Cork - Pubs and Hostels

After our religious experience we needed a drink so wandered down the hill and lo and belhold there was a bar. Fordes. Maureen said ‘I am not going in if there are no women in there’ and when I opened the door the first person we saw was a woman. It was a sign.

So we each ordered a 1/2 pint of Beamish and chatted with

locals about the brewery shutting down, the recession in Ireland and Canada, beer in general and just had a lovely time. We tried to find out where all of the pubs were on the coasters that Maureen had bought. We found out that Fordes had been a family pub since 1850 or so and we even met the owner, a lovely lady . It was starting to get late but we moved into a sunny spot and Michael Crowley a divorced dockworker bought us each a 1/2 pint of fosters which after beamish was like heaven. We were starting to get hungry so thought that some Crisps (potato chips) might take the edge off. Onion and cheese flavoured. Nothing to write home about.

Wandered back across the bridge and caught the #8 right away and rode the 5 or 6 blocks back to the hostel. Had bread and cheese for dinner. really good Irish cheese. Then got our PJ’s and postcards out of the car, made our beds and started to write postcards. Well I did anyway. Maureen read. Our other 2 roomies came in, 2 young girls from Florida. We chatted and found out that they were going to

Killarney early the next morning and when I told them about my Village walks cards they borrowed a few and copied them down so that thet would have a clue where they wanted to go when they got there. They both went out about 10pm and I went to sleep. Ingrid, our dutch roomie, came in very late and then the girls came back and they tried to be quiet, only whispering, but they were very loud whisperers. I did manage to get back to sleep. So much for sharing accommodations. That was OK because we were leaving the next day too.

Downtown Cork

We pulled Card #27 - Cork City.

We caught the # 8 or #14 to downtown and hit the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, which was very nice. I could have spent a whole day in there very easily. between the sculptures and all the different shows it was really a great art gallery. The painting 'Time Flies 'by William Gerard Barry was one of our favorites. I did try to take pictures without flash but most were fuzzy and almost

unrecognizable to the originals. When I use zoom on my camera I really should get a tripod as any movement causes the pictures to blur. But at least I get the idea of what they looked like.

We had a most scrumptious lunch at the Café Bar Deli (it couldn’t make up its mind what it wanted to be). It had a

lovely tin ceiling. Maureen had the butternut and cider soup and I had the feta and roasted hazelnut mixed salad with roasted red pepper pesto. Yummy!

The girl behind the till recognized a fellow Canadian when we went to pay because I said Tooney. It is really all a secret code. She was from Nova Scotia and had been in Ireland for the past two years at school.

Lots of rain and sun mixed up with lots of shops and people and a very large very old church but we could not figure out the name of it.

We also went into the famous English Market, a very large indoor market and bought pears and cashews.

The exit we took brought us right across the street from a great little park in the middle of Cork. It had little copses of birch trees which Maureen wanted pictures of. There were fountains and the

statue of the Onion Seller which I liked very much. As it was close to lunch time there were a few people in the park which I found interesting as it had just rained like crazy and so was definitely damp.

A real little gem of a park. A quiet space in the middle of the busy city. At the far end was a swan fountain. Or maybe canada geese but we are going to go with swans and they

seem to be all over Ireland. Very cool .

Our mission was to find the Beamish Brewery and go on the tour. It was supposed to be on the other side of the park so we were eager to get there, as it had been a thirsty morning. When we exited the park we found that we had arrived at the proper location. We went up to the little security house at the entrance and asked the guard when the tours were and he informed us that the Brewery had been shut down due to the recession. The brewery had moved half the staff to another brewery in town but had to lay off the other half. We were very sad.

So we decided to go to St Finbarr'se Cathedral instead. Across the Bridge and up the hill to one of the most fabulous churches I have ever seen.

Thursday - To Cork

Thursday - To Cork,

It was easy to get out of Youghal. A van pulled up right behind us and tailgated until we got up to speed which we thought was quite rude really and our first encounter with an impatient Irish driver.

