Cork

Our second trip with Carrie and Jon was to Cork! It took a bit of creative planning to get there (3 different trains?!) but it was worth it! The first train was early in the morning and there was eerie fog around the ground that looked so cool.

When we got to Cork it was a beautiful sunny day to go explore. Mom had to head to a workshop, but Carrie, Jon, and I headed out to look around town.

We found a wonderful Co-Op with a great vegetarian restaurant upstairs that we tried for lunch.

The food was great! It's always nice to have a meal at a place where there are more than one or two vegetarian options.

After our huge lunch, we walked around town a bit more and headed over to St Finbarre's Cathedral.

Absolutely gorgeous architecture, and a lovely graveyard and gardens surrounding. 

I took quite a few pictures... but I love looking at all the elaboration details of cathedrals!

Heading back across town, we came across the Occupy Cork and had to document!

Then the indoor food market which was amazing! If only we weren't still so full from lunch...

Of course, there's always room for dessert though...

Delicious chocolates and macaroons we took back to the room for a treat later :)

The city of Cork was having a big Jazz festival the weekend we were there as well.

While we didn't have any time planned to go see shows, I did stumble upon a street concert in benefit of Irish Guide Dogs! It was lovely to hear music and see a lot of the doggies!

Mom mapped out the next day we spent in Cork, so of course it started with a trip to the BUTTER museum!

Mom was in heaven. It was pretty interesting though...

After the butter museum, we walked through town a bit more to show mom some of the things she missed while in her meeting the day before. I love how you can just be walking down a normal enough street and peer down an alley and stumble upon a huge church!

Of course we had to peek inside!

Back on the street, vendors were setting up for the Jazz festival so we stopped for some lunch.

Delicious falafel. Look at all those spices!

Another beautiful day in Cork! We headed over to the Church of St Anne to ring the Shandon Bells! (see the bell tower above?)

You get to go inside the church and ring the actual church bells! They even have them numbered off so you can follow along some of the music sheets they have provided and play songs. It was hard work, heavy bells and rough rope!

Then we got to climb the tinnnnny staircase in the bell tower to the top for an amazing view of cork!

Had to wear ear protection as others were still playing the bells and when climbing the tower you literally have to climb on a tiny wood plank right by the bells!

Such a cool place! I love that they let you go up and see the workings of the bell tower, and participate in ringing! 

Heading back to Athlone from Cork proved to be even more interesting as they were working on part of the train tracks, so we got to take a bus then 3 other trains. A bit goofy from lack of sleep and travel - we played with cameras most of the way home...

But there was a pretty awesome sunset, so picture taking was the perfect distraction on the long ride home. 

A wonderful trip to Cork!