Wacky Woolies, Bits & Pieces About Cork,...

It seems like wherever I go here I am prone to getting together with Wacky Woolies whose home is Carroll's - it's that blimmin' souvenir shop I've been visiting. These sheeps are seriously wacky-looking; they always appear entertaining to my eyes LOL. Found out that Cork City also has a Carroll's and I paid the damn store another visit. Got a few more Wacky Woolies items. I just can't get enough of them!

Me outside the St. Fin Barre's Cathedral

Second day in Cork City and we got a little bit of rain. It was on and off throughout the day. Not that we minded it, by the way, I just find it interesting that I haven't thought much of the weather since day 1 of being here in Shamrock Country. Weather in Ireland seems to be quite similar to Portland: not much sunshine, so in a way it is a bit gloomy and rains a bit every now and then. Not a heavy one, luckily. Speaking of temperature, since we arrived the temperature has been around 9 or 10 degree Celsius. Not bad at all! :)

Love the neighborhood!

 We started the day visiting St. Fin Barre's Cathedral. It's an Anglican church and has a pretty neat ancient architecture. The church has been there since 1879. I enjoyed taking a ton of pictures inside and outside the church, and particularly loved how the old neighborhood surrounding the church looked.

As you can probably tell from a few pictures here that Cork doesn't look touristy. The town, as a matter of fact, is quite laid-back. If you hang out after two o'clock in the city center, you'll also get to see a ton of school kids - in addition to the college punks- hanging around. They wear uniforms and I thought the uniforms are kind of cool. I saw them dressing in green, blue, purple.. quite a few of colors eh? Not so sure if the colors differ based on their schools -as in primary, middle, high school. I doubt it, nonetheless.

The delicious Irish stew

So.. after the poor thing (hubby) didn't get his Irish stew last night, he carefully planned his lunch today. Before lunch, by the way, we made time to visit UCC (University College Cork), Cork Public Museum whose admission was free. So guess where we went for lunch today? The popular English Market on Princess St! Duuuude, this market reminds me of the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto, ON. Both markets are popular for both local people & tourists; among the goods offered by their merchants are meat, fish, cheese, and fresh produce. Hubby and I went upstairs to eat at this place called Farm Gate. It's pretty famous, by the way. Anyway, after seeing the menu I decided not to eat there. Hubby ordered the blimmin' lamb stew (12.50 Euros) anyway. OMG, it was mega delicious! I ended up mooching off of him a bit. As soon as he was done, we headed to some Chinese take-out restaurant close by. The story behind this was.. I wanted to eat chicken chow mein since last night! By the way, I find it interesting that Chinese take-away places are pretty prevalent here in Ireland, especially in Dublin -same thing in the UK, and not the case in the US.

Upon exiting Crawford Art Gallery

Variety of meat at the English Market

Okay, so I got the chow mein (plus rice) for 10.80 Euros. My experience wasn't that great at the Chinese place, however. The waitress at the Chinese place pissed me off because she refused to give me a pair of chopsticks just because... I was not a dine-in customer! IT WAS A JOKE. I am so going to give a crappy review on that place. The place is called Aroma, situated at Emmet Place :D

Went to another museum called Crawford Art Gallery on the same street where Aroma is. Again, admission was free.

If you're ever in the area, please do not leave without sampling some hot chocolate from O' Connaill. This local coffee shop is located on French Church St, and is quite easy to find. We spent an hour just sitting there enjoying our after-meal plain hot chocolate (2.75 Euros for small, 3.25 for the large one). Hubby ended up getting a mint tea as well, which was priced cheaply at 1.50 Euros.

Man, I am feeling fat talking about all the food I had today! We actually decided not to eat out for dinner to avoid becoming gluttons. Shopped at Marks and Spencer for our dinner; got two packs of prepared food and two bags of British crisps for 13 Euros.

I am just about ready to pass out now. It's been a long day!