Moving to Cork City

Jhazon

Greetings... I will be moving to Cork City in April and looking for some details. I recently posted on another forum but did not get any answers.

1. Getting to Dublin - I won't have a car for a few months, so I'm looking for the best way to get to Dublin. Is the rail service recommended? bus?

2. Food - I'm looking for recommendation on places to grab affordable lunch. I will be living around Saint Luke's Cross. Sandwich shops? American fast food?

spitfireIRL

Jhazon wrote: »

Greetings... I will be moving to Cork City in April and looking for some details. I recently posted on another forum but did not get any answers.

1. Getting to Dublin - I won't have a car for a few months, so I'm looking for the best way to get to Dublin. Is the rail service recommended? bus?

2. Food - I'm looking for recommendation on places to grab affordable lunch. I will be living around Saint Luke's Cross. Sandwich shops? American fast food?

Rail service is expensive, bus is 20euro return (Aircoach)

No real food places on St Luke's Cross except the chipper up the road (Dillon's Cross), best bet would be to walk down to MacCurtain St loadsa food gaffs there (Subway, Hillbillies, indian food etc)

Papa_Lazarou

Basicaly what spitfire said. Trains can be expensive but u can save some money by buying them on the internet and it would depend on how often u intend on going back up to dublin.

Yeah just head to the outskirts of town for food.Some grand places around there depending on what u are looking for.

Jhazon

I can walk down to the island to grab a lunch.

Reason I ask about rail is because the bus route is 4 hours and the rail appears to be 3 hours... any mostly because rail is nearly extinct here in Canada (last train I took was in Germany in 1999) and it would be nice.

suppafly

Jhazon wrote: »

Greetings... I will be moving to Cork City in April and looking for some details. I recently posted on another forum but did not get any answers.

1. Getting to Dublin - I won't have a car for a few months, so I'm looking for the best way to get to Dublin. Is the rail service recommended? bus?

2. Food - I'm looking for recommendation on places to grab affordable lunch. I will be living around Saint Luke's Cross. Sandwich shops? American fast food?

The best way to get from cork to dublin is to fly with ryanair. They always have no tax deals where u just pay like €5 or €10 for your flight. My sis goes to UCD and just block books a bunch of them. Your just have to book them 2 weeks in adance. The train is alright. There is one every hour. It takes 2hrs 50mins. If you go on off-peak times you u can get it for €20 single. It is exspensive but i would def prefer it to having to get the bus. If i know a good bit in advance i'm going up i always check the for cheap ryanair flys up. its very handy.

Places to eat lunch around St Lukes. I dunno if the pubs there do something for lunch but 2 chinese restaurants there don't open till 4pm i think. You could go just 5mins down the road to McCurtain street. loads of restaurants there(subway, indian, pizzeria, issacs, hotel, chippers). The Indian is my fav and they have a good lunch time deal, a kebab, chips and a drink for €5.50. The chicken tikka kebab is really good and they put it in really nice naan bread too. Hillybillys fried chicken on the same street do savage breast in a bun!

Aright hope that helps

Jhazon

Thanks for the info, it's very good. Another, question - My family back in Canada is going to set up the computer with Skype. Skype currently offers a Kildare telephone number for approx. $10 month. Question is, if I'm in Cork, is it local or national calling to ring Kildare?

KerranJast

Jhazon wrote: »

Thanks for the info, it's very good. Another, question - My family back in Canada is going to set up the computer with Skype. Skype currently offers a Kildare telephone number for approx. $10 month. Question is, if I'm in Cork, is it local or national calling to ring Kildare?

Calls outside the 021 Cork city area code would be national I believe however depending on your land line package you could be getting all national calls at the local call price (with Eircom, national calls after 6pm are treated as local anyway AFAIR).

kingtut

spitfireIRL wrote: »

Rail service is expensive, bus is 20euro return (Aircoach)

I thought the Aircoach was €12 return (destination is Westmoreland Streetand) and €18 if you go all the way to Dublin airport??

Nevertheless I recommend the bus, takes about 4 hours and is pretty comfy. It stops half way at a place called Urlingford right outside a petrol station....so you can use the toilet, buy some food and tea / coffee etc.

