BootsnAll Travel Network



Trainhopping

7:38 AM, 8/24/06

What a day of travel. Yesterday we traveled by train, bus, and ferry over a period of about twelve hours. Needlessly to say, we were quite relieved when we stepped off the ferry in Ireland. We took a train to Cardiff, the capital of Wales. From there, we immediately caught another train to some juncture to the west. We were trying to get to the port city of Fishguard where we would catch the ferry over to Ireland, but unfortunately we’d missed the direct train by a couple hours. Therefore, we were forced to take a bus part of the way. To say we lucked out on our train, bus, and ferry connections would be to put it lightly. We never had to wait more than about 5 or 10 minutes except one time, when we wanted to stop for lunch anyway. Had we moved slower at any place, or been delayed even slightly, we likely would have missed the ferry to Rosslare in Ireland and would have been stuck in Fishguard. Not that Wales was unpleasant. The country had a very provincial feel to it. Even the capital, Cardiff, had very little of the hustle and bustle that was so common in London. People all along the way were extraordinarily helpful, especially the Welsh. One fellow helped us find the bus station to make a connection, while an old lady told us about the town and showed us where to get off the bus and what to do. Taking the bus through Wales was an interesting experience. We appeared to be the only tourists and ended up driving along a lot of the little backroads between the cities as the bus picked up locals. I ended up sleeping through the most exciting thing that happened in the day, which consequently also ended up being the grossest part. Jacob informed me that while I was soundly napping on the ferry, a barrage of kids were puking their guts out on the ferry. Apparently one kid even slipped in some. Needless to say, I was okay sleeping through that. I would hate to be the guy whose job it was to clean up puke. The Puke Preventer, member of the puke patrol. Anyway…we arrived in Ireland too late to continue traveling west so we settled in at a quaint little hostel. The hostel’s proprietor helped us to figure out when and where we needed to go, which incidentally included waking up at 6 in the morning…again. We’re heading west toward Limerick and from there we will take a bus up to Galway. We’re going to see the cliffs of Moher tomorrow since we probably won’t get to our destination until late in the afternoon. Jacob and I are both becoming very accustomed to the insides of trains…but I’m not sure that’s a good thing. At least it is allowing us to see quite a bit of the countryside, which is what I’m going to return to doing now. Cheers.



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