Pasta, Turkey, and Balancing Beer

Day 5: 
WE FINALLY FOUND A GROCERY STORE! This was the best thing ever as my roommates and I had been looking for one since Thursday - and I don't handle well when hungry. 

I am a Target kind of girl, and that makes things really difficult in Ireland. Unlike Kansas, they don't have a single, large store, where you go and get everything. If you need food you have to go to the grocery store, home goods a home store, a bicycle a bike store, and so on. And it is not like all of these places are consolidated into a single strip mall or shopping center either. Every place is dispersed and hidden amongst the charming, winding, and confusing streets.

So anyway, the grocery store. We walked out of the grocery store like total tourists with carts full of food, no way to get them home, and no bags (as they are big fans of reusable totes over here). This Irish woman (about sixty and seemingly harmless) came up and offered us a nice burlap shopping sack she no longer wanted. After the awkward "no thanks, we are swell" exchanges, she kindly insisted we take the bag as it really would be doing her a big favor. When we had all gathered on the curb staring at the obviously-not-hand-carryable loot in our carts, the same lady came over and insisted she give us a ride home. 

Now, reader, I know what you are thinking: stranger danger, did you miss all of the kidnapping stories when you were a child (?), never get in the blue van. 

We let her give us a ride home. Her name was Mary McDonald. She lives by the loch. And when I pointed to the street we needed to turn onto, she went the other direction which is when I assumed we were being abducted. It turns out she knew a shortcut. Literally it was hilarious, and sketchy, but mainly hilarious!

So far everything I have eaten from the grocery store has been delicious except for the sliced turkey - lesson learned.

For lunch I cooked pasta with broccoli and red sauce. Not bad if I do say so myself. And of course I made too much and we don't have tupperware so the rest is chilling (pun) in the fridge in my quart-sized airplane ziploc. You make what you've got work, you know?

My broccoli, pasta, and red sauce!

Later, one roommate and I looked for a music store so she could buy a tin whistle for our music program. Google maps took up to a residential neighborhood and we asked a woman painting her fence where we could find a tin whistle. She laughed noting that the only people who need tin whistles in Ireland are grade schoolers who have to play them in music class. She then sent us next door to another neighbor who she was sure would know where to buy one.

We knocked on the door and waited. A groggy-looking man answered, our knock having interrupted his nap, and we explained how Nora (the fence lady) had sent us his way. He very nicely directed us to the city center which is a 30-minute walk from the neighborhood we were in. 

This seemed like a perfect opportunity to hop on a bus and see where it would take us - so that's what we did. And the bus that we randomly jumped on went right where we needed to go! Except, the two stores were closed.

Awkward and on the bus! 

After walking back I made a sandwich for dinner and that is when I found out about the turkey as previously noted.

Day 6:
This morning I decided to wander around a bit on my own and see where the road would lead me. I finally got to take a closer look at St. Fin Barre's Cathedral pictured below.

St. Fin Barre's Cathedral

St. Fin Barre's Cathedral

St. Fin Barre's Cathedral

I walked down to the city, found a coffee shop where I had a toastie (this sandwich with cheese melted on the outside!) and some coffee. I wandered around a mall that I accidentally walked into, found a bookstore, a department store, and an Irish souvenir shop. Having spent more time shopping than intended I caught a cab back. The driver and I discussed winter road conditions the whole ride home.

My new favorite coffee spot

Chicken and bacon toastie with frozen coffee

At 3:30pm, Cork played Tipperary in hurling and it was a big deal! As the locals do, we went to the corner pub to watch the match. It was me, my two friends, and about thirty middle-aged men cursing and carrying on! I sported my red pants, because Cork's colors are red and white, and we watched the game even though we didn't know what was going on. This sport appears to be a mix of lacrosse, rugby, soccer, baseball, football, and hockey - so you can understand the confusion.

Unfortunately we lost and will not be playing in the final. We ended up talking to a group of grandfather-aged men and they were very sociable. The discussed Cork, gave us maps of the city, and we happily answered any of many questions about America.

One of the men at the pub balanced his beer like this and told me to take a picture, so, here

For dinner I made a grilled sandwich (cooking the turkey helps the taste a bit), and had some instant coffee as they don't have coffee makers so go for the pour-and-mix kind.

As before, so far so good! I hope to update this at least every other day and appreciate all of the readers from back home!

Yours,
The Opinionated Lassie