Day Five. Cork. Cobh. Kinsale.

Tuesday, 7 March 2009.

Our fifth day turned out to be cold and rainy, but nonetheless, we had three fun places to explore.

First on the list was Cork. We arrived, parked and set out to find a place to escape the rain. Cork was like a Dublin mini me. A river ran through the main drag. There weren't too many shops or restaurants open, nor were there many people walking around. I am assuming the lack of hustle and bustle was probably because it was Sunday. Since Cork wasn't really happening, we decided to head to the coast to check out Cobh.

On our drive there, we say a 800 year old castle for sale. I imagine the utility bills wouldn't be too bad.

When we arrived in Cobh (pronounced Cove), we parked at the top of a steep hill containing one layer of the town, including a beautiful church. We descended down several flights of stairs that led us to the part of the town that was right up against the coast. Like, Dingle, this town was extremely colorful, there were quite a few shops, cafes and pubs. And like much of Ireland, it has history spilling out everywhere. The Titanic made it's final stop here. It was the last glimpse of Ireland for the many that left the country escaping the potato famine. And it was the place were the victims and survivors of the Lusitania came after the it sunk off the coast of Kinsale, not too far away.

Our walk around the tiny town quickly turned into a hunt for food. We ended up having lunch in a nice little restaurant by the water. Fantastic seafood chowder. I could have licked the bowl. Decent steak sandwich. The chips got the thumbs up. Cool artwork on the walls and sleek decor.

After lunch, we walked around some more finding that most all of the shops were closed. We made our way back up the hill/mountain to our car with a view of the ocean to our left and sound of church bells in our ears.

Back in the car again – next stop: Kinsale. On our way there, we stopped off to take in some amazing views of the country side and a few photos.

Kinsale, like Cobh, was cute and coastal. The town hugged a harbor full of boats. The streets were so narrow, I couldn't believe a car could actually fit. Colorful cafes. Little shops. We spotted a bunch of kids hanging out on some benches...I guess there isn't much for teenagers to do in these towns.

We walked around for a while, checking out a couple shops here and there. After a while, we started to think about dinner, as we didn't want to get back to our home base too late. Many of the restaurants had an early bird menu which was nice. We stopped in front of a restaurant, took a look at the menu and tried to come to a group decision. While we were standing there, the was a man hanging out nearby, smoking a cigarette. He started chatting us up and we asked him if he had any recommendations for dinner around Kinsale. He pointed to the restaurant that we had been eyeing, saying that it had fantastic food. Yes, that's right, it was his establishment. So of course, we ate there. (Smile). The food was pretty good, the service, excellent. We had fresh fish, seafood pasta, and a chicken sandwich with homemade BBQ sauce, Irish bacon and chips. We shared some French wine and Pallab and Jenn sampled the cheesecake for dessert. Before long we were stuffed and started to get tired, so started our trek back home.

Fun times yet again. I still couldn't believe we only had one more full day in this lovely country.