ireland, part 2: grand tour of cork

While in Cork, we rented a house with my parents, Aunt Bevie, Grandfather, and cousins Maureen & Tony:















It was set up with 4 bedrooms, kitchen and living room downstairs, and 4 more bedrooms upstairs. All bedrooms had their own bathroom. It worked out perfectly. And I especially appreciated the en-suite bathrooms when I was spending so much time in the bathroom Monday night when I got sick. We think it was food poisoning, because it behaved much the way it did last time I had food poisoning, expect the last time I ended up in the hospital because it didn't stop. But this lasted 12 hours and was finished. And also nobody else got sick, just Mike and me.

So anyway, enough about the puking. And on to more interesting things. There were supposed to be 8 of us in the house, but then we ended up adopting an extra cousin for the week. Mitra (my cousin whose wedding it was) had a friend who came by herself and we had extra bedrooms, so she joined us.

Mitra's new husband Mairtin has a big family (9 siblings), and all of them, along with their parents, were so welcoming to all of us. They treated us like family and included us in everything. Mairtin and his dad led a bus tour of Cork and the surrounding area for all of us (including our houseful, Mitra's parents, grandmother, 3 aunts, and a few friends).

They took us to see downtown Cork, including the remains of a 13th-century wall (it's so hard for me to grasp how old so many things are -- as opposed to here in the US) and the Beamish brewery:




























We spent a little time in Cobh (pronounced Cove), which was the last port-of-call of the Titanic. There is a very pretty church there, the Cobh Cathedral, just up the hill from the port. From there, you can see the last view of land that Titanic passengers had on their way out to sea:


































We stopped off for a delicious lunch in Cronin's Pub, and spent a couple of hours browsing the shops in Kinsale. We stopped for a few pictures by the sea and to take in the lovely view:





























It was slightly windy that day:



























































And then we got back on the bus to head back to Cork city (at which point I still felt completely healthy, mere hours before I would start puking my guts out -- but nevermind, I said we wouldnt' talk about that anymore), and there was much singing and merriment:















As you'll find out, everything we did and everywhere we went included singing and dancing and laughing and fun. In other words, much hoolie and ceili. I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about how I've been blessed with the gift of eloquence.

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It's time to de-lurk! Today is annual Delurking Day, so if you're reading this, I'd love it if you would leave me a comment to let me know you were here.