Blogs from County Cork, Ireland, Europe - page 11

We arrive in Dublin to a very cool and overcast day! 12C. Quick processing through custom with a delightful agent who set a fabulously friendly tone for our time here. We opted for a GPS unit with the rental car as Trev's memory of streets etc is very faint. Off we go to Trev's uncle & aunt's house. 37 year old memory was accurate and he remembered their address! Wonderful warm welcome and great 4 hour walk down memory lane. Plugged in the address for our stop in Cork and promptly disagreed with the GPS. We knew we were heading south and it told us to go on M50 north!! So our disagreement resulted in a 2 hour trip taking 3.5 hours and a wonderful, if somewhat longer, drive down the east coast of souther Ireland ... read more

Leaving my castle this morning was indescribably difficult. I thought really hard about grabbing a coat of armor or marble lion statue on my way out as a little souvenir. Today was a looong day tour to Cork and Blarney Castle. We started at 6:50am and drove for an hour, through Leish County and over the Three Sisters rivers before stopping for some breakfast rolls at a little convenience store in Kilkenny. The tour "mascots" are a bunch of donkeys near this store named Jack, Jenny, and Pier. The group fed these little guys all sorts of junk until we set out again for Cork. Dave, our tour guide, probably knows more about Ireland than any other person in this entire world. He talked, and talked, and talked about Irish history the entire 12 hour tour. ... read more

I finished the polytunnel on Monday, with a little help from Annabel and Sarah. This involved digging the remaining weeds, scrubbing the the polytunnel plastic clean, inside and out with a broom and soapy water, to allow more light to reach the plants, and planting salads whilst Annabel and Sarah planted salad seeds, broad beans, carrots and cabbages. Seeing it all completed brought a huge sense of achievement – the polytunnel had changed almost beyond recognition from when I first saw it! However, work here is never done – not only is there another polytunnel, there is a huge garden that needs attention. Monday evening was fantastic fun, the Irish musicians were great “craic”! They brought out the mandolins, flute, Barón drum and tin whistles and started a “trad” session in the kitchen, playing traditional Irish ... read more

After almost 20 hours of travelling and less than an hour’s continuous sleep, I arrived in Bantry, County Cork, South West Ireland. To make matters worse, the moment I stepped off the bus, it started raining. I wasn’t put off - from the wall I sat on I had a good view of a small harbour, which contained a few sailing boats, and the peninsula behind it. To the left of me was the town square and behind that, the colourful buildings of the town itself, including pub that obviously sold a lot of Guinness. When I turned round, I could see the mountains behind me. I decided I had come to the right place. Annabel discovered me a few minutes later; whilst I was admiring my surroundings, she had been waiting at the other bus ... read more

Sunday August 12 - Kinsale - I’m wrapping things up here in Kinsale. It’s a very quiet and restful Sunday at the hostel. I’m trying to get packed away anything that I won’t need today and tonight so I can pack up quickly tomorrow morning. Tomorrow will be a long day I suppose. I will catch the 249 bus in front of the hostel at 10:30 and take it to Cork Parnell Bus Station. There I will catch the X8 bus at 12:00 from Parnell Station in Cork to Busarus Station in Dublin. It is supposed to arrive at Busarus at 15:30 and I will catch the 16:00 X20 bus to Ballinasloe arriving there at 18:10 if all goes to plan. So I will pretty much use up all day tomorrow in traveling. So that’s the ... read more