Ireland - Cork, Galway and surrounds

After a quiet and slightly disappointing weekend in Dublin, I headed down to Cork via a scenic coastal road. Although the scenery was impressive, it wasn't always visible due to the "atmospheric" weather.

Cork is the second largest city in Ireland and even has a population large enough to cause a traffic jam on the main street! The city is built around the Lee river which offers some nice views and although I was only there for four days, I met a few locals and really enjoyed the atmosphere and live music at the pubs around town. I will certainly consider returning to Cork later in the year.

I caught Paul Simon at "The Marquee" as part of the Cork Summer Festival. Despite being 69 years old and only about 4 feet tall, he sounded as good as ever. He mostly played older solo material and got through about half of Graceland (quite possibly my favourite album of all-time) before finishing with a very hopeful cover of "Here Comes The Sun". 

The sun didn't come. In fact at one point it had rained pretty much continuously for a week. Over the 'summer,' Budweiser were running a promotion called "The Ice-Cold Index" which offered discounted beer based on the weather. At 16 degrees you got 1 euro off, another at 18 degrees and by 20 degrees the beer was free. When I first read the conditions I thought they would put themselves out of business. Needless to say there was no free beer given away while I was in Ireland! Try and spot the country on the following rain map...

While I was in Galway I made the foolish decision to stop drinking Guinness for a few days and ended up in bed with the flu. As a result I didn't get to explore the city as much as I would have liked but from what I did see it seemed friendly and quite live-able, if slightly on the touristic side. 

Staying in hostels in Cork and Galway made me feel old. Although I met plenty of cool people they were usually a few years younger than me. It didn't help that Ryan whipped up a song especially for me entitled "Ode to my long-lost father".

I only had a couple of days left in Ireland when the sun finally reappeared and it was just in time for a road-trip around Galway and Mayo. My incredibly talented personal chauffeur, Kate, picked me up in Galway and we headed up to Westport, a scenic coastal town. From there we climbed Croagh Patrick, the highest mountain in the North-West and took in the scenery which was very different to the South.

The weather was perfect on my last full day in Ireland and I got some really great shots as we drove around the coastline of Achill Island. 

Despite the weather and the recession, Ireland still has the best pubs and the friendliest people that I've met anywhere in Europe. I'm excited about returning for an extended period later in the year!