Getting Lost in Cork

Cork is a big city, as far as anything we’ve seen outside of Dublin thus far. We are staying at an old but very upscale place called the Ambassador. Looks like there is a lot of options for sight seeing within walking distance. No specific plans for here yet, but hoping we can tour Black Rock or Jameson. We shall see what comes up!

Amy and I had an hour before dinner reservations, so decided to go out on the town. The niceish lady (she was kind of

snooty, actually - only one we had like that) at the desk told us there was a general store down the hill and two blocks left, so we followed the directions and found the store, taking a general gander of the place. It’s very hilly, and fairly active with walkers, bike riders and the usual cars. We still had 40 minutes or so, and Amy thought it would be fun to explore on the way back, so we headed back a different way with our general directions in mind. We made it several blocks without seeing a cut over to the left, where we anticipated our hotel would be. Eventually, there was a stairway that climbed up several flights of stairs heading in the direction we wanted to go, so we hoofed it up. We were both out of wind by the time we reached the top, which cracked us both up. That’s what lack of exercise and lots of car and plane time may do to a person.

We turned left, assuming this would lead us back to the Ambassador, but after a time, it was apparent that we made a wrong turn in Albequerque At one point, we were by a military base and barracks. There was a large stone wall to either side of the road, so we were limited on options of direction. When we got to a left turn, we made it and got some fantastic views of the city at night. We continued down the road, looking for the spire of the church that we saw from our room, but no success was to be had. We finally asked a very nice and drunken Irishman, who was still nursing a buzz leftover from St Pats, and he gave us some general directions and seemed happy to do so. We moved that way, stopping to ask a younger man after going awhile...he tried to lead us towards the river, but neither Amy nor I thought this was correct, so we

continued on the path. Eventually, we saw an older man walking with a cane, but seeming to know where he was going. We asked him if he knew where the Ambassador was. He replied “ZE AMBASSADOOOR?” in a very German accent. He pointed the direction and gave us heavily accented steps to get back (take zis left on den take anozer left), which got us back to the hotel, albeit, we were 10 minutes late. When Amy left for our short walk, she had 9,000 steps and 4 flights of stairs - after our walk, she had 13,700 and 28 floors, so we feel like we’ve done our workout for the night. I hated getting lost, but I’m thrilled about finding that spot for pictures.

We had a nice meal with our friends downstairs at McGettigan’s where we shared our adventure with them and made plans for breakfast. Then we retired to our room where we video chatted with Ian, Brennan and Grandma S, who they are staying with, and then with Aiden down at MSU.

Amy worked on washing laundry, drying it and getting some ironed / heated our dirty clothes, since our trip to the Laundrette fell flat, and now we’re heading to bed.