The staircase was narrow, allowing only one at a time, and there were multiple floors of the tower, naturally. The stairs were made of stone, and as we went up and up, we could see more of the various gears used to ring the bells. When we reached the level of bell ringing, we all played a song from the book adjacent to the bells, which were marked by numbers next to their respective ropes. The 8th bell was the heaviest and hardest to pull. I've never rang church tower bells before, so this was all very exciting for me. I wish I could have been at the top of the tower to hear what I was playing while I was playing it though because much of the sound was muffled by the stone walls of the tower.
Afterwards the others and I went up to the top-most floor, with our red and squishy ear muffs on our heads to protect against the loud ringing sounds of the bells. When we arrived at the top, we were amazed by the view that was waiting for us. It was just after sunset, and the city's night life was just about to begin. From the top of the tower we had a 360 view of the entire city! It was so beautiful and amazing. I could see my house from up there, along with the streets I walk on during the day. There were also many cathedrals about, Jason and I counted 8 just from one side of the tower.
When we were finally finished watching Cork come alive at night, we stopped at The Four Liars bistro. The bistro was next to the cathedral, painted red with a glowing warm atmosphere. The quick story of why the bistro was called the four liars bistro. It was actually named after the church tower as it had 4 faces with a clock on each face. However, each clock had a different time than the other, earning itself the four liars because one could never tell which was the correct time!
At the bistro, it was cute but also fancy with candlelight and 40 euro suppers. However, I ordered the smoked haddock bruschetta, which ended up being smoked salmon as the kitchen ran out of haddock for the night. It was quite delicious and very filling. The service was great and we all had a fantastic time. Along the walls of the bistro were endless bottles of white and red wines, which I found to be interesting. I've also noticed that many restaurants and pubs put candles in the wine bottles to light the tables.
After eating, we proceeded to attempt catching the last culture night bus number 1 to the observatory for stargazing, but the bus stop was at the other side of the town, and unfortunately we did not make it in time. :( The chase for the bus led us to the Cork City Hall, which also had some culture night events. by this time it was 10 pm and we decided it would be worth a shot to see what film the city hall was featuring. Much to my fears, it ended up being short, 15 minute horror films. I've never seen a horror film, quite definitely because of the word 'horror,' as I am more of the happy-romantic-comedy type of girl that doesn't like nightmares right before bedtime... Since I've never seen it before, I figured it would be unfair to completely rule it out.
Taking a deep breath, I sat through the first 15 minute film. It was not good. I mean sure it was probably a good horror film but it was not good in that it was really scary!! Basically the storyline centered around a worker that was working late night hours. He got curious and walked about the warehouse-like place, in which he found a mysterious box that was the size of a bookshelf. However the box only had one small opening and when he peered into it, he found nothing. He decided to then get a furniture mover dolly device to move the box, in which after he rolled it out, a scary monster looking face suddenly looked out the back. Keep in mind this was all filmed with a countdown, so the scary scene of the worker opening the box wasn't supposed to happen for another 5 minutes, but the face appeared much before then, unexpectedly, and much of the audience gasped. The next film I only half-watched as it was much too gory and frankly I only sat through half because I was trying to figure out anatomically how the blood was dripping down the wrong leg, etc. (bionerd for life...)
Post the traumatic experience, I was very freaked out, but good thing I was with Jason and Alex and it was still pretty well lit. We attempted to meet up with Melina and Andrew at the Oliver Plunkett pub, but unfortunately barely missed them. The pub was featuring a band of which I have never heard of, but was quite good. Jason and I tried our first Hoegaarden. It was a very citrusy, light beer that came in a very stocky pint glass. I thought it was very good, but it was a bit too much for me to finish. It looks red in the picture but the pub lighting was very dim so it came out poorly in the picture. The actual beer is a light bubbly yellow. It came with a lemon slice each.
After Oliver Plunkett, we headed to Crane Lane, which was a half-outdoors-ish pub that seemed to connect to 2 other pubs. After showing the bouncer our UCC IDs (my picture is still derpy), we mingled with the crowds in an attempt to find Andrew and Melina. We finally bumped into them at the dance floor. It was very warm in there despite it being half outdoors, but there was more room on the dance floor to move around and everyone was relaxed and having fun. I don't think I have ever seen a couple as cute as Andrew and Melina except in Hollywood movies. We all danced (and Jason attempted to) for a while until it was about 1 am.
Overall I think my first culture night at Cork was fantastic, and I can't wait to try all the other festivities the city has to offer later on in the year! (Ahem to Arthur's day on Sept 27!)
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