Road trip through Ireland Part 2: From Waterford to Cork

Our first night in Waterford we left the hotel to explore the city. Little did we know that the city centre of Waterford is so tiny it only takes about an hour to see everything.

It was quite enjoyable though to walk around there in the drizzle. Some of the highlights? Well, we discovered an actual sand marina. I didn't even know such a thing existed, but I guess sometimes you need to have a little sand with your boats. Or something.

A sand marina

There were around 30 swans swimming in the marina/lake in front of our hotel who were a lot of fun to watch, as you usually don't see that many of them together.

The only other highlight I can think of was the Thai restaurant across the street from the hotel. We ordered some to take back to the hotel with us and it was really very good.

So all in all Waterford wasn't a very exciting place, but that was ok because we had a nice hotel to stay at and lots of stuff in the surroundings to go see.

We went to see the Rock of Cashel, which is an old rune on top of a hill, hence the name I guess. Cashel is a lovely little town, and since we were there just before the tourist season started it was mainly just us and the locals.

One of the things that the locals like to do is shoot stuff. It was quite a surprise to us as we're from countries where hardly anyone owns a gun and even when they do, there really isn't that much to shoot.

The Irish, however, have nothing but stuff to shoot. Or perhaps they just want to shoot everything. It was very weird coming across nature resorts which had big signs saying "No shooting." Seriously?

Gun stores are everywhere

We also came across quite a few gun stores where you can go and get yourself a gun or some ammo. This is probably totally normal to the Irish, but for us it was a little strange.

Rock of Cashel

Anyways, the Rock of Cashel was quite impressive and we spend quite some time looking at it and the beautiful view of parts of Ireland you had from there.

More Rock of Cashel prettiness

Unlike what the receptionist at the hotel had told us, the weather was quite nice this day. It was so warm and sunny that when we arrived at a local beach all of the locals were there sunbathing and swimming. I guess if you're used to Irish temperatures 21 degrees Celsius and sun qualifies as summer beach weather.

We thought "When you're in Rome…" and decided to have a walk along the beach. No swimming for us though, but we did dip our feet in the water, which was freezing cold!

We also collected some pretty shells and rocks, which looked much nicer than the stuff we usually have on our beaches. And like everything in Ireland, the beaches were also very beautiful.

The next day it was time to move to our next destination, Cork. We drove along the coast for as much of the journey as possible. We stopped at a few places where it looked like it might be beautiful.

Yes, that were quite a few places, but not as many as you might think. I guess you get used to the general prettiness of a place.

It also didn't help that it was raining. A lot. Like pouring down. That's also how we arrived in Cork, with cold, rainy autumn like weather. That wasn't even the worst thing about Cork. Yes, prepare yourself for a post full of complaining next.

Read Part 1 of the road trip through Ireland here.