The past weekend was our early May Bank Holiday weekend, and spent it over in Cork. Uns and I had both taken the Friday off work, so had a nice long four day weekend over there. We flew out on Thursday evening after work and got into Cork airport around 10pm and were met there by Claire, Michael, Tony and Theresa. After saying our hellos (and introductions), we headed back to Michael and Claire's place which was fairly near to the airport, so that was handy. Back at theirs we dropped our bags and settled down in the lounge with a few catch up beers and a bit of wine. It wasn't too much of a late night, Claire had work in the morning and we had planned to get up and see a few things on the Friday anyway, so didn't want to have too much of a struggle.

On Friday morning, we were up fairly early for breakfast and then headed out with Michael for a day's sightseeing, while Claire had to unfortunately go to work, but we'd be meeting her later that afternoon. We headed out of Cork City and into the country, which was hardly a drive to get out there, and then out towards Millstreet Town which is most famous for hosting the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. A drive through the town took us up to the Gneeves Windfarm built up on the Derrynasaggart Mountains. The view from the top was fantastic, and a bit of mountain side traversing took us nearer to the waterfall and a view out towards Millstreet.

From the windfarm, we headed back in the direction of Cork and stopped in at Commatrush Farm which was on a piece of private land that Michael knew about. It didn't seem to be of public knowledge, and we had to call ahead to get permission to walk on the land, which didn't seem a problem at all. Once there, a nice stroll along the dirt road took us into an opening with the waterfall in the far distant. I was hoping to practise a bit of my long exposure waterfall pictures, so this was perfect. While I was deeply involved in my photos, Uns and Michael took a walk around the farm and let me get on with my photos. Some of them came out looking alright, I guess it's my first attempt at these long exposure water photos, so there'll definitely be room for improvement. But a start nonetheless.

After Commatrush, we continued our drive around the area with Michael giving us a bit of history and info of the local area, and later on we stopped in at a little local cafe for some coffee and cake. As time was heading on, we then headed back to Cork and met up with Claire who was done with work for the day, and the long weekend too. A quick change at their place, and off we headed into town and a stop at a couple of the historical pubs of Cork, the first being Tom Barry's followed by The Oval. Both of them are proper historical and traditional Irish pubs, and only a quick drink in each, even though I could have happily stayed on in either one for the night. They both had a real local vibe to them, very different to your average touristy Irish pub. After the pubs, we were off to Zaks Restaurant for dinner in a group of about 15 of us, of which I had previously met about half of them, but was a good entertaining dinner out there. After dinner, we all headed down to yet another traditional and historic Irish pub, the Mutton Lane Inn, which is one of the oldest drinking establishments in Cork which is rather dark, wooden and candle lit inside and gives it a nice, cosy and Irish feel about it.

Saturday morning we were up and over to Farmgate Cafe English Market for breakfast with seats which overlook the stalls and fountain in the market below. We spent a good portion of the morning there not only having coffee and breakfast but also walking round the market. Plenty to buy but no one really feeling like it after a decent sized breakfast :)

That afternoon we headed out to West Cork towards Castlehaven where Uns' folks live and she grew up and about an hour out of Cork City. Once we got there, met her folks, had some coffee, we headed out for a quick spin around the local area, first down to the harbour and then up to the Baltimore Beacon, one of the most notable landmarks in the area. After the Beacon, it was back to her folks for dinner, a quick change and then out into Castletownshend village for drinks with the crew over at Mary Botty's Lil McCarthys.

On Sunday morning, Claire dropped Uns and myself off down by Tra Naough beach near to Toe Head for a hour or so of photos of the area. From there, you had some good views of The Stag Rocks as well as various ones of the ocean and waves crashing in and out of the sea. Makes me miss the sea :( But good some decent shots of the area... I'll definitely have to come back again soon when I get a decent zoom lens, but will worry about that another time.

After a bit of time down on the beach, it was back for breakfast and then met the others for our road trip out to Mizen Head along all the peninsulas, which took a good part of the afternoon. It is one of the extreme points of Ireland and famous for its dramatic cliff scenery. It reminded me a lot of the rustic scenery near to Cape Point, but not nearly at touristy. The drive out there was absolutely beautiful, especially that we hugged the coastal road the entire drive there, stopping off occasionally at a few of the notable areas and then had fresh crab sandwiches for lunch at The Crookhaven Inn on the Mizen Peninsula. Delicious!

Sunday evening we headed out to Ballydehob, one of the neighbouring villages for their annual Jazz Festival which is always around the May bank holiday. We started off with a quick drink at the Corner Bar in Skibbereen, before hopping in a taxi out to Ballydehob. It was being hosted around the village in various pubs, so we basically popped into the first pub we came across and settled in there the night. Unfortunately, due to the weather and the ridiculous amount of people indoors, the band couldn't actually get all their equipment into the pub, so we landed up not seeing any jazz. But still, we had a good night out there at the pub, with or without jazz.

On Monday Michael, Claire, Uns and myself started off heading up to Knockdrum Ring Fort, which is up on top of the hill and overlooking the bay. After a bit of time up there, it was down to Sandy Cove beach and hung around there, with me taking a few photo or three down there. After the beach, we drove back into Castletownshend for coffee outside at Mary Ann's Bar and Restaurant, soaking up a bit of the Irish afternoon sun, while it lasted.

After a bit of relaxing outside at Mary Ann's it was back up to City and unfortunately over to the airport, after a fantastic long weekend over there, which just seemed to fly past way too quickly. Noel was with is, and at least we had a bit of time at the airport to relax and grab something to drink before hopping on the late flight back to London. We were greeting back here by miserable weather and pouring rain, so decided on a taxi home and pizza takeaway for dinner - the easiest option after a long weekend away.