Anna in Cork – Throwback
In the lead up to our next trip to The Rebel County this June, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on a couple of our previous trips! Kiera and I had a ball at the beginning of November last year and Myself and Selma had a wonderful trip down at the end of March!
Back in November on mine and Kiera’s first night we braved a walk up the infamous Patricks Hill for sunset. It was something I had never done before and despite the cold and wet I agreed (reluctantly). The view at the top was 100% worth the uphill climb and we sat there for hours chatting and admiring the view!
After that we headed over to CoqBull and had some of the best cocktails of my life! Yes, they were as good as they look! I had the ‘Pulled Bull’ burger which had both beef and pulled pork. Quite a feast for a former veggie! It was delicious! I even went back with Selma on our trip in March!
It was an early night for Kiera and I though because the next morning we were heading out towards kinsale!
On the way we passed a Garda checkpoint! We had scones ready to sweeten them if needs be but they couldn’t help but laugh as we pulled up on this narrow country road! After a couple curious questions they quickly waved us on to go about our day.
The residents were ecstatic once they were on board! One lady kept yelling ‘I’m in heaven, I’m in heaven!’ while others sang along to familiar songs and sipped away at their tea! It was a really great opportunity to hear the residents’ stories. One lovely man called Simon was very keen for chats! It was easy to understand why once we were told that in his 17 years in the nursing home this was only his 2nd outing!
It was a really exciting day and one of the most beautiful trips I have ever been on with the bus! The people of Kinsale were shocked to see this brightly coloured biscuit tin on wheels driving through their town!
I stood at the back platform waving at everyone as we passed! It’s one of my favourite parts of working at VTT! You’ll catch me doing the same in Dublin! Hanging off the back of the bus and waving at people in phoenix park! Puts a grin on my face to see people’s reactions!
We then drove out to the ‘Moving Statue of Ballinspittle’ and quickly noticed that a car had started following us! Once we pulled in at the statue a photographer came over to chat with us saying that upon seeing the bus he couldn’t help but follow and see where we ended up. He asked if he could take pictures of the bus and once we explained what we were up to and the care workers had approved it, he started taking pictures of the residents on their trip. Laughing having tea and saying a prayer at the statue before we headed off!
In March, Selma and I stayed up near the beautiful Elizabeth Fort! Such a nice area of town even though the walk home each evening was uphill!
We arrived there late on Thursday evening and decided to battle our tiredness and head out for something to drink!
Boy am I glad we did because we quickly stumbled upon the blue exterior of Tom Barry’s which quickly became our new favorite pub! Cork was absolutely buzzing because everyone had come back that evening from the races. After a couple drinks and a pizza in Tom Barry’s we braved the walk into town through the wind and rain and although we had received plenty of recommendations of places 
to visit, we ignored them all and headed over to The Washington Inn where myself and Kiera had visited last November.
The place was much busier than it had been back then! We had a great night watching everyone dressed to the nines from the races drunkenly dancing!
We had a few too many drinks and joined in the drunken celebrations before heading back to Tom Barry’s for one last paint before bed!
I’m glad we were not scheduled for anything on Friday morning as we both nursed our hangovers!
It was Selma’s first time in the city so I got the opportunity to show her around and bring all the history she had learnt to life before our first tour! We visited the beautiful English Market! Selma was very excited! So excited that one of the stall workers mistook us for tourists and asked if we wanted a photo! Of course we said yes!
We had such a great time giving the tours over the weekend! We had a hen party on one of our trips and they really commited to the vintage theme with pink beret’s and the bride to be dressed up to the nines!
On another trip we had a lovely group of ladies tell us that our route was a real trip down memory lane for them as we passed many of their old haunts! We love hearing the stories of the people of cork!
I will soon be embarking on my 4th trip to Cork! From my very first trip in July last year I have very quickly fallen in love with the city! Working with Mags from The Pastry Fork and the Maldron on South Mall is always a delight!
The team at the Maldron can never do enough to help us out (probably because we give them a big plate of cakes at the end of the day)
I’m very excited to be heading down to Cork three weekends in a row in June and hope to see you all on board and explore more of the city! You can get tickets for our Cork tours HERE. If anyone has recommendations of places to go or things to see, let me know!
See ya in Cork!