This weekend was full of fun and games! Thursday was
Arthur’s Day, an Irish holiday created in honor of Arthur Guinness, the
inventor of Guinness Beer. In the true Irish spirit, the point of this holiday
is to consume beer. At 18:00 (6 PM) sharp, hundreds of students meet on the
stairs of city hall to cheers to Arthur! My Irish friend showed me videos of
past Arthur’s Day toasts and I was excited to take part in this illegal and
exciting tradition.
Unfortunately, the Garda (Irish Police) must have also seen
these videos, as they were on the steps of City Hall to greet us. There were
swarms of teenagers and students standing on the sidewalk with pints of Guinness
to toast to Arthur, and the Garda were having a field day issuing fines. We
had already opened our cans of Guinness and wanted to continue celebrating, so
we snuck past the Garda and on into town. However, two of my American friends
were stopped. After they explained that they were foreign, the Gaurdi did not
issue them a fine. Apparently the Garda don’t know it’s also illegal to drink
on the streets in America. We did not get to cheers to Arthur on the steps of
City Hall, but we did avoid a fine! To Arthur!
Two days after that lovely, and somewhat anticlimactic, Irish
holiday, there was the replay (rematch because the last game ended in a tie) of
the national Hurling Championship Game. Hurling is one of the national sports
of Ireland, and I wish I could explain the rules to you. Despite watching the
game, looking up the rules, and even practicing it myself once, I have no idea
how the game of Hurling works. It’s kind of like an unnecessarily violent blend
of field hockey, football, and rugby. Anyway, we went to a local pub to watch
the game and got along fine by cheering with the locals. I must have seen and
heard “Up the Rebels!” at least 100 times that day. After a hard fought game,
the Cork Rebels lost to Clare. Everyone was surprisingly civil despite the
devastating loss. I was expecting some kind of riot, but it turns out Rebel
fans are better behaved than fans of the Dodgers or the Kings, Americans should
take a hint from the Irish-drink more, fight less!
The next day I woke up early to hike Boughil Mountain with
the UCC Mountaineering Club. Boughil is in county Kerry and the summit is about
650 meters high. And yes, we hiked all the way to the top! When I joined the
Mountaineering Club I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but it
turns out my definition of hiking was way off. After this 5.5 hour trek up to
the summit and back down the other side, I can finally say I have been on a
real hike. I now know that Victory Trail, Malibu Creek, and Escondido Falls,
some of my favorite ‘hikes’ at home are actually light strolls. The climb to
the top of Mt. Boughil was brutal. During the hike I found myself questioning
why I signed up for this, and even wanted to quit a couple times, not that
quitting was an option because I was in a group of 20 people halfway up a
mountain. For the first time in my life I was freezing cold and dripping sweat
at the same time-I had to choose whether to remove a layer and cool down or
keep it to prevent freezing my ears and arms off. Halfway up the mountain we
entered a blanket of fog and were trapped in a layer of mist for the next
couple hours. When we reached the summit, we could see about 20 feet in front
of us, and the rest was a white haze. Despite the unexpected difficulty and
awful weather, I am glad I went on the hike and will be doing more in the
future. Now that I know what a real hike is, I will be prepared and hopefully
the next mountain will be less foggy so I can get good pictures of the view
from summit.
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