After me lucky charms!
So, because you're all so fascinated by my BULK POSTING OF BORING TRAVEL DETAILS, have some more. Up to date now, so stop complaining! You know who you are... *whistles*
TUESDAY 7TH OCTOBER -- KILKENNY
Start of my travelling alone... dropped teh motehr off at the train station at 5am, then drove to the airport to return the car (which I couldn't do until 8 o'clock, so I tried - and failed - to have a sleep in the carpark, but instead wound up listening to BBC Wales radio, which was mildly more entertaining than silence, plus, Welsh accents, so WIN)
Returned the car, then loitered in the airport for another couple of hours before my flight, and, since they've seen fit to delay the release of the new Torchwood novels, I bought myself a (cheap) copy of one that I already owned, because I was tired and inexplicably miserable and needed some comfort reading AND OMG IT IS SO HARD TO GET ON THE INTERNET IN THIS COUNTRY, FOR SRS, so I can't even do the fanfiction thing. Grr. But yes. Jack/Ianto moments ftw. *is fully aware of how crap that is, thx*
Was slightly less than impressed at the plane. Propellors? REALLY? But it turns out it was fine, and I even got a double seat to myself, and excellent views, and apparently when they apologise for the turbulence in a small plane, it's nothing near as bad as what you get in a big plane. So, rock. Also, muchly amused by these extraordinarily arrogant old English businessmen who were just every stereotype evar. LOL.
Lugged all my stuff through Dublin airport until I found the car rental shuttlebus (and seriously, what the hell is it with this country and REFUSING TO SIGNPOST ANYTHING, EVAR? It makes it very hard to find anything, plzkthx) and they're all like “So, are you happy with the car you booked?” And I'm all like, “yes, I'm happy with my Ford Focus, thanks, it was a good car to have in Wales, I'd like another plz” and they're all like “OK then, here's the key to your Renault Scenic, which seats SEVEN PEOPLE and has nothing covering the boot, so I can't leave anything in it unless you want it stolen”, and I've never driven a car this size and OMG I'm glad I went with the pay-extra-now-so-you-don't-have-a-1600-euro-excess-if-you-crash option, because otherwise I'd be RLY UNIMPRESSED.
So anyway, very tired and somehow managed to forget to buy food (seriously must have been tired... *cough*) before getting the car, so extremely hungry by the time I reached Kilkenny at like 4pm (I'd had something small for breakfast at around 4.30am, so, yeah, hungry and tired = not a good combination), and the roads were kind of scarier than the ones in England and Wales, so I was a bit miserable by the time I made it to Kilkenny. Was supposed to stay at a castle outside Kilkenny, but it was raining unbelievably heavily and I would have had to drive down little roads to find it, and frankly I just couldn't quite bring myself to do it. So I stayed at a hostel in town, which meant I could see a bit more of Kilkenny, as well. Though I was tired and hungry and miserable and just wanted to go to bed, so I didn't really think about it. And I wanted to call home, but FOR SOME REASON MY DAMN MOBILE DOESN'T WORK IN THIS COUNTRY, EVEN THOUGH THREE SAID IT WOULD AND IT TOTALLY WORKED IN THE UK, GAH. So that was awesome, especially the part when I had to re-learn how to buy a phone card and, like, use a public phone. Ugh.
But yeah. Backpackers... I'd forgotten that I don't actually like most of them. I think I'm getting old, because they all seemed really, really young, and it was quite hilarious overhearing this 19-year-old English boy trying to chat up a French girl in the lounge. Because, srsly, such uni-student-days deja vu. LOL. And I really don't actually enjoy having to worry about my stuff getting stolen if I turn my back or take a shower (and for that matter, why are the bathrooms at these places always so gross?) and trying to open combination padlocks in the dark without a torch when people are sleeping at 8pm for some reason and again in the morning when they're STILL SLEEPING AT 9AM, WTF. But yes. Strangely hard to find cheap food, also. Had pasta, which turned out to be spicy, and therefore TERRIBLE on an empty stomach. Ow. Also cost like 20 euros. *doesn't want to think about it*
Managed to, uh, “borrow” some wifi off someone else's network when the hostel's password didn't work and they were completely uninterested in fixing it, so got to upload some pictures to Flickr, which was good. Nearly up to date now :) And damn backpackers woke me several times during the night, which was awesome (turns out Kilkenny is a “party town” with, like, 100 pubs, trufax), but I woke up refreshed, so that was all good.
