People's Republic of Cork

So this weekend I went to Cork with the orchestra! We performed the same concert as last week, again with the choirs from Cork and Clifden, at University College Cork. And we stayed at a 4-star hotel, which was definitely one of the nicest hotels I've ever seen! The rooms were super-comfy, the shower was gorgeous, and the food was fantastic. (The included breakfast buffet was amazing! Hot food, lots of fresh fruit, even a smorgasbord platter with fancy cheeses and meats and smoked salmon.) The Orchestra Society must have gotten a lot of money for the trip, because it only cost each of us €70 for two nights and meals.

I've been to Cork before, and it is a very urban city-- it's the second largest city in Ireland, but is only 1/10th the size of Dublin. (Dublin is about 1,500,000, and Cork is about 150,000.) I always sort of think of Cork as being like Dublin, but compressed to 1/10th its size; squeezed between two hills onto islands in the River Lee, the city seems to have all the energy and conflict of Dublin, but pressed closer together. There are sketchy alleys coming off the posh pedestrian shopping streets, and medieval cathedrals butting onto dodgy Chinese markets. And lots of graffiti, especially political graffiti. (Cork likes to pretend that it is its own country; t-shirts that say "Cork Republic" are popular [I have one!], and I have a friend who says he's from "the People's Republic of Cork.")

Given this impression, I was expecting the UCC campus to be a very urban one. So I was very surprised to see that it actually looks a lot more like what I think of as a "college campus" than other colleges I've seen in Ireland. It actually reminded me somewhat of MSU, with wide grassy spaces and footbridges over the river and exotic trees with little identifier plaques. The architecture, of course, is much more European; I heard people comparing it to Cambridge. It was very pretty, and the auditorium where we performed was all high dark wood ceilings and bookcases and stained glass windows.

Of course, the best part of the weekend was the after-party. Musicians are the best people to party with. We started drinking in the hotel bar around 10:30, and at midnight the instruments started coming out, and suddenly there was a trad session on. There was a guitar, an accordion, a bodhran, a double bass, a penny whistle, and about nine violins! The highlight, for me, was the jam session of "Summertime." It was awesome-- everyone playing took a solo, and it had an almost klezmer sound. Anyway, they jammed until after 3am, when I went to bed... and I guess they started up again at 4:30! Irish people are crazy, and musicians are crazy, and Irish musicians are the craziest. :-)


One weird thing from the weekend, though... I shared a hotel room with two British girls, one (violinist) from Yorkshire and one (cellist) from Belfast.* (That's not the weird part.) I always used to pick up lots of the speech patterns of whoever I talk to, but I don't really do that with Irish people for some reason. But after spending three days talking to the Brits, I found that I was using a lot of their syntax and inflections. It culminated Sunday afternoon when I said "pavement" instead of "sidewalk!" I don't know where that came from...




*I realize that calling someone from Belfast "British" as opposed to "Irish" is contentious and politically charged, but that is what she considered herself. I think she's Protestant. Oh, Northern Ireland...