Europe 1995 Part 6: Every Day is Wednesday in Ireland

So the boat trip from France to Ireland ended up being a whole thing.

10-20 Journal Excerpt: " It seems I'm the only passenger on the boat who isn't a trucker and who is a girl. My compartment has a Do Not Enter sign on the door. I just don't know what to think. I feel like they've made some sort of exception for me."

It was an overnight boat ride that was supposed to include meals. My book said the boat from Cherbourg went to Cork, but the only boat went to Rosslare, and I had to pay 400 francs for the ride because it wasn't covered by my pass. I was as flexible about the situation as I could be, but I wasn't feeling well at all after my cold night on the park bench.

10-20 Journal Excerpt (cont.): "A man just came into my room and was so rude. He shut my curtains and mumbled something about dinner in half-French. I'm a bad sport. I don't even want any frickin dinner if he's gonna be that way. I hope he comes back so I can refuse."

This is a photo of me and a guy named Lee at Danni's house. He and his friend James were our unofficial tour guides (okay, read PUB guides). Lee was nice but James was a little creepy - he took me to his house and his mom made me gross bacon. I went to a soccer game with them.

10-21 Journal Excerpt: "Well, I did make it to Ireland and I'm not dead. Neither is that man on the boat, which is my greater accomplishment. He did come back and I did refuse my supper. I realized later that he didn't care if I ate or not so it was myself I hurt. Don't come near me or I'll slice you I'm so sharp.
I slept about 14 hours and got up and had sugar smacks and orange juice with a bunch of truckers."

I traveled all day, got to Galway, and found Danni's house in Salt Hill at about 10:30pm. She wasn't home, so I went to the pub across the street and it was quaint and magical. That's where I met Lee, who was playing cards with a bunch of old men. I couldn't get ahold of Danni on the phone that night and no one would answer the door, so I had to sleep on the sidewalk outside her house. Unbelievable. I saw a mouse that night.

One day we rented a little adorable blue car and drove out into the Irish countryside on the wrong side of the road! We saw a castle, lots of green fields with stone walls around them, stone ruins, and the beautiful little town of Clifden at sunset. Also ate the best salmon of my life.

10-23 Journal Excerpt: "It feels like every Irish man I meet is halfway skeezing on me. Danni feels it, too. I could never live here. Tonight we're going out - the fabled Wednesday night when all of Ireland gets paid."

We went out and drank a lot. There were some great moments in there. Especially the TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT TIMES AND DIFFERENT PLACES when we experienced an entire pub singing Delilah together in true stereotypical pub fashion. Like if you saw it in a movie you would not believe it really happened in real life. But it does.

We also spent lots of late nights walking in the rain, usually from pub to pub, or from pub to home. I ate really good soup a couple of times. There was some corn chowder that I remember.

One day when Danni had to work, I went on a day trip by myself to the Aran Islands. It's the last thing I mention in my orange travel journal before it very abruptly ends. I took a boat out to the island and the cliffs and sea were breathtaking and exhilarating and I apparently didn't take any pictures there, but I could've sworn I did. It was the last thing of note that I did before I flew home.

Oh, except I missed my flight out of Dublin. I can't exactly remember the circumstances that surrounded the flub, I think I thought my ticket was for a different day or time than it really was. The thing is, I was really sick and pretty much functioning on two cylinders, or like at least one or two cylinders less than however much is normal, so my memories are sketchy.

So I flew home. There should be something really insightful here that wraps up the whole trip with pith and insight. It was a crazy trip, where it rarely occurred to me to think about things like how much money it might cost to eat, whether there was something culturally important that I could experience, or what time my train ride might get me into my destination and whether I would be able to find a place to stay. But I let the trip happen to me, and each thing that happened was a surprise, so that's good!

It was really fun to come into such brief contact with so many people, to rely on the kindness of strangers, to leave myself open to absolutely anything and everything that could happen. Only many years later (probably when I became a parent) did it dawn on me how dangerous some situations could have become and how lucky I was to always have found my way, but overall I would definitely recommend a travel experience to all of my children when they are young and free. Being young and free is a surprisingly fleeting point in life.