My Irish adventure: Cork by night

The Blue Hour

The last evening in Cork before leaving for Letterkenny, I decided to see the city on my own. So I wandered through the city in the fading light, thinking and humming to myself. I really hope to come back one day....I want to see more of Cork, both night and day

The river Lee in the evening light

Reflection from the history

A little treasuretrove...and what a cool name

One of the many bridges...and perhaps the most beautiful one

Red and blue; night and sunset

Much more beautiful by night

Like the city comes alive

They seem to like this kind of architectural style....

Bridge over troubled water?

So yes, I cannot deny it....

I MISS CORK

My Irish adventure: Cobh 2

Finally, the rain stopped and I am ready to continue my story from Cobh...
And I will take you on a journey of the mind, through the history of the place...well, I will at least try.

Cobh. A place people left. Either to look for their fortune in a foreign land like America or Australia, or as this sign says: Cork
The old trainstation has been turned into a museum over the emigration and life in Cork. A museum which also covered the two tragic accidents concerning Titanic's misfortune in 1912 and the sinking of Lusitania in 1915.

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I'll try to let the pictures speak mostly for themselves, but here and there you will see my comments...enjoy...

You feels like you have  been brought back in time...to a time when first class-passengers got to wait in their own room...



A melody to wish the passagers a good journey across the ocean

I this case...not a very pleasant journey....

The population of Ireland decreased sharply in this period as you can see...some say that in 1845 there lived about 8,1 million (!) people on this fair green isle...and then the worst tragedy in Irish history occurred: The Great Famine (An Gorta Mór). More than 1,5 million people either starved to death or died from deceases caused by malnutrition...and people fled the country to seek a better life in America, Canada or anywhere else really. And about 1921 the population had shrunk into about 4 million.....


Dance on board one of the many ships headed for the new world...





People fled the country...




...and this was partly the reason why they fled

 I remember when I started reading about this period. I couldn't stop myself from crying when I read about how people got evicted when they couldn't pay the rent on the small patch of land they had.
Which reminds me of a verse from "Skibbereen":

And  well do I remember the bleak decemberday

the landlord and the sheriff came to drive us all away.

They set my roof on fire with their cursed foreign spleen

and that's another reason why I left old Skibbereen.



no mercy



Can we ever imagine how it must have been?

 

Big, large...largest?

It was cool to be big and strong...but there is nothing like being the FASTEST SHIP ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

The last boat to receive the Blue Riband was "United States" in 1952. She crossed the Atlantic in 3 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes---just some curiosa

Yes, Titanic WAS big....

Farewell---forever



Annie Moore---the first person to pass through Long Island emigration centre in New York



More picture than talk this time, but in my next post you will only get pictures, so please don't complain...

See ye soon

My Irish Adventure: Cobh

Cobh. For many Irish men and woman was this the last place they saw of Ireland before barking on the dangerous trip across the fierce Atlantic Ocean. For  you of my readers who have followed me and this blog the last 2 years will remember what my bachelorthesis and what going to a place like Cobh mean to me.

But let me get to my point and telling you about how it felt going there, to also see the last harbour for Titanic before she went down outside Newfoundland, 12^th april 1912.

Cobh has been colored by its naval and marine history, but when you’re there today you cannot feel the vibrant ‘mood’ that you would have felt if you walked along the dockside let us say in the 1880’s.

But let us not dwell on the past. I will show you how Cobh is today.

Here goes:

PROOF

 The first I did when we were walking towards the trainstation was to....get lost. Yes, this day I had NO sense of direction at all...so started wandering in the opposite direction of the trainstation and if noone had stopped me, I would have walked straight out of Cork...

 But in the end we found the trainstation...and got ourselves some breakfast there while listening to the rain that was falling outside...wish I had brought an umbrella :p

Our train

To sit on the train, and just stare at the rain...what a feeling. Solveig looked around for something interesting to take pictures of

Beware beware

This was the first thing we saw when stepping off the train in Cobh. It was raining cats (and dogs for that matter), but we wouldn't let this stop us.

Our first stop was a church that had been turned into a museum over the history of Cobh, and it felt nice to get out of the rain and simply walk straight into a treasuretrove. It was amazing to see how they had turned this church into something else after the congregation got too small.

Here are some pictures from the exhibition:

Very beautiful

When I was younger I dreamed of having something like this...

