Cody here:
Yeah, we are still alive. I don't have a good excuse for our absence except we all knew we weren't really going to be that disciplined with this, whatever the hopes of the past might have been.
Speaking of the past, we have been here in Ireland for more than six months now. We are officially past the halfway point for our year abroad, and we even have our return tickets to the U.S. purchased.
On that note, we decided to take a trip in commemoration of reaching the halfway point on our time here, and, after so much time spent buried in the heart of Cork city, we decided to pick a small village, stay over a night and spend a morning hiking around the countryside. More or less at random we picked Bantry, a village in West County Cork along the Atlantic coast. Bantry is probably most famous (if famous at all) as the place where the Wolfe Tone was supposed to land with the French armada to reinforce the 1798 rebellion against the British (to those less-versed in Irish history, please take the many rebellions that occurred after 1798 as a sign that the rebellion did not exactly work out).
Anyway, we arrived Thursday afternoon to an overcast, but mostly dry Bantry. We quickly checked in to our hotel (which was very nice and a bargain because the tourist season is not up for a while) and took a walk around Bantry, but to tell the truth, we did not do anything in particular with the afternoon. We mostly came up Thursday evening so we could get an early start hiking in the morning, so we didn't have a plan, per say.
Yeah, we are still alive. I don't have a good excuse for our absence except we all knew we weren't really going to be that disciplined with this, whatever the hopes of the past might have been.
Speaking of the past, we have been here in Ireland for more than six months now. We are officially past the halfway point for our year abroad, and we even have our return tickets to the U.S. purchased.
On that note, we decided to take a trip in commemoration of reaching the halfway point on our time here, and, after so much time spent buried in the heart of Cork city, we decided to pick a small village, stay over a night and spend a morning hiking around the countryside. More or less at random we picked Bantry, a village in West County Cork along the Atlantic coast. Bantry is probably most famous (if famous at all) as the place where the Wolfe Tone was supposed to land with the French armada to reinforce the 1798 rebellion against the British (to those less-versed in Irish history, please take the many rebellions that occurred after 1798 as a sign that the rebellion did not exactly work out).
Anyway, we arrived Thursday afternoon to an overcast, but mostly dry Bantry. We quickly checked in to our hotel (which was very nice and a bargain because the tourist season is not up for a while) and took a walk around Bantry, but to tell the truth, we did not do anything in particular with the afternoon. We mostly came up Thursday evening so we could get an early start hiking in the morning, so we didn't have a plan, per say.
After a romp through town, we decided to spend some time relaxing at the hotel. By relaxing, I mean watching TV. I know it is a strange point, but when you are living in a foreign country and you don't have a television, watching TV becomes a real treat when you can do it. Mostly, we watched cartoons as Gaeilge, and, let me tell you, new episodes of Spongebob make no sense in every language.
Finally, it was time for dinner. We had decided we wanted to go to the Fish Kitchen, figuring that a seaside seafood place had to be the best thing around. We were right; however, we did not anticipate the cost.
Here, I should include a brief aside. If there is a moral to this blog post, it is pay attention to the waiter.
I say this because upon misunderstanding the waiter at the Fish Kitchen, I proceeded to order us the most expensive thing on the menu and, as a result, the most expensive meal I have ever had.
At some point during dinner I realized what I had done and plunged into a sort of economic state of shock. I'm pretty sure I worked my way through the five stages of grief in about 20 minutes* though, so that really is quite good time.
I decided to try to focus on enjoying the meal.
Finally, it was time for dinner. We had decided we wanted to go to the Fish Kitchen, figuring that a seaside seafood place had to be the best thing around. We were right; however, we did not anticipate the cost.
Here, I should include a brief aside. If there is a moral to this blog post, it is pay attention to the waiter.
I say this because upon misunderstanding the waiter at the Fish Kitchen, I proceeded to order us the most expensive thing on the menu and, as a result, the most expensive meal I have ever had.
At some point during dinner I realized what I had done and plunged into a sort of economic state of shock. I'm pretty sure I worked my way through the five stages of grief in about 20 minutes* though, so that really is quite good time.
I decided to try to focus on enjoying the meal.
Irony of ironies, in an age of Instagram and Snapchat we completely forgot to take a picture of the meal until we were mostly done with the second platter (yes, you read that correctly).
In total, we had: whole boiled prawns, shrimp salad, smoked salmon bites, oysters, salmon (again), shrimp, halibut, sea bass, mussels, fishcakes, calamari, and crab bites of some kind (oh, and some chips and salad).
Okay, so the post probably has a second moral: when you are too stupid to listen to the waiter and accidentally order an extravagant and expensive meal, just enjoy the food.
Finally, and sort of putting a cherry on top of the cake of our not quite as planned trip to Bantry, it rained. A lot. So much that the Irish Meteorological folks issued rain warnings (it means something when the Irish feel the need to tell you it might be raining too much). As a result, we had to cancel our Friday morning hiking plans. Instead, we managed a nice breakfast at the hotel (a breakfast that was paid for before the seafood splurge of the night before or I would of had us poaching the seagulls to save money), snapped a quick picture of Wolfe Tone Square and headed back to Cork.
In total, we had: whole boiled prawns, shrimp salad, smoked salmon bites, oysters, salmon (again), shrimp, halibut, sea bass, mussels, fishcakes, calamari, and crab bites of some kind (oh, and some chips and salad).
Okay, so the post probably has a second moral: when you are too stupid to listen to the waiter and accidentally order an extravagant and expensive meal, just enjoy the food.
Finally, and sort of putting a cherry on top of the cake of our not quite as planned trip to Bantry, it rained. A lot. So much that the Irish Meteorological folks issued rain warnings (it means something when the Irish feel the need to tell you it might be raining too much). As a result, we had to cancel our Friday morning hiking plans. Instead, we managed a nice breakfast at the hotel (a breakfast that was paid for before the seafood splurge of the night before or I would of had us poaching the seagulls to save money), snapped a quick picture of Wolfe Tone Square and headed back to Cork.
IIn a way, our trip to Bantry was an extraordinarily appropriate way to commemorate our time here in Ireland. A lot of what we have done here (and the very fact that we got to come here in the first place) was the result of careful planning, planning that, often enough, has gone off without a hitch. On the other hand, thanks to some miscommunications, I got my Fulbright application in to the Commission on literally the last possible day and we spent the first month in our house here in Cork with the roof slowly, slowly, sagging down over our heads thanks to the weight of not-quite-rain-warning-level amount of rain. It hasn't gone as planned (even winning the Fulbright was quite far from my plans really), but it has gone well.
And living off pasta for a week to recuperate from the financial fiasco of a fish feast really isn't that bad.
I'd say you'll hear from us again soon, but as discussed, plans don't always go as planned.
*Note from Madilyn: this is a relatively accurate description of what happened after I explained that the price the waiter described was per person and not overall. It was basically fine once the food arrived until there was a similar miscalculation with the tip, causing a resurgence in Cody's economic melancholia. It was still one of the best meals I've ever had; we even succeeded in ordering an excellent and appropriate wine.
And living off pasta for a week to recuperate from the financial fiasco of a fish feast really isn't that bad.
I'd say you'll hear from us again soon, but as discussed, plans don't always go as planned.
*Note from Madilyn: this is a relatively accurate description of what happened after I explained that the price the waiter described was per person and not overall. It was basically fine once the food arrived until there was a similar miscalculation with the tip, causing a resurgence in Cody's economic melancholia. It was still one of the best meals I've ever had; we even succeeded in ordering an excellent and appropriate wine.