Cork City

Cork City
When I arrived back in the city of Cork it felt like a familiar town even though I was only there for a few days last time. I booked into a hostel and then, because I had no food, went back to Benjamin's student house for dinner - it was amazing, a typical student meal; pasta, tomatoes, a jar of sauce, & cheese... I think there must be some kind of innate gourmet gene in the French because Benjamin somehow managed to produce an impressive 3 course meal! After that we headed out to the Sin É to listen to some music and meet up with some more friends from my last visit.The next few days were unbelievable. I spent my time with Alicia (the French harpist) and Benjamin. We busked on the streets, went to sessions in the evenings, and spent the rest of the time discussing music, art, literature, & religion... quite an amazing few days. Friday night was Alicia's last night of her year in Ireland so for the session that night she had cooked crepes for everyone which went down very well.

Alicia

Benjamin (http://www.myspace.com/rrow)As I was also heading to Rosslare I had offered Alicia a lift along the south coast. On the Friday night we had been told of a party and session being held at one of the musician's (John - The uilleann piper from Ennis) house about 1 hr from Cork, so we set off on Saturday evening, after having spent a nice day walking around Cork in the hot sunshine, with a very vague idea of which town we should be heading for. Even though it was the middle of the evening the sun was still hot and the drive through the countryside and villages was stunning. As we got closer we got some more directions, but the three way language barrier (English, English (with an Irish accent), and French) caused slight difficulty as we went in search of a 'green college' instead of a 'green cottage'... it wasn't long though before we found where we were supposed to be going.

Along the we way we passed through the town of Fermoy which is home to these three interesting statues - the translation stands for 'Monastery of Fermoy'... we asked a few locals but couldn't find out why the two people on the edges have no faces.


The party was good fun and the music was brilliant but with a long drive the next day we left before the end to set up the campervan on a patch of grass at the side of the road in front of John's neighbors house. The next day was another bright sunny day and after a breakfast of porridge with Nutella we set off for Rosslare. The trip was great fun, it was nice to have somebody to talk to for a change. We were half way to Rosslare when I realised that I had left my bag and wallet at John's house, but with no time to go back before Alicia's ferry we carried on going. In Rosslare we stopped for some food at the supermarket and then after lunch Alicia gave me a harp lesson in the carpark.

After leaving Alicia at the ferry terminal I made the same trip in reverse to go and collect my things from John's house... I spent that night parked up in a cliff-top carpark at Newton cove where I arrived just in time to catch an amazing sunset.