Trip to Cork, Ireland - 7th to 11th April 2005

A lovely few days to relax in the small village of Schull, at the edge of West Cork - about 90 minutes drive from the city of Cork itself. This place has lots of clean air (fairly fresh in April, too!), good pubs and eateries, and all the empty countryside you could ever want. A very good place to escape London to go to.

This trip was my first experience of the wonderful Ryanair, and I must say its not something that I'm incredibly keen to repeat. For £35 return to Ireland, you can't really complain, but they don't give you the nicest travelling experience in the world, that's for sure!

Whilst we were in Ireland, the funeral of Pope John Paul II happened. I expected the whole country to grind to a halt whilst this was happening - but the population seemed suitably non-interested in the whole affair. Things were slightly quieter than usual, but only slightly, and normal service had resumed within a couple of hours of the funeral ending.

Most of the evenings away, we spent eating, then drinking excessive amounts of Bulmers cider(Magners to all the UK-types) - all in all a very good and relaxing way to spend 4 nights away on a long weekend.