We landed in Cork pretty tired and with just enough money to pay for our hostel, but it was in pounds so that wasn't helpful. (Most of the trip was a fun game of "will this machine accept my card" which does wonders for anxiety.) Veronica's card worked and we were able to take out enough to pay for our hostel & grab dinner near by.
The next morning, I was tanked. We walked around the city a little bit and didn't do much else, which I think ultimately was a good thing; I desperately needed to regroup. We'd book a night kayaking tour for later that night in West Cork. Fun fact, West Cork is not actually the "west" part of Cork. It's a whole different city. An hour and a half away. With VERY limited public transit. Guess who had no car. So we called a taxi and I ate the bill. He was a great human who left us his card and number so that if we got stuck, he'd come back and get us because otherwise, we'd be sleeping in the village of Union Hall.
Just before we pulled up to the night kayaking group, we mentioned something about hoping for a port-o-potty, to which our taxi driver responded, "port-o-potty?? You won't find one out here! You should have asked; I'm a taxi driver, i know where everything is and I can tell you there's no bathroom here!" So he kindly let us out in a field and said he'd be back in a few minutes. Our first proper day in Ireland and we'd already jumped someone's fence to pee in a field. I, very fortunately, must have found a very very angry plant bc holy wow did whatever touched my legs BURRRRN. Veronica joked that it was payback for the midges since I hadn't been bitten at all. Our driver came back around and picked us up, having a word with the kayaking guy to make sure we didn't get stuck. The taxi driver drove off and the guy leading the kayaking venture only charged us half rate because our fare was so high to get out there. AND his assistant agreed to take us in for the night and drop us at the station in the morning. Good & gracious kindness. And the kayaking was amazing. We most led paddled around a small harbor and listened to the quiet. The big draw for the tour is the presence of bio-luminescence, which will absolutely make you believe in magic. Along the shoreline, it was so intense that you could put your hands through the water and push around the glow in the dark sparks like a bundle of fireflies. It was beautiful and breath taking. Fortunately for us, another couple (everyone in the group minus one couple was from the US; weird) was also driving back to cork and their hotel happened to be around the corned from ours, so we managed to get a ride back that night. W e absolutely CRASHED into bed.
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