Hurray, we've managed to get on this wireless network which the College of Saint Scholastica set up in this area, cos they apparently come here to stay for 18 weeks a year, and hence set up this wireless network. Good for us that it's on all year round, although on the down side, I have to carry my laptop and sit out in the cold in order to get proper reception from the wireless router.

It's been 2 weeks since I've gotten here, and I haven't actually written a proper post yet, so I thought I'd write about my travel from Cambridge to Ireland, which was yet another adventure in itself.

PS: Although I'm currently working on a "Extended, Never-Before-Read Version" while being offline, on my laptop. ;p

12 Aug 07 - ~16 hours after I've left Singapore

After a 12.5-hour plane ride, and 2.5-hour bus ride, I got back to the familiar sights of Churchill College. I suppose after spending some two years in this college, you can consider it my second home, in some sense. I drew the keys out for my trunk room, where all my barang-barang was stored, packed what I needed for the trip, which included my hard hat, hammer, compass, waterproofs (very important), boots, rice-cooker, printer (and more) and then set off to pick up Lydia & Vicky from the train station.

The car which I was driving... and will be owning... ;p

From the train station, we were supposed to make an epic 4.5-hour drive to Holyhead where we were supposed to catch the 1715 ferry to Dublin, pick up Rachel from the ferry terminal at Dublin and do another 4.5-hour drive to Louisburgh. Unfortunately, things aren’t always what we want it to be - there was a jam on the M6, which made us take an hour longer than we’d expected. This meant that we got to Holyhead around 5.25pm (driving at about 100mph, which is about 160kmh), 10 minutes after our supposed departure time.

The situation was a little less grim than we’d expected though, cos we managed to get put on the next ferry, which was at 2.40am, which meant that we didn’t have to find accommodation for the night. There was a little moment of panic though, when we realised none of us had Rachel’s number, so we couldn’t inform her that we were gonna be rather late. Thus went this flurry of phone calls, where we tried to obtain Rachel’s number, which we managed to get off Lydia’s friend’s friend, whom none of us knew.

Taking a break/breather after getting Rachel's number.

We then proceeded for a drive around Holyhead, which wasn’t all that exciting, considering it was a Sunday and most of the shops were closed. Dinner was takeaway from some fish & chips shop in Holyhead, which was eaten at some pier. After dinner, we headed back to the terminal, where I took a much-needed nap in the car (being horribly jet-lagged and tired from the plane and car journey), while Lydia & Vicky sat chatting in the café.

At midnight, Lydia & Vicky came back to the car, and tried to wake me up, although I was terribly confused and disorientated, and it took me a while to realize who it was who had come back. We then set off to check in and board the ferry, which was quite exciting as this was my first time driving a car up a vehicle ferry. The rest of the ferry trip wasn’t quite as exciting as we all crashed out on the sofa in the lounge area and slept through the journey only to be awakened when we arrived in Dublin.

Inside the vehicle ferry... which was huge... it's almost a cruise ship really...

At Dublin, we went to pick Rachel up, who had spent the night at Vicky’s aunt Kathy’s place, where we also had a quick breakfast, before setting off again for Louisburgh, which was another 4.5 hour drive – This has got to be the longest trip for me yet, again, beating my previous record of 30 hours.

12.5 hour flight,
2.5 hour bus journey,
6 hour drive to Holyhead, (inclusive of 1 hour jam)
8 hour wait,
3 hour ferry ride to Dublin,
5 hour drive to Louisburgh
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= 37 hours in total. Gosh. That’s almost 1.5 days worth of travelling
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When we finally find our way to Louisburgh, we found Christina, who had been waiting at the cottage. We unpacked the car, which was fully loaded with our gear, and then had lunch, and went grocery shopping in town. It was nice to be nice and settled for a little while. :)

My bed for the next 6 weeks (or 4 weeks from today!)

Labels: Ireland, Mapping