Welcome to the sessions. This is a space where I will periodically journal and post updates on stuff that happens.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
~Day 8: Cork, Kinsale, Killarney~
Woke up at the Edinburgh Globetrotter Inn and caught the shuttle to the town center, then the AirLink to Edinburgh Airport, and our flight out of Scotland to Cork, Ireland. It was our first 'free' flight with RyanAir (0.01GBP + 29.00GBP in fees and taxes). We arrived at Cork airport a couple hours later.
For this leg of the trip, we decided to rent a car and explore southwest Ireland ourselves. Car rentals, like everything else, are pretty expensive in Ireland, so we ended up with a Yaris hatchback, the cheapest auto-tranny we could rent. I'd be doing most of the driving, but I knew that in most compacts, as long as you put the seat all the way back, I could still drive it.
What I was really worried about was driving in the UK for the first time. Driving on the left side of the road, right turns being the one you have to wait for, the driver sitting on the right...it definitely took time to get used to. The Yaris auto drives like a manual with an auto clutch installed aftermarket; it grinds a bit going from first to second, then from second to third, etc. Even the way it goes from reverse, to neutral, to engage (no park) is like a stick shift. It's very different from anything I've ever driven before, but it was nice just to have a car to travel with as a homebase, after carrying those bags all around town as we look for our hostel everytime. Having a car definitely makes a big difference, especially traveling between cities.
We went into Cork just to get our bearings, check out the tourist information office, and after seeing a CD player in the car, grab something to listen to at the Virgin Music Megastore (we ended up with Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head). Then off to the port town of Kinsale, and then into Killarney.
LEFT:A market in Cork where we went to pick up some cheap food (mostly bread and fruit) RIGHT:Student pack: 1 lbs mince, 4 pork chops, 1 pack of rashers...what the heck are rashers??
More streets of Cork.
Most of you may not have heard of Cork, but it's actually one of the fastest growing European cities and was voted "City of Culture" by the European Union a year or two ago. The city was razed to the ground by violence in the 1920s and has been rebuilt, so it's quite modern. It is a very cultural city; we came right in the middle of the Cork Film Festival, and next week is the Cork Jazz Festival. Both are quite well known, and the atmosphere there is great. We drove around the entire central city in about 10 minutes, though; it's like a someone took a corner of New York, cleaned it up 100 times, and placed it in southwest Ireland. It's vibrant, fun, and since it's Ireland, they serve a damn good pint of Guinness, the way it's meant to be.
The port town of Kinsale, south of Cork. Not very big, but it's a pretty little place. Fantastic seafood, very very steep prices.
Why does every place, and I mean every place, in the world have to have a Chinese restaurant called "New World"?
