Cork!

Where to begin in my chronicle of the past three days...

Friday:

I got up at 5 am, and after some lovely Skyping with Jenna, I finished packing (which I did a good job of, except could have brought more clothes), and it was off to catch the bus into Dublin. Then, off to the Bus Eirrean to go to Cork. Only problem: Colleen wasn't ready. Unfortunately, we missed our bus to Cork, and had to wait two hours (10 am instead of 8). So, we wandered around Dublin and Kari & I got a smoothie. Anyway, the bus to Cork was fine, we had a half way stop, so it was about 4.5 hours.

We get to Cork, and due to our issue in the morning it's later than we'd have liked. So, we find the tourist information and get the lay of the land as for how long it'll take us to go all over Cork. We decided to go to Kinsale for the night, so it's onto another bus.

Kinsale... oh, what to say. Kinsale is the culinary hub of Europe (so they say), and it's where 'it all got started' (quite true.) It's this adorable little town, which reminds me of something between Cotati CA (think of Starshallow from Gilmore Girls) and Bodega Bay. Anyway, it's adorable, but about two inches by two inches. Tiny. We get there and it's raining. We walk around the harbour, seek some shelter, then go out and walk around the town. It took us an hour to cover every step of Kinsale, so we ventured into the hills and saw these amazing billion dollar homes. We went to dinner around 7 pm at Fishy Fish Cafe. (They'll call anything a cafe here.) It was a fancy seafood restaurant, and since we didn't have a reservation we sat at a tiny table next to the bar. It was fine by us. Kari and I split an appetizer of mussels (the best I've ever had!) in a white wine and basil cream sauce. We had some bread and butter. Colleen and Kari split a bottle of wine (upon which they got quite tipsy) and I had a vodka cranberry. I got "shrimp sacmpi" which was french fries (very classy ones, though, zero grease!), a little side salad (very earthy), and fat prawns lightly breaded with a basil aolio kind of dipping sauce, tartar sauce, and lemon. Incredible! Kari got trout (very good) and Colleen got a huge bowl of mussels. Before we got our food, a cork went flying from behind the bar, hit Colleen's glass, and landed in my lap with shards of glass. Luckily I wasn't hurt, it was quite entertaining. We were cracking up, because at first no one knew what had happened. See, here's te trick with opening champagne: put a towel over the cork. Yes, yes. Anyway. Colleen got panna cotta which Kari and I tried. Very good. After dinner (which, after a few glasses of wine, Kari and Colleen were loud-- to which I'm not good at being opposite-- and so we were those Americans) we wandered back out to the streets. We had fun just walking around, because it's just one of those places. Kari got ice cream. We stopped by a pub, where Colleen had a gigantic Bulmer's. We were hoping to get some good Irish music, but it all got started too late. We caught the 10:40 bus (last one) back to Cork.

When we disembarked from the bus, Colleen was drunk. We managed to find our hostel (as Kari and I tried not to get annoyed with a fumbling Colleen.) We checked in, got ready, and passed out.

Saturday:

We get up early, get ready, and off we go to Youghal (pronouned "yawl"). Youghal is another one of those adorable little towns. We got breakfast at a place called "Rendez Vous Cafe". Ireland is very big on breakfasts that are set (i.e. "Mini breakfast", which we all had, was toast, one fried egg, one sausage, one piece of bacon-- which looked like a slice of pig that was mildly fried--and baked beans.) Colleen and Kari's bread was moldy, so we got extra bread, and a comped meal. In all it was 5 euro with tip! Very good. Their bathroom was very cute, too. There was a sign that read: "Our aim is to keep this bathroom clean. Gentleman: step closer, it's shorter than you think. Ladies: please stay seated for the entire performance." Fabulous.

We wandered around Youghal, which was a beautiful harbour (and when we left it was low tide, and the boats were sitting on cement instead of floating in water!) We saw some historical remnants, like a tower that was once part of a castle, a hallway which was once part of a priory (friary?), etc. One thing that was amazing we found was a cathedral that looked like a castle. We wandered the property and found this incredible cemetery, and climbed up the hill until we got to a landing, where there was a remnant castle tower we climbed. Very, very high, and very tiny space. Incredible view. It was muddy, raining, and absolutely perfect. We went up to the city wall (centuries ago cities used to have a wall surrounding them for trade purposes, to control incomers and outgoers.) I have pictures I'll post later.

We left Youghal, which was raining, and aimed for Midleton, where there's the biggest distillery ever. Alas, our bus driver did not stop (very, very rude.) So we settled for Cork. We went to the Cork Art museum, which was very interesting just because it was housed in an old abbey or mansion or something, and the architecture was incredible. Some nice artwork by the Irish (alas, no Monet.) At this point, Colleen decided to go back to Dublin, so she left. Kari and I continued, but to our dismay, the rain was ridiculous. It was like a biblical flood. We were soaked through. We went to the Cork butter museum (and no, we did not get any free butter.) We saw how butter was made, saw a historical video on butter, etc. Cool fact: Cork is the butter hub of Ireland. Ireland is responsible for most of the global production of butter. Never knew? Us either! Back in the day, Cork was producing 80% of all butter worldwide. Heard of "kerrygold" butter? Yup. As in, Kerry county, Ireland.

Disappointed in not getting free butter, we went back to the hostel. We unclothed, and tried to dry off. I finished reading John Girsham's 'The Partner', we watched some American sitcoms, and then went back out in the rain. I cannot even describe how soaked we were. Really. Nonstop rain all Saturday. We sucked it up, put back on our wet clothes, and went to dinner.

An Australian man from our hostel joined us, rather oddly. We went to a fancy place off of Paul Street, and to my dismay, their fish and chips were not on par. Their tartar sauce was really just mayonnaise. Oh, and they don't do "to go" here! It's so hard to find to go boxes, or to save leftovers. Explaining the concept alone is a feat.

Anyway, so we wandered around for a minute, then went back to the hostel and were in bed and asleep by 9 pm. Soaked, dripping, cold. Only answer was sleep.

Sunday:

We got up got on the bus to Blarney. A quick bus that was right outside our hostel. Blarney is a another cute city, mainly just because it's big deal is of course, the Blarney Castle. We went all over the castle, kissed the stone (yes!), and went on this "rock close" which basically seems like a ton of rock formations the Irish have named, i.e. Witches Circle and Fairy Glade were two of them.) There was a waterfall. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Back on the bus to Cork, then from Cork back to Dublin. Of course, today there is a HUGE football match (which is our soccer), and so it took us about two hours to get to Santry. And here I am.

Pictures to come... very soon.