It's pronounced 'Cove'

I am certain that anyone in Ireland can immediately recognize an American by the way we say "Cobh." Throughout our day in this little seaside town and in the nearby city of Cork, I alternated between calling it "Cob" and "Cobe," hoping that I was getting it right at least half the time. But no. Because "bh" makes a "v" sound. News to me.

With that said, I'm going to tell you a little bit about my time in Cobh and Cork.

The day started in a hot tub as we pulled into port past stunning cliffsides, adorable seaside towns, and imposing cathedrals. Once on land, you could find us on the ship dock with my mom talking with a local and me enthusiastically playing with the stranger's extremely friendly German Shepherd. So I guess you could say the day started very well for me. We proceeded to board the Irish Rail, as the walk to the main city in the area was long and steep. We hadn't planned to ride the rail due to my mom's aforementioned claustrophobia, but we made it work due to the lack of options. Generally, two-way rail tickets are about 10 euros, but our card wouldn't work so the kind Irish conductor told us to board the train and work it out at the next station. The ride was fairly smooth and fast (about 25 minutes). We passed through mudflats and countryside, all vibrant with the greenest greens I've ever seen. When we arrived in Cork I spoke to one of the station managers who opened the gate for us and said "Don't worry, be happy!" I've come to be very fond of the kind smiles and happy accents of old Irish men. From here we proceeded to Cork.

The walk was not long, but it wasn't very scenic either. Roadside walls spotted with graffiti wouldn't have been disturbing at all to me if it weren't for the grim messages like, "10,000 homeless here." Not the easiest thing to stomach when you're on vacation. This will become more relevant when you read about my time in Dublin. We took a long walk down the River Lee past very old churches, through very quaint streets, and to a particular very authentic pub.

At the pub I ordered my favorite meal, from it's native Ireland for the first time.... corned beef. What was foreign to me was that it was served on a sandwich with egg salad, but I enjoyed it. The pub was called The Long Valley. It was recommended by some locals and was completely devoid of tourists (which is a win). The barkeeper fell in line with my perception that old Irish guys are kind and happy. I was happy when we left there.

We headed back for the railway and traveled back to Cobh after this. While riding the train back, I wrote a blog post and listened to the Irish accents around me. I think I'm starting to love Irish accents. Let's pretend we're on the train together and I'll tell you about a few of the fun facts I learned in Ireland. Please don't judge me if some of them sound ignorant, I knew practically nothing about Ireland before this trip other than the food I wanted to eat here.

• The island of Ireland is made up of 4 provinces. The northernmost of which (Ulster) belongs to the United Kingdom and is called Northern Ireland (thereby making the U.K. "The United Kingdom of England and Northern Ireland). As such, Northern Ireland shares a lot of legal and cultural features with England, including it's use of British Pounds Sterling.

• Though the U.K. is currently part of the European Union, it's official currency is not the euro as it is for the other members of the Union.

• The rest of Ireland (simply called Ireland), is part of the EU and trades officially in euros.

• There was once a time when the Irish were very wary of water because it was commonly contaminated due to lack of sanitary understanding. It was explained to me that, as in many third world countries, the Irish simply didn't know how to maintain clean water habits (like not using lakes as public toilets.) Thus, in the whole of Ireland, no one really drank water at all. Instead, they drank ale because contaminants were filtered out in the brewing process. I'm not quite sure why they didn't realize they could also filter contaminants out of water, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, Ireland solidified an eternal bond with beer, a bond that is evident in every corner of the nation.

So we returned to Cobh where we wandered around and took hundreds of photos. The twins, especially, enjoyed the photography opportunities in this picturesque little town. While in Cobh, we were continually reminded by memorials and museums that we were walking around the last port of call that the Titanic reached before it's fatal collision in April 1912, just 400 miles south of Newfoundland on its way to New York. This resulted in an ominous undertone that lingered as we sailed away.

The day concluded with dinner and a show as a family. The show, a comedy/classical music production (don't ask me to explain, just Google "Graffiti Classics"), was a surprisingly entertaining way to end the day.

From: The Expeditioner