We anticipated a pleasant holiday in Cork, but what we got was the total opposite, a miserable time, not only because of the horrible rainy and windy weather, but we had to deal with an incredibly rude "hostess" at where we stayed, Sunnyside (or better: Stormy Side!). We had each other to support, which has nothing to do with either where we stayed or Cork.
We stayed 5 days (25-30th of October) in Cloghroe because other more centrally located B&Bs had no rooms (and we now know why where we stayed had rooms!) between 28-30th of October, when jazz enthusiasts are attracted to the Guiness Jazz festival in Ireland's second largest city.
The weather did not permit us to see a few places we had planned to visit. Kinsale would have been nice, known for its good restaurants and the Gourmet festival is in October, the time of the year when we were in the region. FOTA Wildlife Park and Cobh are two other places we could not see. The English market is nice, but smaller than we thought. Similar markets, although usually bigger, are found all around Europe. Cork city itself is smaller than one would think looking at maps. The main streets are Patrick and Grand Parade with a few smaller ones where there are restaurants and pubs serving mainly Italian, Chinese and Indian cuisines. There is not much to do in Cork city except eating out and have some pints at the pubs. We recommend the Isaacs Restaurant and the pub Scotts, both keeping a standard which is slightly higher than the average for Cork city. If you think about visiting Dublin or Cork, definitely visit Dublin first. We were in Dublin last year and you cannot even compare the two. There are some superficial similarities. There is more to do in Dublin and unlike what some may think the people in the capital are actually friendlier and not as rough around the edges. Other cities in the British Isles (perhaps Edinburgh or Manchester), Scandinavia and the continent have more to offer than Cork. Drinking at pubs you can do almost everywhere in Europe, and Belgium has much more of that than any other country in Europe. I cannot think of many reasons to visit Cork, unless maybe if you are an American who want to do a geneaological research in the region. I can see why so many emigrated from Cobh.
The B&B owner had told my girlfriend over phone that Blarney castle is close, so we tried to walk there but we came to a nearby village and a young lady told us it is too far to walk. We took a bus in the end.
That is not the only invalid info she has given on distances, but that coming from a woman who cannot read a timetable, does not surprise me. It seems like everything is closer to her place than it really is, to her a car is as fast as a helicopter and a train swish by like an aeroplane.
I first exchanged some money at a bank in Blarney, which is by the way a small town, although I would say it is more like a village with a gas station, busstop (where we went off) some stores, woolen mill, butcher, Indian takeaway called Raj's and a few pubs.
There is a 7 Euro entrance fee for adults to enter the Blarney castle area and it is around 5-10 minutes walk from the busstop (route 224). There is a frequent bus service to Blarney from Cork-Parnell Place. The ticket cost 2,40 Euro each. Journey time is 30 minutes or less, depending on the traffic though, which was quite a lot near Cork because of the Jazz festival.
Cormac McCarthy, king of munster, built the fortress to protect the area from the attacks of the invading Cromwellians. The castle area itself is beautiful with small rivers running through and some lovely old trees. The gardens are a delight. We took some nice photos. One has to be careful climbing up the stairs of the castle and when you reach the top the Blarney stone is hardly visible and disappointing. Two men also make money in taking photos of those who kiss the stone. We skipped that part. The blarney stone is just a stone set in the wall of the Blarney castle tower.
We walked around the area after we had come down the towerhouse. Among the attractions are landscaped ponds, small forests and the wishing steps.
The streets of Cork are quite clean, but you do see quite a lot of dodgy looking young people. The traffic lights do not seem to work well. Like another reviewer already wrote, you have to sometimes wait several minutes to cross the street. There are also an unusual number of drivers with learning stickers, but for some odd reason, they drive by their own.
We listened to Jazz at Scotts and Clancy's on the 28th of October. Both places are good, although we liked Scotts more. One could even sway a bit to the live music.
The doner kebab at Abrakadabra (a fast-food shop) is tasty, but quite small. It is a bit more expensive than McDonald's or Burger King, perhaps at the same level as Subway. We recommend the place if you want to eat a burger before calling it a night.
We went to an internet café a couple of times called Internet Exchange where it only costs you just one euro for up to 20 mins! There is both a downstairs and an upstairs and we went to both. The chairs are also very comfortable which makes it hard for you to leave!
We ate at a fancy Italian restaurant on Carey's Lane called Gambieni's. Also on the same street is a popular restaurant called Mexicana which we did not get to try out but it looked very nice from the outside. Everywhere where we ate we found the food to be extremely scrumptious so you cannot really go wrong in many of the restaurants.
Isaacs, as we mentioned previously was definitely the best restaurant we ate at during our time in Cork and we were also recommended to try Greens next to that one, both of the same high quality but we did not find the time and it is also a bit on the pricey side but no doubt, I am sure it is a very nice place so we recommend you give it a try!
