Category: Cork City

Some people we met

We had only ever planned to spend two months in Cork, so our social sphere was naturally going to be constricted. Our apartment complex above the Gate Cinema on North Main Street consisted of 16 or 18 one and two bedroom units. A couple of them showed evidence of children, but i think most were inhabited by singles. We were far and away the oldest. At a guess, i’d say the median age was maybe 30. We said hello to maybe a dozen different people over the 6 weeks, but only ever had lengthy conversations with Barna, from Zagreb, Croatia, who we would occasionally see practicing his juggling and firestick act on the shared rooftop space. We did not get a chance to say goodbye to him before we left the city.

Some of the first people we met were in response to a meet-up posting about a Science Fiction and Fantasy reading group. We were fortunate in that the book being read our first month was quite short, and we were both able to finish it within the week, and join in the discussion, which was lively and opinionated and smart. Thanks for making us feel welcome.

*I only got the one very poor shot of the reading group. I had hoped to improve on it in March, but sadly no.*

I think i wrote previously about our chance encounter at the Cork Arts Theatre production of The Parish, with a ticket holder who was trying to find a buyer for a pair of tickets that friends of hers couldn’t use. Theresa was very sweet, and one of several people who recommended that we stop in at the Montenotte hotel for sunset drinks. They were all on point.

We met a few shopkeepers and proprietors.

Barbara Hubert is, apparently, well known in bookbinding circles. She was kind enough to allow a picture, and we were able to duck back into the shop on our last day to pick up a couple of small gifts.

We ended up spending time in a few regular haunts. Tabletop Boardgame Cafe, right down the street from our apartment, was one. Chris, the owner, is an incredibly nice person, and took the time to explain the various games we tried out for the first time. His business is going to take a huge hit, so if you’re in Ireland and like games, maybe consider placing an order from his website? We really want to see him opened when we’re able to return.

The Silly Goose, about 6 or 7 blocks away from our apartment, became our local, especially on Liverpool match days. Barry, the cook, is a massive fan. If the season is voided, and Liverpool aren’t awarded the title this year, he’s going to be crushed.Again, incredibly nice people, and i hope they’re able to survive the ongoing lockdown.

*Probably doing some bantz after a Liverpool goal*

The folks over at iElectron, who repaired my busted camera lens gratis, were also very nice. Hailing from several different states that formerly made up Yugoslavia, we had several nice conversations about Tesla and history, and they were as appreciative of the donuts i brought on our next to last day as i was of the complementary repair. No pictures, though.

My friend Dave Tilley back in North Carolina is a disc jockey at WXDU, and a record producer. When i told him i was going to be in Cork this spring, he let me know about the singer-songwriter Lynda Cullen, who was playing at Coughlan’s, one of Cork’s premier small rooms. I am so glad i went to that show. Lynda is a delight, and i’m happy to call her a friend.

Despite it being early spring, which apparently means half hour rain squalls 8 times a day, except for the days when it rains continuously, and temperatures rarely getting above 6° C , there were a number of regular street musicians. This guy had an amazing voice, and i threw coins his way more than once on the way to or from the grocery store. Never did get the chance to talk to him, though, as a result of our hasty departure. Will he still be around if we’re able to return?

But the man whose company i think i enjoyed most during our several conversations was John Coffey, proprietor of Uneeda Books on Oliver Plunkett Street. Just a lovely man. I want to be like that when i grow up.

Tags Barbara Hubert, board games, bookbinding, Liverpool, Montenotte, Tabletop Boardgame, Uneeda Books, used books

Cork City Durham Ireland Traveling

The long road home

If our time in Ireland taught me one thing, it is that after the rain comes the rainbow. It’s difficult to envision a rainbow right now, as the entire world shelters in place from this storm.

Friday morning was rainy, but we had a lot of packing and cleaning to do anyway. Once our packing was complete, the sun came out, and we went out for a last walk around Cork. We walked the length of Main Street and across the river to St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral, where we walked the labyrinth.

The labyrinth at St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral

We walked back east along the River Lee, then back west along Oliver Plunkett Street. Then just up and down the Grand Parade a couple of times. Being sure to keep appropriate distance from other people, of course.

We circled back towards the apartment but weren’t ready to go back yet. So we crossed the river to the north and walked out along the greenway, crossed back on the Mardyke Bridge and circled home.

The Mardyke Bridge over the River Lee. The building in the distance is the Music Department of University College Cork.

