May 20, 2018 – Ireland – Days 3 – Blarney & Cobh. Son of a Bun!

After the blog post yesterday, sleep came again rather naturally. I think I slept somewhere near sixteen total hours as part of recuperating from the airplanes… but the good news was I was now on local time (mostly)! I woke up early on Sunday morning, and decided to go for a walk around town.
I grabbed my camera, dropped the key at the front desk (they want you to leave the hotel keys here when you leave, and attached a big piece of leather to ensure you do because nobody would want that in their pocket), and said “I’m going for a walk!”. There was definitely water in the air as I stepped outside, but nothing coming down. The day would stay grey and bleak throughout.

I left the hotel just a little before 7:00 AM, heading into Cork’s city center. It would take about twenty minutes to walk to a coffee shop I had found on Google Maps that opened at 8:00, and I figured I had some time to stop and take pictures, etc., along the way. The walk was a pretty one, and the city was just waking up. I was one of very few people out walking in the grey, dim morning light but as the time passed the city became busier and busier. Cork, for those who don’t know has a river flowing through it (River Lee) that splits into two and has a North branch, and a South branch. The North side of town has the larger portion of the river, while the South side of town is more of an offshoot that gets wider as you head further East. You can see what I mean by that using this map.
I’m staying just around the midpoint of the city south of both river branches, and after crossing onto the north side of the southern river branch I turned east and headed down one of the major streets into the city. Cork reminds me of a much shorter version of New York (the highest building here is some seventeen stories, most buildings are under four stories) mixed with some sort of college town where parties and long nights are the norm. One of the things I did notice was that the typical crowd that would walk by (when it wasn’t just one lone person like me) was a group of 4-5 friends all who had just woken up and were out to find breakfast after a wild night the evening prior. I reached the coffee shop early, and with it not quite open I spent some time on a bench watching the river flow through town.
When the time came, I headed back to the shop only to find it still closed, and then realized it was Sunday and not Saturday (sleeping sixteen hours made me forget I’d already been through Saturday!) and the coffee shop was closed all day! I consulted Google for the next available place, learned it was an hour away from opening, and decided to walk to the North side of the city and grab some pictures of the river there too. I needed to find breakfast, and then I needed to get over to Paddywagon Tours so that I could begin my day touring Blarney Castle and the town of Cobh (pronounced “Cove”) in a prearranged tour that began at 9:30. I took a few pictures, walked all over the North part of town, and then headed back just as the new place was opening.
Breakfast was traditional for this part of the world. I’ll add a picture in case that doesn’t make sense, but it had all sorts of things including white and black “pudding” which is sausages with oatmeal cooked into patties and in general it was very good! There were two different kinds of potatoes and plenty of meat, all I could really ask for in a breakfast. I finished up with about a half-hour to spare and walked to the Paddywagon bus station. After getting my ticket and hopping on the semi-full bus, it was off to Blarney Castle.
I should say at this point that I’m still not a huge fan of big bus tours, but with one free day this seemed to be the best way to get around to the main attractions in Cork. Paddywagon was suggested to me by a friend who had recently visited Cork for work and pleasure, and the tour guide was good, the bus was clean, and the overall experience was friendly! I’m still not sure I fit in appropriately in the tourist setting, but I try, and it sometimes leads to fun adventures.
Blarney Castle was one of these tourist settings, and after walking up and into the castle and looking around, I decided not to kiss the Blarney Stone and instead meandered outside the castle for a while and looked around the gardens before heading back into the nearby shops. The bus was parked not at Blarney Castle (due to the lack of parking) but in the shopping complex next door. The complex was built to house the gaggle of tourists that come to visit but also to offer them food and souvenirs once they’d been through the castle tour.
As I walked back from the castle, it had started to sprinkle, and the chairs outside of the restaurant and store were all wet and most of the seats inside were already taken. I meandered through the shops, and after picking up a few items to bring back home with me, and wandering around the restaurant and grounds… I ended up back on the bus forty-five minutes before the tour was supposed to keep going. I’d seen what I wanted to see, I didn’t want to return to the “Biggest Irish Store in Ireland” after already buying things (no Belleek unfortunately, Mom!), and with no place to sit that wasn’t all wet getting back on the bus seemed like the best course of action.
I had gotten some good pictures, I was ready for the next adventure. I was very worried that Cobh (pronounced “cove”) would be the same experience, and as the bus headed off to the next part of the tour I had visions of another wasted hour looking for some way to spend my time when I’d already “taken in” the location. I shouldn’t have worried, Cobh was much better.
After a quick trip back into Cork to pick up a few more tourists, we headed off to Cobh. I’d heard the story a few times already since landing here (once from the tour guide, once from the cab driver, once from the hotel concierge), but Cobh was the last port in line for the Titanic before it set sail into open ocean and sank. While the Titanic did not pull into the harbor, it did spend some time just outside the cove picking up passengers and supplies. In Cobh, there is a White Star Line building that has been turned into a Titanic museum, and “The Titanic Experience”, a museum exhibit that started a few years ago. The tour lets you some of the salvaged items and walk through the exhibit following the story of a passenger to which you are individually assigned. I had planned to go through this but was told it was the same one that had toured to Denver some years ago (+1 to Denver, Colorado for being cultured!) before settling in Cobh. Instead, I walked around the town’s cultural exhibit in the history museum, had a quick lunch at the museum there, and then wandered around the town along the water. I saw an orchestra and enjoyed a few songs, sat on the benches there, and was even able to find some duct tape in a local hardware store to temporarily fix my backpack (which ripped flying in). Thoroughly in love with Cobh for its people and small shops, I climbed back on the bus to head into town with just a few minutes to spare… finally making the most of my time on the tour.
As we headed back, the bus driver offered to drop us off at the Jameson Distillery for a tour, and I’m extremely disappointed that I didn’t have more time but had to decline as I already had made dinner plans with guys from work. After the bus dropped me off, I walked back to the hotel (walked a total of 9.5 miles or so at that point) and grabbed a quick shower and change of clothes before meeting the guys at “Son of a Bun”, a burger place in Cork that was said to have the best burgers in town. They did not disappoint! In addition to a “Japanese Burger”, with tempura-covered bacon, I had a side of deep-fried paneer cheese covered in breading and hot sauce much like chicken wings. I’m sure the entire meal was more calories than I’d like to admit to, but it was amazing to say the least! I got to meet most of the guys from work, spend a great evening out with them, and we finished by going bar to bar in search of drinks until late a night. I walked back to the hotel again, this time due to phone issues and the inability to call a cab (I’m still working on fixing the phone issue and it’s a week later now) and closed out my third day in Ireland having walked somewhere around eleven miles, enjoyed some good food, local culture, and great beer.