On our last night in Cork we decided to eat Indian cuisine so we went to one called the Indian Palace opposite Clancy's bar. It is small but nice and cosy if you prefer to get away from the usual noisier places. We enjoyed the food there and the service is also good and personal.
We visited the English market which has openings off Princess Street, Patrick Street and Grand Parade. You can buy all kinds of meats, fruits and cheeses there. We bought some Hummus and two bread rolls to eat it onto because we would become a hungry later in the evening. It was very tasty. We also decided to buy some cashew nuts which are delicious and they went down nicely with our beer in Clancy's!
You will find local newsagent stores with the name Center. This seems to be the most popular store where you can buy your local newspapers or if you fancy a snack then you can buy some chocolate or Pringles like we bought (they were on offer when we bought them). We also bought a sandwich for the flight home the following day (because we did not want to be ripped off on the plane) and also a smoothie which was tasty.
We found out at the tourist information office at the Grand Parade that Paul street is the equivalent of Temple Bar in Dublin, but at a much smaller scale, which is certainly true. We also got another map of the city from there.
We also saw on the Jazz trail map that there are many pubs in and near Washington street. The best one is probably Rearden's where they played live music which we enjoyed listening to. Opposite it is a noisy pub with a rather young clientele.
An almost incomprehensible Santa-looking taxi driver with long reddish beard was the only one who welcomed us to Ireland while we sat in his car and were on the way to our B&B from Cork city to Cloghore. He recommended two pubs to us, Huntsman and Auntie, but we did not find the time to go there. He told us a disturbing story when we arrived to our destination. Some young thugs by the street had thrown stones at him while he had taken a customer there (gasp). He believed Blarney is a rip off (for tourists), which is probably true as it is no longer a manufacturing village.
We stayed at a place run by a crazy woman, which of course affected our holiday in a negative way. But Cork city does not really offer much, so it does not matter if we had stayed somewhere more central with a better service. The greedy nouveau rich are a problem. You cannot buy class or good manners. It is a problem which is not unique to Cork. One can really tell that Ireland has been much poorer and some things have not changed. It is still behind other progressive European countries like the Netherlands or Sweden. Perhaps the number of genuine people have gone down after Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" economic boom. I have heard Irishmen complain that not everything has become better. The countryside might be nice in summer but that is not the main reason we were in Cork.
Perhaps you know about the British comedy series Fawlty Towers, where one can see hotel owner Basil's incompetence. Sunnyside, where we stayed 4 nights was clearly, "Faulty Towers". Our "hostess" was a female version of him. There are however some important differences that one should point out, if you are so unfortunate (and do not listen to our warnings) to stay at her place, she is not funny and unlike Basil, she does not try to make your time a pleasant one. She is one of the most nosey (she was not curious about us, which would have been fine) people I have come across. I know that it might sound unbelievable, but it is unfortunately not a nightmare of our mind, but one that rages in the real world.
This woman must have some psychological (psychopath tendencies, e.g. lack of empathy) issues, because she was quite friendly to begin with, albeit without introducing herself, shaking hands or saying welcome to Cork/Ireland. During the first day we needed to take the bus to Cork city and were running late and had no idea about the timetable, so she offered to drive us to the bus stop, which is a 5 min walk from the B&B. We understood later that being nice is not something which is easy for her, nor did she appreciate politeness. Instead, she took advantage of our friendly nature and played games with us!
One night we came in late around 1.30 am and as we walked through the porch the lights were all still on and the porch door was wide open so we just left it as it was thinking people may want to come in after us and she may still be up so they must be left on for a reason. The following evening we were on our way out into Cork city and we said hello to her before we left and she sort of tried to smile but did not succeed and just said instead "can I have a word". She told us that she was not happy about the door being left wide open last night and all the lights being left on. She asked in a threatening voice what time did we get in the night before and we told her and she said "well I came in this morning and it was freezing because the porch door had been left open all night" (as if it was the front door)! She said "do you do that deliberately?". My girlfriend said "no, I just thought there may be people coming in after us and they must have been left on for a reason", and she then replied, "do you really think people will come in after you", clearly stating that she think we came in at a ridiculous time of the night. She made us feel very bad and it felt like we had made a very big mistake. We could only keep apologising and she said nothing at first, my girlfriend looked embarrassed and was speechless and when she finally apologised she just put on a fake smile as if she was in control and said "it's ok don't worry about it!". We clearly realised by the next day that there was never any need for us to feel guilty about what happened. We came in that night and did as she said, made sure all the lights were off and shut the door behind us quietly as usual and retired to our room for the night.
The sudden change in her behaviour towards us came on the 3rd day. My girlfriend may take long showers, but there is no reason for the fuse going off, as she claimed. The water went off while my girlfriend had her shower. When we the next day approached her about the problem she knew all about it, which goes to show how aware she was of everything happening. I had no shower that day. I did not think much about it at the time, because I am a reasonable person and thought there must be a good explanation. Her answer was that she know some people like to take a shower an hour, but the fuse had blown out and she made it sound like it is all our fault. We asked if we can take a shower in another room and she reluctantly said "I guess you need to take a shower", and offered us to take a shower downstairs in another room adjacent to the dining room. My girlfriend managed to take one, and it only took 20 minutes at the most both to have a shower and get dressed but I was not allowed one because she was supposedly cleaning up the room, as some people were going to soon stay there.
