A Day Trip to Cobh, Ireland
Last weekend we took a little trip to a nearby town called Cobh. I don’t really know why we went, because when we looked up the town there didn’t seem to be much to do. The internet actually told us that one of the most popular things to do in Cobh was to go visit Cork, where we live. Needless to say, we didn’t have extremely high expectations.
We decided to just go for it and made the trek to the train station, where we got on the cleanest train I’ve ever seen in my life and looked out at the Irish landscape roll by for a half hour. It dropped us off at a beautiful coastal town where the sun peeked through the clouds to shine on a cathedral on the top of the hill. We didn’t have a plan or know what to do, so we just set out and walked down the colorful streets with cafes and shops without a care in the world. We stopped to smell the roses, literally, because there were flowers outside of every shop and on every corner. After drinking lattes and eating bagels on the street, we ventured up the hill to the cathedral as the bells chimed and took in the view of Cobh from above. The view looked over the multi-colored town and the water that was sprinkled with sailboats. The smell of the ocean was my favorite part – there was something so comforting in the fact that I could be thousands of miles away and it still has that same smell.
After taking in all of the intricate details on the inside of the cathedral and posing for way too many pictures in front of blue houses on hilly streets, we ended our day sitting at the end of a pier with our legs hanging off, listening to crashing waves, and soaking up the bits of sun that we could. Cobh has quite a few sites and museums aimed at tourists and although I probably would have loved them, it was nice to show up with no itinerary and just walk around and get a little lost. I am a sucker for the little things; my favorite way to spend an afternoon is to find a corner in a cozy coffee shop and people watch. I have a hefty list of attractions and sights that I need to see before I leave Ireland but more than anything I want to take in every bit of this easygoing lifestyle. I am not usually one to travel without a plan but I learned that sometimes you need to escape to a small town you know nothing about and just go.
