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!