film festival and soaking wet hikes

Last week was a busy week for me. Between work and life I was also volunteering at the Cork Film Festival. It was fun, though I wish I would have had more time to actually see some of the films. So it was pretty cool, I was put in the venues, so I was greeting people, collecting tickets, guarding the doors and got to see the films if I wanted. So I was at the Opera House, which was cool because most of the big films were being shown there and it really is a gorgeous building. Tuesday when I was volunteering was the coolest though, it was the silent film night. I didn't get to see the first bit, but they had Paul Merton speaking about silent films, and then the second half was the showing of Buster Keaton's Steamboat Willie Jr and they had somone playing the piano, so it totally felt like the 1920s. Watching a silent film reminded me of the Margaret movie, and made me think of camp. So I just thought it was really awesome :) The other few movies I saw, I didn't really like.  A few of the shorts I saw were good though. It was a fun week though and I got to meet and talk with a lot of interesting people. 

Sunday was an interesting hike. It was a super wet, rainy, windy, disgusting Irish day. We went to Coumsaharan, in Co. Kerry and while the forecast was wet, it was dry and overcast when we left Cork. It started to pour, after about Macroom and you knew it was going to be one of those hikes. It was super windy, like 80kph winds, so the plans slightly changed, as we reached the top, before we started along the horseshoe we were getting blown away. So we walked down the side of the mountain, through the bogs which turned into rivers and ponds. Seriously it was crazy how much water was coming down the mountain. Now where we were hiking was quite boggy, but with this much water it was like hiking though a pond! Even with my waterproofs I was still soaked, as well as everyone else. The only thing dry on me was my feet (which I am NOT complaining about) as many people had soggy feet, which isn't hard when you are walking in 5inches of water! So despite the rediculous rainyness, it was a great day :) Sometimes the super rainy days are a lot of fun, and they make you realise how amazing the gorgeous sunny days are.

So I'm going to Belfast this weekend :) YAY!! I am so excited, I have seriously been waiting since September 2005 to go, and I AM! YAY! It is kinda a spur of the moment decision, as Monday is a Bank Holiday, so I have the day off, and I felt like getting out of Dodge. So I'm leaving Friday afternoon, and coming back to Cork late Monday night and spending a lot of time on a bus this weekend. But it should be worth it! I'm also going up to the Giant's Causeway and Portrush as well so it should be fun. So I spent most of today at work looking up hostels and trying to figure out bus schedules and such, which is funny because the one thing I wanted to do at work today was write this, but yet somehow it is 10.20 at night and I just got around to writing...