Dublin-Paris

Yesterday was a nice way to ease myself in to my wee adventure even though I was still dealing with some work stuff when I got on the Enterprise train to Dublin. I stayed with friends in Dublin last night - thanks to Team Brown-Swann for tasty chickpea curry, laughing at Google Assistant’s joke repertoire, some brain exercise helping the 9-year old with some maths homework and good conversation. Colleen was a legend this morning for dropping me off at the Port ridiculously early & even making me a green tea latte which set me up for the day.

The ferry was very pleasant, a far cry from my memories of the ming-ding-a-ling Larne-Stranraer boat of childhood family trips to Scotland. Dublin Bay was looking well on a nice soft morning.

When I got into Holyhead there probably was enough time to catch the next train to London but I opted for a slightly later one and wandered into the town just 5 minutes from the ferry terminal/train station to get a bite to eat. May as well make the most of some sea views & a chance to stretch the legs in the sunshine.

Holyhead seemed like a wistful wee place, a lot of shopfronts were boarded up. There was a glut of tourists wandering aimlessly like lost sheep (what’s the collective noun for tourists?) I guess I should include myself in that category (why is it we never want to see ourselves as lowly tourists eh?!) although to be fair I was slightly less aimless and more purposeful in my hunt for lunch. I was delighted to find a small zero waste shop where I bought some bamboo cutlery to eat my Co-op salad with (because of course my camping cutlery set is somewhere deep in the recesses of my spare room which is starting to resemble the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts). But I felt bad when I opted to pay by card & the shopkeeper apologised that the card machine was a bit slow because she only turns it on when customers are buying something to save electricity. I’ll refrain from a major rant about how corporate greed screws ordinary hardworking people over and diminishes dignity all round.

Onto the train for London and I enjoyed the scenery of Snowdonia and the northern Welsh coastline. I also just managed to spot the station of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll as it flashed past. Kudos to the Man in Seat 61 for his excellent train travel information which was how I knew of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll’s place on the map literally and figuratively.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2ee65f_0baa8fe83c1b4be491b2b86ea7121da6/480p/mp4/file.mp4

I wrote all of that earlier, as of right now I’ve made it to Paris & I’m ready for some kip!