Cork My Lovely Home by the Lee

You have to start with a healthy breakfast or for me, it’s a scone and coffee from a little corner coffee shop off Barrack Street that serves the best home-made scones in the City. Only a few minutes walk from my parent's house this little oasis is a gem and anyone visiting the south-side of the city need and must call in for a coffee.

The head down into the city and visit the English Market, take in the beautiful smells and funny banter with the traders. The market has been in the same place since 1788, it attracts thousands of local customers and tourists on private city tours every-day. Even Queen Elizabeth II who came in 2011 during her state visit just loved the market. Its fresh produce is snapped up very quickly by the city’s restaurants and residents where you can go to try local specialities such as tripe and drisheen (something to do with a sheep).

Relax and take your time looking around my lovely Cork there is a wealth of fabulous shops to have a wander around and of course, there is PENNYS the most famous store in the city.  All Cork people will tell you there is nowhere on the planet like Pennys (it’s got a whole lot of things for Christmas it’s got a lot for the family) best shop EVER… You can literally spend hours in there strolling around its awesome.

If you want to do a bit of a Cork guided tour during the day a visit to St Anne’s Church in Shandon it is a must and if you are lucky you might be able to ring the bells. Locally it is called the 4 liars because none of the clocks every tells the correct time and we love it.

The Lough another famous place on the Southside of the city the picture is not great but to be fair we were in the Chinese at the time and I was a little under the influence but this place has huge memories in my childhood hanging out there hearing stories from my parents about times they had there skating on the ice. It is 1 mile around so in the evening you will see a lot of people our walking their dogs and doing laps, this area is full of history and loved by all the locals.

So now down to the serious stuff the Guinness & Irish Whiskey, every holiday has to start with a pint of the black stuff (as we call it in Cork) and a high stool in the local (bar) so here is a little snap I took it was not all mine but you get the idea!!

 The Blarney Stone is one of Cork's popular sightseeing tours another top attraction in Cork and as you can see by my reaction a hard one for me but while I was home my nieces were visiting and they wanted to go so off we went. Climbing the couple of hundred steep steps was one thing but getting to the top and realising you have to walk back down them was another for me not to mention the tipping over the edge to kiss the stone. Anyway, we did it and it was great fun in the end by the way that is me in the sky blue jacket with my head in my hands hi-hi-hi.

These pictures say it all for me Corks famous queen cakes made by yours truly (cup-cakes), apples stewing for a Mammy Apple Tart, jazzes, snakes, red hearts and whatever other sweeties is in the pictures, these are all tastes and memories of my childhood and I still can’t get enough of them (unfortunately).

Now it's on to lovely Crosshaven, as a family we would go there for a month every summer and while I was a little too young to remember flashes come back to me from time to time and I know from the stories of my family that it was always full of fun. As you can see from the pictures below it uniquely beautiful and one of my happy places.

There is a lot more to see and do in Cork City with some of the best pubs, sightseeing tours and tourists attractions in Ireland.

Another religion in Cork is, of course, our huge GAA history Corkonians can be heard cheering on the teams with chants of “Up The Rebels”.

Cork is an amazing cite and I am proud to be from there while many of you will think “of course she will say that’ trust me to make the effort to visit and you will NOT be disappointed.