my Irish love, Cork

Happy Saturday! You made it to the weekend! *Cue living room dance party time!* How are you doing? Are you taking time to check-in with yourself and give yourself the care, love, and attention you need? If not, it’s perfectly okay to set aside time for yourself to do whatever you want/need to do during ‘me time.’ Maybe your thing is yoga, meditation, running, paddle boarding, reading, tending to a pallet garden you built, sewing some pillowcases for your home decor, making a dress to match your homemade mask, paddle boarding, refurbishing furniture, or even playing animal crossing with family and friends, but whatever you want to do during your assigned ‘me time,’ make sure you’re doing it and giving yourself a break.

If you didn’t get a chance to read yesterday’s post - “Irish beachy wild women” - you can click here to read all about the crazy things I do with my friends when no one else is around! There’s even a video! Otherwise, buckle up or strap on in and let’s continue this journey together! The next stop is one of my favorite places in Ireland - nay - the entire world. We’re going to Cork, baby!

There will always be a special place in my heart for Dublin as it was where I lived and studied while getting my Masters at Trinity College. It was the perfect place for me to be - settled in Rathmines, walking distance from everything I needed in my immediate surroundings and just a short bus ride to the airport, allowing me to travel with ease all over Europe. That being said, my heart longed to go to Cork with any opportunity and free time I had. Living in Dublin with a student visa and ID, I was able to get a round trip train ticket from Dublin to Cork for about $25. There were some days where I would just wake up early and decide to go to Cork, making sure I caught the train back to Dublin with enough cushion to get back to my flat at a decent time.

I can’t quite tell you what it is about Cork that made me fall in love with it. It wasn’t just me, either. When I would take friends or family to Cork and explain that it was my favorite part of Ireland even though I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, nearly every person understood what I was feeling - even if I couldn’t verbalize it. Cork felt like an Irish city that has held onto its Irishness. I love Dublin and have nothing negative to say about it, but it does have a more international feeling to it. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. It's what makes Dublin great, and it was a beautiful place to live, grow, and learn. I think my love for Cork, however, is rooted in it feeling like home to me from the first moment I stepped off the train.

The first time I went to Cork involved frolicking through fields of moo-cows and planting a smooch on the Blarney Stone with my brother from another mother, C. Budd, which I wrote about before and you can read by clicking here! We also spent some quality time in the heart of Cork, enjoying lunch at the English Market and wandering through the city streets decorated with Christmas cheer. We watched cargo ships sail away and found one of my favorite yarn stores in all of Ireland.

It took me only two months to make it to Cork for the first time (C.Budd and I first went in November), and I visited Cork another handful of times in my year living in Ireland. In an alternate version of the universe I could’ve seen myself living there - that’s how much I love(d) it. We'll be spending time in Cork for the next few blog posts, so get excited! Have you ever lived somewhere new and found another town within striking distance that became your beloved getaway? Let me know! Subscribe in the e-mail submission box below and reach out, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and reach out to me on the “contact” page. I’m so happy you're here and that I’ve been receiving a lot of really incredible stories, questions, and feedback from a community all over the globe! Other people’s stories that I’ve gotten to read via e-mail, text, tweet, DM, etc. recently bring me such smiles, and I am so grateful for all of it! I hope I get to hear all about whatever stories you’ve been thinking about as we’ve been on this virtual journey together! Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you have any restaurants/eateries/pubs/coffee shops/ice cream joints/theatres/lookout spots you would recommend in other countries or even in your current home town or city, I'm absolutely 100% all ears!! I couldn’t do this without you! So THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, truly, thank you.

Sincerely,

Johny

P.S. - If you want to catch up from the beginning on this series of travel adventures, here's a cheat sheet to the posts (in order in which they were published):