Welcome to the People's Republic of Cork

www.peoplesrepublicofcork.com

This last part of our trip spreads out two weeks of fun over three weeks.  We knew this going in.  We really had no idea how this trip would progress.  Would we be at each other’s throats?  Would we hate traveling and living out of a suitcase for two months?  Ireland has the potential to be rainy every day.  Would being stuck in a small town with no car drive us over the bend?  (I crack my self up.)  Ken would be working 4 days a week at the company’s facilities in a town about 20 minutes away.  Then we’d take long weekends together in different parts of Munster.  What would we do to fill those four days?

On the plus side, everyone was really looking forward to seeing Ireland.  We had lots of books to read, I was two weeks (or more) behind on this blog.  We were generally having a fantastic time; the kids were getting along with each other and us.

On the minus side, it became apparent to me in London that 4 weeks was a nice amount of time to do this trip.  (Stupid Venus statue.)  Long enough to have forgotten about the Paris jet lag, long enough to experience Europe and have had a grand time.  Short enough to go back and still have some nice summer weather at home.  It was not easy leaving Seattle summer time behind, even though I have heard that the weather has been a mixed bag this year.  And coming home in mid-August means we jump right into the back-to-school craziness.  Though I have to admit that part of the reason I wanted us to spend these extra three weeks in Ireland was so that I wouldn’t have the kids complaining because all the money that usually gets spent on summer camps and swimming lessons, etc went to our Europe trip. 

So, this is the stage set before us.  Riley was feeling better.  It wasn’t anything major, just some nausea perhaps brought on by too much pub food.  If you aren't careful with what you order, everything is battered and fried. 

It feels a lot like June on Bainbridge here.  Good luck has followed us again and for Ireland, we will have amazing weather for our visit.  It’s variable cloudiness with highs in the sixties.  Some days are closer to 70, some days closer to 60.  There is a lot more humidity.  At these temperatures, it’s still pleasant, but it wouldn’t feel so good if it were in the 80s.  The cloud ceiling is kind of low here, and I can see how oppressive that would feel in darker days.   

Not only are there low clouds; there are also usually three layers of different weather passing by overhead.  Ireland is like a large traffic calming speed bumps for the rest of Europe’s weather.  There is constant upper level wind that causes view to change every time you look outside.  Like Seattle there are these golden periods at sunrise and again at sunset, when the sun is between the clouds and the horizon, and the world glows golden, and clouds light up from underneath.  We are so far north that it’s still not fully dark at 10pm.  Very nice for sitting out on the patio, nursing a Carlsberg, Harp, Murphy’s or Guinness.  Not consecutively.  Unless you're Irish?

St. Patrick Street looking up toward Bridge Street, where my fav coffee shop is.  Cork looks just  like this - super busy with shoppers - then, clears out completely by 6pm, to refill around 8pm.  photo:corkheritage.ie

Around 6pm, we drove down from the high point of the hotel on the hillside, and parked at the main street (St. Patrick street, like Main Street, only Irish) and got out to explore.  Cork has about 120,000 people (which makes it the size of Charleston, SC) and is the second biggest city in Ireland.  It is an industrial city, think rust-belt midwest only with a working harbour instead of a car plant.  The last decade has been very good for Cork and it has a pretty sound retail core, that seems to be holding up during this recession/depression.  After the big cities we’ve been in, Cork felt so small.  We walked the entire downtown core in short order.  The stores close up early here, so we decided to come back tomorrow and explore all the little alleys.   

We found an Italian restaurant with a menu that would satisfy all four of us and had dinner.  As we made our way back out to the car, people were streaming into the city.  Mostly young people in their twenties, but families too.  It turns out that everyone goes home from work and then returns to spend the evening in the pubs starting about 8pm.  And judging from the lilting sounds of ABBA that I hear drifting up to our hotel window at 10:40 every night, they stay out later than we do.
 

The nights alternated between this and then low grey clouds that weren't nearly so pretty.  photo:ocaoimh.ie