Now here is a place that I feel the need to tell you is not Cork. It is in Cork county, but it is not the city. I feel I should tell you this because silly Emma four years ago studying abroad in Ireland thought that pretty view of the tall cathedral, rows of colorful houses, and bright blue sea in the background was Cork. If you have been to Cork city then you can imagine my disappointment when I did not come across this. This view is actually in the town of Cobh (pronounced Cove), which is a 30 minute train ride southeast of Cork city. Now that I have figured that out, when my friend and I were planning a long weekend to the towns of Cork the county, I had to add this destination to the list. If you have been following along with my blog, then you know I was in Ireland (once again) a few weeks ago. We spent a couple nights in Kinsale and then took the bus back into Cork city and that is where I left off. I suppose we should continue with the journey then!
We were very thoughtful about getting from Kinsale to Cobh. There is only the hour long bus ride that goes from Kinsale to Cork. Then we decided that we wanted to take the train from Cork to Cobh since I had seen good things about it and basically that is what you are supposed to take to Cobh. That meant we had to plan these so that we had enough time to get on the train, but also not get in to Cobh too late. In the end it wasn’t worth all the thought and trying to leave Kinsale early because our train was delayed by half an hour. We were supposed to leave the station at 12:30 pm and didn’t leave until 1pm, which is when we were supposed to get into Cobh. It was ok though. I just wanted to make sure we had enough time to get lunch, check into the B&B, and do the Titanic museum since we were going to dedicate our time before heading back to Galway the next day to visiting Spike Island. In the end we decided to cut Spike Island because the weather was so nice when we arrived in Cobh that we just wanted to spend the whole day walking around and exploring, so we pushed the Titanic museum to the next day. This was a good decision.
So you may be wondering what was going on with our train. Well, this is Ireland and literally nothing is just straight forward, right? There is always some weird, random snag. In this case there was some kind of obstruction in the tracks. I still don’t know what it was. I only really know this was the reason for the delay because there was a woman with special needs sitting right across from us who got really nervous, so one of the workers at the train station had to come in and reassure her everything was ok. I don’t think such a delay is typical of Irish railroads though. I have taken the train a few times and never was delayed 30 minutes.
Day 1
When we arrived to Cobh everything was very walkable. I love that Ireland has such great public transportation because if you can get into a town with the bus or train, then you are set. It was literally just a few minute walk into the town. Then we saw the cathedral on the big hill to the left of us and the harbor and sea to our right. You could see the whole town from the center. To the right, situated next to the water was the city park which also has a Saturday market. Luckily it was Saturday and we arrived before it closed, so we walked around the few stands and food trucks and got ourselves some lunch to eat next to the water. Honoria got some Pad Thai while I settled for a burrito from a truck that was essentially kebabs, burgers, and the Irish version of burritos. I got a chicken one and it was actually really good even though I excitedly approved the use of spice but in the end was met with a sad level of spice. It was still good because it had a godly amount of cheese and Irish cheese is AMAZING! We sat here for a bit taking in the beautiful sunshine before deciding we wanted to drop our stuff off at the B&B, so up the hill we went to the Westway House.
Little did we know that we booked the coolest B&B in all of Cobh. We had a sea view on one of the upper floors. We had a cute room with a couple beds and huge windows that lit up the space. From here we had the most amazing view of the water. The sea is such a pretty shade of green and blue in southern Ireland. It is not like this in Galway. I love the seaside and visiting Salthill, but it really is the Wild Atlantic Coast. There is something calm and bright about the water in Cork. It felt more like what you’d see in the Caribbean.
After settling into our B&B we headed back out through the decorated spiral staircase. From here we headed west towards the cathedral. I really wanted that iconic picture while it was sunny out, so I was wasting no time. The only problem was I had no idea how to find this view. I did some research and walked towards what I thought would give us this view. I thought I could walk towards the Deck of Card Houses, but I got to that point and then we had to walk down without a view. I was really confused. Now what? Then as we walked a bit more down the hill we saw a sign pointing to the left, calling for tourists to come on in and visit their garden. Ok, sure, it sounds a little bit sketchy. But it wasn’t so its fine! All they were asking for was a donation of a couple euros so they could buy their son a Ferrari for this view I was looking for. How lucky that we stumbled upon this! And I had a two euro coin! They even had a tripod set up so Honoria and I could take a picture together (and one that wasn’t a selfie… the first and only of the trip).
From here we walked the rest of the way back down towards the water. Honoria wanted to check out the Sirius Arts Center which is one of the places that is highly recommended in Cobh. If you have read some of my other posts, then you maybe know by now that modern art is not my cup of tea. I went into it fully intent on just doing this for Honoria, but there was something really interesting about the exhibit they had on display. I don’t know if it was because of my newfound love for crochet or my female rage, but I actually quite enjoyed it. It was Shirani Bolle’s This Has Nothing to do With Me. I don’t know how to even explain it so here is a link to the information about the exhibit. My favorite part though was the view at the back of the museum out towards the water. It is actually one of my favorite pictures from this trip honestly.
After viewing the small exhibit we headed back out and walked along the water. We saw a lot of people with ice cream and after a disappointing search for ice cream in Kinsale, we had to get some too! We found a gelato place and I just got a scoop of seasalt caramel. I intended to get a cone and the guy even clarified cone, well apparently he wasn’t saying cone because I ended up with it in a cup. I swear this Cork accent is something else. Its the one I struggle most with understanding in Ireland which is quite funny considering when I try to an Irish accent it kind of sounds like a Cork accent, but only because it sounds more Jamaican than Irish. Anyway for all I know he could have been thinking, “Wow, this woman has a crazy Midwest accent”.
We then found a place to sit and eat our ice cream next to the water and Honoria brought out her bubbles. You are never too old for bubbles, especially when you are on holiday by the sea! From here we continued walking along the water eastward where we hadn’t walked yet. There are a lot of shops along this main road through the town. We crossed over and decided to check them out. First we stopped at a charity shop which is essentially the European version of Goodwill or a thrift store. I love shopping at thrift stores back home but when I’m in Ireland, I prefer just to look because I want to save my suitcase space for biscuits, my Penny’s haul, and whichever musical instrument I’m coming home with this time. Honoria tried on a few things, but neither of us bought anything. We went into another cute shop a few doors down. I have no idea what it was called, but I loved it! It was full of plants, jewelry, art, and other fun things. I would have loved to get something here, but I couldn’t settle on a necklace, so I decided the shop would just be a great memory instead.
We continued along the street, but stores were beginning to close, so we walked until we got to the end of the town and were coming upon the residential area. I saw a sign for a Bench with a View and thought, “well, let’s see what the view is.” It wasn’t much different from what we had already seen of the water, but there was a trail leading down to the beach. What else were we going to do at this point so we walked down to the water and look for shells and cool sea glass. Here I snapped this perfect picture of a green, clear, and orange piece of sea glass next to each other to make the Irish flag. I know someone probably placed it there on purpose, but I am just going to go with that it was universe giving me some kind of sign. It was really nice walking along the water, but there ended up being about three teenage couples making out down here, so we decided maybe we should head out.
We decided that since we had been eating so much heavy food that instead of going out for dinner we were going to get groceries from Centra to make salad for dinner. Plus that is so much cheaper! We got a few different kinds of lettuce, cucumber, feta, salad topping, and a vinegar dressing and ended up making one of the most amazing salads I have ever had. Our B&B had a kitchen on the floor which is the only reason we thought to cook. Before we went back to eat dinner though, we walked by the cathedral, St.Colman’s Cathedral. The sun was starting to set and reflected so beautifully off the building. Then we headed back for dinner and to get ready to go out to the pubs later.
Going on to the pubs made me realize why I loved Galway so much. It turns out that it actually isn’t normal for every pub in town to have music, especially trad music. A good majority of the pubs in Galway have music every night and of the music, at least one of them will be trad music. This turned out to not be the case in Cobh. I was googling places with music. There were only a couple with music. We went to one of them and it turned out to not even be Irish music. It was a guy playing the oldies which was good! I enjoyed his 80s and 90s music, but I was hoping for Irish music.
It was fun though and I was happy with the night we had. We met some really interesting people. We got stuck at the bar at the pub so we ended up next to Paul, a middle age man in town for his son’s football game. We befriended him until we were a bit exhausted of the situation and then headed upstairs where tables had opened up and we could actually talk to each other.
Soon the music ended and the pub was nearing its closing time. We both decided we were actually really hungry after making the healthy decision of eating a salad for dinner. I guess that all went to hell because then we were off to Apache before it closed in half an hour. We sprinted up that hill. This was a save yourself situation and Honoria with her much longer legs than mine was our only hope of getting pizza while I tried to work through the burning of my glutes. This is a bit dramatic, but it is just how we felt as we tried to get to the last food place open in Cobh. I was only like 10 feet behind Honoria in reality and we did make it in time and got our Apache special.
On our way back to the B&B, which was only like a 5 minute walk from Apache, we met Vince. He just so happened to be walking in the same direction as us so he walked with us pretty close to our B&B. He offered to let his dog out for us the next day if we walked by. It was very sweet. Then we offered him a piece of pizza and he declined claiming we needed to eat up. And we did indeed. This was the most beautiful pizza I had ever seen. Just look at this picture of it with the cathedral. For me, this is the epitome of Cobh. No one will understand, but this photo holds so many memories of my day here and the welcoming and adoring nature of the town.
Day 2
Our last day of the trip wasn’t nearly as eventful. We booked the last bus from Cork to Galway, which was at 8 pm because we wanted to make sure we had enough time in Cobh. It turns out you really only need a day here. If we had done Spike Island, then yeah we probably would have wanted as much time as possible this second day, but we cut it out so that we could do the Titantic Experience, but now this ended up being the only thing we had planned for the day.
We had to check out at 11am and with being out until 1am and the time jump forward, we didn’t get as much sleep as we could have used, well at least I didn’t. We decided to save money on breakfast as well and eat the oatmeal that was stocked in the B&B kitchen. We still needed coffee though so we went on a hunt for a cafe and ended up at Bloom Brew Cafe, which is a new place in the area that had only opened up in February by a Brazilian woman and her husband. We just walked by and it looked really cute so we were curious and then the employee talking care of some work outside encouraged us to go in and take a look. It was so cute! We decided this was where we were going to get coffee.
We sat in the cloud corner and they brought us a menu that was AI photos, but in their defense, it actually looked like the real thing. I got the cloud cappuccino that was a cappuccino with cotton candy on it. They served me milk to pour on top of it to melt the cotton candy into the drink. It was a little messy, but it was fun and I enjoyed it. It is safe to say we were quite satisfied with this place we had just stumbled upon.
It was about noon now, so we headed just across the street to the Titanic museum and got tickets for the noon tour. This actually turned out to be a really good experience. Honoria even said it was better than the Titanic museum in Belfast, which is where the Titanic was built. Cobh just happened to be the last port it stopped in before heading to America. You wouldn’t expect that from little ole Cobh. So what was this experience to make it so good?
Well first, when you get your ticket for the museum, you are also given the boarding pass of one of the passengers that was aboard the ship. I was given Lillian Minahan, a women from Wisconsin that was traveling over to Ireland with her husband and his sister to see their family. I found it very fitting. Then a guide introduced us to the Titanic and its connection to Cobh before then taking us through different rooms to show us what each class of passengers experienced on board. Then after some videos showing the stories of some of the passengers we arrived at the exhibit. Here we learned more about icebergs, hypothermia, and the construction of the boat. Towards the end there are some bittersweet love stories and then the screen where you could look up your passenger to learn more about their story and their fate. Luckily Lillian survived!
The museum takes about 1.5 hours, so afterwards we still had time to kill. We grabbed a little food for lunch from Centra and then decided to walk back up to the cathedral since we actually hadn’t gone inside it. It ended up being one of the most beautiful churches I have been to in Ireland. It reminded me a lot more of the churches I have been in London, Belgium, and Germany. What’s interesting though is that it was only completed in the early 1900s. Its just that it was built in the gothic revival style that makes it look much older than it is.
After some relaxing in the beautiful church we decided to go on a walk around the city that the B&B owner suggested. It took us back down to the water where we had been before, but then back towards the train station and up where we hadn’t yet explored since it was mostly residential. It was a nice area though because it had pretty gardens and nature and a nice view of the water. This is also where I snapped this picture that I think sums up being Irish: some glasses used for drinking and a rosary on a bench.
As we got closer back to the B&B we decided to pick up our stuff the owner so graciously let us leave there and head to the train station. The weather was getting cold and wet and we had seen pretty much all we wanted to so we thought we would head back to Cork earlier to grab some dinner and change our bus to an earlier time.
In Cork we got dinner at Sprout, which did salad and grain bowls, which are the best I have ever had. It was fun going there because it was right across from a pub we went to 4 years earlier when we visited Cork during my study abroad. I love full circle moments like these. I never thought I’d end up back there, you know?
After a delicious dinner we were back on the bus to Galway. We took the 7 pm bus back to Galway and even though it was 3 hours just like the way there, it felt so much longer. I have determined leaving a place always feels longer. It must be because there’s no anticipation like on the way there. It ok though. It just makes for great nap and rest time. And so we were back in no time. For Honoria her holiday was over and it was sad, but for me I had more excitement to look forward to. I would be going to the Rock of Cashel and the Barack Obama Plaza with an Irish lad the next day after all. And to find out more, you’ll just have to wait for my next blog post. 😉
Now this is the end of Cobh and our weekend in Cork. I absolutely fell in love with Cobh and the thing is, I can’t really pin point how. It’s not like we did a whole lot. It is also really small I think I loved the view though! I loved the colorful houses, the towering cathedral, and the bright blue water. I also liked the people. Locals and visitors alike randomly started up conversations with us. I felt so welcome here. Something about it had me and I won’t ever forget that.
To read more about my travels in Ireland, check out my Ireland page! Hope you enjoy reading my Irish travels as much as I do experiencing and writing about them!
The Journal of Wanderlust 