Corn on the Cobh...and Cork

So, I need to admit straight-away that the title of this post is complete nonsense. Cobh is not actually pronounced like a corn on the cob, but, instead, if you pronounced the title correctly it would be "corn on the cove," which I am pretty certain doesn't exist. The "bh" in Irish can either make a "w" or "v" sound, which makes perfect sense. English is also another logical language: goose = geese --> moose = meese?
Now that that is taken care of and understood, we can pick up where we left off, which was on our Cork adventure right as we were leaving Blarney. After we took a short bus ride back to the center of Cork, we headed to The Old English Market. This market is extremely similar to the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, which also happens to be one of my favorite places in the world, so this place really couldn't go wrong in my eyes. I am a little jealous they have this in Cork because they had a lot of great stalls I would absolutely shop at for groceries if it was in Galway.
The first place that lured me in was this stall with all of these crazy flavored macaroons/macarons, such as blueberry, lavender, and blackcurrant & violet. Now, I have a confession to make. Side Note: Is this how Catholics feel when they go to confession? Confession: Until I wrote about 3 sentences before this one, I didn't know the difference between a macaroon and a macaron. I don't know who the sick mastermind was that created two desserts with almost the exact same spelling, but I'm sure they will get what's coming to them one day. I was a bit baffled when I was looking in at the colorful little rows in the case the case thinking, "Isn't there supposed to be coconut in these?" In actuality, I bought a Bailey's flavored macaron, (just for Dot!), which is much different than a macaroon, but still quite delicious. If I can't share my moments of stupidity with you, Internet-world, I can't share it with anybody.

They look like mini dessert cheeseburgers!
Photo courtesy of www.davidlebovitz.com.

After the petite sugar sandwich, also known as a macaron, I became fixated upon this place called O'Flynn's Gourmet Sausages. They have over 30 varieties you can buy to make at home, but I couldn't take my eyes, or my nose, off the ones on the grill. As soon as I got the chance I jumped in line to buy myself one of these masterful creations. Not feeling particularly adventurous, I opted for a traditional sausage sandwich with some sort of garlic sauce. Delectable! Unfortunately, I do not have photographic documentation of this macaron and sausage sandwich because I basically just unhinged my jaw and ate them whole like some sort of human-snake, (I speak Parseltongue), since I was ravenous.

After more exploring of the city we started to head back to our hostel for a little rest and relaxation before heading out again. On the way back we stopped at University College Cork. The night before we passed it, and it looked very beautiful, so we wanted to check it out. I actually liked UCC's campus better than National University of Ireland, Galway, which is where I go to school, but I still like Galway better! UCC had more of that college-y vibe, maybe because it is a four year university, whereas at NUIG, students graduate in three years. I'll be writing more about school stuff a little later on.

UCC with its fancy-schmancy, pretentious lighting.

We all took to our bunks and ended up in exhausted mini-comas, (the first comas of the night). Much later than we planned, we headed to a place called Kelly's for some traditional Irish fare. None of us had a full Irish dinner before, and this one certainly did not let us down. The restaurant was a little odd. I can't place my finger on exactly why it felt strange, but the food definitely made up for it, so it's odd feel is a moot point.  For 15 euro, you got your choice of appetizer, entree, dessert, and the complimentary brown bread. I decided on potato & leek soup for an appetizer, which went down great with the bread, baked chicken and ham with stuffing covered in gravy with a side of veggies and mashed potatoes for dinner, and for dessert, I got hot apple sponge cake with a dollop of cream on top. Remember when I mentioned the first coma? This meal led to the second one.

I forgot to take a picture of the meal.
Photo courtesy of www.sodahead.com.

The next day was another early morning, which is my favorite thing in the world. We wanted to get up early enough to get to see the seaside town of Cobh, (remember how to pronounce it from earlier?), in its entirety before heading home to Galway. We took the train to Cobh, and got there around 11:30, but could really only stay until 1:30. Luckily for us, Cobh doesn't have that much to see. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely town, but it isn't very large, so it doesn't require a huge time investment.

Aw, Cork! You're so tiny and cute! Like a little baby city!

I'm sorry this looks like a hipster took it. It was an accident.

