing, so it was very atmospheric, especially because we were the only ones visiting for a while!

St Fin Barr's from the back

St Fin Barr's front facade

Inside the apse of the cathedral, it was gorgeous!

View of St Fin Barr's on the walk back to town

We went to dinner at Uncle Pete's again (for the third time haha) and this time I took a photo of my very delicious basil pesto pasta, which I got twice, it was so good! And then we went back to Dan Lowrey's (we have no originality) for our final night in Cork. I tried a red beer brewed in Blarney, but I wasn't too fond of it haha. But I figured I should try something new and support the local breweries! It was nice to sit and absorb the atmosphere of the pub, which really was very cosy and homey and welcoming. After struggling to get everything to fit back into my dufflebag, we had an early night before our long day of traveling!

My delicious pesto pasta from Uncle Pete's :-D

Red beer is quite strange, I must say.

The next day we took a morning train back to Dublin, although it was late arriving. I tried to take some pictures of the Irish countryside, but it's quite difficult to get a clear photo from a moving train. And the tinted windows made it look like I was using a weird filter, I promise it wasn't that blue! Once we arrived in Dublin, we took the bus back into town and went back to Trinity College Dublin so I could see the Book of Kells exhibit. It's one of my favourite things I've learned about in my art history classes so I was very excited to finally see it in person!!! It seriously is so amazingly intricate and exquisitely decorated. There was an exhibit about how manuscripts were produced and decorated, which had some cool videos, and then there were four manuscripts on display: two from the Book of Kells, and two other manuscripts from other parts of Ireland. I couldn't take pictures, but you can see a gallery of close ups of the Book of Kells here! The exhibit also includes entry into the Old Library, which is an amazing space that feels like the library from Hogwarts or Beauty and the Beast or something. There were some Harry Clarke pieces in the exhibit on Irish illustrators in the library, so I was happily surprised to see more of his work!

My attempt at photographing the countryside through a tinted window haha

The Old Library!

We all met up (I was the only one who went into the exhibit because it was a bit pricy) and caught the 16 bus back to the airport, which took an hour again. Security was even more minimalistic in the Irish airport- I didn't have to show my passport at all, nor did they have a customs check in the Manchester airport, so that was really strange to me haha. Then the train back to York, which was FREEZING cold (the beginning of this really nasty weather front that's still sticking around), and Le Page, which was eerily quiet without everyone around! I really enjoyed my trip to Ireland and I'd love to go back (although not during their biggest holiday!), especially to the countryside and the coast. And it was lovely to get to know my Erasmus friends a bit better! :-)