There were no direct flights from Cork to the U.S., and we didn’t think it was wise or desirable to spend hours in a UK or European airport on our way home. Our original flights were between Dublin and Philadelphia, so we changed our original, late April flight date to March 15. We rented a car and drove to Dublin and stayed at the Clayton Hotel near the airport. It appears to have several lovely restaurants, but we elected to eat peanut butter and marmite sandwiches in our room. They had hand sanitizer at the front desk, and allowed us to top off the rapidly diminishing pocket-size bottle I’d bought in January.

Soon after we booked our flight, Trump announced that anyone returning from the UK or Ireland would be subject to health screening and could only return through one of 11 airports — and Philadelphia was not one of them. The new restrictions would go into effect the day after our scheduled departure. We really needed to be on this flight.

On Sunday we got up before the crack of dawn and took the shuttle to the airport. We didn’t even stop for coffee, which turned out to be a good thing since I don’t think our bladders would have survived the wait. The airport was a madhouse. Thousands of Americans all trying to get the hell out of Dodge before the deadline. Most were young people — study abroad students ending their semester early, or returning from a limited study trip, or simply having headed to Ireland in the hopes of enjoying a festive Saint Patrick’s Day.

Besides the normal back-up of a crowded airport (the lines at San Diego airport after Comic-con were to date the longest I’d seen), Dublin Airport has U.S. pre-clearance, so you go through Customs there, not upon arrival. And you go through security twice, once for the airport, once for the U.S. area. In the confusion of arranging my toiletries for what I needed in Cork Saturday morning and in Dublin Saturday night and Sunday morning and what needed to be in checked luggage and what I needed to carry with me, I inadvertently left a small bag of liquids in my carry-on. So of course I got pulled over and had to empty the bag (once they saw what it was they wagged a finger but didn’t make me ditch any of it). I also discovered that my fitness tracker triggers the alarm, so I took that off for the second screening.

There were inexplicable delays. At one point, security screenings just stopped, for maybe 30 minutes. In Customs, they sorted us into two groups: people who had been in other European countries in the last 10 days and those who had not. Ours was the smaller group, I believe, so we moved a bit more quickly to the head of the queue to meet with a Customs officer. They have you stand on a numbered yellow square and await the officer at the desk with that number. We were on yellow square #12, next to be screened, when someone came through and said (loud enough for us to hear, but not the crowd behind us) “Stop processing people. Get representatives from the airlines out here.”

At that point Barry turned to me and said “We could be sleeping in this airport tonight.”

We were stuck on that square for about an hour. Most people behind us gave up and sat on the floor. They escorted small groups to the toilets (hooray, no coffee!). They passed out bottles of water.

I have no idea why they halted the Customs processing, or why it resumed, but what the airline representatives had to say was good news: they were delaying flights until everyone was on board. Since we’d had our boarding passes scanned at least twice already, they clearly knew who was at the airport but not yet at the gate.

Once Customs finally re-opened, we were of course next in line, and breezed through quickly. We even had time for Barry to buy a bottle of Teeling whiskey at the Duty Free shop!

Thankfully, we were not held too long on the ground once we boarded the plane. It was crowded but not completely full — we were the only people in a center row of five seats. The flight was uneventful, with little turbulence. We finally got a cup of coffee! We had lunch for breakfast, and I swear to you that airplane food never tasted so good. Even the salad was crisp and delicious. And when they served ice cream about six hours into the eight-hour flight I was as giddy as a 5-year-old.

We had another, even longer drive ahead of us, so we stayed the night at another airport hotel. The Microtel near the Philadelphia airport may well be the second saddest lodging I’ve ever seen (the first is a nightmare stay in a place in Las Vegas that I dubbed The Hotel That Time Forgot, but that’s a tale for a different blog). Whereas we were content to eat in our room at the Clayton, there was no way we wanted to spend any extra time awake in this depressing space. We decided to risk the outside world for dinner at Ruby Tuesday, the only restaurant within walking distance. It was fine, but believe it or not it was the most expensive meal of our trip! And that was with just entrees, one beer and two glasses of wine. No appetizers, desserts, or side dishes.

You would think that with all of this, we would have been in a hurry to get home the shortest way possible. But the shortest way possible is I-95 through Baltimore, DC, and Richmond. We took it to the outskirts of Baltimore, shot over to Frederick, MD, and headed south on U.S. 15. Significantly longer, but a must less stressful road. And central Virginia is almost as pretty as Ireland (but with dilapidated barns instead of crumbling castles).

