(Hello,

Long time no news! Well generally all we've been up to is working and trying to stay warm, so to break the monotony we took a weekend to Cork. We know we're supposed to make the most of every trip and all but really all we did was wander around, shop and drink (moderately). We could have kissed the Blarney stone but hanging upside down from the top of a castle in the rain is not our idea of fun so we skipped it.

What we did see of Cork was great, very much the Wellington of Ireland if there is one. Many more coffee and independent shops than Galway and well worth the 4 hour bus trip.



The alleys and streets had their Christmas threads on. Cork had lots of little nooks and crannies to explore and shelter in.



Cork (unlike Galway) has hills, the hill streets are lined with houses mostly painted in pastel colours. If the street curved then so did the house fronts, kinda like a giant maze.



A nice view of the city, we were pretty lucky with the weather it was cold (Emmett's teeth were chattering at on stage) but mostly dry.



Cork is a port city and the river Lee runs through it. Or you could say the city gets in the way of the river as the CBD is between two channels of the river.



These crazy lads were out in the cold rowing boats with what appeared to be very inefficient oars.

So we liked Cork, probably if we were here for longer we'd make a second trip but it has to be said that on our time line it's unlikely. We found a pub owned by Kiwis and drank listening to Che fu on the forst night. And on the second found a pub with a mystical spring that brewed it's own tasty beers (the pub brewed the beer, not the spring). All and all a great place and a great relaxing weekend!