Cork – September 2021

Hello dear readers! It has been a little while since I wrote anything about an actual trip but some of you might remember a while back I kicked off the first part of my Ireland trip in 2021. You can give that a read here but having navigated a few days in the capital, I was off to explore a new city – Cork!

In truth I hadn’t fully intended to end up in Cork. The basis of this trip was a long overdue visit to Dublin but I had the best part of six days to enjoy and figured I could do a few nights in Dublin and a couple elsewhere. I pondered a few options before deciding I probably wanted this trip to be split between Dublin and Galway.

Alas Galway was super expensive, Cork was less expensive and with a wedding on the way the bank balance won this fight. Visiting Galway would have to be an adventure for another day in the future.

Having confirmed my plans for this trip, I then flew out to Dublin which I found pretty underwhelming. Before even getting to Cork I was kind of ready to go home and given I was flying home from Dublin I did consider whether I could even be bothered heading South only to return to Dublin a couple of days later. However changing my plans at the last minute proved to be too costly so in the end I rather reluctantly hopped on a train to Cork – out of convenience and acceptance as much as anything else.

From what I remember the train journey was quite pleasant. Ireland’s a pretty country, very green and it was easy to admire the views along the way. Although I didn’t seem to get any train photos which is quite unusual for me when traveling by train so I guess I was less enthused about it at the time. I do however remember being tickled at passing by Tipperary and getting a screenshot to mark our presence on Google Maps – we were seemingly not a long way from Tipperary at all!

Eventually I arrived in Cork which is a surprisingly hilly city – hillier than I’d anticipated anyway. I was staying in the Northern part of town, the hillier side, which meant any time I wanted to venture in to town it would require some downhill/uphill back and forth but the hotel itself was a nice enough location in a quiet neighbourhood. I thought the view from my room was nice too.

Having procrastinated leaving Dublin for most of the day I didn’t get to Cork until early evening. I pondered some dinner options and decided to visit the Fransiscan Well Brewpub which I’d thoroughly recommend. There was a nice beer garden with some food options and some delicious beer – a great place to kick off a Friday night in Cork.

I hung around for a couple of beers and some pizza but it was a mostly quiet Friday night for me. The brewpub was a great location and had a fun atmosphere but I wasn’t really in the mood for solo drinking so had a little wander and then tucked myself in for an early night – ready to explore Cork properly the next day.

I say explore loosely. There wasn’t anything I really wanted to do in Cork. Whilst my enthusiasm for Dublin was rather lacking, I at least ticked off a few attractions to make my time in Dublin somewhat memorable. There are also things that I missed in Dublin that I could happily do if I ever went back, I had a long list of things to do in Dublin.

In contrast Cork had nothing that really piqued my interest – it’s quite a small city and one of the main things people visit the area for is to see and kiss the Blarney Stone. However my understanding is the only way to really see it is held upside down off a ledge and I wasn’t all that bothered about seeing it. Had it been in central Cork I probably would have taken a look but I didn’t really care to see the stone and certainly not enough to travel a few miles out of town only to be suspended off a ledge upside down. Although given the times and the number of people it shares kisses with, I can only imagine the stone was masked up anyway!

Jokes aside, my plans for Cork were non-existent. I intended to wander a little but the biggest appeal was the change in scenery. New streets to walk, new restaurants to eat at, new pubs to frequent and hopefully some live music somewhere along the way for the real Irish experience.

Naturally I kicked off Saturday with an aimless wander in to town for a first proper glimpse of Cork. The River Lee splits the city and I’d say Cork is perhaps a little prettier on the eye than Dublin. My first notable stop of the day was the “famous” English market which I’d heard good things about and is certainly worth a visit if you’re ever in Cork.

The thing that surprised me the most was that it was bustling with activity – aided by being a Saturday no doubt but I could only really look on with a little envy. Comparing to back home in Peterborough who’ve neglected and demolished its city-centre market it was hard to fathom how a smaller city in Cork had one that was the envy of many a city and town in England and maybe many in Europe too.

In the upper section of the market is a small cafe selling snacks and refreshments so I found myself a rare vacant seat, ordered myself a sausage roll, some tea (naturally) and enjoyed watching various shoppers below me come and go. It’s a genuine delight in the heart of Cork and a space its locals are fortunate to have.

From there my time in Cork was largely uneventful. It’s somewhat ironic but I’d intended to visit Dublin in 2019 and then in the interests of my mental health as much as anything, I bailed at the last minute. Two years later I’d at least made it to Ireland but truthfully, my heart wasn’t really in this trip either. I tried to make the best of the time away but the English Market was the only noteworthy thing I did whilst in Cork.

