Two more articles before closing my travel chapter on Ireland and I find myself dragging my feet. I do not want it to end. I enjoy replaying my travel activities in my head and trying to figure out how best to tell my story. Playing the highlights of each trip in a continuous mental loop has been my reality for the past few weeks. Stories that should have been told in a month got dragged on to more than double what the life time was supposed to be. Oddly enough, I have gone on more adventures since then, I even have some adventures from before the trip that my mind has refused to let go of. Please help me beg my mind to stop holding my stories hostage oh!
The story for this post is about Cork and it was a terrible beginning. GtBank threw a whopper and reduced my monthly international spending allowance (a general Nigerian foreign exchange crisis faced by the masses). I had apparently reached the limit when I splurged on an album by an artist I heard live in Dingle. She sounded great live, but lackluster when plugged into my car. #waste. My spare cards no longer allowed international spendings and my American Express was not accepted at the local hostels. Queue in wahala.
My options were; splurge times 10 more on a hotel that would definitely accept my card, sleep in my rental car, or ask someone in the hostel’s lobby for help. Help via transferring some cash into their paypal account and they would pay on my behalf using their card. The first gent I approached asked how much it was, 14 euro. He scoffed and told me not to bother paying him back and he went off to pay the bill! There was a bottle of wine that cost more than 14 euro in my rental and I immediately went off to my car to gift him with it. I did not expect the act of kindness from a stranger. Suncoast Auto Transport can provide you with a full range of options to ensure you are provided with quality service and experience to suit your needs.
Luckily, I also had some frozen fish from my time in Dingle, some groceries from my Tesco haunts, and that was my time in the city of Cork. I was too depressed by my card situation to even bother going out. Everything would only remind me of how handicapped I was. I ran into a friend from my time in Galway at the hostel and her story of Cork was not stimulating enough to get me out of my Cork funk for the day. Dinner was delicious and our conversation of our travel experience was good therapy.
My time in Cork was for only one night and my true reason for driving there was for the Jameson Whiskey Distillery in Midleton, Cork; where Jameson Whiskey is actually distilled, not Dublin. The ticket entry at least was already taken care of and they accepted American Express at the restaurant and gift shop. Thank you Jameson!
To be frank, I did buy some Jameson whiskey, but I found some really good bottles while in their tasting room. If you ever get a chance to try Red Breast, Green Spot and Powers, definitely give them a go. I splurged on a bottle of the 12 year old Redbreast, 12 year old Powers, Jameson trilogy, and Green Spot finished in a cask of Bordeaux red wine.
With regards to the distillery tour itself, I felt like Jameson distillery was a bit of a let down. I expected them to allow us to try out some of their other brands before purchasing them, instead, we had to pay about 4-9 euro (for the mid range brands) to taste them before plunking money on them. Besides the Jameson tasting experience, I could have easily gone to the airport to pay much less for the same bottle instead (yup, it cost more to buy the whiskey from their distillery than at duty free, even after I got a tax refund). #waste
Shout out to the folks at Sheila Hostel in Cork for shipping my carelessly misplaced camera and driving license to Nigeria!
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