Saturday morning (nearly three weeks ago!) Dan and I took a bus to Cork! We had been wanting to go for a while, but our plans got pushed back when I sprained my ankle. So we finally made it! The bus ride was long, but thankfully for Ireland that only means about four hours. We saw a lot of pretty scenery on the way and also passed through Limerick.

When we arrived, we checked into our hostel and talked a bit with the woman who runs it.  She was extremely nice and helpful.  We dropped our bags off in the room and headed off to make the most of our short stay.

The main part of Cork is on an island in a river.  So we crossed a bridge towards the downtown area.  Our first stop was the Cork Butter Museum.  Yes, a museum about butter.  Unfortunately, there were no samples, but we did learn how butter is made, some of the folklore around butter, and how butter is important to Ireland’s economy.  There was also a bit on the marketing of Kerry Gold Butter.  Check out this song from the 1930’s!

Next up, we saw the St. Anne Church.

Then, we headed to the English Market.  Thankfully, the woman at the hostel today us to go Saturday since it was closed Sunday.  Anyway, the English Market is like a farmers’ market, but it’s inside a beautiful building and there nearly every day.  We were hoping for some grab and go kind of cooked food, but it was mostly meat, eggs, fruits, veggies, etc., though there was quite a range.  I would definitely love to shop there if I lived in Cork!

After that, we went to the Crawford Art Gallery, which was really nice (and free!).  It had sculptures, old paintings of Cork, and just generally lots of art. 

After doing the main things we had wanted to see in Cork, we mostly just wandered around the downtown area.  We got lunch–satisfying my bagel craving.  They put sweet corn in and shredded cheese on top of tuna fish in Ireland. I also got what is the equivalent to Naked Juice (Innocent here) and Dan got Ginger Beer.  Adventurous! 

Cork was really pretty.  It had a great vibe.  There were lots of street performers, like in Galway, and good shopping.  Oh! We also stopped at this neat looking chocolate place.  There was a sign that said: “Special: Hot chocolate and a warm brownie with ice cream” for like four euro, so Dan and I split it. Delicious. While we were sitting there, we saw a flyer for the French Film Festival going on in Cork that weekend, and decided to go see a film that evening that was part of it! The film we saw was Bel Ami, a new one with Robert Pattinson. 

Location: Cork, Ireland