There are the most wonderful signs in Ireland.

Have you ever seen a cute bend sign. We did. At first it kind of had me thinking what the heck, but I figured it out pretty quick. Acute Bend does not mean that the bend is cute.

Killeagh was very cute with old buildings and colourful houses and shops. A very cute small town.

As we drove on out into the country the aroma of salt water and cows invaded our car.

Quite an odiferous moment, ahhh ... farmers fields in the spring.

The clouds were starting to roll in.

There were stonewalls around fields and some were covered with hedges. So many shades of green. ‘And shades - and shades - and shades- and shades- and shades!!! ‘

We passed through Castlemartyr, which was very pretty, even in the rain.

Maureen was getting more comfortable driving now as we appeared to be zipping right along. ‘At the Ready!!!’

Just as all was seeming fine, a circle, but not a bad one with divided highway after that. What a treat, and sunshine to boot. Another circle. Are we getting good at this or what?

A sign at the side of the road tells us that Cork is a nuclear free zone. That is most comforting.

Downtown Cork is very busy and our map to the hostel was not so good.

We ended up at the university asking directions from a young girl who must have thought I was walking because when we tried to follow her directions we wound up on the wrong side of the river Lee . We pulled in to a little flower shop where the owner gave us great directions to the hostel.

Getting back across the bridge was tricky as it was very busy

and the cars were coming across ‘like little fish being born swimming so fast’ that there was no time to scoot into the lane we needed. But we did and when we got to the hostel we found that they did not have any parking in the front. They gave us directions on how to get to their parking in the rear ,which, if any mistakes were made would mean another tour of the neighbourhood to get back to the one way lane to get to the laneway to the parking area.

We decided that I would go and stand in the laneway out back so that Maureen would know where to pull in. While I was waiting it poured cats and dogs. Luckily I had my trusty umbrella. We were in Room 6 and when we got up there, we always seemed to be on the second or third floor, there was someone’s things in the room. I thought well this is weird they gave us a room that was already occupied.

So I went down and told the check in folks that someone’s things are in our room and they looked at me like I was crazy and said ‘Yes, It is a shared room.’ Well, Did I feel like an idiot or what? I forgot that we were sharing in some of our accommodations. Ha ha.

We settled in and met one of our roomies, Ingrid, a very friendly and very chatty lady from the Netherlands. We decided to go for a coffee. Just down the street we were told was a coffee shop as well as the buses to go into downtown. We left the car at the hostel, grabbed our umbrellas and walked. The Coffee and Chai tea were great. We made our plans to adventure in Cork.

Youghal

I woke up at 4 am with the birds and went for a walk down the street to the lighthouse and

then back to the park in front of the hotel.

There was, of course, no one out yet, not even the sun.

Took a few pictures of the water and some kind of bird out on the water that, with the light the way it was, made it look like the lock ness monster in away.

In the middle of the park was a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh and around the base were four plaques in remembrance of four Irishmen who were

killed by the British in 1798. There was an uprising in Ireland that year and many on both sides were killed. I found out that the Queen gave Sir Raleigh the town of Youghal for his services to the country. Nice gift.

Many Irish left during those times. I know that in our family, grandmas side came earlier than the uprising. Grandpas family, who were from Cork, although I don’t know if they were from

county Cork or City Cork, came over to Canada in the late 1700’s.

I wondered

if we were related to one of these men in particular. O’Brien is a common Irish name, but you never know. It is possible.

The sunrise was golden.

I found my way around to the back of the hotel looking for the birds that I could hear. Starlings, doves and finches were what I saw.

Went back inside and chatted with the desk clerk. He was from Poland and had some fun stories about his first year in Ireland.

I used face book to let everyone know that we were alive and well and having a great time and went up to the room at twenty to seven. I was surprised to find Maureen awake. the dining room opened at 730 so we made plans to have breakfast at 8.

I went downstairs to the dining room had a cup of tea and updated our journal.

