Holy Film Fest, Batman!

After a little incident (that anyone could have made at 6:30am) where I accidentally put gravy powder instead of hot chocolate powder in my coffee, I headed off to Bus Arás to meet my friend Phil so we could catch the 8:00am bus to Cork City, County Cork to kiss the Blarney Stone and to partake in my first film festival, the Corona Cork Film Fest! We get there early, which is a first in my experience with buses and check into our hostel. The lady who ran it, Tracey was very sweet and the hostel was extremely clean and cute (our room was purple! It reminded me of my room at home). After that we decide to walk down the main drag, St. Patrick’s St. to get our tickets for the film festival. Afterwards we agree that a large coffee with an extra shot of espresso is in order. We started walking and looking for places, and what do we see? A Gloria Jean’s! This is a San Franciscan-based coffee shop that used to fill the Millcreek Mall in Erie with the wonderful aromas of delicious coffee. Needless to say, we decided to drop in…about 4 times that weekend. I think they were probably sick of us by Sunday. Anywho! I digress.
So now we are all fully caffeinated and walking towards the bus station when Phil’s jaw drops and he points out towards the River Lee. “What is it?” I say. “Batman!” he exclaimed. And sure enough, there was a full-grown man clad in a cape, black bat mask, and gray bodysuit with the Bat Symbol on his chest running full speed down the sidewalk. Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough to snap a picture, but later we also saw Captain America and Spiderman. There must have been a convention somewhere.
Still laughing hysterically after our superhero encounter, we board the bus to Blarney Castle. The village is small and there’s not much to it but a pub, a park, and the castle. Phil and I walked the grounds a little bit, then started the deathly climb up the narrow, slippery stone steps, stopping intermittently in the various stone rooms (that pretty much all looked the same) until we got to the very top where you kiss the Blarney Stone. I laid down on my back, grabbed onto two metal handles on either side of me and was slid back by a staff member and puckered up! I don’t feel any gabbier, but it was a fun experience (if not a little gross). After that we climbed down and wandered around the grounds a little more, as it was a beautiful fall day. We had a cup of coffee and awaited the bus back to Cork City.
Back in Cork, Phil and I started off for the city after a nap at the hostel to see the first film of the evening, Boy A in the Opera House theatre. It was extremely good but very sad. It’s based off of a book of the same name I believe; I plan to read it while I’m here. Next, we walked to the Kino Theatre for the star film of the evening, The Picture of Dorian Gray based off the Oscar Wilde novel. It starred David Gallagher (Simon from 7th Heaven) and was the most disappointing and awful film I think I’ve ever seen. It was just rubbish, and I do not recommend it to anyone. The next day after having a delicious dark French roast coffee from Gloria Jean’s, we went to see Bomb It, a documentary about graffiti from its roots and how its evolved all over the world. It was extremely well done and entertaining, and the saving grace of the film festival after Dorian Gray.
I had a wonderful time last weekend. Sorry about updating so late. I had it written on Tuesday, but forgot that I didn't post it yet. Hehe.
I'll update tomorrow or Monday (Bank Holiday, so I don't have class) about what I did this weekend.

Cheers!