The Irish Car bomb: wait....that's not funny

April 18
We got up and had breakfast and I took a shower and we headed out. We took the tram to the bus stop. The ticket machine at tram wasn’t working and we missed the first one and then had to wait for the next one it was only like 10 minutes but we were running behind so it was a little issue. The bus was leaving at 10 and we got to the bus station and got our tickets by 9:59. Luckily we got on the bus and took our seats. We started out and had beautiful views of the Irish countryside. We made several stops then we went through Abbeyliev, and made a stop. We pulled off and not a few hundred meters down the road there was tons of rattling and I looked back to see smoke billowing out from the back of the bus (where we were sitting). The bus rolled to a stop and I guess the driver ran out of the bus and that created a panic so everyone on the bus jumped up and collected their belongings and got off the bus quickly and almost orderly. We finally all got off and were standing on the side of the road and the bus driver apologized and said he would get a new bus on the way. We took the time to go to the gas station a little ways back and grab some lunch and snacks. With our picnic in hand we went and ate in the little grassy knoll by the bus. There was a little old lady that we had talked to while the driver was trying to make arrangements, she had been so concerned about luggage or something smoldering beneath the bus. She had presents for grandkids apparently underneath. I guess there had been a few bus fires lately in Dublin, so this wasn’t a strange occurrence, that made us feel much better (and that my friends is practicing Irish humor). Anyway, she came and stood near us and we offered to help her sit down and get back up but she said she’d be fine and pulled out a cigarette and began to smoke. She said she was going to get some mineral water and not to let the bus leave without her. We told her we’d make them wait. We ate our sandwiches, yummy BLT’s with real bacon! They were delicious. Soon our friend returned and we sat as she stood and watched the traffic go by. There was a bus full of boys we assumed rugby players or something. It was funny because they were all sitting the same, one arm on the seat in front with their backs to the windows. We watched as a semi pulled up and asked some guys what was going on. It was really funny. A new bus finally pulled up, it was a private coach and we all loaded up on there. It was really nice had a sunroof and everything. It was really kind of touching because the bus driver watched as we all pulled away. He was a nice guy and handled the situation well. We pulled off and headed back on down the road. About 30 minutes later we stopped for 10 minutes. It was definitely unnecessary since we had just had an hour long break. We saw more countryside the stone fence ridges and hedges that created fences. There were sheep, cows, and horses. There was even the classic picture of the old man that was out tending his sheep with his collie, so Irish. We saw a castle at one stop, Cashel. We finally made it to Cork. The hostel was super easy to find, it was right up the road from the bus station. We went in and got to our room, it was really small but nice and we had our own bathroom. We headed out to see Cork and went shopping in some cute little shops on the main shopping street. We saw the Holy Trinity Church, it was remodeled inside so it was just like any other church. We walked through a park but it was a little creepy. There were strange couples making out, a drunk homeless man passed out sitting up on the park bench, and a sketchy homemade sign saying free massages pointing to a woman with a rolled out yoga mat near a tree. We decided to head straight out of there. We found the place we had looked up to go eat food, Café Gusto. We ordered sandwiches, flying Bacons, and cappuccino. After our the meal the owner came out and talked to us and told us some places to go. We headed up Washington street as she had instructed us and realized that it was pretty dead around this time. We found a little swap shop that doubled as a bar or however you want to put it. I got a dress for Kristin’s wedding rehearsal. Then we walked around the shopping area some more and I found the shop where the dress I bought really came from. We decided that it would be best just head to the bar and call it an early night because the girls had to leave tomorrow and we would need to wake up early to get things started. We went to Sine the bar that the guys had suggested from last night. There were only like 5 other people in there so we got our choice of table. We ordered drinks, I got Murphy’s since it was the local brew, and we sat down to enjoy the night. We sat there for 5 hours, our pictures from the night show the progression of the long candle at our table as it burned away. We had been there for so long the bartender brought us free shots, called Baby Guinness, they were Tia Maria, a coffee liqueur topped off with Bailey’s Irish Cream. It tasted like chocolate. Before we finally left I got a pic with our bartender buddy and then headed out to walk home.