I’m planning on having a few days in Ireland over the summer, to do some research for the novel that I’m supposedly ghost-writing. The original plan was that I’d spend a few days with my parents in South Wales, and then get the Swansea to Cork ferry, allowing me to visit an old friend in Cork whom I don’t see nearly enough. But it turns out that the Swansea Cork ferry doesn’t run any more (yes, they say they hope to resume operations in 2008, but I haven’t found evidence of this). Boo. I had an awesome time overnight on that very ferry in 1996, where I met an American blues band and played poker with them all night.
But all is not lost! I can get the train to Pembroke instead, and get the ferry to Rosslare, which is significantly quicker, and gives me the chance to have a look at Pembroke, where I have never been, but which I have heard good things about. And from Rosslare, I can easily head across to New Ross, the very place I have to visit for my research. Hurrah! (Well, at least in theory it should be easy, but Bus Eireann annoyingly doesn’t have searchable timestables. Bah.)
Then surely it would be a shame to go all that way and not visit my friend in Cork, so I could head across there for a day or so, and then up to Dublin for more research and friend seeing. And, you know, if I have gone that far without increasing my already-gargantuan carbon footprint, why not keep it up? I can get the train from Dublin to Belfast, the ferry across to Stranraer, and the train from Stranraer back to Glasgow. ALl that travel, and I can be environmentally smug, to boot! Excellent.