I actually think she switched off the shower and that it had nothing to do with the fuse going off. Even if the fuse went off, it is not our fault and we are entitled to get what we paid for. It says with shower, not that one is denied shower. She told us several times that it is not her problem. When we asked how come the shower went on again her reply was that the fuse is upstairs and she turned it on. The fuse is then supposedly closer to the room opposite ours and we could hear her walking up and down the stairs. She also refused to compensate, even though I could not have a shower for nearly 3 days!
Something else she did not tell us about when we arrived on the first day was that she makes the beds in the room or cleans a bit every couple of days and opens the windows and then leaves them open all day until we come home in the night to a cold room and one full of spiders and cobwebs! This happened a lot and I was going to go and tell her could she not open the windows but we didn't get to mention it as there were other important things to bring up first.
To top it all, she knocked on our door the last day 10.30 in the morning, when we were of course awake, whereupon my girlfriend opened the door quickly. But she had run away as usual. She knocked again around 2 hours later, I asked whether if she knocked earlier in the morning. She answered in a stressful voice that she need to clean up the place. I opened the door and she looked upset. She had no time to knock and run this time because I was standing by the door. She wanted us out because the room needed to be cleaned. She had not told us anything about this and she just said we should know anyway! I told her about the shower not working (my girlfriend had a shower which took around 15 minutes, which I would call average, and it stopped working after that, or well, she probably switched it off!) and her answer was again that "it is not my problem!". As a result of this my girlfriend had to finish washing her hair in the sink with my help, which took much longer because of what she had done.
She told us we should have known we had to be out the room by 11 and not to take showers before we check out, which is of course rubbish and we never heard such a thing without being told in advance. She then began offending us. I asked for compensation because I had no shower for over 2 days, but she said "you must be kidding, there is no other place which offer a room at such a low price this time of the year!". She said we must not have travelled much but it must be another one of her projections going by her narrow-minded view. I told her what if someone from a completely different culture stayed at the place, like Japan. She said it does not matter. They should know that one leave a room by 11 a.m. Our flight was 3.15 p.m. and rain was pouring outside. Another young woman who worked there stood downstairs listening. I think she wanted her support but I looked at her and said she has seen us before and said (she got my VISA number and gave me a receipt the previous day), can she honestly say we are impolite people. I also asked herself if she can say I am impolite (a person who by the way always act like a gentleman and give tips when someone deserve it and is nice) and she said we are selfish and impolite people and used the F' word, with that, showing her true nature. During the argument I also told her how can she act honest and say we are impolite when she has those small sheets about religion (and how you come closer to God) in our room. She is more of a con artist than a lady. One wonders how she got all those awards and she must have written the positive feedback herself which is supposedly from one of her guests. It is available on her website at http://www.irish-bnb.com/sunnyside/index.html .
She made a complete fool out of herself infront of the other younger woman. When we went downstairs around 40 minutes later, there was no sight of her. The other younger woman came and got our key and she did at least look sorry. We did not even ask if they can call a taxi, even if we were in a hurry. We thought that it will be easier to take the bus to Cork city and from there a bus or taxi to the airport. It was very windy and one could hardly see the road as it was raining a lot. To our surprise the younger girl came and picked us up while we stood by the busstop. She offered to take us to the airport, which was nice of her.
On an even more serious note, she claim that the place is disabled and dog friendly, which is a crime concerning what we have experienced. The only creatures who cannot give feedback are the dogs!
I feel it is my obligation to warn other potential guests. The place should be closed. We have travelled to numerous countries and stayed at all kinds of hotels and B&Bs, but never have we had such a bad experience. The Irish board of tourism should know about her place and close it down for the sake of Ireland's reputation as a serious destination for tourists. I do not think the public would want someone like her damage the reputation of an otherwise beautiful country with welcoming and friendly people.
Moral: Cheap place, cheap person - no service - you get what you pay for!
To make it clear to you this is the place you must avoid at all costs:
Your Hostess Mrs. Mary Walsh ~ Sunnyside B&B - 5 Woodlands, Cloghroe, Blarney, Co. Cork, Ireland
Her ridiculous (full of lies, do not take anything about the place seriously!) website:
Search for the following in Google "sunnyside bed and breakfast cork" without the commas. Her website is the first result you get.
We very much doubt any user have written such an over the top report about the place she dares to call a B & B.
Do not say we did not warn you!
Review edited on the request of people who commented. There is now much more information about our experience in Cork city and Blarney. Thanks for all the nice comments.
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Ease of getting around
Good
Family Friendly
Poor
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