On Wednesday May 29th, we took the tube to Heathrow hours before we needed to be on our flight to Ireland in case of anything unexpected.  If you ever travel with me, that’s how I roll.  I like to be at the airport early, especially the first time I fly from that airport.  Plus I’m one of those weirdos who actually likes airports.  We left from Terminal 2 – the Queens terminal and it was WAY nicer than the terminal we landed in.  We wandered around the terminal shops after clearing security and had breakfast while we waited for our flight.

We flew Aer Lingus from London to Cork which was super cheap, roughly $100 per person.  There were limits to the size of luggage you could carry on, and those limits varied from the limits in the US.  I had researched that ahead of time (shocking I know) and knew our backpacks would meet those requirements.   If you wanted a snack or beverage on the flight, you did have to purchase it, and I think I had to pay a small fee to select our seats.  

We landed in Cork mid-afternoon, cleared customs and went in search of an ATM to get Euros, (the UK and northern Ireland use the pound, while The Republic of Ireland is part of the European Union and uses the Euro) and find the rental car desk.  We had to wait for over an hour to get our car as they were waiting for a car to be returned – the one we were supposed to have had not been returned on time.  So, they upgraded us and gave us the next car that was returned, which just happened to be an Audi. 

Then, it was time to leave the airport…gulp…at what ended up being right around rush hour…driving on the wrong side of the road and the wrong side of the car (wrong for a US driver anyway – quite right in other parts of the world!).  We were headed to Cobh (pronounced Cove) for the next three nights.  Cobh is only 17 miles from Cork, but those 17 miles were HARROWING for me.  We had planned for me to drive and Mike to navigate.  That is typically how we work best (see previous post about my map reading abilities).   I had completely wigged myself out about driving in Ireland.  The roads are narrow, so many of the articles I had read said whatever you do, don’t drive.  And then the whole roundabout thing…for a girl that grew up in the middle of the prairie where you might have to go round a cow on your way to town, roundabouts don’t make much sense to me.  Cattle guards? Those I get.  Roundabouts – foreign concept.   So we left the airport, went through several roundabouts before exciting the airport, and then were trying to get onto one of the national primary roads in Ireland (meaning it is a bit larger than other roads, but not quite like our interstates).   We were in 2 lanes of traffic going into the roundabout. I was in the inside lane, gripping the wheel so hard my fingers were going numb, and maps was telling us we needed the 2nd or 3rd exit (can’t remember which).  For those of you as unfamiliar as I was with roundabouts, exits are each point in the round about that traffic can exit.  If you are in the inside lane, you can’t take the first exit – that is only for those in the left lane.  If you are in the left lane, you can either exit, or continue around the roundabout.  Facts I didn’t at that time know. We were confused and for some reason thought we needed to exit there in the first exit (even though maps was saying 2nd or 3rd), so I did that.  From the inside lane.  Next to me, in the left lane, trying to go straight was a garbage truck.  With a very unhappy driver who thankfully was paying attention to the tourists in the car next to him and honked but let me go.  Without running right into the side of my car.  So within 10 minutes of leaving the airport, I almost got us into an accident and an accident that would have had the garbage truck run right into Trey…

We somehow got on the right path, and white knuckled our way to Cobh.  Friends, Irelands roads are NARROW.  I know everything you read will tell you they are narrow, but they are NARROW.  And driving on the left side of the road and the right side of the car was so disorienting for me.  I felt like I was going to go off the very narrow road (there really are no shoulders), or into the other lane of the very narrow road the.entire.drive.  I don’t remember much of that drive.  I just remember thinking those were the longest 17 miles of my life and I have driven 17 miles in white out conditions on a sheet of ice.   We finally made it too Cobh and found our Air B&B.  Cobh’s streets are somewhat like Duluth Minnesota’s or Houghton Michagan’s streets.  They are all on a pretty steep incline leading up from the water.   Where they differ is in how wide they are.  The street in front of our super cute row house would be considered a one way in the US.  In Ireland it was a two way, and cars were allowed to park in front of the houses!

We got moved in to our home for the next three days, and then ventured out to find the grocery store with Mike driving this time.  He did much better than me.  I love to visit grocery stores in the different places we visit, and Ireland didn’t disappoint.  It was fun to see what was the same, and what was different between there and the US.  There food seemed to be much more locally produced than ours, and their eggs are not kept in the fridge.  We loaded up on supplies for the next few days and headed back to our house to settle fully in. 

After we were settled we took a walk down by the water to find supper.  And we promptly fell in love with the town of Cobh.  On this side of our trip looking back, I can say I’ve never been anywhere like it.  It still has the small town feel while being somewhat touristy.  I say that because it doesn’t seem to be the place tourists want to go to stay.  They likely will stay in Cork and take the train to Cobh or come in on a cruise ship and wander around Cobh for an afternoon before taking the train into Cork.  So of all the places we went, even though it’s a cruise ship port, it didn’t feel as touristy.  

After a full day of trains, airports, airplanes and driving on the narrowest roads I’ve seen (to this point), we were glad for our Airbnb, a space we could call ours, and returned there fairly early in the evening to play a couple games of cards before heading for bed.  Trey was so excited to have his own room here cause someone in the family snores…we won’t publicly call that person out. 

Next time, I’ll take you with us as we explored Cobh!