We returned the rental car this morning, so our trip is now officially, completely over. Now starts the next adventure. A friend is doing a grocery run for us so that we can avoid bringing any airport germs to the Harris Teeter. The cherry trees are in bloom, and even some of the azaleas. It was warm enough to sit on the front porch yesterday evening. We’re home.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day.

Cork City Ireland

Fare well, Cork

Thanks for everything, including this final sunrise. Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Cork City Ireland Street Art

Just Walkin’ Around

It hasn’t been all gloom and doom around these parts the past few days, but mostly. Ireland so far is one of the least affected countries in Europe by Covid-19, but clearly the authorities are worried that won’t last. The two community transmitted cases in the Republic are both here in Cork. If that number doesn’t increase significantly over the next week, we’re probably in the clear. But we’re making our preparations in case it does.

On the other hand, the trip to Paris on 20 March – 22 March is almost certainly off. We’re just waiting for French authorities to elevate their restrictions to Level 3, which should happen in a few days, before canceling. Portugal in early April is still on, but again, that’s a full 3 weeks away before we leave, and nobody has any idea what the situation will be then.

Meanwhile, we’re dodging raindrops, staying warm, and, when the sun actually comes out, enjoying the longer daylight hours. And washing our hands. A lot of washing our hands. So much washing of the hands. Here’s some random pictures of walking the streets of Cork over the past few days.

300+ year old rock house directly across the river from our apartment. It’s on the market, too, for €145K, cash only. If the stock markets had gone up 15% over the past 3 weeks, instead of down that amount, we might consider it.

*From the Rock House, looking back to our apartment, highlighted in yellow.*

A few random street snaps from over the weekend.

*Castle St. (left) and N. Main St. (right) walking back to our apartment*

We dodged squalls walking back to west end of the island and beyond, along the river greenway west of the city on Sunday. It’s quiet there, when it’s not hailing. We ended up in the lobby of the fancy-pants Kingsley Hotel on the way out, and the way back, sheltering from the rain.

*Siblings getting in their hurling practice*

I wrote a little about this building very early in our stay, but i thought it looked dramatic against the storm coming in. Probably a mistake to spend so much time in the street trying to get a decent shot in those circumstances, though.

*This abandoned building is not on the market yet, as far as I could tell. Love the little fence on top of the wall, though*

Capped off the night on Sunday catching the jazz trio over at the Franciscan Well. If you’ve seen the commercials for Jameson Caskmates whiskeys, this is the brewery they’re swapping barrels with.

Tags Covid-19, Franciscan Well, Hurliong, Public Art

Buses Cork City Crosshaven Ireland The Lough

Exploring the south side of Cork

Post author By Claire
Post date March 5, 2020
No Comments on Exploring the south side of Cork

Barry has been better than I about keeping up with our travels. I have some catching up to do! Be sure to check out his posts as well. He takes better photos with a better camera!

Here are a few of our travels on the south side of Cork, and beyond.

One of our first walks south of city centre we discovered the Elizabeth Fort, which Barry describes fully in his post. I used the opportunity to take a few shots of the surrounding neighborhood.

Looking west and north from Elizabeth Fort; River Lee

That large construction project with the crane is at the opposite end of Main Street from our apartment. It’s walled off from the street, so you can’t see much of what’s going on inside. On the wall, they list the architect, builders, etc., and I was interested to see that they also have an archaeologist on the project.

The site was in the news today, when a “treasure trove” of documents from the 1790‘s were found in an old safe. Apparently at the heart of the construction is an old Beamish brewery, that from the photos appears similar to the Tudor style building below. The documents are related to that and to properties all around the city.

Looking down from Elizabeth Fort at the immediate neighborhood; St. Fin Barre’s cathedral grounds is the greenery to the left.

We also walked around St. Fin Barre’s cathedral a bit. There was a service going on so we did not go inside. The architecture was quite stunning — especially the gargoyles.

My favorite part of this trip, though, was discovering the labyrinth, which was lovely to walk. I may return.

We found ourselves back in this part of town recently, and decided to venture a little further out to The Lough, a small urban lake.

A nice place to sit and enjoy the view, except that it rained earlier and the bench was wet. I’m guessing that’s a frequent issue.

There were two walkways, one right next to the water, the other a little further out. Lots of waterfowl, although they seem to be mostly hiding in this picture.