Not sure if you know anyone in Cork but we have regular meetups if you fancy joining us sometime

Edit: Just checked the website and the prices are a bit confusing - for me at least, seems kind of like it is cheaper going to the airport even though it is further?? The prices I posted are the ones I paid when I went on the aircoach a year ago so the other guy is prob right.

here is the prices:
www.aircoach.ie/aircoach.fares/php

and the timetable:
www.aircoach.ie/table.routes.cork.php

Good luck!!

spitfireIRL

used to be twelve not so anymore.. damn recession. Still way better than Bus Eireann tho.

Jhazon

Yeah, Bus Eireann was the only service I checked and found it to be expensive so I put the thought of taking the bus away.

Another question... anyone know which pubs are the best to catch Liverpool FC games? Wouldn't want to stop by another supporters place.

rebel.ranter

Brannigans on Pine St (easy walk form St Lukes) is a Liverpool pub

http://www.qype.ie/place/173155-Brannigans-Bar-Cork

If you walk up to Dillon's Cross you can get a good sandwich or a curry in the Kerymman.

Oh yea, I fly to Dublin every Wednesday with Rynair, I normally land a return journey for an average of €30, defintely the way to go.
The off-peak trains are €20 when booked on www.irishrail.ie

overmantle

Aircoach is cheapest by far. Comfortable, reliable and direct. Not quite as fast as train but much cheaper.

Jhazon

Wonderful! Great help!

Now, what about bike rentals? Is there a spot to rental biks in the downtown area or Saint Lukes?

Sephiroth_dude

nevada smith is a liverpool pub close to maccurtain street,if your looking for a walk :pac:

Jhazon

This should finished up my questions, many thanks for the responses:

1. Are there any Billards/Pool halls in the downtown area?
2. Internet cafe/placed to get internet access? Plus, does anyone know if these places offer web cam (so that I may web cam the folks back home)
3. what about bike rentals? Is there a spot to rental biks in the downtown area or Saint Lukes?

Sephiroth_dude

theres pool in the leisureplex on macurtain street and theres also internet cafes on mcurtain street,bike rentals im not so sure about.

rebel.ranter

Leisureplex is very close to St Lukes but it is a bit of a dump.

You are better off heading to the Mardyke http://www.mardyke.com. It is a much better set up, far cleaner & not full of kids.

Funkyzeit

rebel.ranter wrote: »

Brannigans on Pine St (easy walk form St Lukes) is a Liverpool pub

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

nevada smith is a liverpool pub

Same pub ! But worth posting twice - great spot..

rebel.ranter

KerranJast wrote: »

Calls outside the 021 Cork city area code would be national I believe however depending on your land line package you could be getting all national calls at the local call price (with Eircom, national calls after 6pm are treated as local anyway AFAIR).

If you were to get your family set up on an Irish Skype or wwwBlueface.ie number then you could call them for free with the right package here.

I would suggest BT or Perlico, you can get free local national & UK calls plus 1Mb BB for under €50 a month. Not sure if it is outside your budget or needs:

http://www.btireland.ie/AtHome_bb_totaltalk.shtml

mayordenis

I know a mate who the odd time flys from cork to dublin just so you know it can be got quite cheap

rebel.ranter

mayordenis wrote: »

I know a mate who the odd time flys from cork to dublin just so you know it can be got quite cheap

I fly up and down every Wednesday. It has cost me between €24 -€54 return including all charges the last 6 times. There is always deals on.

Jhazon

Wonderful. In my province of New Brunswick, which is actually approx. 10,000sqkm smaller than Ireland, it would cost €200+ to travel the same distance (Cork to Dublin)... plus we have no train service and out bus service is terrible. Fortunately we have good highways and cheap petrol (for now!). In the 1980s our government thought it would be smart to remove the train service and tracks since the future is in automobiles....

Puibo

not to be rude or anything, but i think you should just land and let the rest be an adventure! what brings you here anyway? staying long?

Jhazon

Puibo, I'm always the type to hit the ground running and not take weeks educating myself. Should be in the city for a couple months then moving on.

Rothar Cycle Tours, www.rotharcycletours.com, is charging €80.00 per week for bike rentals.... is there a venue out there to read classified ads on buying a bike in Cork?

taram

Buy and Sell is your best bet for that, or try one of the cycle shops around, find Capwell Cycles (Capwell Road) are great to deal with. There's other cycle shops: off the Coal Quay, by Victoria Mills, West Douglas Village come to mind, they'd all have a selection of second hand bikes.