so this is cork

It's finally summer here in Cork and it's beautiful. Earlier today Kym, Johnny, Denis and I laid out in a park next to the lake, both Kym and I in tank tops, and made daisy chains. Or at least Kym and I made daisy chains. Then, I decided to see what would happen when I took mysteriously large flower petals which had fallen from a tree, peeled off the top layer and adhered them to my leg. Turns out this is not a good idea. I now have very mysteriously large and permanent flower-petal-shaped orange stains on my leg. It kind of looks like fake tanner, but if I had just slapped some on my leg and decided not to even out all the streaks. This is not related to anything I am about to write about, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

So, I realized when I bought this chocolate bar with all of Cork's famous buildings on it (it was an impressive chocolate bar) that I hadn't seen hardly any of them. And if I had, it was in passing and no photographic documentation had been made. I guess in whatever city you live in, you end up taking it for granted and don't go around being all touristic like you would if you were vacationing there. Probably the same reason I haven't been to many of the major exciting attractions in Raleigh. I'm not really sure if there are any exciting attractions in Raleigh, come to think of it. Then again, the Inner and Outer Beltline are pretty cool...
So what my friend Paula and I decided to do was explore Cork and take a camera with us this time. It felt really weird whipping out a camera and taking pictures of stuff I walk past every day. We started out by walking to St. Anne's cathedral (left). On the way, we walked past many really cool colored houses, which I walk past all the time but realized that I never stopped to pay any attention. It's crazy here how houses are colored. Unlike Cary, where if a business buys the wrong shade of magenta the city flips out, houses right next to each other are painted completely different colors. Actually it was this way in Prague too. But it's kind of drastically noticeable in Ireland. Even the stone walls outside of the homes have separating colors, despite the fact they share the same wall. I think it makes the city streets look cool, but I can't imagine Cary ever agreeing with me. Next to St. Anne's was another cathedral- I think that one was just called the Catholic Cathedral (left). We passed by some other cool churches and more pretty houses, and I took many many more pictures to remember my time in Cork. Then, we headed into City Center, which is my favorite part of town and the part that I will miss the most. I took pictures of all the important buildings such as Tesco and Hillbilly's Fried Chicken Express. Both of which are very important parts of my life. On the way home was St. Fin Barre's cathedral, which overlooked the river Lee. Across the river was the Beamish Brewery. Beamish is Cork's Guiness. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but Guiness is not the stout of Cork- in fact, you're not 'supposed' to order it here because it's brewed in Dublin. Walking past the Beamish brewery on my weekly run to Tesco is a very interesting experience. It's kind of like walking past a giant yeast factory or something. It smells like bread all the time. Which I guess is normal since I'm pretty sure yeast is an ingredient in beer/stout? Idk.
When I get to the fork in the road just after the river, it is a sign that home is near. Except it is a very long uphill walk from there. But still, after every trip to city center, it is always exciting to get to this fork (below).

And here are some more landmarks that are also just really sweet buildings...

Raleigh's Rent-A-Bike. Maybe I just like it because it has the word Raleigh in it, but it might also be because there is a very intense painting on the front:


Barrack St. book store Co-op. Because any building is cool with clouds painted on it:

And then is our house. Of which I have already posted a picture.
And that's it for today. I think later this week we're going to try and hit up all the other cool parts of Cork but now I am going to go play a game called Does Fingernail Polish Remover Also Remove Plant Pigment...