We got up at five and left at six. Yow! My brain was throbbing. I didn't sleep. But at least I was already packed up, right?
They gave up drop box (paper bag) breakfasts. No comment. Well, actually, comment, just later on.
Continue.
We boarded our bus that fine EARLY Tuesday morning. Mr. Shamus drove us to the Docks. Lynn the Canadian-German said that Dublin has really been trying to clean up their docks. Now they are pretty nice. They are building some cool new buildings. We got to the terminal, checked out bags, and boarded the boat, the great Ulysses. It was nice and luxiurious inside. They had a giftshop which Cara wanted me to go into with her, so I did. Almost everything was overpirced and she didn't seem to understand. Example: that little foam soccer ball is £7.95. She did seem to realise how badly she was getting ripped off. I had to tell her. Eventually I just had to get out of that store, and a few minutes later, Cara came out with her purchase. As you may have guessed from my excellent foreshadowing, Cara got ripped off after I left. But she still didn't think this was the case. I gave up. Just smile at her.
Next, I was hungry because the drop box breakfast was altogether unsatisfying. It sole contents were as follows: a rotten apple, orange juice, and a cheese and butted sandwich. None of it was good. I bought a cappuccino on the Ulysses after convincing Dad to give me money. (This seems like a good point to mention that I like putting in the name of the boat because it makes me think of the funny song by Franz Ferdinand called "Ulysses.") It was alright, but Dad wanted something more substantial, so I bought us a ham and cheese melt to split from the café. It was quite delicious. After getting food, we all settled down and began playing some cards. There were two problems with this: first, I kept losing; second, we were sitting next to a window that faced out the side of the ship - not forward.
It was only three games later that I began to feel the sloshing. In the stomach. I withdrew from playing cards and decided to read the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It couldn't read long. I grabbed Zach and we went to the deck. As soon as the cold air hit me, I was fine. Nausea gone. I walked around, got cold, and went back inside.
At this point, Dad and Matt began an effective attempt to start a game of Hearts. They successfully taught Courtney to play, but, due to my motion sickness from the gentle rocking of the Ulysses and what have you, I neither understood nor tried to learn how to play. I went upstairs with Gram. Again, just as before, cold fresh, non-oscillating air and I was fine. In order to avoid the problem with the cold, we went and sat down on the warm roof (it was painted dark green and the sun was shining) leaning against the smoking booth (no one was in it). But this hurt my back, you see, so I just completely laid down and took a nap. It was pleasant, mostly because I wasn't sick. About twenty minutes later, I went back inside. Gram showed me where Katie and Shelby were napping in the "cinema." When I got back to the area where card games were getting rather intense, I just sat and watched. Of course I felt badly again, but there was nothing else for me to do. I tried to look forward as much as is possible through a side-facing window. A short while later, Cara came and got me along with some of the gay snots and took us back out to the deck to take pictures. I didn't stay too long. Just enough to make her happy. I went back down as we were pulling into dock.
A short while later, we were walking off the boat. We didn't even have to go through customs. However, we had to take a bus from the dock to the terminal. Little me with my back pack and satchel was forced to stand up. I could hardly reach the dangling handholds. Sufficing to say that I couldn't feel my hands by the time we got to terminal. I may or may not have knocked some people on the bus unconscious with my bag...from swinging.
We got our luggage and dragged it to our new coach. It was full size. Nice.
Our driver was Paul and our first stop was the village with the longest name in the world: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. I promise I didn't just make that up. Translated, it means The Church of St. Mary in the Hollow of White Hazel Trees near the Rapid Whirlpool by St. Tysillio's of the Red Cave. NO JOKE. It was a boring town. The only thing that happened was that Dad's card got denied at the restaurant inside the clothing store. Really, that was the reason the credit card company gave for denying it. We left soon.
After that, we crossed over to the main land mass (Holyhead (port) and Llanfair P.G. were on an island) and drove down a skinny winding road through Snowdonia National Park. It was beautiful and nauseating. Poor Courtney got it bad. At least we got to see Mt. Snowdon
As we were coming down from the mountains, we stopped a place that Paul claimed had the best ice cream in Wales. It was pretty good, too.
After that, we went to a town called Conwy. It is the home of a ring castle (not related to the ring forts in Ireland) built by King Edward. It has a wall that served to fortify the city back in the day. It was open to the public so we went a walked along it. I saw all the places where the archers hid out and shot through holesj in the walls. The walls were six feet thick. The whole complex was ingeniously designed to protect against invasion. It was incredibly neat to see and explore. Sadly, the castle itself wasn't open, plus it charged for entry if it was. All I remember is having to pee badly. Curious, don't you think?
That was the end of our site seeing, so we drove to a small seaside village town where our hotel was. Strangely, 90 percent of the tourists there (at least) were grand, if you catch my drift.
Dinner was awful. The waitress got my order wrong twice, didn't want to but eventually did correct her mistake, and when she finally brought my order, it was worse than the wrong order she brought out first. We went for chips (fries) after dinner. They were nice and greasy. I was happy. As we were walking back to the hotel, we saw a seagull fly OUT of Shelby, Katie, and Gram's room. Mr. Johnson was inside guarding the window so it didn't come back in. The seagull just stood there about 3 feet from the window, just standing. It wouldn't leave. We went inside and packed up before going to bed. We were going to be driving the next day.
I am talking to a old drunk scotsman. say she like my granddad, not that I would know. I right now, I can smell the alcohol on his breath. He's crazy.
