At the bottom of Ireland (or near enough)

A few weeks ago I spent the weekend in Cork visiting a friend I had gone to school with. I cheated and flew down rather than doing it in the car and on the way down had a really clear view of the east coast, including the Mournes, before the plane cut cross-country. It was my first time in Cork, the furthest south I’ve been is probably Galway or Bray. When I arrived Wendy took me for a wee wander round the city, it’s a pleasant place, if you’re into shopping I guess you’d enjoy all the usual high street stores. Wendy showed me the English Market which floated my boat more than the other shops – we got some lovely fresh bread, some salami, some cheese and a selection of olives for supper – mm-mm. For lunch Wendy took me to a wee café within the Crawford Art Gallery – it was a really lovely place and I had the tastiest chickpea salad ever. On the Saturday we took a drive to Cobh – famous for being the last pit-stop of the Titanic before it headed across the Atlantic. To be honest there wasn’t much to Cobh so we hopped back in the car after a wee cup of tea in the local heritage centre (heck I was on my holidays, so there was no need to rush things!), and drove to Kinsale. I have to say I really liked Kinsale – a cute wee harbour town, with its houses painted a variety of bright colours (some more tasteful than others it has to be said) and lots of wee nooks and crannies to explore. We found a couple of nice galleries – one with paintings by a guy called Eoin O'Connor which were really bright and cheerful, and the other showcasing the stunning black & white landscape photography of a local guy, Giles Norman.
Kinsale

The rest of the weekend was spent lazing around, catching up on each other’s news, watching DVDs etc. Oh and we went to the cinema and enjoyed watching Matt Damon kick some butt in Green Zone (good movie). All in all I think I’m more of a Donegal or West Coast girl – I need hills and mountains. The area around Cork is a bit flat and I kind of felt like something was missing. Although you’re never far from the sea geographically, it’s really hard to get a good view of the sea – we drove to the other side of Kinsale to find a beach. But all in all it was a great weekend break and i must get down to planning my next one!

The beach at Old Head

Merlin's Keep, Kinsale