You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there-Y. Berra
So, guess what? I'm currently in Ireland on the N81 making my way to Dublin. I know what you're thinking. "Oh my goodness, Alessandra! You finally gave in and shipped off to the UK to go husband hunting!" Sadly, my proverbial friend, you would be wrong. I am currently involved in a game of Mapcrunch.
I was introduced to this game last night by the lovelyredscarfe during one of our DVD marathon sleepovers, and now I'm addicted. Mapcrunch itself isn't actually a game. It's software that sends you to a random location in google Streetview. The game, which for ease of expression I'm referring to as Mapcrunch as well, actually originated on Tumblr here. The basic premise is that you go to Mapcrunch, click 'hide location' and get transported to a random place. Then, just like you've woken up in a ditch in a foreign country, you have to try to make your way to the nearest airport to get home.
So, while we were playing this last night we ended up in Sweden and crossed the border to Norway to get to an airport. Then we ended up in Ireland, getting lost in the city and giving up and subsequently doing the same thing in the Netherlands today.
I decided, because I'm easily susceptible to fixating on things, that I should definitely give it a go on my own. So, being the adventuress that I am, I un-ticked 'urban only' and went on my way. This is where I initially ended up:
And yes, unless you're wondering, those are cows you can see. At first I thought perhaps I was in Australia, but then I figured the appearance of fields and fences is fairly universal, so maybe not. So I followed tiny country roads like the one above for a while, partly choosing which way to go at crossroads by instinct and partly by my theory of 'the more worn the road, the more frequently used, thus, it must lead to a town' (and yes, I fully realise that there is a giant flaw in my theory in that the road could just be so little used the local council couldn't be bothered maintaining it, but whatever. Woman's intuition.)
So I carried on with this for a while, passing many properties and traversing many hills, until I finally found a tiny sign that said 'Donard/Dun Ard - 5'. At this I started to develop an inkling about my location. I thought, however - ignorantly, as I would soon discover - that Donard was back the way I came, so I went the opposite way.
My epic journey carried on for another few minutes until I finally made it to my first 'town centre'. It was a hubbub of activity, consisting of a parish and this sign:
The bottom sign on the right says 'Donard', so, again thinking that was the way I came, I headed left to Knockanarrigan. When I arrived I realised why it had such an interesting name - because other than that I'm not sure there'd be any other points of excitement in Knockanarrigan if it's town centre is anything to judge by:
Then again, compared to the parish centre down the road, Knockanarrigan was going OFF. So, I decided, this was probably not the way to the city and headed back up the way I came. At least there were supposedly two whole towns that way. :P I headed back past the parish and towards - if the sign was to be believed - Donard and Baltinglass. Then, miraculously, there was progress.
My first green sign! And the road it was on was double-laned AND had an official sounding name (the N81). I did also see this sign:
It reads 'Castleruddery Stone Circle' and had the Outlander fan in me indignantly screaming, "Stone circle? WHERE??? I want to see it!" It also made me think that perhaps I was in Scotland. With the green sign on my side, however, I persevered. Using my amazingly infallible intuition, I decided Baltinglass was definitely the place to be and headed left. I travelled down the N81 for a while until, miracle of miracles, this happened (if you thought the last one was good, JUST WAIT):
Oh my God! Rejoice! A capital city! It, of course, also meant I was going the wrong way, but I was too happy to be bothered by that. Thus, I began my trek back up the N81 with renewed vigour. On the way I saw this sign:
This told me that I could have just headed to Donard from the start. I was only 5km from it about an hour ago. I was however, making progress, so I didn't let my past stupidity deter me. On my way I found this sign, which removed any residual doubt I had about my location:
Then I reached another small town. This one had more signs, and one in particular that interested me. A sign with the distance to Dublin - the first I'd seen:
But, of course, the actual number was covered by the top of a green sign. I soldiered on, however, and kept going towards Blessington, as per the signage, until, joy of joys, I encountered civilisation!
Because nothing says civilisation like a roundabout and a Texaco, huh? *nudgewink
From here I continued down the N81 to the main street of Blessington:
Blessington main street looks like the bloody Vegas Strip in comparison to Knockanarrigan, doesn't it? Thus, the above is my current location. I stopped at 3am, and as it has taken me about an hour to write this post, it's now four in the morning, so I'm leaving off for the night/morning.
Hopefully, after going through all this drama, I don't give up and throw in the towel tomorrow, but whatever. It was fun and now I think I know country Ireland like the back of my hand (an exaggeration? No! Never).