WEDNESDAY 8TH OCTOBER - LIMERICK
Turns out it was a breakfastless hostel, so after packing everything up and sticking it in the boot of the car, covered oh-so-cunningly with a coat, I went in search of breakfast, which left me with not enough time to see the castle before the walking tour that I wanted to do. But the walking tour turned out to be pretty awesome, so that was all good, and got to hear all the history of the little cobbled laneways and buildings and stuff. As you do, on those tours. *loves little cobbled laneways* The Black Abbey was cool, with awesome windows, though not nearly as threatening as it sounds! Went straight to the castle after that, and got on another tour there, which was kind of interesting, but not as good as the one in Cardiff. But yes.
Ireland. Right, so you know how everything you see about Ireland has ridiculously green rolling hills and cows and is really pretty, or it's little rows of painted houses and cobbled laneways? Well, yes, that. Pretty much every stereotype ever. Which is cool, except it's got a bit of that Norway vibe, where it's all so pretty that eventually it feels like you're just driving past postcards (which, incidentally, of the ones I've seen here, seem to be made up of bad photoshop mashups of EVERY POSSIBLE WORTHWHILE THING). I know! How utterly terrible for me! :P
So, anyway, drove out through Tipperary to Limerick, which, apparently, has the reassuring nickname 'Stab City', so as I arrived at like 5.30, had dinner at the hotel (srsly, no hostels or budget places here, what's with that?) and stayed in at night. Which was awesome when there was a blackout for a good hour or two, but luckily it was before it got dark, so it wasn't too bad.
Travel Blag : Twitter : Flickr : Google Map
TUESDAY 7TH OCTOBER -- KILKENNY
Start of my travelling alone... dropped teh motehr off at the train station at 5am, then drove to the airport to return the car (which I couldn't do until 8 o'clock, so I tried - and failed - to have a sleep in the carpark, but instead wound up listening to BBC Wales radio, which was mildly more entertaining than silence, plus, Welsh accents, so WIN)
Returned the car, then loitered in the airport for another couple of hours before my flight, and, since they've seen fit to delay the release of the new Torchwood novels, I bought myself a (cheap) copy of one that I already owned, because I was tired and inexplicably miserable and needed some comfort reading AND OMG IT IS SO HARD TO GET ON THE INTERNET IN THIS COUNTRY, FOR SRS, so I can't even do the fanfiction thing. Grr. But yes. Jack/Ianto moments ftw. *is fully aware of how crap that is, thx*
Was slightly less than impressed at the plane. Propellors? REALLY? But it turns out it was fine, and I even got a double seat to myself, and excellent views, and apparently when they apologise for the turbulence in a small plane, it's nothing near as bad as what you get in a big plane. So, rock. Also, muchly amused by these extraordinarily arrogant old English businessmen who were just every stereotype evar. LOL.
Lugged all my stuff through Dublin airport until I found the car rental shuttlebus (and seriously, what the hell is it with this country and REFUSING TO SIGNPOST ANYTHING, EVAR? It makes it very hard to find anything, plzkthx) and they're all like “So, are you happy with the car you booked?” And I'm all like, “yes, I'm happy with my Ford Focus, thanks, it was a good car to have in Wales, I'd like another plz” and they're all like “OK then, here's the key to your Renault Scenic, which seats SEVEN PEOPLE and has nothing covering the boot, so I can't leave anything in it unless you want it stolen”, and I've never driven a car this size and OMG I'm glad I went with the pay-extra-now-so-you-don't-have-a-1600-euro-excess-if-you-crash option, because otherwise I'd be RLY UNIMPRESSED.
