Holidays in Cork

Date: 23rd October 2009 to 26th October 2009

Venue: Cork, Ireland
Event: My first holiday outside Galway =)

23rd October 2009
~ Anatomy Spot Test ended at 5.30pm and the bus to Cork was at 6.30pm!! I met Bryan and since he's from Cork, I followed him to his house where he got his bag and we called a cab.. Phew! We got to get there on time.. The journey to Cork took 3 hours 40 mins which I don't enjoy any second of it! Coz I'm hungry, hot and feel like vomitting all the time! Anyway, Bryan texted me when we were about to reach Cork City and it was like heaven when we walked down the bus and arrived in St.Patrick's Quay.. My first impression of Cork: It's really pretty!! Bryan then took a cab back home while I waited for Emmanuel and Vinitha at the Quay. Thats when I met these two drunk men along the Quay and thinking that I couldnt speak English, they started to speak foul languages to me. Ta daa.... Vinitha called me and I spoke English perfectly and they were startled! I felt like laughing that time. They then walked away while I walked over to Merchants' Quay to meet Vini and Emm.. We walked back to Castlewhite which is their apartment.. After dinner, I slept like a pig because I was too tired after the gruelling journey!

24th October 2009
~ woke up at 9am but I didn't wake Vini up since she's still sleeping soundly.

My first stop: St.Finbarr's Cathedral. I followed the direction given in the map and managed to find this breathtaking cathedral. Everything in there is totally magnificent! And here's where all the great things happened! I met a lady from Texas and she helped me to take some pictures. Before she left, she gave me a souvenir from Texas =) I got myself a replica of the cathedral at the souvenirs shop.

St. Finbarr's Cathedral

2nd stop: Cork English Market. I met two NUIG girls along the way and we went to the market together. It's not that big, comparing to Sibu Central Market. XD But I'm fascinated by the stuffs they sold there. The berries, their 'unique' dragon fruit, cakes, cookies, pies, etc. I saw a stall selling some hot and nice pies and I couldnt resist myself from getting a mushroom and cheese pie for 2.50 euro.. *its delicious*

The mushroom pie that I had..

3rd stop: St.Patrick's Street. Walked along the street and I was really lucky enough to stumble upon Jazz bands which were performing in conjunction with the Jazz Festival. They were really superb! Bought some souvenirs from Failte Ireland shop too and it cost me 10 euro!! I then went to Crawford Art Gallery for a tour.

Jazz band along the street

It was dinner at Gaya's house at night. There, I met lots of new friends and after dinner, we decided to go out to town and settle ourselves in a pub for the Jazz Festival..

25th October 2009
~ Vini and I set off for the famous Blarney Castle. It took us only 20 minutes to reach the castle by bus.. We paid 8 euros each at the entrance and acted like kids, squealing here and there, fascinated by the awesome scenery. We are clicking our cameras all along the way to the castle. 20 minutes were used ofr us to reach the top of the Castle. *believe me, it was not an easy feat for those who have weak hearts* By the way, I kept on telling Vini that the castle is discriminating people who are horizontally challenged since there's a guy in front of me, who kept on knocked his butt onto the walls of the castle.. Anyway, back to the top of the castle. The view from the top is nothing but just amazing, really amazing and seriously amazing. BREATHTAKING! And the wind is blowing extremely strong that my camera pouch was blown off.. =( After coming down from the Catsle, we strolled along the Rock Close and came across the Fairy Glade, which is the only tree with red leaves among the greenies. Rest of the time was spent in Rock Close, capturing the precious moments.. We went back to the city at around 3pm and surprisingly, Vini still had the energy to follow me around the city. We went looking for the famous Shandon Bells at St.Anne's Church. It was said that whoever rings the bell will have their wishes came true. Dinner was at Silk Thai Restaurant where we had tom yam, and both of us slept like babies that night...

Blarney Castle behind me..

View from the top of Blarney Castle.. *breathtaking*

We felt like we were on top of the world.. ^ ^

Fairy Glade...