Maureen joined me and we had a lovely Irish breakfast. Tea for me and coffee for Maureen, eggs, soda bread and fruit. I believe that Maureen tried the black sausage or black bread and I believe she enjoyed it.

We checked out and only had a bit of trouble backing out of the parking spot. Turned out we were on a wee bit of a slope down and each time Maureen took her foot off the clutch, before she could get the car actually going in reverse, we rolled a little bit closer to the hotel and the pole that was in front of the car.

It was a little tense.

In the end a kind gentleman backed the car up and helped us to be on our way.

It was that old driving with everything on the opposite side of the car

thing that was causing the difficulty.

But we and the car and the hotel all survived. We went into town, all of three blocks I think, and parked at the Heritage center. Pulled out card number 34 of my Village Walks of Ireland and went on a walking tour.

Our stroll in the warm sunshine took us past quays or docking areas

for boats and up to the main street with lots of little shops and cafes.

Maureen needed batteries for her camera and we found a 15th century priory sort of.

The only original thing left of it was the door, the arch

and a small hall behind as most of it had been converted to shops many years ago and the plaque which told us that is used to be a priory.

It was a most charming town and quite busy too. It is extraordinary that all the shops are brightly coloured so when you look down the street it is like a rainbow. What is common in Ireland is Not so common for us.

We also stopped into Mrs Quinn's Charity Shop for the blind and we each picked up something.

I got a suit and a scarf and I actually don't recall what Maureen got.We had fun trying on skirts and blouses and things made in ireland and france and england. It really was exotic even though it was second hand.

I love the names of streets and lanes here.

We are by this time used to looking up on the buildings for street names. Our little card map sends us straight up the main road to see the 15th century castle and the 18th century Dutch renaissance house but first we returned to the car with our purchases and then came back to continue on our way, arms unimpeded and loaded up with new batteries.

We proceeded to the Red house and Tynte’s Castle.

Both of these were impressive.

The Red house is a private residence not open to tours so you cannot go inside. I can only imagine what the interior was like but from the outside it was lovely.

What must living there be like for the owners? maybe they have gotten used to it by now.

Having people taking pictures and hanging around reading your historic information plague. Right across the street from the Red House is Tynte’s Castle, which is more of a fortified large home or a kind of smallish castle, but lovely nonetheless.

We wanted to go to Church street and see St Mary’s Collegiate Church but we missed the road somehow and

ended up walking all the way up and around the Wall.

The town of Youghal was one of the only towns in the 13th century to be surrounded by a wall and much of the original wall remains. It was very high and wide and long. there are turrets and crosses in the stone and lovely old crests of lions. Repairs were being done at the time and so we could not go through this one part of the wall into the garden

of the church that we wanted to get to. Oh well, Fate. There were some great views of the bay and the city from up there on the hill. From the end of the wall are some stairs going all the way

down to the Clock Gate where they hung the Irish gentlemen who had plaques in the park. It was quite interesting as a navigational experience for us as it is on the main street and you have to drive or walk through the arch that seems to be only wide enough for one vehicle at a time. Once we had safely navigated our way through the arch we went back to the Heritage Center car and bought postcards, stamps and souvenirs. Next we organized the car and ourselves and headed out to City Cork.

Now in the hotel we had seen pictures of the Titanic as Youghal had been one of its last ports of call before its fateful first and last voyage. There were also pictures of a great beach that was supposedly in Youghal but we had not so far seen any sign of this beach and could not figure out where along the bay it might be. I thought maybe at low tide it was in front of the hotel but could not be sure as I had, I thought, seen all the tides

and there had been no beach. As we headed out of town and past the hotel and past the lighthouse around the corner came into view this magnificent sandy beach. If we had known we might have spent a little less time walking around the wall and a little bit more exploring the other side of the town. Oh well, next time.

On to Cork.

Late Wednesday - Waterford and Youghal

Waterford was wonderful. The signs to get to Waterford Crystal were very good and we only got turned around once downtown and we did the right thing by turning left when we really wanted to turn right and had to go around the block once to fix a small directional error.