We decided to walk along the street running parallel to the coast since that appeared to house most of the storefronts. Everything seemed pretty calm around the town though, most likely because it was Sunday. On Sundays here, generally a lot of the smaller stores shut down, which I think is kind of nice since Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest. Anywho, in addition to the stores, restaurants, and pubs, there are also some plaques around with some historical references. Cobh was actually the last port-of-call for the Titanic before it set sail. Of course, then, this led to many instances of what I term, "pulling a Kate Winslet."

Someone apparently designed this memorial, but I don't know how creative you have to be to slap a plaque on a rock.

Kate never wore a backpack that amazeballs.
Photograph courtesy of Monica.

Also along the coast is a little park that you can just sit on a bench and look out at the ocean. And when I say sit on a bench, I mean you can sit on one bench, or two benches, or three benches, or four. If you sat on all of the benches in this park your butt would be completely numb. My guess is that benches are extremely similar to rabbits in that they reproduce very quickly when placed in small, enclosed surroundings. It may be best in the case of this park to have an organized hunt in order to bring down the population in the area.

LOOK AT THEM ALL!!! WHY ARE THERE SO MANY?!?!

After being baffled by the benches, we headed up the hill to try and explore the beautiful church watching over the quiet town. It was a struggle, but my lazy bum finally managed to make its way up to the top, and it was definitely worth it. St. Colman's sits atop the hill, like some sort of protector over the town. Since it was a Sunday morning the bells were tolling and the Irish families, young and old, were all heading in. We didn't want to intrude upon this event, so we relegated ourselves to merely observing the outside, which was exquisite architecture. You can't get much more cathedral-ey than St. Colman's.

St. Colman's towering over Cobh...like a boss.

The mean streets of Cobh take pleasure in showing me how out of shape I am.

Look! You can just catch a glimpse of Quasimodo's hump!

Now the moment you have all been waiting for, you little chunky monkeys. THE FOOD! Obviously when going to a seaside town, there is nothing more satisfying and tasty than getting seafood. And the mother of all seafood dishes is the fried spectacular-ness of fish and chips. I don't think it is necessary for me to really describe to you fish and chips as it is pretty straightforward, but I do want to convey how fresh and flaky the fish was. Additionally, I have now learned that you can always trust that a place has good food if it doesn't have a legitimate name. Honestly, the place just said "Bistro" on the awning, but no name to speak of.

"Envy" must be your middle name right now. Or Elizabeth. There's a lot of people with the middle name Elizabeth.

After lunch we went back to Cork to make sure that we made our bus back to Galway. We had plenty of time, though, so I made a push to go to this hot chocolate place I was interested in checking out. And by "interested in checking out," I mean I would have thrown a hissy fit complete with falling on my knees and pounding the ground if we didn't make it there. Luckily, my friends appeased me and we were on our way to O'Conaill's Chocolate Shop. You could come here every day for a month and not try all of the possibilities that they have for hot chocolate. They have milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate lover's, shots of flavoring that can be added, basically anything you can imagine. They also give you a little cup of chocolate chips. I didn't really know what to do with them, so I just unceremoniously dumped them in. I can honestly say it was the best hot chocolate I have ever had. The best description I can give is to have you think of melting chocolate, putting it in a mug, and drinking that. -Bam- The best hot chocolate you have ever had.

The hot chocolate was so thick the chips I poured in looked like they were being sucked into quicksand.

Looking into the eyes of my newly found soulmate.

Everyone seemed to be pretty beat, but there were a few more places I wanted to check out, but rather than dragging them all over Cork I set out by myself. Most of you reading this know me, so it will come as no surprise to you that I am, in actuality, a skinny-obese person. That being said, there were two places that I had in mind to get to before the bus left: a candy shop with ridiculously cheap sweets and the Cork Butter Museum. Yes, you read me correctly, a butter museum. I'm not going to drag this on much longer because I feel it's only fair for me to tell you that even though I was able to find both places, I was able to go in neither of them. While it was disappointing not to be able to go in either, just seeing the word "BUTTER" written in big block letters on the side of the building was enough to set my heart aflutter. Or that may be the heart disease...

My, and Paula Deen's, version of Heaven.