Ireland - Kilkenny to Cork

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Ireland - Kilkenny to Cork

Monday 17th March

We awoke to another cold morning, but no rain. The sun was shining although it was still bitterly cold outside so we rugged up. Breakfast at Rosquil House was great - these Irish B&B’s certainly know how to do things. The lady who runs it is a doll, she’s great.
Our train to Cork wasn’t until 2:00pm so we just wandered around town and checked out the sights, and watched them setup for the St Patricks Day Parade which was taking place at 3:30. We were sad to miss to it, but the next train after ours would have left us getting into Cork at about 9pm which was too late for Reag. It’s funny, but we seem to celebrate St Pats Day more in Australia than they do here. Everyone has told us that Dublin or Cork are the places to be but we didn’t see a lot of people dressed in green or anything, and you could tell that the ones who were wearing the silly hats and leprechaun t-shirts were tourists. They obviously celebrated though as we heard them walking past our B&B later that night lol and they sounded merry as.

We had lunch at Langdon’s Pub which was wonderful, such a cosy place, very swankly done up inside and yet the meals were well priced. We decided to have a good lunch and skip dinner as we would be on the train. Reagan enjoyed hers and I had a typical Irish Sunday lunch of roast lamb which they served with potato, cabbage and mashed turnip & parsnip, and it was great, definitely recommend this place if you go to Kilkenny. It’s on Castlecomber Road I think or at the end of John Street where Castlecomber meets it, near the roundabout.

Someone told me that you can’t get a pint of Kilkenny in Kilkenny, which seemed strange to me - and you definitely can, it’s been on tap at every pub we’ve been to. Asking for a middy here gets you a questioning look, they call it a glass here. A pint a is pint though. And don’t they all taste great :o). I’m not usually a beer drinker, but when in Rome... or Ireland as it may be.

We hopped on the train to Cork at 2:00pm and settled in for a long trip. Even though Cork is not that far as the crow flies from Kilkenny, the trains don’t run straight to it from there and because it was a public holiday they ran less frequently so we ended up having to go via Kildare (which is back up near Dublin) change trains to Thurles then change again to Cork. We waited for a while in Kildare and got chatting to a pair of local boys who were about 17 who were waiting for a mate from Dublin. Everyone likes a good yak around here and everyone seems to talk to anyone. We arrived in Cork about 6pm and checked straight into The Roselodge, got into our jammies and into the sack. We were both knackered. Neither of could even be bothered making a cup of soup for dinner.

The room at the Roselodge was utilarian to say the best, certainly no frills there, and pretty small. When you sat on the loo, your knees are about 1 inch from touching the wall lol so god help anyone with longer legs than me (which is about 95%!o(MISSING)f the population!). However, the people who looked after us there where as friendly and helpful as could be, and the breakfast was top notch. The shower was tiny too but great water pressure and nice and hot which is always a number 1 priority. They couldn’t have been nicer, something we are finding so far at every B&B we stay at. The RoseLodge is right next to Cork University and there is a coffee house around the corner where all the students hang out that has good priced sandwiches and hot drinks.

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