While stuck in traffic I kept busy by reading historical signs on buildings. General Richard Malcahy was born on Manor Street and there was a sign about the War of Independence on Henry Street. I am quite sure that I would have enjoyed staying in Waterford, lots of history there too.

We arrived at Waterford Crystal about four in the afternoon. I have never seen so many really gorgeous large crystal chandeliers. Such a sparkling experience. We wanted to go on the tours but found out that the factory had been shut down after the purchase of Waterford crystal by KPS. The store will stay open but all the crystal was now being made in Poland. This made us very sad and we determined to only buy crystal made in Waterford. We browsed for an easy 30 minutes and when we found out that with the purchase of a mere 200 Euros they would pay for the shipping, we got down to some serious shopping. Maureen got some crystal wine glasses and a collection of other treasures for her family. I got two star Christmas ornaments for the kids at Christmas that had been made in Ireland. We bought each other a small crystal vase and had the stars and the vases, engraved by Nick Cody who was a great character. We talked about the dangers of driving on Irish roads and maybe how having something to drink made them braver and so faster on their narrow laneways. Maybe they should not allow drinking and driving? Well Nick said in a most serious way and with a look of true horror” If you take away my drink, I might as well be dead!” It made me wonder how he had such a steady hand for engraving and he said it was, again, his drink that gave

such a steady hand. Amazing stuff this Irish drink, better than all the pharmaceuticals developed to calm the nerves. It made you braver, calmer and according to Nick, happy to go home to your wife of thirty years. Happy with all of our purchases and wondering how long it would take and what mode they would use to ship everything to Maureen’s we departed Waterford and after a small consultation with the map were on our way to Youghall.

The sun had come out and although getting lower in the sky it was beautiful. So we were driving along when we came to a curve in the road and as we started to drive off the road I mentioned this to Maureen immediately who replied

‘I’m just checking what gear I’m in. If I have to drive with my left hand you should have to write with your left hand’. So I did, for a whole half page, which turned out legible, almost, and Maureen’s addition to the end of the page was ’- and Dennie - you’re such a good sport’. Those things that I noted with my left hand : rain, Lemybrien, saw a grocery store first one and a Texaco.

In between Lemybrien and Dungarvan are at least eight traffic circles. Now they were little traffic circles and the signs were good but really, eight? We have traffic circles in Edmonton and they do keep things going so I can only assume that the area has lots of traffic and so lights or stop signs would be prohibitive to smooth moving traffic.

Dungarvan is a beautiful town with the big harbour. Even in the rain. Even in the pouring rain. Could easily have stayed there but we were aiming for Youghal. We came to a very large bay and saw the town of Youghal on the other side. The long bridge across the large Blackwater River was impressive.

We drove through town and ended up staying at the Sir Walter Raleigh Hotel in a room with a view of the bay and park. Parking was a little difficult as there was a slight incline and there was a pole in our parking spot. well not in it but very close to the front of it. Maureen did do a good job considering left handed gearshift and a standard vehicle.

We learned that you pronounce Youghal as yawl not yougal. We had dinner of potato skins and our first 1/2 pint of Murphy's at the almost empty bar in the hotel. There is something to be said for traveling in the off season.

Lots of attention because you are the only tourists. I like Murphy’s better than Guinness. The bar was pleasant although a little slow, but I think that was due to the fact that the bar maid was the cook and check in attendant as well. She wore many hats. After a leisurely dinner and one more 1/2 pint we tidied up the car and organized our souvenirs. I organized my suitcase and wrote out some of my postcards to mail the next day and we hit the bed early.

Wednesday Afternoon, Three Counties - Wicklow – Wexford - Waterford

We left our lovely scenic road and got back onto the N11 shortly after we left the beach.

It was not as terrifying as yesterday but still not as comfortable as we would have liked. We pulled into Carters Café that is right in Arklow on the N11. We figured that we couldn’t get lost. Lovely planked wooden benches and great baked potatoes and apple juice for lunch.

