...so there I am ... having a stop-over at a friend's place in East-Sussex. I left the Island on Tuesday morning after having a short night. My good-bye pints I had on Sunday night with Denis and his better half, John and his better half, Cáitlín and Dajana. I drove all day yesterday through Wales and England. Today I spent the day visiting Tunbridge Wells and Hever Castle. Pictures will follow as soon as I've arrived in Hof and had a chance to load them up.
Friday morning I'll cross the channel and the north of France, visit a friend in Reims and hopefully I'll be home Saturday or Sunday.
Looking at the Newgrange post, I feel like I need to write a bit on what happened since I 'parked' Dajana at Cáit's ...
Well, I drove back to Dublin that Friday night, as I had to be up early on Saturday and Sunday. I managed to get that weekend behind me and on Sunday, after I came home, Paula, Denis and me took the bus to city centre to meet John and Fionulla for a few last pints. Cáit and Dajana took the late bus down to Dublin and were supposed to meet us in the "Banker's" - a pub just off College Green. Denis gave them directions on the phone and obviously sent them around the Trinity College green as opposed to College Green road. I walked down the road towards them and met the two girls just outside the Trinity College. We had a good few drinks, some laughs and eventually took the taxi home around half one. Monday morning we were off to Carlow, as Cáit had her first lecture and I had an appointment with the college doctor.
We were late for both, Dajana and Cáit fought some awesome soccer matches on the SG5-PS2, they were cursing and shouting just like us lads :P We later went up town and took a few last pictures of Carlow - I wasn't in a big photo-taking mood though. Then the moment of good-bye came and it was very weird, at the time I didn't realise that this had been a good-bye for a considerably long period of time, as I don't expect to be able to fly over for the graduations I won't take part in this year. On the way back to Dublin the nostalgia kicked in ... my time in Carlow ran revue before my inner eye, Dajana started to worry as I smiled and starred into the blue from time to time. Traffic was mad that afternoon and we took the wee roads around the Red Cow/M50 bottle-neck. We arrived late in Donaghmede and I started packing my stuff.
It was actually very good that I hadn't unpacked most of my stuff, so I just had to move a few plastic bags downstairs and all in all I went to bed at 1am. I got up again at 4am and packed the car. Dajana and me had breakfast and then I had to say good-bye to Grattan Lodge 77. Another sad/strange moment.
Off we were to Dublin port. On the radio was FM104 (as usual) and somewhere near Raheny the two radio hosts announced a spectacular new song they just found on the internet ... the said "This is gonna be a hit in Ireland in no time, listen to this..." and then I almost crashed the car:
"Ich bin Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil..."
>AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!
That actually made it _very_ easy for me to leave the country ... for a while only though. So anyway, we boarded the ferry, sailed out of Dublin port and into the morning sun towards Britain.
And here now are the pictures of my last 48 hours on the island of Ireland...
at least someone would be laughing while I was becoming increasingly emotional about my going-abroad :P
Paula and Dennis
John and Fionnuala (sorry if the spelling's wrong, feel free to correct me)
Cáitlín and Dajana (you couldn't tell that they had been on the bus for hours at that time and walked around half of Dublin City after Denis gave them directions ;)
The gang united for a last time... (John took the picture)
Loads of Irish psychopharmaca which (temporarily) helped me dealing with my grief.
The Monday after ... we arrived late in Carlow for my appointment with the Doc and Cáit's first lecture :-S
Good ol' Godfather's, they must have made a fortune with me alone :P They'll miss me, thats for sure.
Tuesday, September 20 2005 - I'm leaving Ireland. This is the Dublin Port Stena Line Check-In.
Queueing ... I'm gonna miss it :P
Thanks Petrus, for making my last Irish morning a gorgeous one!
Unloading a container ship, quite impressive.
The Irish Ferries "Ulysess", Europe's biggest and strongest car ferry. I don't sail with them anymore though, as they've started registering their ships in Barbados and replaced their Irish staff with low-wage workers from Poland and Lithuania.
Sailing out of Dublin Port - into the sun, into the East.
...yeah, I am a wee bit home(.ie)sick already...
bye bye Howth, Dublin, Ireland ... I'll be back!
Hmm, Dajana must have its funny how the chimney is actually smaller than me.
Holyhead (Anglesey, Wales) lighthouse ... welcome to the UK!
You bet Dajana was happy to get her feet on solid ground again.
There we go, leaving the ferry, touching British ground, which is a good moment to close this Ireland-Blog until I shall return. Ye find the other pictures of Wales, England, London and France on my Germany-Blog at
http://sven-s.blogspot.com
