A Visit to Cobh

Last Sunday, my darling sister, Luarena, gave me a belated Christmas present of a stay at Fota Island Spa Hotel near Cobh, Co. Cork.  As some of you will know, Cobh is our hometown and a place we all still miss in some ways.  I know I do and feel great nostalgia for the place.

Fota Island Spa had a great deal on: €109 for two people sharing including the use of the Hydrotherapy Suite and Hammam.  Other services were extra.  We took a look at the Hydrotherapy pool and loved what we saw and decided to skip extras as we were on a budget.  As it turned out, we made a good choice and spent hours in the pool, which was lovely and warm, enjoying the water that gushed onto our necks, working out those kinks and a 'river' that went in a circle around a big pillar and forced you around very quickly. I spent hours in that, loving every minute of it. There were jets that pummeled your feet and legs, your back and, best of all, a giant geyser that forced water onto whatever part of the body you wished.  I tried standing on it and it made my feet tingle really nicely as well as massaging my knees and back and stomach.  We went from one spot to another for a good two hours until we were so prune-like it was definitely time to get out.

After that we hit the Hammam and breathed in the eucalyptus fraganced steam, warming our bodies on the tiles for about 15 minutes. We had left our bathrobes and magazines in another resting room that has beds that are heated.  When we went back in, we found someone had taken my sister's seat, thrown her robe on the floor and was reading her magazine. When my sister asked her for her magazine back, the woman sneered at her and reluctantly handed it over! Some manners..

We had dinner in our room, served by a wonderful waitress who couldn't have been more helpful and charming and watched the Dancing on Ice final. Luarena, who is a night bird normally, fell asleep at 10.30pm after a bath in the wonderfully deep tub in our bathroom.   I, for some reason, couldn't sleep at all and ended up awake until about 4.30am going through one of those dark nights of the soul that are so awful.

The next day, we headed to our hometown and went straight up to our old house, Roseville, a late Georgian house that even today to our grown-up selves looks big. It was lovely to see the place being cared for, except for the horrible plastic windows they'd put in. I know, I know, they're cheaper and they work. But they look awful and I wish they would make plastic windows that look less plastic!

After that we went down the the beach we used to swim at, Cuskinny and had a bit more nostalgia - not all of it good. When I was a little over three, we went swimming there and my oldest sister put me in a rubber ring, an inner tyre I think, and my bum was stuck down in the hole and suddenly a wave came and tossed me over and I was upside down breathing in water. It scared the living daylights out of me and, to this day, the thought of water getting up my nose panics me and I have never been able to jump into water out of my depth because of it. It made me think, again, about doing something to get over this fear because I love water, the sea, the ocean, lakes, boats, fishing and all that. I envy people who can jump into water and swim like fish.

Going back to Cobh always brings up memories of our childhood and how much we loved it there. From the moment we left Cobh, nothing was ever the same again.