Across the Irish Sea

Posted on 2007/09/17 18:38:48 (September 2007).

[Sunday 16th September]
Mid-afternoon today we left Dad's house, bound for Holyhead. We had been closely monitoring this site which gave detailed local weather information, particularly of relevance to shipping. There were winds bordering on gale force out in the Irish Sea today, but the indication seemed to be that they'd drop back significantly by the time I got on my ferry.

My ferry was delayed in leaving by about an hour because of the weather, and once we got out into the open sea it was really quite rough still. I started off braving the elements out on deck, but after a while the wind was just a bit too much for me so I retreated inside. The boat was swaying about a fair bit, and I have to admit to feeling like a bit of a landlubber, as it definitely made me feel a bit queasy.

Still, when I did manage to brave going outside, the views were very nice - the sun set over Ireland as we approached it, and despite the wind there was actually a fairly clear sky.

I arrived in Dublin some time around 8:30, and from the ferry port took a bus into the city centre. Realising I didn't know my way round the city centre at all, and possessing only a very rudimentary map of where my hotel is, I thought it wise to get a taxi.

After quickly checking in at my hotel, I rushed straight back out again for dinner - concious of the fact it was a Sunday night, gettting late, and presumably places wouldn't be open that much longer.

I had done a bit of research on where to eat on the web the previous day, and had settled on a place called Yamamori Noodles. I had their moyashi ramen (a vegetarian soup noodle dish) and some edamame, with a couple of bottles of kirin. It was OK I suppose - I found the soup rather disappointingly had a lot of cheap domestic ingredients in it, like boring old white mushrooms, green peppers, and the tofu was Chinese rather than Japanese. The clientele appeared to be mostly Irish, not a lot of people in there who were Japanese, as far as I could tell. Maybe Dublin just doesn't have that much of a Japanese population, compared to London. Still, I was happy enough to find a place I could drink Japanese beer and eat edamame.

I attempted to walk back to the hotel from there, but after a short distance realised I was going in completely the wrong direction, so instead took another taxi.

Going away anywhere always seems to remind me just how great taxi drivers are in London - you tell them the name of a street, or a hotel, and they just know it. Here in Dublin though I got a total of three taxis this evening, and in each and every instance they didn't really know where the place I wanted to go to was. The strategy seemed to be to just head for the general area, and then hope we spot it. Admittedly that did actually seem to work quite well on this occasion, but it did certainly highlight the difference, in terms of taxis at least, between London and the rest of the world.

As Dublin is very little bigger than Pangbourne, I am surprised you took a taxi at all, at all. Even Keith and I walked everywhere!

Posted by John's Mum at 2007/09/18 14:00:59.

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