Hurling and Screeching

Day 8: June 24, 2012

            Lazy Sunday! Wake up in the late afternoon! Well actually more like 10 or 11ish. Once I finally did wake up however I was determined to go for a run. I thought it would be great! It is about a 5k down to the city center of Cork and back to our apartments so I am thinking it will be no problem. I was wrong. I think my first problem was I hadn’t eaten anything. I think I need to take lessons from a wise man named Bruce (shot out to the pops) and eat before I run. My other problem was that I hadn’t run in well over a week. So instead of running the full 5k I only ended up running 3k, but I did it in a decent time.

Hurling Match in action!

            Later that day a group of us decided to head down to a pub and watch Cork take on Tipperary in the Senior Muster Hurling Championship Semi-Final. Now if you’re thinking to yourself right now, “none of that makes any sense to me” well then I was in the same boat as you until Sunday. The best way to describe Hurling is that it is combination of lacrosse and rugby. It is the worlds fastest field sport apparently, and if 17 points scored in the first 17 minutes of play didn’t prove that to us then nothing would. If you are really interested in Hurling you can check out more information here, but if not, just know it’s a pretty cool sport. Unfortunately Cork lost by only 1 point, but it was a great experience watching it in the pub with a bunch of fans!

Best Chicken Nachos EVER.
(minus the black olives!)

We had a tap at our table.
That could've been trouble,
but we decided against it.

After the Hurling match we grabbed dinner at this big restaurant/ bar called SoHo. It was really cool! I got the best chicken nachos I’ve ever had. And I finally quenched my craving for a margarita that I have had all summer long!

Instrumental Saw Lady.

            We then met up with the entire group to go see a performance in the Cork Midsummer Festival called Resound. It was a musical, visual, and poetic mixture that began as being pretty interesting and entertaining but half way through turned into a trancey/ psychedelic/ weird show. Some of the singing seemed almost like it was screeching and at one point I think they might actually have been screeching, but we will never know. Coolest part about it was a lady playing a saw with a cello bow.

            Out of the two major things we did today, I definitely enjoyed watching the hurling match much more than the musical performance. I guess I’m just more into sports than I am weird music. It was pretty interesting seeing two completely opposite things going on in the city on the same day though. Just goes to show that you can probably find something for everyone in Ireland.