Put a Cork in it!

I've been living in this odd town called Cork for almost 3 weeks now and let me tell you something.  I'm in love.  Cork is absolutely wonderful.  I'm lucky enough that it's only a 5-7 minute walk from our current apartment into the city centre, and I walk it everyday!  The city itself is wonderfully charming.  It keeps a small town feel and city feel all wrapped up into one fantastic package.

The city centre is the place to be with all the cute shops and boutiques, restaurants and pubs, electrics and Euro stores.  The buildings are all colourful, some painted bright purple or red, and most have an antique feeling to them, as if they have been there for hundreds of years.  and in some cases they have, such as the 4* Imerial Hotel in the business district of the city.  It has been there for almost 200 years!  That's crazy when you really think about it!  That building is older than Canada itself!  Amazing!

My favourite part of the city is probably on 2 streets, Grand Parade and Patrick street which have all the nice shops and restaurants.  But my favourite shop goes from Patrick street to Oliver Plunkett (think Ouellette street with all the bars).  Penney's.  What a great shop!  Friends coming to visit, please bring an empty suitcase, because Penney's is super cheap!  I bought a pair of dress pants there for, like, $8-$9!  It's ace.

I haven't really tried many restaurants yet as I am still unemployed (but I'm hoping that all changes this week) and we are trying to cut back on spending until I've got some steady pay checks coming in!  So I'll write a separate update in a couple weeks when I've had some more money to go exploring in the town.

The walk into town is really lovely as you have to cross a bridge to reach the city centre and it's always just nice to look at!  I do enjoy living near the water!  Especially because there doesn't seem to be any mosquitoes yet, which is fabulous!

I hope everyone gets a chance to come see this beautiful place where I live one day!

Top Of The Morning!

Well, it's official!  I've arrived in the land of Fairies and Leprechauns, and have yet to run into either!  I must say I'm slightly disappointed.  But let me start at the beginning..........

My friend Renee and I picked up Crystal in London and made our way to Toronto with my 2 giant suitcases, where we checked them into their hotel room (as my flight was supposed to leave at 11:40pm) and myself into the airport.  We went for my last meal at the Swiss Chalet in the Toronto airport where I had the most Canadian of meals.  Poutine of course.  I was going to have Arby's as they don't have that here in the Leprechaun land, but I had had it BOTH Wednesday and Thursday, so I was a little Arby's out.  The poutine was good, but the company was better.

 I could tell something was a little off but I figured that it had been a long day for everyone.  Crystal had makeup school in London from 10am, and Renee and I had the long drive ahead of us.  I would never have thought that it was because they were sad.  Well, maybe Crystal, but not Renee.  She was fine until we went for goodbye hugs and I felt her start to shake.  I was kind of shocked.  When I went to Japan, I got a "See you in a year!" and this time I got her to cry!  I know I shouldn't really be proud of that, but I can't say it didn't make me happy.  (We all know I'm a terrible person, this is really nothing new)  She's one of my best friends and always will be so I'm not gonna lie, it was nice to see.  But then those tears started everyone else off.  Me, Crystal, and Renee, all one big sobbing mess!  What a sight we were.  But time was moving quickly and the line for security wasn't slowing down AT ALL.  So goodbyes were said and we parted.

Security was a nightmare.  Not that it was difficult to get through or anything, but that the line was SUPER long!  The good thing was that they were really pushing people through and it was maybe about a half hour wait, which really seems like forever when you have 2 super heavy bags on your arms.  The lady at the front of the line was Irish and when I told her where I was going, she joked saying she didn't like me anymore.  How nice....

While walking to my gate, I hear an announcement go up about "Flight 332 to Dublin via Air Transat.  There has been a gate change.  Your new gate will be C32."  Which is kind of weird because my original gate was C34.....Airports are a strange place.  The wait was uneventful, which I suppose is good in most cases.  But then my flight was delayed by almost an hour.  I was exhausted by this point as we didn't even start boarding until midnight, when we supposed to have left at 11:40.  Super exciting, NOT!

The plane, once everyone was boarded, wasn't full and people were offered to move to empty seats all around the cabin.  Except the first class cabin I think.  But the other two people in my row left, leaving me alone.  Not that I could get comfortable in any kind of position, because let's be serious, air plane seats were not designed to be super comfy.  They were designed to fit a million people into a sardine tin.

Once we landed, I made my way down through immigration, grabbed my bags, and headed out towards the exit.  I saw Cesca almost right away where the doll was waiting to take a snapchat and send it to my mom right away so she wouldn't worry.  I had arrived in Ireland.  Lord help them.