It's been a month since I started working in Cork, Ireland. Cork is the second "biggest" city, next to Dublin, in Ireland. But coming from London, I find this to be a small town. The Cork City Centre is made up of one main road, Patrick Street, lined with shopping centres and the other with offices running parallel to Patrick Street, the South Mall.
Cork is a very nice place. The whole "City" is built around a valley with hills on all the sides. A river runs by the city centre that takes you all the way to the Celtic Sea. Titanic's last port of call was Cork. Cork has the second largest natural harbour, next only to Sydney.
On my first week of stay here, I covered every bit of Cork, both by walking and by bus. I did a return walk to the office from the city centre on the day of my interview. It's about 6kms and I got a chance to glimpse the city roads and the nice houses. There is a nice marina along the river, good for walking or jogging.
When the weather is good, means it doesn't rain or isn't too windy, I walk to my B&B from work. The weather here should be similar to the Scottish Highlands - it rains, rains, rains and rains. On the days there is sunshine, there are loads of bikers, most of them cruisers. I miss my Yam when I see those bikers having a nice ride along the city streets.
My daily commute door-to-door is just about 30 minutes and 20 minutes of that is walking from my B&B to the Bus stop and then to my office. All the bus stops have the timings displayed for the starting and ending points of the bus journey in that route. I presume the only reason for doing is that, the routes are so short that there is no point in displaying the bus times for individual stops. The city buses I've travelled so far have all been on time, to the minute. So commuting wise, I don't have a problem at all.
Oh, one last word about this place. Ireland is very, very, very expensive compared to London. I will never ever moan again that London is expensive. And with regard to the public conveniences (you know what I mean), you got to pay 20cents every time, even in shopping complexes that is the rule. The bus station tickets office is open between 0900 and 1730 (only). That means you got to take time off to buy bus passes. And the monthly bus passes are issued once a month starting from the month. London is far far convenient and flexible. I love London - my Home.
