Wales to Ireland

We've been in 3 different countries in the last 2 days. Pretty Crazy. Scotland to Wales, stayed less than 24 hours in Wales, and then caught a ferry to Dublin, Ireland. We will be in Ireland for the remainder of our trip.

Even though we only stayed in Wales for a short time, we were able to walk around a bit when it wasn't raining and get a taste for it. It was really remote and quaint, compared to all of the other places we've been. We rode the train from Edinburgh, Scotland to Holyhead, Wales for about 5 hours yesterday. I guess I was really tired of traveling, because I had an extreme blonde moment right before we got off the train in Holyhead. The last train we were on was an inner city train, and it stopped frequently. At all the train stops and metro stops (except in Italy) they have the name of the stop clearly printed somewhere on the wall or on a sign. That's usually the first thing I look for, so I know that we're getting off at the right stop. The conductor had announced that Holyhead was the next stop, and everyone was to get off. We stopped not 30 seconds after that, and there were still a couple of girls that didn't even get up to get off, so I thought he could have meant it was the stop after that. I didn't want to get off the train at the wrong stop, which we've done several times in the past month. So, I look outside for the sign that is the name of the stop. Keep in mind that they speak Welsh in Wales, and they have funny names for things in Europe. In Amsterdam, our metro stop was named "Weesperplein" for example. So, the first big sign I see is "cycle rack" so I tell mom, "This isn't Holyhead, this is Cyle Rack! We don't get off here!" She just looked at me and said, "give me the damn book bag." I was determined that we were at Cycle Rack and it wasn't time to get off, but mom starts to get off anyway so I follow her and that's when I see the sign for Holyhead. She pointed at the cycle rack sign, which had a bike rack underneath it. So, I mistook the bike rack sign for the name of the town. Epic fail. We called it cycle rack the rest of the time we were there though, and couldn't stop laughing about how dumb that was. Who calls it a cycle rack anyway?

From what we saw of Wales, it was beautiful. We were obviously on the coast since we were catching the ferry and the coastline was exactly how I pictured it would look. There were tons of sailboats in the harbor and when we got there it wasn't raining and we actually saw a really beautiful sunset after dinner. The really wonderful thing was, there was nobody around! After being in big cities like London, Paris and Rome the past month, we really appreciate the peace, quite and solitude. Today, we had a little time to walk around before we had to catch the ferry. We walked up along the coast line and it was cloudy and breezy but still very pretty. The beaches are all smooth stones like they were in France. The rocks were covered in some sort of moss or seaweed. Everything is so green and there are lots of flowers since it rains so sporadically. In Scotland, Wales and Amsterdam there are so many hydrangeas. I was in hydrangea heaven. And they're so colorful. In North Carolina, mostly you just see the classic blue ones. Here they are all shades of pink and deep purple to white and some blues. I loooove them. Anyway, it started to rain and we had to hurry back to catch our ride to the ferry. I would have liked to have seen more of Wales (Cycle Rack) but maybe another time.

The ferry we took to Ireland was enormous. It was like a mini cruise ship. I didn't expect it to be like that at all. If you've ever been on the ferry to Ocracoke or Hatteras, it's nothing even comparable to that. They drove us on a bus onto the ferry, and let us off and told us to go to the 5th floor. We got up there and I didn't even know what to think. There was a full blown restaurant and cafe and lots of little seats and tables. There were places people could sleep a floor up, for extra money. It was the craziest ferry I've ever seen. We made it to Ireland and didn't have trouble getting to the hotel.

My Dad and brother are on there way to Ireland now to spend the rest of the trip with us. I can't wait to see them in the morning!

Best things about today: Checking out Wales, making it to Dublin.
Worst things about today: Lack of sleep.


*No pictures tonight because the internet sucks here.