We had to decide if we were going to go to Wexford town or continue on to Waterford. We figured we would have a better idea of how much time we might have to spend in Wexford or if we would just continue on to Waterford, if we decided to go there, by the time we got to Enniscorthy .

We were not booked in anywhere that night so we could stay anywhere we liked. The N11, which was the green road on the map, looked straight and although the highway was divided which was very nice, we seemed to pass through many little towns with lots of curves.

We decided to keep a list of things to ask someone at some point. Things like:

What the heck is traffic calming?What are the rules for passing here?

Which lane is the slow lane because they all seem to be going too fast for us?

How do I use this phone card? it is an Irish calling card.

Do they always flash yellow?

What the heck is the speed limit here? Maureen at one point in a particularily stressful point on the road asked ”I should be in fifth gear?’ We laughed a lot. The sun came out and it was lovely.

Suddenly there was a traffic circle looming in front of us. Panic set in, the car stalled, a big truck was coming, we couldn’t read the signs fast enough to figure out which exit was ours. But we’re Alive! Maureen got the car started, the big truck did not hit us and we found an exit onto an undivided highway. Now you are probably wondering why the fear of traffic circles. Well usually there is no problem but we had to do them backwards to what we would normally do them, so, think about it. Left handed stick shift, left hand lane, driving from the right side of the car. Yikes!

‘The truck coming toward us is on the wrong side of the road’ flashed through my mind and exits my mouth before I figure out or remember that everything is OK,we are on the other side of the road right where we are supposed to be. We passed through a very pretty little town called Camolin. I wrote Calomine in my journal and just realized it was different when I looked at the map while writing this.

There are so many little towns that I would love to explore but, so sad, no time. In between the towns are lovely farms with cows and horses. Picturesque. I also found while looking at the map that we had actually taken a wrong turn out of the last scary traffic circle off of the N11 and that is how we wound up on the undivided highway on our way to Ferns. A small detour but well worth it.

The next Traffic calming sign brought us into Ferns.

We stopped at this great little church right on the road and took some photos of our first celtic cross. So exciting. There were ruins behind the church and graveyards both old and new. A thatched roof cottage at the end of the churchyard with pink flowers all in front. Maureen wanted some pictures for a friend of hers on Salt Spring. I just wanted pictures of everything. We only stayed for about 15 minutes but it was a great break.

We left ferns about 2:10 according to the clock on the church steeple and continued on into Enniscorthy, which seemed quite large after the small towns that we had been in.

I found out that it is the Second largest town in County Wexford. Its history goes back to 465 and is one of the longest continuously occupied sites in Ireland. We did not stop here but went straight through. Now when I say straight through you have to understand that Enniscorthy is hard to get through. There was lots of traffic and we thought the road signs were hard to find. Having said that, we did not stall and we only misread one sign so only had to go around one block to figure out how to get through downtown. But as Maureen said, we 'Made it through Another town Alive!' We followed the river Slaney that flows through Enniscorthy, went over the bridge and decided that if we wanted to get to Waterford that afternoon we had better not go to Wexford.

We took the N30 turn going to New Ross and Waterford and were back on the highway. Saw a sign that said 100 Km. Who the freak drives 100 km an hour on these roads?

I prefer 70 in a country where the roads are narrow and they all seem to drive two inches from each other.

It was raining and I saw a silver tree. Art on the side of the road. Again, did not have time to get my cameral out.

A few scary spots where the road narrowed into what seemed like a one lane road

but were very pretty. The scenery was lovely with more hills coming and the road getting more twisty and curvey. Clonroche was a small town high in the hills and was very charming. Again my camera was not handy. So Maureen says

‘You have got to be at the ready to take pictures or they are gone’

and a new phrase is born. ‘At the Ready’. Maureen decides that the phrase that I use the most is actually the word ‘RIGHT ‘ with the appropriate back of my right hand waving Maureen over to the right of the road.

We laugh a lot at this.

