My weekend in Cork

This weekend I remedied a significant mistake I had made during my tenure in Dublin. Throughout the semester, I had unknowingly failed to make a friend with another California native at IES Abroad, Batool. However, I redeemed my aloof and cold nature throughout the semester when Batool and I took a trip to Cork.  

We got into Cork early, and I assumed we would find a nice little Irish café, but little did I know, Tara’s Tea Room turned out to be the cutest café I have been to in this country. As we walked and hauled our luggage in, our spirits felt lifted by the pink décor and the cute tea cups.

From there we proceeded to the English market. At first the market did not live up to expectations largely because we waited in line for the bathroom for fifteen minutes; however, once we perused through all the stands, we found a wonderful little chocolate stand. I got a variety of chocolates such as dark chocolate truffles, white chocolate, and hazelnut crunch. Batool’s favorite was the fruit marzipan because they reminded her of home. Later in the day after I ran out, Batool let me mooch some of her chocolates, which was far too kind.

From here we went to another café where I got a wonderful tandoori chicken burger, and then we went to our airbnb. While our host and hostess did not speak much English, they were a lovely family, and we often found ourselves calling them mom and pop.

After this settling in, we went on a walk around the Lough lake which was about a five minute walk from our accommodation. Not only was the lake beautiful, but there was also a wide array of ducks and geese squawking about. At first they were very pretty; however, when I tried to communicate with the animals in hopes of petting a baby duckling, the geese stuck their tongues out at me and began to hiss. Batool commented, “they’re like snakes!”

After a walk, we went to a wonderful little restaurant called orso (orzo), and I think you can imagine what we might have had to eat there. And after we went to a movie theatre and watched an Irish movie Handsome Devil. Well it was either that or the Fast and Furious, and I am very glad we chose Handsome Devil because it really gave me an insight about the pressures of masculinity in an Irish boarding school.

After this we returned to our accommodation, then looked at real estate in Dublin. So it was a good, long first day in Cork, but we spent two more days there, so for once, I think I am going to make a two-part blog post. Stay tuned for my next installment, thanks!