Day 2 - Shannagarry, Kilkenny and Ballycotton

2nd August 2016

After waking up in my double bed, and washing my face in my ensuite bathroom ;), I had a lovely breakfast with the family. Danielle had work at 4 pm, so we had all morning to catch up and tour County Cork.

After breakfast we hopped in the car and headed for our first stop of the day at Ballycotton cookery school, where we went to the craft store. The drive was lovely, through natural tunnels of trees and rolling fields painted green and yellow.

Along the way we spotted many cows and sheep, basking in the non-existent sun :)

After the craft shop we went to the Kilkenny restaurant, where we sat down in a seat overlooking the Ballycotton lighthouse and read through the the menu.

The Ballycotton lighthouse is on the island in the far distance

I decided to get a goats cheese, butternut squash and leek quiche with wedges. I don't usually like quiche, because it is so eggey, but it sounded like what I most felt like (something warming and different). So it was lovely to find when this one came out that it was all lovely, soft and crunchy :)

This quiche is different to other quiches, because I couldn't taste much egg at all, just warm, soft cottage cheese. I definitely need to learn how to make that!!

Ah ... My mouth is watering just writing this!!

After finishing our meal, and Danielle sneakily paying for both of our meals (VERY sneakily), we headed to the shore: Shannagarry beach.

Shannagarry beach: Ballycotton lighthouse is behind me here

Shannagarry beach: You can almost feel the wind in these photos ;) 

You can see in this picture of Co. Cork that Ballycotton and Shannagarry are both very close to the ocean. The blue dot is Saleen, where Danielle's cottage is.

Shannagarry beach was extremely windy, and so it was difficult to take a good shot of us without our hair in our faces :)

Danielle than had to leave for work, so her mum (Caroline) and I went for a bike ride along the Cork harbour inlet close to their place. The road we followed was called Church View Road. Such a cute name ;)

It was a lovely, quiet road. And in the whole trip I think we only saw around 7 cars and a tractor.

As we were riding, and admiring the views, Caroline was explaining about the area, and that the tides here are really strong.

Natural tunnels we passed through. The sign in the corner says Caution: Children Running ;)

It was high tide here, which only lasts about four hours. The water is then pulled out to the Cork habour completely, leaving this area all muddy. 

We stopped along the way at a cottage. As we were passing Caroline called out that we were riding past, and they said to stop for a chat. haha. They are so friendly!! Imagine that happening in Finland :D

This is the path we were just passing along next to a cottage, when Caroline called out that we were passing by ;) 

So anyway, there were two ladies there who had the most beautiful Irish accents, and were discussing renovations on their house ect. Laughing and making jokes all the way through ;) Caroline knew them, btw :D

Then we got to talking about scones, as I wanted to see how they like making their scones in Cork, and they said that the best way to make your scone is crumbly and without too much baking powder. They really said to add no baking powder, just self-raising flour, but there is no self-raising flour in Helsinki so I guess a bit would be fine added to plain flour. They said that scones are lovely with berries or peels or chocolate in them :D

After this I felt very inspired to make my own scones with orange peel. I suddenly felt elated, and ready to take on the world of scone baking ;)

On we went and we passed a really old church (I can't remember how old it was). It must be why the road is called Church view Road.

I actually skidded along around a corner of mud, and tried to stop myself (effectively) while making a huge bruise on my inner leg (ouch). A week later and the bruise is still visible!!

Here I am at a town we passed along our bike journey

When we arrived back home, Caroline was full of energy, and I was exhausted. I kept telling myself it was just the last hill that I found difficult to do, because I stopped half way up the hill, and it is so much harder to start the bike again when you are at that point. That is why I was exhausted ;) Perhaps ...

Now you are up to date,

Laura

xoxo