Ireland - Day 3 - Hell on Wheels

I figured that driving in Ireland would be bad. I erroneously thought the worst would be in Dublin.

We drove to Glendalough national park to have a picnic, the stores for which we obtained at the finest petrol station in mid-nowhere, Ireland.

The park was full of Irish rat children on a field trip, apparently with no supervision. That, or their supervision had gone to the local bar to get lit and let the little rats run about.

After the park, we headed to Wexford on the back route. I have been on dirt roads in the mountains of West Virginia wider than the country roads here. Crazy turns, bad signs, and roads jammed with parked cars with barely enough room for one car had my driving legs throbbing with the aftershock of adrenaline.

At one point, in some stupid Irish town of the who knows, who cares variety, I almost yelled out a quote from Bad Boys: "WE OUT OF F___ING ROAD!!!" as I swerved down an alley to avoid an oncoming car that was flying down a two way lane packed with parked cars on each side.

At that point, I decided the highway is the only place I'm driving. The only problem is, I don't think there are highways all the way. I think we are about to drive off the official end of civilization tomorrow, and would not be surprised to find druids on carts packing the roads in Cork, asking people to bring out their dead.

I can say I only hit one Irish car, and it was a glancing blow on the window. Don't know which town it happened in. Don't care, either. It was the same one with the oncoming car, and on the same hill. He kept driving, I kept driving. I guess that's something.

Stopped at a ruin in Fern. Continued to Wexford or whatever this place is called. The hotel is nice but the town is shut down since it's on the water and holidays are over. So, nowhere to eat except back at the hotel.

Oh, and today, it started to rain.

Searched around for a replacement walking stick. Then had dinner at the hotel bar. Not impressive food.

Headed to the hot tub to relax a bit, but it closed in 15 minutes, so only got to sit in a bowl of rancid Irish lukewarm soup for 10 minutes.

Like New York before it, Ireland is starting to stir certain motivations for extreme life change. Going to try finding the wu wei tomorrow as a last resort. We will see how that goes.

Driving out in the morning. Currently, wish it was back to Dublin for a flight back home and put this sorry place out of my mind.

How long is left on this island?