The Marvelous Trip to Ireland – Tuesday, 8/29/06

If you haven't read the long post about the first 4 days of our trip, scroll down past this post to the next one.

------------------------------

Today is the day we ride a ferry. We were up and gone by 9:15 for the 3+ hour drive to Stranraer to catch our ferry to Belfast. We made it there by noon, so I guess our 3+ hour drive ended up being shorter. Good thing. We found a place to park in town and wandered around to find a place to eat. We found an upstairs place called the Smuggler’s something-or-other. I can’t remember.

We ordered: mac & cheese for the kids, ploughman’s lunch for me, and Scottish breakfast for Steve.

Weird food description alert

Steve ordered the Scottish breakfast solely for one item: the haggis. Yes, he ate haggis. I had the camera phone all ready to take a picture of his facial expression, but was disappointed because he said it tasted fine. Alright. I turned my attention to my Ploughman’s Lunch. I had read somewhere that a Ploughman’s Lunch was usually thick slices of bread with cheese and butter. Sounded fine to me. But the menu said shredded cheese (no big deal) and pickles. Now, pickles over here are not just pickled cucumbers. It’s a generic term to mean any pickled veg. These were the things on my plate: shredded cheddar cheese, pickled onions, pickled beet slices, something pickled that looked like shopped beets but didn’t taste like them, and a brown chutney sauce. All of these things were on a bed of very sour lettuce. I think it was rocket. Then I had 3 slices of thick white bread with butter pats. Through trial and error I discovered that I cared for none of the pickled things, the chutney, nor the rocket when I ate them one at a time. The flavors were very strong and distinct: sour, salty, sweet. But when I would eat them in combination along with some cheese and bread, it was fine.

Steve offered me a bite of haggis. It tasted like sausage, but was mushy as most of their sausages are. I don’t like mushy sausage. Too bready. Anyway, haggis is not for me. But now I can say I’ve had it.

After lunch, we went around the corner to the bookshop to look for the last of the Fairy Stories CDs. We were rewarded with “Heather the Violet Fairy” which is the final in the saga. We wandered around a bit, went to the grocery store and got dessert and drinks for the ferry ride, then headed back to the car. After everyone got loaded up, we made quick work of navigating the one-way streets back to the ferry.

Check-in was very easy. We drove into a shelter where a man asked if we had packed our own bags and then checked that we had 5 people in the van because we had paid for 5 people plus the van. Then we drove up to the check-in booth (which looked like a toll booth) and got our boarding pass. A ticket that was about 2x3 inches with our name, the time of the ferry, the number of passengers, and the van’s number registration (license plate). We drove from there into a line of cars. They had 20 or so lanes and we couldn’t figure out their system for which lane they told the different vehicles to go. This was about an hour before the ferry sailed. The bathrooms were in the main building and as long as we took our boarding card, we could go through the guard station and into the building. We managed to get everyone through the bathrooms and had about 5 minutes in the van before they started moving the cars closer to the ferry. After I had taken Audrey to the restroom, I got in the drivers seat while Steve & Caleb went. I just stayed there when they got back because I was too lazy to move. So when the cars started moving, I was driving. Steve filmed while I drove. We followed the cars in front of us and ended up in the third of 3 lanes. The big trucks were beside us and the cars pulling trailers or campers were on the other side of them. We watched while the cars on the ferry disembarked, then anxiously awaited our turn to board.

As we drove up the ramp to the Ferry, I was suddenly overwhelmed with dread. I was driving onto a boat. How weird is that? Anyway, I drove us on, we got parked, then we gathered up what felt like everything to take above board with us. I had no idea what to expect. I had in mind a ferry like I’ve seen on TV – outside on deck with the wind and spray. So we had a stroller and all 4 jackets and Julie’s stroller bundle to keep her warm and my knitting and the cameras and snacks for the kids and…and…and…

Turns out we didn’t need most of it. The stroller was nice because Julie hung out there, but we were inside the ferry in the “Kid’s Zone” where there was a play area and a cinema for the kids. Plus we were right beside the Burger King. I felt foolish. Oh well.

Within 10 minutes, Caleb had made a friend. A girl, no less. Her name was Sarah and she held his hand whenever they went from place to place and he didn’t resist. I don’t even think he noticed. We’ve discovered that there’s a pronunciation difference between “Sara” and “Sarah.” The first syllable of Sara is pronounced like the word “saw,” while the first syllable of “Sarah” rhymes with “hair.”

Anyway, Caleb was happy to hang out with Sarah while they watched “Chicken Little” in the kid’s cinema. They call a theatre a cinema here. I’m still getting used to that one. The trip took about 1 hour 45 minutes, and was pretty much unremarkable other than the fact that when we looked out the windows, we saw the ocean. There was only one place you could go outside – on a little balcony at the back of the ferry. I took Caleb back there and Steve took Audrey and the cameras. We’ll see what exciting footage he got.

As we were arriving in Belfast, we headed back down to the van. We were asked to not start our vehicle until instructed to by ferry staff. We got out quickly. I was impressed overall by the speed of both boarding and disembarking. We got back on the road and headed north to the Antrim coast and our destination for the night. We stopped along the way and got some sandwiches and drinks to eat in the van.

The terrain is different from Scotland. Not as hilly there, but easily as green. Lots of sheepies on hills here, too. We stayed right on the northern coast in a marvelous hotel! Our room was twice the size of the Travelodge rooms we had stayed in, and there was a pack & play already set up for us. What a relief! There were 2 beds – a double for the kids and a queen for us. It was nice to be in such a large room. After we got all our stuff in, I let the kids have a tea party and Steve went for a walk along the coast and took pictures.

I’m going to sign off now – I have to deal with laundry carnage and dinner. More later.