We took another impromptu walk recently to Blackrock Pier. We’d run an errand on that side of town, decided to have brunch there, and then just kept walking. We’d been out that way before, to Blackrock Castle, but this time, we walked along the river.

Before we reached the river, we walked through one of the more industrial neighborhoods than we’d seen to date. We were surprised that the sidewalk was so much wider and better paved than in most of the city, where a lot of the sidewalks are quite old. There were tons of joggers for a neighborhood that didn’t seem to generate a lot of pedestrian traffic. But that road connected to the greenway along the river, than in turn intersects with a greenway that goes a considerable way south of the city (which we hope to visit this month!) So the sidewalk was truly as much a greenway as a sidewalk.

One view across to the north side of the river. I love this row of houses.

The greenway also ran alongside a park surrounding this small lake. Daffodils have been in bloom everywhere we’ve been, all month long.

Some port activity on the river. If you look to the right of the ship, you can see Blackrock Castle. We had a beer in an inn at the pier, and watched them unload the shipping containers, which was oddly mesmerizing.

I’m not sure why they call this little village Blackrock Pier, since there is no docks or marina and very few boats. There was this little enclosed oval of water, surrounded by a walkway and benches, but judging by how it looks at low tide, I can’t imagine many boats docking here!

I wrote earlier about our walk out to the village/neighborhood of Douglas. It was one of our longer walks, but we managed it without hopping a bus either way. This week we decided to go even further south, though, to the harbor village of Crosshaven. Be sure to look at Barry’s photos from this trip, the one of the sailboats and the wind turbine is spectacular!

This was our first trip that was long enough that we had to take the bus both there and back. The bus ride was about 40-45 minutes long. We quickly discovered that the best seats for curious tourists are the front seats on the top of the double decker.

Some of the countryside south of Cork, between Douglas and Carragaline.

Carragaline had a lovely old town with a river running through it, but it was also our first look at U.S.-style suburban sprawl.

The Owenabue River empties into Cork Harbour at Crosshaven. You really need to look at Barry’s post to see his photo of this scene!

This was the first place we saw actual pleasure boats. I’ve been surprised that in the Lee River and Cork Harbour in other places, all the boats have been industrial, with nary a marina to be seen. This was the first place we saw sailboats, and there were lots of them! There appeared to be three different sailing classes going on, as pods of white, red/blue/white, and translucent/red boats went around in circles, or proceeded downwind into the harbor.

There wasn’t a greenway here, but there was a “scenic walk”, a one-lane residential road that went up the hill along the harbor to Camden Fort Meagher.

I am sure this edifice at Camden Fort Meagher has profound historical significance, but I really didn’t pay attention. It was much more pleasurable to watch the sailboats in the harbor.

There were other roads and paths that went further, or that cut across the peninsula to the ocean, but this wasn’t a day we were up for a big walk, so we went back into the village for lunch at a lovely pub.

I am becoming spoiled by having Guinness, Murphy’s, and Beamish on tap absolutely everywhere we go. We’ve both discovered that Murphy’s is our favorite.

We’ll be heading south again today on the 10:05 bus to Kinsale.

Cork City Ireland

One Month, Part Two

I mentioned that we’d tried to anticipate all the things that could go wrong on a lengthy trip and prepare for them. Obviously we couldn’t predict a global pandemic, but we did pay for most everything using cards that provide travel insurance, and we bought pretty comprehensive health insurance at a surprisingly reasonable price with a very low deductible. So, yay us. It’ll be very disappointing if our little side trips to Dublin and Paris later in the month have to be cancelled, or worse, our 3 weeks in Portugal in April, but we’ll deal with that if it happens.

Neither could we have predicted a stock market crash, whose ramifications on our savings we’ll have to deal with on our return. But again, much of the trip was paid off in advance, we live pretty frugally, and our budget so far is unaffected.

But hey, on to our trip so far.

Our apartment here in town is possibly the best location available. This past Saturday, for instance, we walked to a farmers market, fancy gourmet shop, 3 supermarkets, and the English Market to pick up food, dry goods, and booze. For the most part, fruits and vegetables (or veg, in the local vernacular) are cheaper than back home, often significantly so. Avocados right now are about 70 cents each. Red & yellow bell peppers similarly priced. Potatoes around 50 cents/lb ($1.20/kilo). Kerrygold butter is roughly $3.00/lb; other brands of Irish butter are much less, and just as good.

On the other hand, booze is quite expensive. Standard size bottle is 700 ml, so about 8% smaller than US bottles. This local gin, one of the least expensive, is a little over $25.