26th October 2009

~Last day in Cork was terrible! It was raining the whole morning and it was the Bank Holiday, which means that shops are only open at 12pm. Anyway, I did get to visit University College Cork (UCC) and had lunch at Istanbul Burgers.. I took the bus back to Galway at 2pm and this time, I remembered to take pills to prevent car sickness.. ~.~

St.Patrick's Quay

p/s: Cork, I will be back !!

Mid Autumn Festival in Galway

I know, I really know that it's a bit late to post this up now since the Mid Autmun Festival had already past 1 weeks plus.. But I still want to write about it here.. Here we go.. It was four days before the Mid Autumn Festival when Siaw Jing text-ed me and invited me for dinner at his house to celebrate Mid Autmun Festival.. I was really thrilled since I thought that I'll be celebrating it alone this year..

On the exact day, there's Raya open house at Corrib Park and I promised I will go at about 3pm but I didn't. Hey, I didn't mean to break my words but Lim Zhi told me about the Mid Autumn Party at the College Bar and it really attracted me. Hence, in the windy afternoon, the two of us walked to the College Bar and found out that it was a PRIVATE party.. But we did get into the party and realised that it was organised by the China Society. There were lots of China people there, both old and young, eating mooncakes and chatting. Anywhere, Lim Zhi and I left after having a slice of mooncake each since we don't really know anyone there..

Anywhere, the main point of this post is about the dinner at Siaw Jing's house in Chantella. Lim Zhi and I went over with Yuen Yiing and Mei Ching. I got to know Siaw Jing's housemates; Chen Rong and Depti from Singapore. Expect the unexpected, the dinner was popiah and we wrapped them ourselves. Hey, its really a cool idea for dinner and I had two popiahs!

The highlight of the dinner was playing lanterns. We had 4 /5 lanterns and we lighted them outside the road. However, its was to chilly that we decided to get into the house after taking pictures.. XD

My frens and I with our lanterns..

It was karaoke session after that.. Cheers to Chen Rong and Siaw Jing for having a massive collection of Chinese songs which are all my favourite.. They can really sing too and I mean really good.. Tea session and mooncake sampling was on like any usual mooncake festival gathering..

Mooncakes all the way from Singapore..

Everything ended at 12am and the hosts walked us back to Corrib Park..

P/s: The moon was extremely round this year...

Fun Stuffs in NUIG

My life in NUIG is not all about eating medicine text books everyday.. My days here can still be counted using my fingers but it has already start to spell out the word FUN! First week is orientation week, 2nd week is the week where classes start and 3rd week is Socs Week with lots of fun stuffs..*anticipating the Halloween Night this end of oct* hehe..

First time trying rock climbing

up, Up UP, I go!

I tried lots of new cool stuffs here but the best part is I get to join the Art Soc. Hey, I can still paint after leaving my art classes for more than 2 years.. *clap clap* They have lots of cool activities such as Chalk Walk and Face Painting. Chalk Walk is a fund raising activity where everyone gets to scribble and destroy the clean pathway outside the James Hardiman Library! I missed the Face Painting since I'm in Anatomy Lab.. *sad* I heard that it was so much fun and everyone have their faces painted as Spidey, Hello Kitty and Superman..

Painting the wall of Art Soc *spot me in black shirt*

My group painted it for Alive! *i painted the flowers*

And unbelivable, but do believe it.. I'm joining the DanSoc which is the dance society in NUIG. I'm enrolling for Intermediate Hip Hop class. Hehe.. It's all about joining in the fun and who cares whether your movements ressemble a robot.. I'm thinking of learning the Traditonal Irish Dance if its not clashing with my timetable..

DanceSoc

I signed up for quite a lot of Socs but I'm still waiting for their emails.. Marine Soc promised dolphin trip in October but there's no emails yet.. I'm still considering wheter I should go for Kayaking Club since I can sense the fun in it.. Hopefully its not clashing with my timetable..

The Kayaking Club having their trainings in Corrib River

Anyway, hopefully this is just the beginning of my FUN in NUIG and it will goes on for the rest of my 5 years here.. *cheers*