My first trip to Ireland was many years ago when I was younger and more adventurous. I was in London for a conference and decided to delay my departure back to the states and go see Ireland. My research, this is before Google, turned up two ways to go: fly or take a ferry. I decided that the overnight ferry from Swansea, Wales to Cork, Ireland was a good idea.
I took a train to Swansea, an industrial city but had been told to visit the village next door: Mumbles. What a delight. A perfect seaside village with shops, benches, and views. I asked the tourism office agent in the village where I might get lunch. He directed me to a yarn shop.
“Sorry, I wanted lunch not yarn.”
“They have the best sandwiches and always a nice slice of cake.”
I followed his directions around the corner and up the block to the yarn shop. Inside was a small counter with a short menu of three types of sandwiches and two cakes displayed in class cake dishes. The story the shop owner shared was they had many women who came in on a weekend with their husbands in tow to look at yarn and patterns. This took many hours and the men got hungry and wanted their wives to hurry up. So, she began offering to make them a sandwich. That developed into the menu and with a couple of sweets added.
A bistro table with two chairs sat in the middle of the area surrounded by racks of patterns. The yarns were down the aisle away from the food. The sandwich was quite good—beef, homemade bread, mayonnaise, pickles, horseradish, a large slice of tomato, and crisp leafy lettuce. The travel agent was correct, it was good.
Late in the afternoon, I returned to Swansea and took the ferry to Cork, Ireland. Eleven hours sitting up and sharing a bottle of wine with new friends, a couple returning from their honeymoon. Arriving in Cork, I made my way to the tourism office and got a map, located the train station, and secured a room at a local bed and breakfast for the night. I was ready to see Ireland.
Leara Rhodes 