On the other hand, the generic Indian tonic water at Tesco is comparable to any of the craft tonic waters that have sprung up in the States, and it’s a quarter a liter.

So, eating and drinking in the apartment, which we do maybe half the time, is probably cheaper than back home. And the streaky rashers i bought the other day at The English Market for under $3/lb were better than any bacon i’ve had in the US in a good long while.

This is the view down our block, probably taken on a Sunday morning last fall. There’s Indian, Malaysian, kebabs, pizza, and tacos within two blocks. Two further blocks, and more pub food than i can count. We’ve ended up with The Silly Goose as our local – they have a Wings and Pint special for 10 Euro, which includes essentially a full order of pretty decent wings.

*Looking south on Main Street, a block or two from our apartment.*

*The beginning of “Pub Row” on Washington Street, 4 blocks from our apartment.*

The bartenders and cook at the Goose all remembered our names the second time we went in, always a good sign. Barry, in the kitchen, took the time to fill us in on some local scenic spots off the tourist trail. We got to visit Crosshaven yesterday on his suggestion.

Chris runs a small gaming cafe called Tabletop about 3 blocks away. We’ve spent a few rainy afternoons there our first month, learning a few new games (Unearth and 7 Wonders, if you’re curious.)

Jack and Leon behind the bar at The Old Town Whiskey Bar provided us with an extensive history lesson of Irish distilling, and a wide range of whiskeys to taste a couple of weeks ago.

We’ve been out to the theater twice so far. The Everyman is a larger, and more ornate room that seats about 600 people. The production we saw there, A Holy Show, is based on a real event, when an Aer Lingus flight was hijacked by an ex-monk, and spent 7 tense hours on the tarmac in Paris. We also went to the Cork Arts Theatre, a more intimate venue, to see a production of The Parish. The funny story about that night is we showed up without tickets, only to learn that the show was sold out. But it was pouring rain outside, so we chatted with the box office attendant for a bit before heading back outside to continue our night. Before we left, the manager came by, and said he had gotten a call from a patron who had two extra tickets that she wasn’t going to use. He gave us her phone number (!), Claire called her, and we met in the lobby a few minutes before curtain and acquired tickets. Theresa turned out to be a charming lady, and after we met her sister and brother-in-law, i said to Claire that he had clearly been to Blarney and kissed the stone. Both plays were two person productions, with each actor playing multiple parts. The Parish was written pretty much about rural County Cork, so there were a lot of local references that went right over our heads. But funny people are funny, no matter the specificities, and we enjoyed it very much.

We’ve also fallen in with a science fiction/fantasy reading group. In February, we read the short novel This is How You Lose The Time War, and the dozen or so of us had a lively and wide-ranging two hour discussion over a few pints. For March, we’re slogging through Neal Stephenson’s ridiculously long Seveneves, about which i’ve shared some thoughts on Facebook previously. Let’s just say that, having finished this thing, i don’t have any greater opinion of it. Should be a fun group next week.

More regular photo blogging to come this week. Thanks for following along!

Tags drink, food, Theatre

Athlone Black Rock Castle Cork City Douglas Ireland Midleton

One Month, Part One

We left Durham on the morning of 29 January, passingthrough Philadelphia on the way to Dublin, where we arrived after the overnight flight on the morning of the 30th. Rented a car in Dublin and drove through Kildare to Athlone, where we spent a few nights in the town of Claire’s grandfather’s last Irish residence.

The trip got off to an auspicious start, as we shared our flight with the legendary John Prine.

We also stopped at St. Brigid’s Well, one of several sites to share that name, in Kildare. St. Brigid’s Day, 1 February, is supposedly the second most observed saint’s day in Ireland, but we saw very little of that when we arrived in Cork on the first.

We drank some of Sean’s whiskey and ale, from the oldest pub in Ireland, and probably in Europe, dating back to the year 900 AD.

All of that was prep for our 60 day stay in Cork City, which we are halfway through. Good time to take stock.

Before we left North Carolina, we went through what we thought was a comprehensive checklist of things that could go wrong, and prepared as well as we could. We hired an arborist to to evaluate and take down trees which might threaten the house, and tried, though unsuccessfully, to eliminate the intermittent failures in the fridge. The workaround appears to have taken, though, so we’ll deal with that on our return.

