Only 2 days ... so much has happened ...

After the last blog entry, Friday night, we've been entertained in many ways and seen more of this wonderful country.

A 2 person Irish group played in the pub on Friday night. They were awesome!!! Sophie's birthday so we celebrated for her ... called so she could hear the music too. Yes Mike, we bought a CD ..... another one for the holiday collection. That turned out to be a very late night!!

Saturday, we headed out by bus to see Cork, and as we travelled, the weather cleared. There are so many beautiful villages and towns on this route... and they are so clean and neat. Would love to come back this way.

Arrived in Cork early afternoon .. city was buzzing with people. Found ourselves a pub serving Sunday roast on Saturday .... and guess what came up on the big screen ... Rugby Union ... Wallabies Vs South Africa. Great to see the Aussie team playing well. ... well they were while we were watching. We left before full time, and found out later that they lost in the dying minutes. Pity. Was great fun watching with an Irishman who had bet on the South Africans, but probably a good move to leave when we did.

Walked around some amazing back streets ... away from the city, and later found ourselves watching another big screen. Hurling ... (think this is the game Tish was telling me about). No idea of the rules. Played with a small ball (about cricket ball size, and just as hard, so I've been told since) and sticks ... bit like hockey or lacrosse. Seems like anything goes ... you can catch or throw the ball, scoop it up with the stick, hit it with the stick, kick it, bat it with your hand. Seems that you can even hit your opponent with the stick ... but don't quote me on that. The game was a semi-final. Apparently there were big hurling and football games in the area today too .... roads were chocked with traffic, trains booked out, red and blue flags and banners everywhere ... and tonight all the pubs and bars have noisy crowds outside. Anyway, watching that with some locals was interesting.

Didn't have enough time to see much of Cork district, unfortunately. Arrived back in Dublin mid-afternoon, in time to head over to a city park where a 3 day Street Performance World Championship was winding up. The city itself was teaming with people, but the park crowd was huge too. What a magical atmosphere. They seemed to have 7 areas for performances which ran continuously all afternoon ... until 7pm each day. We managed to catch on that appealed from the program ... Gamarjobat ... a Japanese mime act. They were awesome ... so funny. We managed to get a bit of cramped space on the damp grass ... but it was worth it. Laughter so good for you.

After that we caught a bit of El Gleno Grande ... and I have to admit a guy dress as a performing zebra wasn't on top of my list .... but he too was very clever and entertaining. What a way to top off a great weekend in Ireland.

Will have to upload these pics quickly and rescue Lex from the local across the road ... and then return to our backpackers lodgings. Have a new camera, and I'm able to resize on the camera, so I'm only uploading small versions.... so much quicker.