This weekend we visited Cobh (pronounced Cove) just outside of the city. It was a pretty fun trip and required taking a train rather than bus. Personally, i've never been on a train except for the tiny one at Kennywood and the rails at the airports, which i dont think count as real trains. I took a few pictures of the station and the train.
I should first include some facts about Cobh so if you're looking at the pictures it makes sense. Cobh was the main harbor for 2.5 million Irish immigrants between 1848 - 1950. The first ever immigrant to pass through Ellis Island was Annie Moore and she left Ireland at Cobh. Also, the Lusitania sank just off Cobh and many survivors were sent to Cobh. Many of those who died in the attack were buried at the Old Church Cemetery in Cobh. The Titanic also made its last port of call at Cobh before it left for the USA. Where the train station is in Cobh now is where the final bags of mail were loaded onto the ship.
We arrived at Cobh at 11:30 and right off the train station was the Cobh Heritage Center. The center included a ton of information about emigration, the Lusitania, the Titanic, and various other uses of the harbor in wars and during the famine. I'll try and put some captions on the pictures in the slideshow rather than explaining everything on here.
After the Heritage Center we saw the statue of Annie Moore and took some pictures of the view from the harbor. We walked through JFK Park which was just a small playground area with some vendors selling baked goods and fruits. We saw the town clock and made our way up the hill to see the massive St. Coleman's Cathedral.
It was quite a hike up a large hill and many steps to the cathedral steps. The view of the Atlantic was amazing. I felt closer to the clouds than the ocean. The Cathedral was massive. Just compare the first pics of the cathedral when i was near the ocean to the pics when i was standing right next to it. It was huge and extremely detailed. The doors to get in were massive and the inside was spectacular. The stained glass windows, altar, confessional booths, ceilings...everything was so beautiful. The inside was massive. There was a forklift inside the cathedral to do work on the ceiling. As we were leaving we noticed the organ. I have never seen anything like this before. The organ pipes had to be over 100ft high. They all pointed up to a huge round stained glass window. I can't really say enough about how beautiful this place was and the pictures surely do it no justice.
After the cathedral we looked for more to do in Cobh, but there wasnt much to see. The town was really small and there wasnt much else to see. We did manage to find the Titanic memorial which was basically just a tiny 3ft tall monument. After the Titanic memorial we saw the Lusitania memorial which was a bit bigger and more interesting. We tried to head up the Cobh museum, but it was closed. We grabbed lunch near the train station and then grabbed the train back to the city.
It was a nice day trip and although there wasnt much to see, what we did see was pretty sweet. The weather was sunny, but the temperature has dropped the past few days and we actually saw a bit of snow on Friday morning.
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Not too much else has been going on. I am actually starting to work on some papers and study a bit more since i do have an exam and papers due towards the end of February. Hockey is going well and my team is 3-0. I'm going to Dublin next weekend with the Cork Revolution to play in a tournament which should be a great time. The following weekend we will be heading to Dublin for a Fri-Sun trip.
I have also booked some flights for March and April to do some traveling in Europe. March 7th-8th my friend from Germany, Joe, is coming over and we are heading to Scotland. Then from Scotland we are heading to Sweden. I'm pretty excited about this trip because i'll get to see the original IKEA and see the real meatball scoopers.
March 27 - April 3rd i'll be in Munich visiting Joe then I'm off to Italy for 5 days visiting a few friends in Florence. After Italy i hope to get to Paris and Barcelona, but the plans are still up in the air.
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I'll talk to you soon!
Travis
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