May 20 – 25, 2018 – Ireland – Days 4-8 – A Whirlwind of Work & Play

The next few days for me were a whirlwind, there’s no other way to describe it. After being picked up in the morning by a coworker, it was off to the VMware office for a day with the primary focus on our upcoming customer event which took place the following two days. I also had some work to do after-hours with my US teams, and before I could turn around it seemed the week, and customer event, was over and I was heading into my office on the last day in Ireland. Throughout the week I’d visited the Kingsley Hotel for two days for the event (and I think they have the most-amazing bar, though we never drank there), finished off a late night at the Clayton Hotel for some cover music by the band J90, and had room service delivered a few times while I caught up on the happenings of the office back in the US.

I also found time to pick up a cold, I think from the bus during the Blarney/Cobh tour, and I could feel throughout the week as it sapped my energy. Most nights when I was thinking about all the things I could be doing instead, I elected to grab room service and turn in early. I think it helped. I’m still coughing, but the symptoms are muted now. At the same time… the pharmacy in Ireland was fun as well. My first trip resulted in me being sold a “cough syrup” that was not much more than an herbal remedy that did nothing for me. Upon going back and insisting on real medication this time, I received another medicine that none of my coworkers had heard of, but it’s the equivalent of “Lemonsip”, which is quite good and worked like a charm. Looking at the label, it came with all the right “follow dosage, or you might die” warnings, so I’m all set and it did help to control the symptoms. I worked through the cold, slept more than I should, and am still lamenting not spending more time at the bar in the hotel… but I was always well-rested so at least there’s that!
On the final night, co-workers took me to a place called Electric, which is in the heart of downtown Cork and has an outstanding fish bar on the top floor. I had mussels, shrimp, white fish, tuna, and pasta with more mussels. We headed from there to another few bars, but the sun had been shining the entire week now which is extremely unusual and all were crowded. We found a bar near where I had walked for breakfast on my first day there, and I stayed for a drink before admitting the cold was again catching up to me and I’d likely have to head back soon. I got back to my hotel around midnight, with a wake-up call scheduled for 3:30 the next morning to fly to India, and went straight to bed!