I suppose it’s fitting on this Halloween night in for me to update everyone on my trip last weekend to Cork for the Cork Jazz Festival. IFSA-Butler, our study abroad company, picked us up on Friday morning in a nice big coach. We rode down to Limerick, where we picked up the group of students of University of Limerick in our program. It took us a total of about 4 hours to get to Cork, but it was well worth the wait. Our hotel was AMAZING. Check it out:
We were located on the western edge of the city, upstream from the city center but well within walking distance of everything. After we got our rooms, we were basically free to do whatever we wanted until the bus left Sunday morning, although they did have a nice dinner for us Friday night in the hotel’s restaurant. Anyway, I got a map and a schedule for the jazz festival and hit the streets of Cork with a couple friends. We had 56 choices of venue for the weekend, which was pretty remarkable for a jazz festival in Ireland.
We walked through Cork, and saw some pretty interesting things, including this sign and a impromptu street jam from a Spanish jazz band.
I really enjoyed Cork; it’s a bigger city than Galway, but nowhere near as big as Dublin. There are a lot of older, established-looking buildings, and the way the river runs through the city makes for some great photos.
After dinner, we went to find a few pubs, bars and clubs to hear some jazz in. We weren’t too successful in finding some real jazz, and as we were to find out, that endeavor turned out to be quite difficult. The Irish concept of jazz is a bit, well, loose. I heard some great big band and swing jazz over the weekend, but I also heard plenty new wave/punk, rock, and country rock too. I’m not complaining–I like all that kind of music–but I’m not so sure we could call it a full-on, pure jazz festival. No bother.
The next day, I took a cab up to Blarney, a town about five miles away and home to Blarney Castle and the world-famous Blarney Stone. It’s pretty touristy, but I couldn’t go to Cork without kissing the Blarney Stone. Our taxi driver on the way up was very nice and eager to tell us about his life in and around Cork. He said he and the other kids used to walk to Blarney and back for dances (in the snow, uphill both ways!). It didn’t take long to get there, and it was fantastic when we did. The country around Blarney is the most beautiful non-coastal part of Ireland I’ve seen. Behold:
Blarney Castle is pretty old. This view of its facade is the most imposing because, as my handy little guide informed me, the walls incline backward as they go up. It looks pretty menacing from below. Also, a keep tower:
This isn’t quite the sign you want to read before you enter an old castle:
So it was up several hundred stairs to the top of the castle and the Blarney Stone. The Stone itself is at the bottom of the middle portion of the top wall on one side of the castle’s roof. There’s nothing remarkable about its physical appearance except that it’s smoother than the rest of the stones. There’s an open gap in the roof underneath the part of the wall where the stone is, presumably for the pouring of hot acid on an enemy, or something. Anyway, here’s a look at it. They’ve installed guardrails, but back in the old days, you used to have to hang precariously in order to kiss the stone.
They say you get the “Gift of Gab” when you kiss the Blarney Stone, which I ascertained means one of two things: either you become more eloquent and persuasive, or you just talk a whole lot more. Judging on the Irish people’s natural tendency to talk a lot, I’m guessing it’s the latter. Here’s me kissing it (the Blarney Stone, people):
We returned to Cork and spent the rest of the day and night hearing some really great music. My personal favorites were the Jazz Freaks, who were playing right in our hotel. Definitely the jazziest bunch of old timers I’ve seen. Anyway, thanks for reading. Cheers!