There are now bigger trees that look old. It also seems that there are no telephone lines. We realize that we have not seen a lot of telephone poles or lines anywhere on our trip. They do have phones here. How does that work? Where are the phone lines? In Canada you can go beside any almost highway and see electric or phone lines.

Now the road reminds me of Vancouver Island. Very Malahat. Big trees and big hills. Beautiful

We both decide that when you rent a car in a foreign country you should get a little book to acquaint you with the local traffic signs and rules.

We arrive at the port town of New Ross which is a newer town and is not impressive for us who are seeking history and old things. We drove along the quay (dock) past the ‘Dunbrody’, a replica emigrant ship and over the river Barrow on a long bridge to the town of Rosbercon. I found out when I got home that there is a lot of history in New Ross.

It dates back to the 6^th century, the middle ages. From what we saw from the car, it really didn't look that interesting.

After Rosbercon we were on an almost divided highway which always seemed like such a treat after the narrow roads. Emerald green fields, yellow gorse on the hills, Queen Annes lace and pink dogwoods(?), palm trees and those lovely bushes with white purple flowers along the roads.

AAAHHHH ….another circle…. Oh no…. two of them….. they really should put the road signs at the circle exits, not after them. We really do have to thank the Irish for their patience with terrified tourists driving their roads.

Then.... a Major Junction..... But there were good signs there. Next stop Waterford.

Our First Irish Beach

After Breakfast and our walk to the church we packed up and got ready to leave lovely Wicklow. One of the things that we made sure to do was to figure out the windshield

wipers. That done we sallied forth fairly certain that we would be much safer today. We would not crash into some thing or someone while trying to get the wipers to work in case it rained. We could see out of the windshield properly even in a downpour and as a bonus we would not run out of windshield washer fluid.

The skies had turned grey and the rain had begun again. Now let me share with you a well-known weather fact in Ireland.

The weather changes quicker than you can say faith and begorrah. Usually the first wave is sunshine, warm and bright with promises of basking on beaches and ice cream cones to stay cool with. Then those lovely clouds build up and start to roll in and are then followed by the rain. We found that usually it was softly at first working up to a sometimes very much harder downpour before the

clouds would roll away again to have the sun reappear to a sparkling, fresh green landscape. Of course there are the days where the skies just turn grey and the rain spits out in a steady patter with the wind gusty and cold. Our day seemed to be shaping up more like that but we didn’t mind because we were on an adventure.

So with our day shaping up to be grey, rainy, windy and with that kind of open ocean beach cold that can creep in and chill you to your bones, we drove out of Wicklow

on the scenic road, which, on the map, was highlighted with a green colour with a yellow line in the center. It looked wider on the map. It was narrow, maybe 15 feet wide with hedges nearly touching the car or at least it felt like that. There were curves and small rises with little stone walls and trees that seemed to be close enough for me to touch if I put my hand out the window.

We were quite concerned that we might run into someone coming from the opposite direction and then where would we go. This road was much narrower than the roads we were on yesterday.

We were looking for lovely Brittas bay beach the Wicklow tourist office had told us of a little further up the coast or the beach just past Brittas which was supposed to be even prettier with easier road access. It really wasn’t that hard to find.

When we got there we were surprised to see an RV parked in the small gravel parking lot. I was very glad that we had not met them while driving on the road. We were not sure that we could have handled that. The beach was lovely even though it was cold and windy and rainy.

I took some photos with my waterproof camera.

I took off my coat for a moment and tried to get a close up of a wave crashing on the rocks but only really succeeded in getting a little wet. There were plaques in the rocks with peoples’ names on them. Maureen thought maybe they were

for sailors who had died. I thought maybe memorials for people from towns and farms nearby and maybe that was their favorite spot, in the summer. Back in Edmonton and in Comox we have memorial benches with peoples’ names and sayings on them, so maybe that was what these were.

Needless to say we stayed on our first beach for about half an hour and turned the heat on in the car when we continued on our way. Our first encounter with St George's Channel was very rewarding.