The major difference between Dublin and Cork is that I’d come here with no expectations. Cork had nothing to live up to so the fact I did nothing noteworthy didn’t really matter in the end. I found myself a pub in the city centre with hopes of watching Tottenham’s lunchtime game. Alas the pub had neglected to maintain its sports subscription so its claim to being the “pub to watch Spurs” was somewhat misleading. I did meet a friendly Spurs-supporting barman but we had to settle for discovering Tottenham’s misfortunes via internet updates on our phones.

With no food menu and no football to watch (which was probably a blessing on the day) I moved onwards. Cork’s city centre is largely made up of a shopping district with pubs and restaurants scattered among it. I grabbed lunch somewhere but the rest of my day was then rather uneventful. I squeezed in a short nap back at my hotel before heading back out for dinner and some night-time entertainment.

After dinner I went and found myself a bar with some live music on which was probably best described as ambient. It’s worth nothing that Ireland were still trialing coming out of lockdown and this was perhaps best reflected in this moment.

Dublin was no different but was still attracting tourists that made it feel a little more lively after dark. Despite being a Saturday night, the entertainment (here at least) felt a little more off. It just didn’t feel right, forced perhaps. I enjoyed a couple of drinks nonetheless, I think Covid forced you to make the best of things but this really wasn’t Cork in all its glory. I called it a night and headed back to my hotel for the evening – also somewhat lifeless so went straight up to the room.

I had a nice lay in the next morning, helped by having nowhere to be. Had there been anything worthwhile doing with my time in Cork I might have wandered back in to town but the downhill / uphill shenanigans swayed me from bothering. With a quick look of the train times I stopped off at a pub on route to the station – my first of the trip to fail the Covid requirements infact,

I’d become quite accustomed to the “Covid Pass – Mask – Table – Repeat”  routine but not here.. I think they were just happy to have any custom to be honest and forewent the need to follow the rules and didn’t seem to care if I’d been vaccinated or not. I only stuck around for one anyway and then it was back to the train station and Northbound to Dublin.

I didn’t get in to Dublin until late afternoon so there wasn’t time to do much other than grab my last bit of Irish pub-grub before finding somewhere with some live music. I checked in on a couple of different pubs, including a favourite from earlier in the trip. I hadn’t loved Dublin but I’m glad that I had one last adventure in its Temple Bar district before heading home.

Rather than stay in central Dublin, for my final night I opted to stay in a hotel near the airport.. I enjoyed a couple of drinks around Temple Bar before accepting my time in Dublin had come to a close. I hopped in a taxi towards my hotel with a happy Irish chap who talked my ear off for the entire journey. I’m glad to have met him and have that be my lasting memory of my time in Ireland. It was a nice way to end the trip before flying home the next morning.

Looking back I still don’t really know how I feel about Ireland. To some extent it ticked boxes – I was supposed to be getting married in Washington, Ireland was therefore the perfect destination to drown my sorrows and feel a bit sorry for myself.

On the other hand I don’t know that bad circumstances are enough of an excuse for this trip. Despite suggesting I was only there to drown my sorrows, I genuinely went to Ireland with the best intentions. I wanted to enjoy my first visit to the country. The fact that I didn’t leaves a sour taste and no, that wasn’t the alcohol!

It’s hard to judge Ireland knowing that my head wasn’t in the best space, Covid restrictions also played a part in my experience there but I ask myself if I’d go back and my gut feeling says I wouldn’t be bothered either way. I just didn’t warm to Ireland as I’d hoped or even anticipated that I would.

All that said, despite my lack of enthusiasm for this trip I did still do some fun things. I came home with some fond memories and it wasn’t all bad but compared to some really memorable trips, this was a relatively forgettable one.

Sometimes that’s how it goes. There have been other destinations that have taken me more than one visit to warm to and maybe that’ll be the case for Ireland too. Maybe it’ll be third time lucky but I don’t look back on this trip with any real fondness and truthfully it was a bit of a slog to write about.

It’s easy writing about the fun trips but I think as travelers, bloggers, content-creators, influencers or whatever you want to call yourselves it’s also good to share the trips that also weren’t particularly special.

I’m always conscious to remind myself how fortunate I am and acknowledge that not everyone has the luxury of being disappointed in a destination but at the same time, not every trip is a winner and that’s definitely where this one falls. Nothing disastrous happened, there wasn’t anything that spoiled the trip but I also didn’t love it.

I still wouldn’t discourage anyone from visiting. Ireland still has a lot to offer and I hope it’ll win me over the next time I visit but for now, that’s a wrap!

Until next time!

Jason