One Thing Thursdays: Pre-Paddy's Day Edition

Cork, Ireland

In honor of the impending barrage of Irishness that is St. Pat's next week, I figured I'd espouse the loveliness of Cork, a city I lived in for six months. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Des Moines: it's a mid-sized city with a college or two and seriously loyal city evangelists.

Let's hop to it, shall we? My one thing to do in Cork: Take a long walk.

Cork is a really walkable city and you'll stumble across a lot of interesting places to duck into if it gets too windy. But the best place to find is the English Market. It's an indoor, year-round farmer(ish) market with loads of meats, cheeses, veggies and junk. Pick up a snack and keep walking. Walk past the Murphy's brewery and lovely little homes and churches and stop in to Lennox's for chips and garlic mayo. Wander around the University College campus. Buy some Cadbury eggs. Head to pubs and warm up with a pint.

OK, that was way more than one thing. Let's call it one thing with distractions.

If you have time for two things: Listen to people fighting. This does not sound fun, but it's just so awesome that their F-bombs have Es instead of Us and they say ye instead of you. Charming.