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Vivir en Cork siendo español

A Spanish Tale in Cork

Spanish in Cork City

My name is Gabriel, I am a Spanish guy who came to Cork City in Ireland for work. I am really delighted that I made the choice to come to Ireland and especially Cork rather than Dublin. The first thing you notice is that Cork is much smaller than Dublin. However for a small city there is still a lot to see and do, the people are friendlier and it is very safe. I would like to share with you some of my recent experience of Spanish in Cork City. Please read on and I am sure it will encourage you to come and enjoy this marvelous place.

During my short stay here, I have already realised that Cork is a city with a lot of things to do, specially if you like good music. Cork City hosts many kind of festivals and events, a lot of them of international interest such as the Cork Jazz Festival, the Cork Folk Festival, St. Patrick’s Festival, The International Choral Festival and much more. Without going further, last weekend was Cork’s Jazz Festival, so let me share my weekend with you as I explored Ireland’s second biggest city:

On Friday: I made the most of the day and I went for a walk with some friends around the city, we toured part of the city starting from the wonderful views of the River Lee at Sullivan’s Quay’s bridge, then we strolled by St Patrick’s Street through the city centre enjoying the music of the buskers, ending our tour at the city quay’s. At night we decided to go for a pint to an Irish pub, live music was in every bar so it was difficult to make a decision, but we ended in a pub called Triskel where jazz music was playing and we enjoyed a relaxed atmosphere while tasting a traditional Irish black beer called “Murphy’s Stout”.

On Saturday: We took the opportunity to walk out to Cork’s suburbs, so we decided to go for a walk to Fitzgerald Park which is approximately a 20 minute walk from the city centre. Once there, we realised that the Cork Public Museum is situated in the park itself, so we took advantage of the occasion to explore the history of the region. There we could enjoy the medieval archaeological collection and learned a lot of Cork’s history, it was really interesting.

Once night came, we decided to go out and listen to some good music again.There is no better place for that than the Oliver Plunkett bar. It is a pub with two floors and on both of them were different groups playing live music.

It is something strange for people like us who come from Spain or other countries to find this amount of live music with this facility. In our home cities, it is very hard to find live music in a bar, and even more difficult when the musicians are playing just in front of you as though they were just another customer having a beer in the pub.

On Sunday: Surprisingly, we were not tired and we went again for a stroll, but this time, we went to the south of the city. We toured the lovely Cork Lough, and then we went to the Clashduv Park, enjoying again the city landscape. When the sun set, we went with some other friends who are working in Cork as au pairs (there are a lot of Spanish people working here as au pairs) to the city centre. In this case we went to a place on Phoenix Street called Crane Lane, where a rock band was playing and then a Dj replaced them. It was yet another great day out in Cork and it ended in the very early hours as we danced the night away.

As you can see, I had a great weekend. Cork always has a new event ongoing or something different to do. While we just stayed in the heart of the city for the weekend, there is a huge amount of choice of things to do once you go further out into the country side. Here are some more of my suggestions that I hope to explore in the coming weeks.

Parks
Doneraile Country Park,
Fota Wildlife Park
Gougane Barra
Millstreet Country Park
All of these places are beautiful places and it is good to know that both Donerail and Gougane barra are both free.

History & Culture
There are lots of places where you can expand your knowledge of history of Ireland and Cork.
Cork Gaol,
Fort Camden
Elizabeth Fort.
Titanic Museum

If you want to discover a little more of the South-West Ireland region, there are so many other amazing places such as Blarney Castle, Spike Island, Charles Fort, etc… In all of these, you can enjoy wide open spaces and take advantage of the very best Irish landscape views.

See you in Cork!

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