So anyway, very tired and somehow managed to forget to buy food (seriously must have been tired... *cough*) before getting the car, so extremely hungry by the time I reached Kilkenny at like 4pm (I'd had something small for breakfast at around 4.30am, so, yeah, hungry and tired = not a good combination), and the roads were kind of scarier than the ones in England and Wales, so I was a bit miserable by the time I made it to Kilkenny. Was supposed to stay at a castle outside Kilkenny, but it was raining unbelievably heavily and I would have had to drive down little roads to find it, and frankly I just couldn't quite bring myself to do it. So I stayed at a hostel in town, which meant I could see a bit more of Kilkenny, as well. Though I was tired and hungry and miserable and just wanted to go to bed, so I didn't really think about it. And I wanted to call home, but FOR SOME REASON MY DAMN MOBILE DOESN'T WORK IN THIS COUNTRY, EVEN THOUGH THREE SAID IT WOULD AND IT TOTALLY WORKED IN THE UK, GAH. So that was awesome, especially the part when I had to re-learn how to buy a phone card and, like, use a public phone. Ugh.
But yeah. Backpackers... I'd forgotten that I don't actually like most of them. I think I'm getting old, because they all seemed really, really young, and it was quite hilarious overhearing this 19-year-old English boy trying to chat up a French girl in the lounge. Because, srsly, such uni-student-days deja vu. LOL. And I really don't actually enjoy having to worry about my stuff getting stolen if I turn my back or take a shower (and for that matter, why are the bathrooms at these places always so gross?) and trying to open combination padlocks in the dark without a torch when people are sleeping at 8pm for some reason and again in the morning when they're STILL SLEEPING AT 9AM, WTF. But yes. Strangely hard to find cheap food, also. Had pasta, which turned out to be spicy, and therefore TERRIBLE on an empty stomach. Ow. Also cost like 20 euros. *doesn't want to think about it*
Managed to, uh, “borrow” some wifi off someone else's network when the hostel's password didn't work and they were completely uninterested in fixing it, so got to upload some pictures to Flickr, which was good. Nearly up to date now :) And damn backpackers woke me several times during the night, which was awesome (turns out Kilkenny is a “party town” with, like, 100 pubs, trufax), but I woke up refreshed, so that was all good.
WEDNESDAY 8TH OCTOBER - LIMERICK
Turns out it was a breakfastless hostel, so after packing everything up and sticking it in the boot of the car, covered oh-so-cunningly with a coat, I went in search of breakfast, which left me with not enough time to see the castle before the walking tour that I wanted to do. But the walking tour turned out to be pretty awesome, so that was all good, and got to hear all the history of the little cobbled laneways and buildings and stuff. As you do, on those tours. *loves little cobbled laneways* The Black Abbey was cool, with awesome windows, though not nearly as threatening as it sounds! Went straight to the castle after that, and got on another tour there, which was kind of interesting, but not as good as the one in Cardiff. But yes.
Ireland. Right, so you know how everything you see about Ireland has ridiculously green rolling hills and cows and is really pretty, or it's little rows of painted houses and cobbled laneways? Well, yes, that. Pretty much every stereotype ever. Which is cool, except it's got a bit of that Norway vibe, where it's all so pretty that eventually it feels like you're just driving past postcards (which, incidentally, of the ones I've seen here, seem to be made up of bad photoshop mashups of EVERY POSSIBLE WORTHWHILE THING). I know! How utterly terrible for me! :P
So, anyway, drove out through Tipperary to Limerick, which, apparently, has the reassuring nickname 'Stab City', so as I arrived at like 5.30, had dinner at the hotel (srsly, no hostels or budget places here, what's with that?) and stayed in at night. Which was awesome when there was a blackout for a good hour or two, but luckily it was before it got dark, so it wasn't too bad.
Travel Blag : Twitter : Flickr : Google Map