Hey Owlets,
When asked to name a few of my favourite trips over the past few years one of the first things to come up is my cruise to County Cork. It wasn’t just the cruise itself, but the areas of the county that we visited, the brilliant independent retailers, the kindness and willingness of complete strangers to make sure we enjoyed our trip, and the food of course. County Cork is known for being a very foodie place to visit and it didn’t disappoint! We went for the cruise and stayed for the food! Fair warning, I hadn’t yet gone gluten free when we took this trip, so be prepared to hate me when I talk about the farmers market sandwich we had, because I’m jealous of my past self too.
Our first morning in Cork was the day of the two breakfasts. This is something that very rarely happens - I’m not a breakfast person at all so I wouldn’t usually even have one but “when in Rome” and all that. It was our first morning on board the ship so I had to try the breakfast, and when we went to explore the local area I instantly regretted it!
After a wander around the market and the city we made a few stops on the outskirts before heading to Blarney Castle - my dad’s choice and it was stunning! The legend says that when you kiss the Blarney Stone at the top of the castle (could you imagine doing that in 2020?!) you get the gift of the Blarney (the gab, if you’re American). We didn’t actually get to do it as Dad’s heart was bad that day, but we still spent a stunning afternoon around the grounds. It was absolutely freezing so we stopped in the cafe for a coffee & the best lemon drizzle cake Dad’s ever had (in his own words) before heading back to meet Mum and our driver for the day at Blarney Woollen Mills. When we arrived he said “trust me, you need to try the food here”. Having had salad for breakfast and cake for lunch I wasn’t really ready for anything else, but I applied the “when in Rome” philosophy once again and had a smoked salmon salad which was INCREDIBLE. You know those meals where months later you’re at home and randomly start craving this specific thing you had when travelling? I want that salad so badly.
After our day of exploring the county and eating all the food, we went back to the ship for the evening. The ship was due to depart the next day at 2pm so we decided to stay around Cobh where the ship had docked. We walked through the town & stumbled across a Farmer’s Market. We got chatting to one of the stallholders that ran a local smokery and, despite telling him we weren’t allowed to buy anything to take back on board, he insisted we try it just because he was proud of his products. The smoked fish was honestly one of the best things I’ve ever eaten so he suggested that, if we wanted to, we could buy some bread from the bakery stall next to him & he would make a sandwich for us and we weren’t about to pass up that opportunity. We bought the most incredible bread rolls, which he then layered with smoked salmon paté, pieces of smoked salmon and flaked smoked mackerel, and charged us €4 for both. That was honestly one of the best (and unsurprisingly most decadent) sandwiches I’ve ever eaten.
If you plan to visit Cork yourself then my advice is to go hungry! The restaurants and markets serve some of the best food you will ever try. On top of that, everyone is really kind and the stallholders are so proud of their products that it would almost be offensive to turn down their offers to try their food - it’s honestly more a case that they’re proud of what they’re selling than they’re trying to get you to buy it.
Have you been to County Cork? If so I’d love to also hear your experiences in the comments below to help me relive my own trip!
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