First Full Day in Cork

~January 9th, 2o17~

With a night’s sleep finally under our belt, we began our first full day in Cork! We woke up around 7:00AM and had a breakfast of buttermilk pancakes with berries and cream in the hotel restaurant. We found that the pancakes over here are more true to the “cake side” of things and were very dense (still just as delicious though!). After breakfast, we sat in local coffee shop across the street until we were able to check in/move in to the apartment that I’ll be living in this semester. It was such a relief to finally get to see inside the building and see my room! There are four individual rooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a living space. I will have four other roommates. None of the roommates had arrived yet, so it was nice to be able to spread out while unpacking. I have my own room, which is going to be a huge bonus. My window faces a parking garage, but I’d rather have a non-scenic view, than have to share a space with another person, like some of the other rooms in my apartment.

We spent the morning and afternoon unpacking and doing a little decorating. The room itself was relatively spacious, but pretty bare, with just a bed, desk, and closet. However, after putting everything away, making the bed, and hanging a few pictures, it started to look a little more home-y (check out the before and after pictures below). Then, after lunch we stopped by a few shops, comparable to a city version to K-Mart and TJ Maxx (called TK Maxx over here, which we laughed at). There, we got things like bed pillows, hangers, and cleaning supplies. These trips took longer than in the states, because all of the brands are completely different. There are a few brands that I recognized from home sprinkled around, but the majority of them were totally novel for us. On our walk back, we also found a great, inexpensive grocery store close by my apartment that will be perfect for me to shop at.

After we were able to completely unpack and settle in, we went to a highly recommended restaurant, called Market Lane, who’s entire menu is sourced locally from Cork/Ireland. We decided to have a pint at the bar first around 5:00PM, and then have dinner. They had an early evening special that was 3 courses for 23 euros, which was a fantastic deal (after asking a waitress, we realized that lunch time in Ireland is typically from 1:00-2:00PM and dinner is from 6:00PM-8:00PM, which is later than we are used to). We each had an appetizer, Dad – calamari with lemon ketchup and me – french onion soup. Then for the entree, per the waiter’s suggestion, Dad had “ham hock” which is a massive amount slow cooked ham, and I had “gamekeeper’s pie” which was pieces of pheasant, venison, and ox cheek in a red wine gravy, topped with beats, carrots, and a potato bake. For dessert, we both had a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream with fresh black berry compote and crushed meringue. We were both stuffed to max, but after walking 7 miles that day, we decided to justify our overeating.  🙂  Although it was only our 3rd meal in Cork and 1st traditional Irish meal, we both decided that it was the best meal thus far. It was magical and definitely could be considered our first Craic experience.

It was a fantastic, wonderful first full day abroad!