Where in Ireland is Nissa?
It’s been a very long stretch since I’ve been able to update everyone on Nissa’s adventures. A couple of weeks ago I got an email from our favourite Europe Trekking facilitator. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the story:
Hey Joe!
So, I wanted to fill you in on my latest adventure! School has finally let out here, and I celebrated with a trip to Ireland! Normally I would have just hoarded my money,since I don’t get paid again until September, but my little cousin was studying over there, and since I won’t be coming home until Christmas, we decided to meet up.
I hope you don’t mind, but I took the paddle this time. Mostly because it is significantly smaller than the water bottle.
In order that I have attached the photos, let me take you on a tour of County Cork:
First off we have a picture in front of the gates to University College Cork, one of the oldest and best schools in Ireland. I must say, I would feel much less bitter about my student loans if I had gone to a school with a campus this beautiful. I felt like I was getting smarter just by walking around and soaking up the history. I took a picture here because A) There weren’t any signs that said “Welcome to Cork” that I could find and B) I thought the story of the gates were quite interesting. They are not the original gates, they were built some time after the school opened. The original gates are at the other end of the campus, and they shared with the old county prison. Which meant that on days where an inmate was hung for his crimes, the school would basically have to shut down because everyone from miles around would be crowded around for the spectacle.
Next on the tour we have: The actual old county gaol. They have it opened to tourists now. It was used primarily in the 1800s, although it was reopened in 1918-1925 and during that time it housed mainly political prisoners. In the 1800s it was a men’s and women’s prison, each gender with it’s own wing. It was also used for juvenile offenders, and they were kept with the women. I was surprised to learn that most of the sentences were shorter than 6 months, although almost all of them included hard labour. Unless you were pregnant and in danger of going into labour, which, if you ask me, is punishment enough in itself. If you were a child, then they whipped you on the regular, in the hope that you would remember your time in prison with such fear and loathing that you would walk the straight and narrow ever afterwards. Another fun fact: If you were a guard, then you weren’t allowed to leave. Ever. You job paid you pretty well, and it also included a room for you and your family to live in, and they weren’t allowed to leave either. Your kids would have to leave once they turned 16, or they could also become a guard. If they did, it was possible that they would go their entire life without ever leaving the prison.
Please turn your eyes to the next picture, taken at the marina in Kinsale. On my last full in Ireland I took a bus tour and went to a couple of different towns. Kinsale was the first stop. It is renown for its delicious cuisine – but since I went there at ten in the morning I didn’t really sample anything. I did, however, learn that it is also the place where the Spanish Armada tried to land during the reign of Elizabeth I. Apparently Irishmen from all around the area gathering to meet the Spanish and help them kick the English our of Ireland. Their plot was foiled though by two forts built at the mouth of harbour, Fort Charles and Fort James. It was thought that if the Spanish tried to sail into the harbour three abreast then the two outside ships would take all the cannon fire and the middle ship would have relatively smooth sailing. Except that it didn’t go down like that. The Spanish never actually made it into the harbour. And what a beautiful harbour it is!
Next in line is a picture of yet another harbour. This one is equaling exciting, for different reasons. This harbour is in Cobh (pronounced “cove”), another nearby town. It used to be known as Queenstown, named in honour of the lovely Queen Victoria. Queenstown was the last port of call the Titanic made before it sank. The picture is taken approximately where the Titanic would have been anchored while it took on new passengers and off-loaded a few passengers who couldn’t afford the whole trip. It was also quite close to where the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by a German u-boat during WWII. Hundreds of townspeople rushed out in their personal boats to rescue any survivors of the tragedy. Before all that, it was the major emigrant port during the potato famine. People from all over County Cork would make their way to Cobh, stay there the night and in the morning they would board a huge steamer to (usually) New York to start a new life. There is actually a statue nearby to the memory of Annie Moore, who was a teenage girl travelling to America with her younger brothers. They were meeting their parents, who had gone on ahead to New York. Annie Moore was the first person to be registered at Ellis Island.
The castle in the next photo is Blarney Castle, home of the famous Blarney Stone. Before you ask, yes, I did kiss it. According to legend, I have now had the gift of eloquence bestowed upon me. I’m not sure that’s wise, given that I was not known for being succinct in the past. It’s no easy feat, kissing the stone. You have to lie down on your back in the highest part of the castle, lean far back, as though you were trying to touch your feet with the back of your head, and hold on to these two bars with your hands. I forgot how short I am and had to scoot quite far forward so my lips could reach the actual stone, which is about two and a half feet below the floor I was lying on. All that time a strange old man was holding me around the waist, making sure I didn’t fall head-first down the hole to my death. I would have felt much more reassured if it had been a fit young man with lots of rippling arm muscle, but there you go.
So, that is my trip to Ireland. It was actually very exciting. I was only there for a few days, but I did pack quite a lot into my trip. I also go a stamp in my passport, which I was, in the local vernacular, well chuffed about. It will be a pretty quiet summer now though. The roommate (not to be confused with Roommate) and I are moving to Sheffield, and that, coupled with not getting paid while we are not working, means that we don’t have a lot of free available cash to spend on trips. I am definitely going to see Buckingham Palace though, and the changing of the guard, so I will let you know how that goes.
I hope everything is going great this summer! We had a thunderstorm here recently that reminded me of the my first summer at Bark when a tree almost fell on the Hilton in the middle of the night.
Say hi to everyone for me, including Coach Joe and Sloan if they are there this summer!
Take care,
Nissa