After a long and interesting discussion with the guide on the subject of Irish emigration, we braved the weather once more, heading for the dock. We were looking for the memorials for Titanic and Lusitania, and we passed it a couple of times before we actually saw them...so typical of me...


Titanic-memorial




Lusitania-memorial

 After a touristy morning, it felt sooooo good to get out of the rain, which was heavier than before and into a pub for a pint and some planning. And here I will leave the story until the rain stops...

A tourist's best friends....

My Irish Adventure: Cork/Cobh part 1

Cork. A place where the people talk really fast, so you got to listen VERY carefully when they try to tell you something. Beside that: I like Cork. This may come surprising to some, since I've gone on and on about how I don't like cities that much, but this place reminded me of home. Not too big, nor too small.

The busdrive from Waterford was nice, and we experienced all the different facets of the Irish weather...well, sunshine-rain-sunshine-rain (+ rainbow)-sunshine etc
After some misunderstandings we ended up at Kinlay's on the north side of the river. We were very tired after walking around with our backpacks (add a fiddle + some shoppingbags), so we took a nap before making dinner in the kitchen and exploring the hostel.

Our dorm..which we shared with 6 others...though it could take 18

Something to keep my mind off things...sadly it got lost somewhere between Letterkenny, Derry and Belfast

Beware; the wallmonster...its only craving is sausages

 The first evening we spent playing backgammon and making plans for the next day. We decided that we would go to Cobh (pronounced COVE)...and I will tell you all about it in just a few lines time.

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Cobh has a somewhat special place in my heart. Well, doesn't all of Ireland have such a position you might ask...

The simple reason for this is...my bachelorthesis. Writing so much about all the Irish men and women who left this small coastal town in search for a new and better life, left a mark in my soul. So I believe you can understand why I had to see it with my very own eyes

My Irish adventure: Tramore

Leaving Dublin the 20th June felt like a relief. Away from the noise and the busy busy people, heading for the south. Our next destination was Tramore, a little coastal town close to Waterford. Got on the bus and drove through several places connected to songs I knew; Carlow (Follow me up to Carlow) and Athy (Johnny I hardly knew ye) to mention a few. So I was humming and Solveig were counting sheep...

When we finally got to Waterford, we jumped straight on the bus to Tramore...it couldn't be that hard to find our host...well, I was wrong, but a handsome man saved us by calling the taxi-service...

Our street

 I will let the pictures talk...yes, I know I'm boring...but there will be more details after the pictures...

A charming little pub...were we got stuck, talking to the locals

Two of the locals...great craic

A glorious and windy day in Tramore

I love beaches like this one...

my lovely, mad sister will be going back here....soon

The waves mesmerizes me...they hypnotizes me....or was it the surfer?

...and clouds

PEBBLES! Feeling like a child again

A nice place for deep thinking

An evening in Tramore

 But Tramore wasn't only waves and pebbles. It was also an amazing coucsurfingexperience and the place where I joined my first trad-session. It was unbelievably cool and I'm so thankful that Patti (a friend of our host Karen) talked me into it. The evening in questioning started with a most amazing pot-luck hosted by Patti and her husband Mark (bring your food, share and have fun).

Pot-luck

I also brought with me my fiddle, and when we felt it was time we moved over to the nearby pub where some guys had gathered for a trad-session. Luckily they didn't have a fiddleplayer with them, so I soon found my place in the group.

St Leger; my first trad-session

Karen; our amazing host....you are so supercool, thanks for everything

The guys.... the boy playing the bodhran was unbelievably good

Suddenly, I'm sitting there and cannot understand that I'm doing it...

AWESOME GUYS

The guy to the right, playing the guitar, sang a song called "Wagon Wheel" which got stuck in my mind...and when we left the pub to go home, he congratulated me on my playing and singing ^^

Of course the audience wanted something norwegian, so after a pint of Guinness me and my sister stood up, and sang: "Eg rodde meg ut på seiegrunnen" (I rowed out unto the pollackground)...an amazing song about a man who rowed out in the morning, meets his archenemy at the fishingplace, and makes him fall out of his boat by the use of his fishingrod...yes, Norwegians are weird. And then we took "Wild Rover" and the pub rang with the  chorus..."and it's no nay never!"
A brilliant ending to a brilliant night...

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The 23rd was our last day in Tramore, and it was with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to Karen, Kayliegh and Erin.

A good Irish breakfast :p

 The best way to start a morning is....tada...with a proper Irish breakfast...this is also the best hangover-cure I know ^^

Housechicken

Next stop: CORK