Day Two- Tour of Cork

We decided to sleep in and catch up on our sleep today since yesterday was such a crazy day. We ended up sleeping until ten and missing the complimentary breakfast at the hotel so we just snacked on leftover granola bars and dried fruit. We had decided yesterday night that we were just going to stick around Cork today and had discussed going to a place called the Old English Market. The weather today was pretty nice (60 degrees and partly cloudy. I even got a bit of sun!) so after a bit of a walk and only one minute of being turned around (we’re improving!) we found the market, which is one of the world’s largest covered markets.

Being in the market was a little overwhelming. There must have been fifty vendors selling fresh fruit, meat, fish, sweets, and spices. The place was packed with people on lunch breaks stopping to get an Irish sausage (they look like really long brats, and you eat them on buns with tomatoes and onions as toppings). It was loud, smelly (sometimes in a good way!), and crowded, but it was a lot of fun and there were some great people watching opportunities. We tried to eat at the Farmer’s Café on the top floor, but it was packed so we ended up getting a sandwich at one of the vendors and eating it outside.

Then we headed to the Cork Tourist Office and got information for a tour of Cork City. The bus was a double-decker, so of course we sat on the top! The tour lasted about an hour and a half and was really good. It gave us a much better idea of the surrounding area and had some interesting historical information to go along with the beautiful sites. We saw several cathedrals, some old buildings, and a lot of the city center where all the shopping and pubs are.

After the tour we went to St. Patrick’s St. where all the shops are. We wandered in and out of stores and bought some souvenirs. My mom bought me a claddagh ring as an early birthday present. It is silver with a blue gem as the heart. Some of our purchases today were a bit unconventional; we bought a shirt for me in the men’s section of the department store and a washcloth for Carla in a maternity store! We also stopped at a really nice café called the Idaho Café for an afternoon snack.

We finished out the afternoon with a walk through the University College Cork campus on the way back to our hotel. The campus is beautiful. There are lots of old buildings with vines crawling up the sides and plenty of wide open spaces with gardens to relax in. The main quadrangle is impressive with a large building that looks like the castle framing the grass. The campus is quite large though, so hopefully my classes are close!

Once we made it back to the hotel we were pretty tired. We had been walking around for eight hours! So we decided to eat in the hotel bar, which is very nice and has good food. Tomorrow we’re attempting to drive the Ring of Kerry. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Amelia