We woke up at about 8:30 ("half eight" to the Irish) yesterday (Sept. 28) and got ourselves around. I'm not sure how well I've been sleeping lately and I was wandering if it was because the temperature of every room we've stayed in is on the warm side. In general, everywhere we've gone, whether a pub, grocery store, or what have you, the room temp is slightly warmer than I like. Even more so now because I'm wearing layered clothing and sometimes my waterproof rain jacket. Anyways, after we got around, we went down to the restaurant on the ground floor and had our free breakfasts. Full Irish for both of us, with coffee and a glass of OJ. We agreed that this one was better than the ones we had in Dublin.
We checked out of our room and packed the car. This was Lisa's big moment at the reins of the driving the Great Bandido. She did excellently. Nervous? Yes, though she had the added benefit watching me work through many things first. But hey, there are still some thing you just have to do yourself. You have to work the bugs out yourself. You get the idea. Be brave, my dear.
We trekked north through the town of Kilkenny which dumped us onto a tiny rural road. This was the only route to the motorway, M8, to Cork. Trial by fire. As I said, she did well. She tends to hug the super narrow shoulder, but she was quick to inform that I did the same. Well, better to be scraping something on that side of the car than to find yourself in a head-on collision. Then there were the tractors. You have to be patient. The opportunity to pass could take a moment to arrive. It'll try your nerves to try to steer into the right lane and assess the traffic situation. When it appears that there isn't any there's a blind curve or a hill, but you have to keep checking or you'll never get out from behind them. That is, unless the farmer signals an all clear for you.
We navigate through the roundabouts that spin us onto the M8 to Cork. Easy driving now. We wanted to see the Rock of Cashel on the way to Cork. It is the ruins of an old church that held a lot of historical significance. We make to the town of Cashel and are relying on Google Maps to get us to our destination. It did, but it didn't, again. It was trying have us go on this weird harebrained route to The Rock including a wrong-way hairpin turn. Asshole map. Not so easy driving now. Not cool.
So after that was sorted out, we were parked in the proper parking lot. Bandit may have gotten a hubcap skimmed on a little rock wall, but he didn't mind. We get out and look up to get a glimpse of The Rock. It sits proudly on top of a tall, rocky hill. It's windy as all get out, but the panoramic view is astounding. It was a gorgeous day to be in such a gorgeous place.
As Lisa and I were taking photos of the place when we hear a random woman say to us "would you like me to get a photo of you together?" in an American accent. Uh, sure. The was unsolicited, but OK. She was in her late twenties, maybe early thirties, as was her husband. She was visibly pregnant and wearing an FSU headband and had a FSU bag. I had to ask. "Are you from Florida?" They said they were from Jacksonville but were indeed FSU fans so I Gator-chomped her. After briefly discussing each other's trips thus far and when we were each going home we bid each other farewell. Lisa and I wrapped it up after a few more photos and made our way back to Bandit. Now for the final leg of today's trip. Just had to get out of Cashel.
Well needless to say we escaped just fine. We were back on M8. No sweat until we get to Cork. We passed the Galtee mountains on our right and saw Irish countryside everywhere else. Such a beautiful country.
We get to Cork at near noon. Here's the thing with Google Maps. It's great until it fucking sucks. Once we are in a town it just blindly routes a "quick" way to your destination. No indication as to how many of those roads are actually one-ways. Yes, just as what happened to us in Kilkenny and in Cashel, happened here. Where the hell was the parking garage? We couldn't take a certain street because it was a one-way. How do we circle back around and not get too far away? Aggghhh! We had to basically figure everything out in a pinch. Right here in the city of a foreign country. Again. This time we got lucky and as I was trying to process many things very quickly Lisa spotted the parking garage we needed to be in. We caught a break this time.
We get checked in, la-dee-da, blah, blah, blah. I was still feeling pissy about Google pissing me off. It started getting Lisa cranky. We both got cranky. Cranky. Say "cranky" again. Cranky. So, we decided to get a pint, but first we had some errands to run. We needed to get another means of charging our devices because one charger wasn't enough. Bandit's 12 volt plug doesn't seem to work and we've been using Lisa's phone to navigate. I needed to find some distilled vinegar because my blue jeans were stank. There must have been some remnants of good old Florida mildew in them suckers. Back in Dublin I attempted to hand wash them with the intention of drying them with the hairdryer. It turns out that the hairdryer didn't work and I had to air dry them. It took nearly two days for my jeans to "dry". The stank took over. My jeans ended up semi dry in a garbage bag in my backpack for the last few days. Hence the vinegar.
After we got the needed supplies, we went out for some pints then came back for a nap. A much needed nap. It was pretty difficult to wake up for both of us after the alarm went off. We dragged around a bit and got ourselves out the door and to a Spur (a convenience store) nearby. There we got an Irish version of Red Bull. It helped. Thus, our first evening in Cork could officially commence.
There are many heritage pubs in this city. We went to one, called Bodega, before we came back for a nap. We actually ate lunch there as well. After we drank our Boosts (Irish Red Bull) we walked into a place called The Poor Relation Grocery & Pub. Interesting name. It was pretty dead in there. One woman sitting at a table, reading a book and drinking a pint. Then there was the barkeep. A young, thin girl wearing hipster-type garb. Lisa asked for a Guinness, but they didn't have any. Whoa Nelly, what? So instead she got a pint of the local craft brewery's (Rising Sons) stout called Mi Daza. I got Murphy's Irish stout. At this place we were really noticing how much this town is influenced by American culture. It was the first place we'd seen with American football on all TVs. It's hard to explain, but Cork just feels more American.
From there we ventured into a few more pubs. Cork seemed to have less of the night life as compared to any town we've visit in Ireland thus far, but then again it's Monday. There were bars open, some with live music, but none traditional. Again, it felt more American. We still got our drink on. Afterwards we hit up a late-night McDonald's and eventually came back to the room. We ate, we slept. Slept well. This brings me back to discussing our sleep. This place is the first were we could control the temperature in the room. We made it comfortably cool in here so that we could sleep more soundly as we do at home. And we did. Finally.
I woke a few minutes before our 9am alarm. The alarm went off and I got around to get us some coffee at a little coffee pod just outside of our hotel. There was some confusion as to what Lisa wanted (double Americano). I don't know what the hell that is, but I guess we ended up with what's called a Red Eye. I don't know. I just order a black coffee and I'm done with it, damn it. I also tried to pay with my room key. Ugh, that's my morning so far. I believe our plans today are to really not do too much. Maybe walk here, maybe walk there. We'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment