Our Trip to Cork, June 2005

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Diary of a weekend in Cork, June 2005

Day 1: Dublin to Cork Day 1: Checking out the Nightlife in Cork Day 2: Cork to Blarney Day 2: The Midleton Jameson Distillery Day 2: A Visit to Historical Cobh Day 2: Night out in Cork City Day 3: Cork City Gaol Day 3: Fota Wildlife Park Day 3: Homeward Bound - Cork to Dublin

Day 1: Friday June 17th 2005 - Dublin - Cork (240km)

2.15pm Friday, departed Dublin and headed for the M50, beautiful day, sun shining - what a scorcher (24C). The radio is blaring and we're looking forward to our weekend in Cork!

To get to Cork from Dublin, take the N7 off the M50 in the direction of Portlaise, switch onto the N8 at Portloaise towards Cashel and Cork. There are a number of picturesque small towns along the way, including Abbeyleix, Durrow and Cashel. A pit stop in Durrow for a quick cup of coffee and we we're on our way again. Elaine reckons Abbeyleix is up for a tidy town's award. On the way into the city we passed by the Silversprings Moran Hotel , a 4 star hotel located about 2km from the city centre. Just as we predicted, we arrived bang on 7pm, not bad for a Friday afternoon - 5 hours including one 30 minute stop off.

Quality Hotel and Leisure Centre, Cork
We checked into the Quality Hotel and Leisure Centre, located on John Richmond Hill, in Shandon and we are assigned room 202. We were very pleased with the room, its clean, spacious, and would have easily accommodated 6 people!
Other hotels located nearby are the Gresham Metropole around the corner on MacCurtain St. and the Clarion Hotel across the river on Lapps Quay.

Decisions, decisions...
Deciding on where to go to that night had us in a bit of a pickle! There are so many options in Cork - should we go for a good old traditional pub with some music, stay local at the hotel bar or check out one of the trendy modern bars in Cork City ?! There's also a great choice of comedy clubs, sports bars and wine bars. We couldn't choose so we decided to give them all a try! The provisional plan is to head towards Princes' Street where there seems to be a good selection of Asian restaurants. The plan is to try and get out by 9pm, although it's now 8pm and only 1 of us is even remotely ready!