Our main concerns in Ireland were for the weather and the exchange rate. We have no control over either, of course, other than to prepare. Our rain gear has worked out. That’s good news, as Cork received roughly twice as much rain this February as in any previous. It’s been colder than anticipated, but still above freezing on even the coldest nights. Even on our arrival, the sun was setting at 6, so that wasn’t much of an issue. I guess we’re pretty far west in the time zone, because the first week we were here it wasn’t getting light until 8:30 or so. But now, three weeks out from the equinox, it’s getting light before 8, and staying light until nearly 7.

The first crescent of the new moon and Venus have been dancing together a few nights each month after sunset. We have a great view of the western sky from our balcony. Unfortunately, the weather has not cooperated, and i’ve missed out on catching any good photos. Should get one more chance in 26 days just before we leave.

We’ve walked all throughout the city, averaging better than 5 miles a day. As far east as Blackrock Castle, and south to the suburb of Douglas.

North to Glen River Park, and west to where the river splits into the two branches that turn City Center into an island.

Before leaving the US, we had thought about booking a kayak tour around the Island. But having walked around the whole thing, and seen the river in its various angry stages, neither of us is in the mood for that.

Can’t talk about Ireland without talking about beer and whiskey. Our first visit three years ago, we mostly stuck with the Guinness regardless of where in the country we were. Here in Cork, it’s been the local brews, Murphy’s and Beamish. Pro tip from one of our bartenders – the Beamish is better in the Douglas Street pubs, and i can’t say he was wrong.

As in the US, craft brewing has made some inroads against the big brewers. Unlike the US, i can’t say they’re an improvement over the traditional beers. We are walking distance to 3 of Cork’s small breweries, Franciscan Well, Rising Sons, and Elbow Lane. Of those, i thought Elbow Lane had the best beers, but it’s mostly a high end restaurant rather than a drinking establishment. Rising Sons is a great place to watch sporting events, and Franciscan Well is a nice little live performance room, but neither has beers that struck me as superior to the Murphy’s, or even Guinness.

The big distillery in these parts is in Midleton. The old part is now used for public tours, while most of the whiskey is produced in the modern, off-limits distillery. We also did a craft whiskey tasting at one of the local establishments, and came up with some favorites that may not be available for purchase in the states. Could be a stop at the duty free shop is in our future on the way home. Midleton is also home to the Kindred Spirits monument. Full blog posts about our visit below.

Later on, some thoughts about food and people. But right now, the sun is shining, and we’re headed out the door to Cross Haven.

Tags John Prine, River Lee, Stout, Whiskey

Cork City

A Little Bit of Nature

Been a busy couple of days here. Yesterday we took a spontaneous bus trip up to Blarney. Lots of photos and impressions to come when we get caught up. Also went to see some live music last night at Coughlan’s; Lynda Cullen, whose most recent LP was produced by Durham’s Dave Tilley, put on a memorable show.

Today, though, we caught a break in the weather, and decided to spend most of the day strolling along the river. First, though, lunch at Goldberg’s. Been trying to find the opportunity to grab a meal there since we got here. The smoked salmon didn’t disappoint.

We walked a greenway east of the city that eventually gets you to Blackrock Pier, near the observatory we visited last week. Despite passing through some industrial zones, we saw a variety of wildlife. I am developing a healthy respect for people who take wildlife photos for a living – you have to carry some serious gear around with you to get decent shots, with lighting conditions that are constantly changing, and subjects that are extremely uncooperative. But here’s what we saw, anyway.

Tags Urban Hiking, Wildlife

Cork City Ireland

A walk in the park

Yesterday we took a short bus ride to Glen River Park, at the north end of the city. We walked through the park and back into town.

The trails through the park — some paved, some not — follow a small stream. We were never too far from civilization; in most places you could see nearby houses, and sometimes hear a nearby highway. But it was still a peaceful stroll by a babbling brook.

As usual, Barry took a lot of photos, and I’m sure he will be sharing them!

I’ve gotten a bit spoiled by the Eno River State Park, especially by the unofficial trails that I usually follow, or the bushwhacking I do when it’s not tick and poison ivy season. I’d forgotten how much litter gathers in urban parks. It was a big disheartening.

This bit of artwork was in the park, with no plaque or explanation. It sort of evokes a yin/yang symbol, and included all these little tiles that looks like they were likely made by kids.

Tags nature, parks, walking

Cork City Ireland Street Art

Miscellany

I’ve taken a lot of photos that haven’t found a home in any blog posts the past couple of weeks. Plenty of street art, but some other things as well. Here’s a catch-all post for some of them.