A Day in Cobh

Today I went on another adventure as my friends and a large group of international students went to Cobh, Ireland. I honestly didn't know what I was walking into for this trip. It was inexpensive and hosted by the international welcoming people so I thought what the heck? But it turns out, Cobh is really cool!

Cobh is most famous for its association with the Titanic. Queenstown (now Cobh) was the final stopping point before the ship headed to New York. 123 passengers boarded the ship at Queenstown and 7 lucky passengers ended their voyage there - avoiding the pending doom. To educate visitors about the Titanic, the town has opened a Titanic Experience museum. As we went into the museum and purchased our ticket, each person was assigned the identity of one passenger who boarded the Titanic in Cobh. I was Bridget Driscoll, age 27, and was a 3rd class passenger. I was actually rather impressed with the sample 3rd class room we saw and feel I could have made the small but fancy dorm room work for the 6-day voyage.

After the tour finished, I learned that I survived the sinking! Bridget was saved by making it to collapsible lifeboat D with her two fellow roommates. She eventually settled in New Jersey marrying Dominic Carney and had four children.

Behind the tour building is a dock that was used by the Titanic passengers. The harbor at Cobh was too shallow for the Titanic to come close to shore. This dock was used so the passengers could board a smaller boat that would then transport them to the Titanic anchored a bit farther away.

Though the museum was small, I was very impressed with their presentation of the information and their technological innovation with projections guiding the visitors throughout the tour.

After getting some lunch, we trekked through the steep hill-of-a-town to see the beautiful cathedral, St. Colman's. Now this adventure has a bit of a back-story. When I got official confirmation that I would be coming to Cork this semester, I began a countdown on my phone - at that point I was about 150 days away. Every day up to my departure I would stare at this picture of Cork from Google as part of the countdown. It was very recently that I realized that picture was not taken in Cork but in Cobh. Dishonesty on the internet, shocking. So now that I was finally in Cobh I was determined to find the same view I had seen for the last 5 months. 

While the aspect is not perfect, I am pleasantly satisfied.

More pictures of the cathedral:

 

To finish the trip we went to a park and saw a pavilion from the early 1900s along with a cannon and some beautiful flowers. 

Pretty Flowers!

An adorable green car!

And our last stop was B.M.C. Food Market which is apparently notorious for illegally selling items they buy in bulk (which is against the law here). I didn't really believe this until I saw the diet coke they were selling and I took a picture of. It clearly said not for individual sale but guess what!.. they were being sold individually...

All in all I very glad that I went on this visit. I am still amazed that such a quaint and beautiful town is only 30 minutes from Cork! It felt more Italian or French or something and I really got a good feeling being by the water and so many colorful buildings! 

Until next time,
The Opinionated LAssie