Weekend Away

Friday at 1pm I ran away from the council.

But only for the weekend.

I hopped on a train and set off on my journey to go see Kate in Cork, Ireland. In about the same amount of time it takes to travel from my front doorstep to my old Prassel door at Trinity I went from practically the North Sea coast to the Irish Sea coast on the other side of the country.

This was my first time to travel that far on the train, so here I was transfixed by the countryside going by while everyone else just read their papers and listened to their iPods. Its strange how much you can take for granted when you live somewhere.

My iPod, set on shuffle, miraculously selected "Get Back" and the train rolls into Liverpool, my first final destination! (Okay, by the time the train actually stopped it was on to Ace of Base's "Ravine" - but that's beside the point). I bumble around until I find the bus that connects to the John Lennon Airport, and in all my preparedness arrive at the check-in desk an hour before I can actually check in (and three hours before the flight).

So I occupy myself with the little souvenir stores on the main level and munched on my essential traveling food - honey roasted peanuts and cashews. Did some excellent people watching, read all the Lennon quotes painted on the wall above the check-in desks, and was one of the first ten people to actually check in. Then waited some more...

Finally I boarded my flight to Cork - was jerked up in the air and plopped back down on the runway in 45 minutes time. Went through 'customs' and had my passport stamped, hooray! Then Kate found me, thank goodness, because my mobile had no signal!

She showed me her apartment and then we were off to meet up with some of her friends. I topped the night off by having my first Guinness in Ireland! It was amazing, so much better than Guinness in England or home. And of course, because I'm in Cork, I had to taste test some of Kate's Murphy's as well (the local stout/version of Guinness).

Now were off to spend the day in Cobh (pronounced Cove) - more updates and pictures soon!