04.14.18 | Cork, Ireland | 22:33

The name of this hostel is Bru Bar & Hostel. When you first walk into it, it’s just a bar. A rather lively one, at that. At night they have live music and they seem to pack the place. You walk to the back of the bar area and there are stairs that lead up and back to the hostel rooms. Not very many frills to this place- I got a shared bedroom with four beds in it. So far, I’ve stayed here with a couple from Canada, and a guy from Brazil. The Canadian couple is here touring, like myself. The guy from Brazil is here working, and he’s staying here while he waits for some flat situation to open up.

I was looking at the map and I saw that there was a nearby castle that had been restored. Blackrock Castle is now officially called Blackrock Castle Observatory. Yes, it is now a planetarium. The walk to get there was wonderful, but I wasn’t really in the mood to learn about starts. Still, I walked through, and ended up getting a while schpeel about the night sky. At least I learned something. My only objection is that the guy who was giving us the demonstration was talking more about Star Trek than actual stars. He also confessed that he stumbled into this job and that he actually majored in geology.

The walk over felt like beautiful spring morning- there were row teams from the high school and the university out going back and forth on The River Lee. It was really cool to watch as I made my way to the castle.