One Day in Cork

At the end of last week, Michael and I hopped in the car for a whirlwind trip to Cork. Michael had a big basketball game (more on that below) on Friday evening, so we decided to go down Thursday evening and have dinner with my friend and talented photographer, Julie, and her fiance. You’ll remember Julie from all my Styled in Ireland posts! We met them at Market Lane and it was wonderful. Not too fussy, but really delicious.

Then on Friday, Julie and I got to play One Day in Cork! Julie moved to Cork from Dublin before Christmas, so it was part catch-up and part explore the city. I’ve been to Cork a handful of times, but I haven’t spent much time really wandering around the streets – and never with an almost local as a tour guide. We had such fun!

Every time we go to Cork (almost always for this same basketball game, actually), we stay in the Ambassador Hotel, which sits up high on a huge hill on the north side of the city. It’s pretty reasonably priced and we’ve always found it to be comfortable. It’s not overly luxurious, but if you get a room with a view (which I highly recommend you request!), it’s very worth it. Also, if you walk down to the city center and sample lots of treats and snacks, you work it all off by the time you trek back up the hill. Bonus. 

I actually found Cork’s hills to be such a novelty. I think Julie thought I was a little bonkers when I kept saying, look at that view! In Dublin it’s just harder to see very far because it is very, very flat. 

On Friday morning, we woke up to the view in the very top image. Very grey and very soggy. Still a view, but a very grey view.  But by the time I came down the hill to meet Julie, the sun was starting to peek through. 

And by the time we caught up over a cup of coffee at Cork Coffee Roasters, the sky was blue! Which was good, because Cork Coffee Roasters was so adorable I would not have left our little people watching spot in the window had it kept raining. I mean check out those patterned ceilings! And the cute almost-haiku on the coffee machine! 

Anyway, we left the cosy coffee shop and only had to venture right next door to a super art shop called Vibes and Scribes. There are three different Vibes and Scribes in the city and they all have a little different bent. This one had lots of art and craft supplies, as well as fabric and yarn for knitting. 

One of the other Vibes and Scribes, which we stopped by later, was full of books, and most importantly, art books. I could have stayed and browsed for weeks. And I may have come home to Michael and declared that he should buy me art books for Christmas for the rest of my life. I would have loved one of each!

After a wander through the little streets of the south side of Cork city center, Julie and I made a pit stop at the English Market, which is probably one of the best known places in Cork. It’s an old market hall with lots of stalls selling fruit, vegetables, meat, fish….and gourmet sausages!

We ate our sausages in a park across the street from the market, where the trees were still strung with twinkly globe lights.

Cork isn’t that big, yet it does have a lot of shops – and for a Friday there were lots of people out shopping! And as Julie pointed out, Cork has a very sweet mix of shops you’d find in most Irish cities and shops that have probably been there since the beginning of time. There also seem to be more pedestrian streets in Cork than in Dublin, which I find way more peaceful than trying to walk on sidewalks down busy streets. One of my only pet peeves about Ireland is that there is no system for which side of the sidewalk you should walk on. It means you’re constantly weaving back and forth and playing games of chicken with the people coming toward you. It drives me nuts. 

But I digress, Cork really does have some adorable shops – including this sweet cheese shop that even had lights that looked just like wheels of cheese! I somehow missed the name of this shop and it appears to be quite new and not on the old Googler! If you’re local maybe you can tell us the name in the comments! 

After strolling around for a few hours, Julie and I headed back to the north side and back up the giant hill. We took a few detours – like this one to take photos of the adorable waterfall behind Greene’s Restaurant! Next time, I want to brave the cold and damp and have a hot chocolate by the waterfall. It’s really quite cool.

And by the time we made it back up to our hotel, this was our view from our tippity top attic room! Much, much more glorious than the morning view!

And then Julie left me so I could go watch Michael play some basketball.  Sadly, his team lost in very dramatic fashion and it was a very long drive back to Dublin late that night. Oh well, you win some, you lose some! And luckily for me, Cork was a pretty big win! (Sorry, Michael!)