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.
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!
Cork Spring 