I think the rest of the trip is really not enough content for more than one post…. so here goes.
I worked a lot, and we (Mike and I) got up early to catch a cab to Starbucks by the office (since it was open the earliest) and do some planning each day. One of the first days of the trip… I got up early to go to the gym in the hotel only to find out that while I was up for a long walk on the treadmill at 4:30… the gym didn’t open until 6AM. I switched back to my jeans from shorts (it was still pretty cold in Ireland at four in the morning), and went for a walk around town. I’m really beginning to know the downtown parts of Cork pretty well at this point. I wandered around without getting too lost, made a big circle around town along the rivers, and then headed back to the hotel thoroughly chilled.
Early morning in Cork, Ireland
We went into work that day for part of that day before heading back to the hotel again and doing more prep work… and headed out to sushi which was… well… it wasn’t good. It wasn’t bad, really… it just wasn’t amazing. If anyone knows a great sushi place in Cork… leave a comment. There is some amazing seafood around town but I have yet to find the best sushi place! I think the best part of that night was being able to walk to the place and only reference the map once to ensure I was going the fastest way, I didn’t get lost at all!
We had a few dinners around town, and one night where we tried to find dinner at 9:30 PM. Pro tip for Cork: Restaurants aren’t open at 9:30. Bars are, but their kitchens are long-since closed. When we finally did find a place that had been recommended, an Italian place that closed at 10:00 PM, it was 10:02PM. We dejectedly meandered back around town to where we had seen a kebab shop advertising that they were open 24×7 (hey, it’s a college town and everyone needs kebabs at 3AM!)… and had some good old college grub to finish off the night.
Overall the trip was a mixture of good food, a great amount of work getting done, and some fun nights at the hotel or out at the bar catching up with coworkers and friends. I also learned that most small convenience shops don’t sell bar soap, it’s liquid soap or bust. But… on the late dinner night we did find one that did… but it was closed too. I think the universe was mocking me a bit!
The flights home were a blur. United recently changed their flight times, giving us only 90 minutes to make it from the Cork flight to the outbound Heathrow flight after we landed. Normally these are in the same terminal and this is just fine. Today, though… our Cork flight left an hour late.
We pretty much ran through Heathrow (okay fast-walked), and got to our gate just as the doors were closing. We were some of the last people on the plane. From Heathrow we flew to Chicago/O-Hare (the second-worst airport in the world, in my opinion… but hey at least it wasn’t Newark), and I actually had a decent airport experience there for the first time ever. I even stopped to get some Garrett popcorn that came home with me and got eaten way too quickly.
Once home it was time to get some sleep and readjust, this jetlag thing seems to be getting harder as I get older!
