This Week in Vacation Planning

Y’all. THREE MORE SLEEPS UNTIL I FULFILL A LIFELONG DREAM OF GOING TO IRELAND. I’d say “I don’t know why I waited this long” but I kind of do know. I saved up money when I was in my early 20s, with a plan of buying a Eurail pass and spending the summer before I turned 25 just tooling around Europe and the UK, backpacking, staying in hostels, seeing the world. Then I spent that money on paying for a wedding, instead. Joke was on me, the marriage didn’t even last five years. I should have gone traveling instead.

Then I didn’t have any money (single, divorced, renting out part of my house so I could make ends meet). Then I got married again, to someone who didn’t like to travel. I did travel a couple of times without him… and I did get to Scotland, for the WorldCon in 2005. 2003? No, I think it was 2005. (Google tells me it was 2005.) I could have done more traveling without him, but while we were making ends meet, we weren’t exactly rolling in it… so I put things off.

Now I’ve seen too many people I’m close to, die in the last few years… all of them with regrets about things they haven’t done. Since my vague plan for eventual death is to skid into it sideways like I’m trying to reach home plate before someone out in right field catches the ball and tags me out, while screaming “HOLY SHIT Y’ALL WHAT A FUCKING RIDE, NO REGERTS!” the whole way … that means…. HELLO WORLD TRAVELS.

Ireland, 03/27-04/16

Gainesville –> Atlanta –> Dublin

Dublin
– Egans Guest House
– Glasnevin Cemetery
– National Botanic Gardens
– Dublin Zoo
– Iveagh Gardens
– and if there’s time, because it’s not close to all the other things and is a 90 minute bus ride, Deansgrange Cemetery, to put a flower on Sinead O’connor’s grave

Wexford
– actually no idea. Whatever Hawk tells me I’m doing; sounds like it’s going to be a lovely mix of ruins, old churches, nature, and animals.

Galway
– Hyde Hotel
– whatever Hawk shows me!
– a chartered tour to the Aran Islands & Cliffs Of Moher which is both a land and boat tour (so I will get to see them from both the water, and from on top of them
– another chartered tour, this one to Connemara and Kylemore Abbey
(the best part of these two tours, other than getting to knit while being taken places, is that Jenn will be going on these two adventures with me!)

Belfast
– Leonardo Hotel Belfast
– Titanic Belfast
– Botanic Gardens
– C. S. Lewis Square
– The Lamppost Cafe

And then back to Dublin for one night, but it’s actually just outside of Dublin, in a little space just outside of a small village? town? called Swords.
– Rose Cottage B&B, and they don’t have a website but they do have a review page on Tripadvisor that is five stars across the board, and check out the pictures. I wish I could stay there for more than one night!
– Swords looks interesting, with Abbey ruins and a Castle, and I’ve tried to arrange my travels from Belfast to get me to Rose Cottage by about 2 or 3 in the afternoon (it’s a little confusing in that they told me on the phone that I need to go Belfast –> train station in Dublin –> another train back up a bit north to Donabate –> then take a bus to Swords –> then take a taxi to the cottage…. like, the fuck??? But in looking at a map, I may reevaluate that and see if I can find a taxi or something to take me from the Dublin train station up to the cottage, because that other whole mess looks confusing and like it could be done easier and quicker. The last thing I’m probably going to want to do on my last day there is something stressful and extra while carrying bags and being tired.

Side note: one thing that I’ve heard a couple of times is “wow, that sounds like a lot of things, you should take one or two things off your list every day” and to that, I say… look. A lot of these things are things that are going to take an hour (I hear you can walk C. S. Lewis Square in half an hour, and then another hour to get to the cafe, get some coffee, drink it all) or maybe, in the case of things like botanical gardens or museums, I’m looking at 3-5 hours, and those places probably all have cafes in which I can sit down and regroup if needed.

Plus, I very deliberately chose hotels that are within a few minutes walk to everything that I want to do. Of course there’s more I want to do, but I based my choices for this trip on things that are close to each other, and have a hotel/b&b within easy walking distance. Trust me, I have factored in a lot of down time, and remember, for most of this journey I will be solo and so will have plenty of time to myself to rest and not talk to anyone.

THREE MORE SLEEPS!