Anniversaries are great, we should really have more of them

For the first time ever I think I have actually done too many things over the last few days  for one blog post. This is not good for my blog or my need for sleep but otherwise good for my life. It's okay though because I have a perfectly reasonable explanation for my carry on. This weekend myself and the boyfriend are going out a full year and we had made all of the plans for celebration. We were  going to Cork for the weekend but first we were celebrating Halloween night down here. I think we might have actually taken on too much for one weekend because I know I am barely sitting upright now on my couch to type this.

So Halloween night will get the short shift in blog terms as I have far too much of Saturday to write about and I need to lie down somewhere so I can start feeling like a human again but I will summarize like a pro and you'll a general idea. We went to see The Riptide Movement play in Shortts bar and they played up a storm to a very drunk crowd. I was sober as a newt and I had a great time. Anyway Stephen had promised me he would introduce me to the band seeing as he knew them but then he had wine and forgot all about that. I did get introduced to two of the guys in the band but only because I prodded him relentlessly until he took the hint. I wasted the opportunity by getting shy and tongue tied. We then ambitiously followed that up by heading down to the Theatre Royal to see a midnight showing of Nightmare on Elm Street. By the time we got down there, I was ready for my bed and then there was all sort of technical glitches so it went on for longer than it should have and I was physically wilting. It also seems my memory of this movie was not quite accurate because I wasn't even a tiny bit scared, its actually a little bit ridiculous. 

The next morning I crawled out of bed to get ready for Cork and I drove down tired and cranky to the soundtrack of sideways rain, hoping it would ease off before we got to the city. It didn't. We made it down in good time but our hostel was down a lane and I ended up spending 40 mins parking because I have issues with reversing distances and parallel parking and I ended up doing an 18 point turn with an audience watching as my car made contact with the wall behind me far too many times before I managed to turn it. We checked into Kinlay house and they showed us to our room which was a spacious ensuite just around the corner from the main hostel, an absolute bargain for €50 (between the two of us).
We headed to the English market for a wander through the maze of food stalls, mostly stuff I would like but could not have and then browsed in a few shops before stopping for food at Uncle Pete's restaurant. We stopped in at the Crawford art gallery for a spot of culture, I was definitely less bored than I usually am at those sort of things and I did enjoy the Harry Clark exhibit they have on at the moment. I might be converted into an art liker yet.
 After that we wandered in and out of different clothes shops, Stephen got himself some new jeans and bought me an Urban decay eyeshadow pallette so everyone was happy and we stopped for a quick drink in a local bar before heading back to our room to lie down and refresh ourselves for the night ahead.

We got a table at the Liberty Grill because someone had cancelled last minute and I will admit I wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be pretty swish looking despite the unassuming name. Much to my surprise there were several options I would voluntarily eat on the menu and after much deliberation I picked a nut burger without the bun and with fries. Stephen got a wild hog burger which took ages (according the menu) but was well worth the wait. The waiter gave me a heads up that my burger had some breadcrumbs in it but I like to live on the edge so I ordered it anyway. Our food was delicious and not too pricey for what you were getting. I was a bit afraid to finish my burger in case I was ill for the rest of the night but it was good and I didn't die.

After dinner we headed on a mini pub crawl in which I discovered two things. Stephen knows some pretty cool bars in Cork city but has an absolutely terrible sense of direction so lets take a moment to be grateful for google maps. The first place we stopped was Arthur Mayne's Bar (the pharmacy). It used to be a pharmacy back in the long long ago and they kept many souvenirs from that time to give the place a quirky twist. The bar was full of cosy dark corners and each table had an old wine bottle holding a candle. On the back wall they had a wine vending machine where you could buy a taste, glass or bottle of a large variety of wines. My favourite thing of all though was in the Ladies bathroom cubicle they had a giant glass cabinet full of beauty products the pharmacy would have sold.

For a change of scene we followed that with a bar called Fred Zeppelin's. Its a biker bar playing Rock and Heavy metal. A bit like Murphy's bar in Waterford only less dingy and with cooler posters. 

Then to finish the night off we headed to Crane lane theatre. Cork has all of the cool venues. It used to be a theatre and their main bar still has the red theatre curtains up on the stage where the dj or live bands play. There was a nice vibe to the place but we had the sense the main bar was about to get a bit mental as the night went on so we slipped next door to where they had a mod themed bar playing 60's and 70's music. It had a much more laid back vibe plus it had a guy who was trying very hard to be Paul Weller doing a very cool shuffle dance. He wasn't actually doing it for our entertainment but we were entertained all of the same. After a few drinks we made our way back to our room for some much needed rest, Not bad for one day in the city