Cork Culture Night 2017: English Market | Cork, Ireland

This weekend, I had the opportunity to visit some of Cork’s Culture Night. According to my amazing pathology professor, Culture Night is something we should all experience before our graduation. It’s a night of celebration in Irish culture, art, and history. Culture Night began in Dublin, and has sprang up and grown over the years. Today, it is an all-Ireland, annual event, starting from early evening until about 9-10pm. Many of the museums and tourist attractions are open extended hours, with the aim of encouraging locals to experience and enrich the culture of their hometowns.

Photocreds: @sakugami (Instagram)

I specifically decided to go to Cork English Market, which has been known as one of the biggest tourist attractions here in Cork. On regular days, this covered market boasts a large selection of butchers, various fruit and vegetable stalls, and an array of gourmet items: spices, coffee, chocolate, pastries, bread, and desserts. It also plays hosts to the Farmgate Restaurant and Cafe, located on the second floor, with a selection of pastries and beer (and presumably coffee/tea) for visitors’ enjoyment.

When I walked in, the market was filled with people, whether just trying to get into queues for food, huddling around fancy looking tables with colourful balloon centrepieces, or simply milling about.

Second-floor view of English Market on Cork Culture Night 2017.

Photos at the English Market

Photocreds: @sakugami (Instagram)

 

 

During the festival, many of the stalls were open later, extending their offerings to include some “Culture Night” deals – most dishes were around 4-6 euros. This is quite amusing, because most places generally sell raw/uncooked foods. Tonight, though, they sold various cooked delights for patrons to discover. Chicken wings, pulled pork, salads, and various desserts were often paired with a “free” beer/cider; some places also sold stand-alone wines or beer.

So I wasn’t really hungry enough to order food, but apparently, dessert was one of those things I couldn’t pass up. Store: Marvellous Meringues.

This dessert is made up of three parts: two meringues (regular & cappacino) sandwiching a layer of chocolate, a graham cracker-and-fudge bar, and a numeric macaron, served with a dollop of cream and hot butterscotch fudge. Store: Marvellous Meringues.

There were even some musical groups playing (what I think is) traditional Irish music.

Although I didn’t have the opportunity to visit anything but the Cork English Market during this my first “Culture Night”, I definitely enjoyed the experience. There’s always a feeling of amazement that creeps in when visiting a covered market – perhaps a sense of personality and community that can’t be replaced by a simple visit to the supermarket. Walking among the throes of people that night fostered a sense of “belonging” in Cork – walking side-by-side with locals, experiencing and building their culture with them.

Next year, I hope to hit up other places as well – Cork City Hall, Elizabeth Fort (hopefully late enough at night that I can get a good view of the city), and perhaps some of the other touristy attractions as well.

PS. I’m writing this between studying, so I haven’t actually done any editing. I hope it reads alright! Anatomy seems to be my current worst enemy, so I’ll be disappearing again, try to tackle and befriend this new subject in my next few weeks.

PPS. Also, my lovely friend @sakugami took wayyy more photos than what I have here, so … Click on here for more!

Fitzgerald Park | Cork, Ireland

Fitzgerald Park is listed as one of the “top” attractions here in Cork. Named after Edward Fitzgerald, a Lord Mayor of Cork, this park began as an International Exhibition site to showcase how well the city was doing. Then eventually, it became a public park; It’s very well maintained, and honestly a bit like a garden.

Theres a fair-sized pond with lily pads, with a fountain right in the centre.

(2022 Ruth: apparently, I’ve lost this photo already, sorry!)

This park is also attractive for various of other reasons, including an extremely large children’s playground, a fair-sized pond with lily pads, a stage area for local performances, a cafe, and home to Cork City Museum.

A pretty red bench! Look how picturesque this is!

A cool rock formation!

Stage/park area!

I think that if I was a kid growing up near this park, I’d think any other park was kind of boring – this kid’s park seems to be the size of 3-4 of the regular sized parks back in Toronto.

The biggest kid’s playground ever! Too bad I’m pretty sure they don’t allow *adults* to play on it :P

One thing I’m amused about is that every park in Cork seems to have a fence around it. Actually, almost all the grounds everywhere have fences around it (even the school – I guess no late night studying is allowed there?).

Lord Mayors Tea House

School is starting soon, and it’s worth noting that this park is right behind the main school building (~10-20 minutes from the buildings I will attend first year classes from). Maybe, just maybe, I’ll have a chance to visit this park again, after classes, or on weekends.

Getting Settled: Arriving, Buying, and Commuting

Yesterday was a long day! After successfully boarding in Toronto (~3 hours), and again in St. John’s (~4 hours), I finally made it into Ireland! It was about 13°C when I landed, making my decision to don a sweater for this trip a good one.

Predeparture snapchat pic. Bye Canada!

I then took a 3.5 hour aircoach ride to Cork City, followed by a half hour local transit ride to my accommodations for the year. The bus ride was quite scenic, painted with rolling hills, flowing streams, and spotted with cattle. Nevertheless, I was happy to finally make it to my apartment.

A view from the bus route.

Almost there! Hello Cork!

I met one of my flatmates and her friend, and we chatted for a bit (while I ate) before I left again to avail of some necessities that didn’t quite make it into the checked baggage’s weight requirement.

I first went to Penneys (which is Primark everywhere else in Europe) to look at their clothing find bedding/duvet/towels. Luckily, everything I needed to buy was on sale as part of their “home event”! I was actually quite surprised that they had such things, as I seemed to have ignored that section entirely when I was at Primark back in Edinburgh. Regardless, I got what I needed.

