June 2nd
The green island’s rounded hills closely resemble our Lapland landscapes. Before I delve into describing those hills in more detail, let me tell you a bit about the journey here.
First of all, last night was one of those nights that you don’t reminisce about with children—or grandchildren. I had a milder version of a heartburn attack and spent some time swallowing and coughing in the middle of the night. Additionally, out of laziness, I didn’t fix the sleeping bag zipper when I went to bed in the evening. I thought that in summer, you only need it as a blanket since there’s an air mattress underneath. Well, that air mattress turned out to be a story of its own. It’s full-length and, when fully inflated, about half a meter high. Since we don’t have a regular extension cord, we had to use the car’s socket to get the electric pump working. Thus, the mattress was inflated outside the tent. Noticing its size, I doubted whether it would fit inside the tent. And in that matter, I was right. It didn’t fit properly. After a lot of maneuvering (think of fitting a size 42 shoe on a size 45 foot), the mattress was in the tent—and not much else fit after that.
Fortunately, my body flexibility is still at a reasonable level. When going to bed, I managed to get on top of the mattress, change out of my day clothes, put on my nightshirt, squeeze into the 30 cm gap between the tent roof and the mattress, and get into the sleeping bag. In the process, I had managed to pull the sleeping bag zipper off its lower connection, which meant I didn’t have a sleeping bag but a blanket! My natural laziness helped in my decision-making. I wasn’t going to fix it in the dark of the evening.
Later in the night, as the temperature dropped lower than expected, I critically reassessed my decision but did nothing about it. As stomach acids tried to rise and the cold numbed my backside and back, I felt a bit annoyed. In the morning, I concluded that the night was another experience added to the collection of my life’s experiences. I didn’t make a fuss about it and decided to sleep better the next night—in the same tent—on a different mattress! My decision was made easier by Eva’s stance, which freed up a 170 cm mattress for my use for the coming night.
We traveled to Ireland by car ferry, which moved like a madman’s horse. It had some weird turbines installed and must have been going close to 35 knots. Maybe even more. And it was carrying a fair number of cars, trucks, motorcycles, and everything else. I’ve never seen such a ship construction before. You could even get food there in the form of a traditional English breakfast.
We arrived in Dublin just in time for the marathon. The whole city was on alert—or at least it seemed like it. Probably the entire island’s police force was present, streets were closed, and traffic was completely jammed. We would have gotten out of the city faster on foot. But we made it nonetheless.
During the journey, Eva googled a campsite for us somewhere between Dublin and Cork. We drove on roads where a motorhome and a small Fiat could barely pass each other. Since all the local holidaymakers had decided to drive their own cars on the same roads, we got plenty of practice in tight-space passing. We managed without collisions and reached our destination. We parked the car and, with the help of one leveling block, got it quite straight. The tent went up with routine, a shorter and thinner mattress inside, the sleeping bag zipper fixed, pillow and bag in the tent—there! Ready to snuggle in at the right time!
Eva and Jette prepared ratatouille for the evening. A quality French red wine with it was an excellent choice. We forgot to buy whiskey on the shopping trip. We’ll have to fix that tomorrow—or on Tuesday, which is the weekday after tomorrow’s holiday.
We googled Christy Moore’s gigs—and all other Irish music offerings. All of Moore’s gigs are sold out. We’ll have to attend one of them—even if from the hinge side! I’m heading to the tent and, as a warm-up, I’ll listen to the green island’s music with headphones. Luckily, the internet works!
Good night, everyone!