Anyway boyos, I'm off. Weel, would ya look at tha'! Seems like I'm already pickin' up th' local accent, there! (End terrible attempt at phonetic Irish accent :P).
I was introduced to this game last night by the lovelyredscarfe during one of our DVD marathon sleepovers, and now I'm addicted. Mapcrunch itself isn't actually a game. It's software that sends you to a random location in google Streetview. The game, which for ease of expression I'm referring to as Mapcrunch as well, actually originated on Tumblr here. The basic premise is that you go to Mapcrunch, click 'hide location' and get transported to a random place. Then, just like you've woken up in a ditch in a foreign country, you have to try to make your way to the nearest airport to get home.
So, while we were playing this last night we ended up in Sweden and crossed the border to Norway to get to an airport. Then we ended up in Ireland, getting lost in the city and giving up and subsequently doing the same thing in the Netherlands today.
I decided, because I'm easily susceptible to fixating on things, that I should definitely give it a go on my own. So, being the adventuress that I am, I un-ticked 'urban only' and went on my way. This is where I initially ended up:
And yes, unless you're wondering, those are cows you can see. At first I thought perhaps I was in Australia, but then I figured the appearance of fields and fences is fairly universal, so maybe not. So I followed tiny country roads like the one above for a while, partly choosing which way to go at crossroads by instinct and partly by my theory of 'the more worn the road, the more frequently used, thus, it must lead to a town' (and yes, I fully realise that there is a giant flaw in my theory in that the road could just be so little used the local council couldn't be bothered maintaining it, but whatever. Woman's intuition.)
So I carried on with this for a while, passing many properties and traversing many hills, until I finally found a tiny sign that said 'Donard/Dun Ard - 5'. At this I started to develop an inkling about my location. I thought, however - ignorantly, as I would soon discover - that Donard was back the way I came, so I went the opposite way.
My epic journey carried on for another few minutes until I finally made it to my first 'town centre'. It was a hubbub of activity, consisting of a parish and this sign:
The bottom sign on the right says 'Donard', so, again thinking that was the way I came, I headed left to Knockanarrigan. When I arrived I realised why it had such an interesting name - because other than that I'm not sure there'd be any other points of excitement in Knockanarrigan if it's town centre is anything to judge by:
Then again, compared to the parish centre down the road, Knockanarrigan was going OFF. So, I decided, this was probably not the way to the city and headed back up the way I came. At least there were supposedly two whole towns that way. :P I headed back past the parish and towards - if the sign was to be believed - Donard and Baltinglass. Then, miraculously, there was progress.
My first green sign! And the road it was on was double-laned AND had an official sounding name (the N81). I did also see this sign:
It reads 'Castleruddery Stone Circle' and had the Outlander fan in me indignantly screaming, "Stone circle? WHERE??? I want to see it!" It also made me think that perhaps I was in Scotland. With the green sign on my side, however, I persevered. Using my amazingly infallible intuition, I decided Baltinglass was definitely the place to be and headed left. I travelled down the N81 for a while until, miracle of miracles, this happened (if you thought the last one was good, JUST WAIT):
Oh my God! Rejoice! A capital city! It, of course, also meant I was going the wrong way, but I was too happy to be bothered by that. Thus, I began my trek back up the N81 with renewed vigour. On the way I saw this sign:
This told me that I could have just headed to Donard from the start. I was only 5km from it about an hour ago. I was however, making progress, so I didn't let my past stupidity deter me. On my way I found this sign, which removed any residual doubt I had about my location:
Then I reached another small town. This one had more signs, and one in particular that interested me. A sign with the distance to Dublin - the first I'd seen:
But, of course, the actual number was covered by the top of a green sign. I soldiered on, however, and kept going towards Blessington, as per the signage, until, joy of joys, I encountered civilisation!
Because nothing says civilisation like a roundabout and a Texaco, huh? *nudgewink
From here I continued down the N81 to the main street of Blessington:
Blessington main street looks like the bloody Vegas Strip in comparison to Knockanarrigan, doesn't it? Thus, the above is my current location. I stopped at 3am, and as it has taken me about an hour to write this post, it's now four in the morning, so I'm leaving off for the night/morning.
Hopefully, after going through all this drama, I don't give up and throw in the towel tomorrow, but whatever. It was fun and now I think I know country Ireland like the back of my hand (an exaggeration? No! Never).
Anyway boyos, I'm off. Weel, would ya look at tha'! Seems like I'm already pickin' up th' local accent, there! (End terrible attempt at phonetic Irish accent :P).