Butter in Cork

Apologies for the delayed second installment of my Cork trip; however, I shall now continue the highly anticipated visit to the butter museum. But before Batool and I traveled to the butter museum we took a few strolls around the lough and walked by University College Cork. After awkwardly asking a few students to take pictures of us at every bridge we passed, we arrived in the city.

From there,  we headed up a hill and into the butter museum. Although, it was a small establishment, we did not go in with many expectations, so it was a nice surprise when we found ourselves entranced by the cheesy 1990s Celtic Tiger era film on butter production in Ireland. About everything from regulation laws to the large butter market in Germany for Kerrygold, our eyes experienced an artery clogging experience.

We then looked at late 19^th century butter churners, experienced butter churning, as the butter, and we learned about the importance of Cork to the butter trade. We even learned facts about butter in pagan times and how it was often thrown in lakes as a sacrifice to the gods. All in all, the butter museum was a success and we brought back a lot of Kerrygold-wear to Dublin.

After this, we went back into town and went to a café, where I got a pepperimnet tea and a cheesecake while Batool got a strawberry roulade. Unfortunately, she had the better dish, but as per usual she was nice enough to share. But as good as the food was, Batool’s life advice was even better. On this outing, she introduced to me the idea of a five year plan (not like the Soviet kind), where I make a five year plan for my goals and aspirations. So we focused on my writing and what I wanted to achieve within one year and what I wanted to do in five years. As of now, I have even started on my one year plan and have submitted a short story to the writer’s digest annual contest!

From the afternoon tea session, we headed back to our accommodation and watched some silly YouTube videos, ate some toast (with butter of COURSE of CORKS!!!), and then decided to see another movie, this time Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I found this movie to be quite wonderful because it featured my favorite song The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. After some comedy and explosions, we decided to destroy our stomachs and ate Supermacs.

And before we knew it, we found ourselves sitting at Tara’s Tea Room the next day waiting for the train back to Dublin. All in all, it was one of my best trips during my abroad, and I am glad that I found such a great travel partner who lives so close to me in California!