The Penneys/Tesco Haul. Pictured from left to right: Duvet, Towels, shampoo/conditioner/Tesco body “soap”, duvet cover set, Tesco toothpaste, fitted sheet (there were no double sized grey fitted sheets left)

I also went to two different grocery stores (Tesco & Aldi), just to see their selections of food, as well as to buy some showering necessities. The thing I like most about Tesco especially is their selection of “essential” items that are priced extremely affordably. Yes, they might not be the brand we’re use to in Canada, but they’re much more wallet-friendly than their imported {American} counterparts. I also bought a few things so I can whip up a few meals at home the next few days, while I properly unpack my stuff and lounge around/ discover new places.

A picture of my first grocery haul! I also bought baby Spinach, but it didn’t quite make it into the photo.

Home-made Vegetable Purée Soup in a cup, sprinkled with a bit of dried basil!

Impressions

I think it’s too early to give a full impression of the area. Overall, I think the city is very kind to us students. I think its the courteous manner that I’ve received from the locals today – whether they were customs officers, bus drivers, fellow shoppers or cashiers. Certainly, the streets and architecture sparks a longing to re-visit Edinburgh, although I think it’ll realistically be a while from now.

I haven’t really been to any places apart from shops here, so I really don’t know much about the history, or the tourist areas in this city. The temperature was a little bit rainy, but overall not too humid. I think the sweaters I brought will come in handy, especially on long days of studying in the future.

About the flight

I flew WestJet’s econo class – the cheapest and most direct flight I could find, but you had to pay for things like baggage and food separately. I sat in a middle seat, which surprisingly, wasn’t as bad as I thought I’d be, although it was a little more difficult to sleep during the flight. Overall, I was pretty happy with the service at Westjet. The flight crew was very engaging and made the trip fun. Westjet also has this interesting way of connecting to their on-board entertainment, which requires you to have their app installed on your smartphone/tablet. Mine seemed to be malfunctioning though, as the movie I was watching (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) kept stopping and moving back to the main screen. There was no “turn on captions” function either, on the app, but I think its a pretty nice idea overall, as we finally get to control the obnoxiously loud volume that use to blare into our ears through the “front-of-seat” version. I suppose knowing that a “complimentary snack” was literally 6 corn chips or two cookies would’ve been helpful as well. Regardless, I wouldn’t actually mind flying them again, as long as I bring food and drinks with me.

About the SIM Card

I got my SIM Card at Three on St Patrick’s Street in Cork City. The store was right in front of my bus stop, so I figured, why not? I was recommended this company by some upper year students, and I think it’s a pretty good deal: a “PAYG” top-up €20 unlimited data, unlimited texting, and unlimited same-network calls, AND I get the keep the credit for use on other things. Oh, and if I leave for, say, France, I can still use 5 GB of data free of charge. I haven’t used it for very long, but one key difference I noticed that they use “4G” where we use “LTE”. Apparently, LTE is faster than 4G, but I think 4G is pretty fast anyway, so I’m find with it.

Getting ready for Ireland

August 18th, 2017

Hi all!

I’ve done lots since my last post, but it seems a new chapter of my life has begun. For those of you that don’t know, I’ll be starting medical school in Ireland this year. Moving my life (pretty much) abroad for the next four years is an exciting, yet daunting task.

I’ll be reopening this blog once again, and hopefully posting more regularly. I’ll also be trying to merge my old travel blogs as I go forward.

I’ve also been trying to wrap up everything – making this month one of many “lasts”. Whether it was to get paper work ready, resigning from work, arranging finances, hanging out with friends/family, or re-visiting childhood memories, a clock chimes, “you’re running out of time!”

I’ve pretty much toured Toronto/Markham a few times over at this point. I’m honestly grateful to have met up with so many people before leaving. They say what I’ll miss most apart from friends/family when studying abroad is home-foods: so things like bubble tea, Taiwanese fried chicken, and night markets were definitely on my list.

Some fancy foods I’ve been eating this past month – definitely food I’ll miss! Top left to bottom right: Bubble Tea at The Alley (Unionville), Lamb Skewers at Toronto Night Market, HK Milk Tea Thai Ice Cream Roll served on HK Egg Waffle, Sushi Combo at Il Bun Ji Sushi House, Taiwanese Fried Chicken at Lohas Cafe.

Pre-departure: Baggage

On another note, I’ve realized that I’ve accumulated a lot more stuff since the last time I’ve travelled. It is now infinitely more difficult to fit everything into one 23kg suitcase. I didn’t take a photo of my checked baggage, but take a look at my tentative carry-on luggage contents!

My Carry-on baggage (note: the instant noodles didn’t quite make it into my  carry on)

Pre-departure: Immigration Documents

I think Edinburgh immigration info was much easier to obtain. I suppose that was because I did all of the research on my own, so I needed to go over everything many times. This time though, the application organization I went through used email communication primarily. I ended up looking up on the Irish Visa information page, and came up with this summary of documents:

1. Passport
2. Proof of funds (at least 3000 euros)
3. Letter of Offer + relevant emails (because the school doesn’t really send you “acceptance letter, per say)
4. Proof of school payment (so basically a bunch of wire transfer receipts)
5. Health/Immunization documents for school
6. Proof of Private Insurance (I went with a local Irish Insurance… recommended by school/application organization/upper years).

With just two days till take-off, I’m pretty much packed. It’s a little bittersweet to know that I might not be back in a while, but I’m excited to get to Ireland and start school. Here’s to hoping for a safe flight!