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So the move has been made. Not just any move. The. Move. We are now in Ireland. in Éirinn... As a pat, I am now ex!So to start things off, Jo flew over to lay the ground work and the next day, when I'd finished packing, Mark came over with his van, we loaded it up and off we went - a road trip to the Emerald Isle.
Of course, there was a little more too it than that. First off, Mark had to set the van up - he uses it for work, so it's usually not just full of electricianing tools, it's also custom fitted with some heavy duty racking, which he needed to remove to get all the boxes in. This turned out to be more than just a little job - after spending half the day taking it out, he then found it was all in one solid piece, meaning it was too big to store anywhere he had access to. Apparently he was on the verge of driving out into the country side and dumping it - hoping it would still be there when he came back!*
When he arrived, he handed me my special road trip outfit, the van got loaded up (I cannot believe we got it all in...!), we said our goodbyes to Rachel and wended our merry way out of Brighton and onto the open road.
The journey was to be a long one... We had to catch a ferry at 3am from Liverpool. My parents had told us we should set off at 3pm in order to avoid traffic and have a lovely trip with a little bit of time to spare.
So we left at about 7. My mum even called at about 7:30 to see how we were getting on... I'm not sure I've ever heard her sound so worried when I told her we were almost at Preston Circus...**
But we didn't let that deter us, I mean it's only a few hours to Liverpool. Via the M25. For a ferry we couldn't afford to miss. Actually, I'll cut that story short - we had loads of time. I think we broke some sort of record for a van with a speed limiter as we had oodles of time to waste when we got there and we had time to stop for a bite to eat en route!
Then we were onto the ferry which turns out to be almost exclusively a freight route - we were one of maybe 10 cars amongst hundreds*** of lorries and containers.
This was both good and bad - bad because the entertainment and facilities on board are limited, but good because there is free food.
That's right people FREE FOOD.
AND we had a cabin. And there was a bar. And I had a pack of googly eyes to stick on various surfaces around the boat to make it look like faces everywhere (because it's fun to #vandaleyes)****
So we stuffed our faces with what I think was gammon and chips, had a couple of Guinnesseseses, then hit the hay in our surprisingly nice little cabin for a very up-and-downy night of sleep (it was like being rocked to sleep in a cradle by a careless giant who by blind luck alone was doing a wonderful job).
In the morning, the sea had gotten worse so we only managed the one plate of nearly what we ordered (I wanted hash browns, not sausages!)*****, then it was about time to head downstairs, get in the van and get lost on the way down to Tipperary!
**Point B on the map
***ish
****P&O, if you're reading, it wasn't me. And, err, I'm sure they peel off easily. And I've no idea what you're talking about! What are googly eyes?!
*****Actually, I quite liked the sausages
******Image shamelessly stolen from http://madebyjoel.com/
