Saturday, 26th of August, 2017.
Hitchhiking in Ireland.
Bejoy gives me a ride until Cork. I decide to take a bus until the best point to hitchhike and save more than one hour walking. I knew about one, the 260, but I also remembered something about the 415. When I saw the 415 parking there, I ask and the nice driver says he could leave me where I wanted. There is just another passenger in the end of the bus and because I sit in front, me and the driver talk during the travel. I tell him I am going to hitchhike, so he drops me off in the closest spot he could. One of the best 2 Euros spent in my life!
The sun it is not helping me at all. And after over one hour I start to get concern. But then I am saved by the Pate Guy! Barry is a gentleman! This cute and charming guy who gives me a ride just until Midleton but who also saved my day. He is very kind and we talk just a few minutes but I am enchanted! At the end he also gives me a pate! It is handmade because they have some farm workers who make a lot of natural products. Very nice! I do not know for sure and I also would not be indelicate to ask Barrie if it is made of meat or even tell him that I am vegetarian. That also did not stop me to eat it in the next morning with my crackers. It is good!
I just keep thinking about this whole thing of eating meat when it is needed. Should I try harder to not do it?
Back to Barry, he drops me off in a very nice spot: a calm street, in the direction to Rosslare, where the cars have to slow down, what helps me a lot, right? And for one of the first times at goodbyes hitchhiking, we kissed each other in the cheeks and had a hug. So cute!
And now I just realized how stupid I am! I have been keeping the oldest pages in my little agenda for so long, but in the Peñìscula this weekend (I will explain later) I decided to throw them away. Guess what? One of those pages had the names of the other drivers who help me to get in Rosslare. I remember a few things, but not all names and maybe the order will be wrong. Oh shit! The worst thing is that probably from now I will keep lots of unnecessary stuff with me just for fear.
OK, remembering about the places: the next person who stopped is the bridges constructor. Sorry for not remember your name, man! He is a very muscular man but also a nice guy (even not liking vegetarian and vegan people). We talk a lot while listening Pink and he buys me coffee! We stay a long time together and we go until Youghal to check a small walking path he made it on the beach. There is a little traffic and he decides to take a short cut. Of course I get a little concern, it is in the middle of nowhere. But he explains to me that he grew up over here, so he knows everything. I cannot find right now where he left me but I think it was somewhere nearly Dungarvan. He gives me a very strong hug and wishes good luck.
When you have to pee, in a motorway, trying not to be seen can be a bit difficult. Just remember: if anyone sees you, whoever is it, will (most likely) never see you again, so don’t worry!
After a few minutes a car stops far away. When I am trying to get there, another one stops very close to me: they are mother and a sun. They also are going just a little further but I accept. In the end, the other car was just checking something or was lost because further on I saw them pulling over in the hard-shoulder again. The mother is very nice, as her son, and she tells me she did hitchhike in the past. We do not talk too much because the ride is very short but she drops me off in another nice place to keep moving.
The next driver is Tom, an elderly man in a van who has a pet shop. He tells me about his son, that now leaves in London, and how he ended in a well-chair after an accident. Also about how his daughter lived in Australia for 10 years and came back married. We make a detour because he needs to take some peanuts, that he does not know if are from Brazil or Argentina. I am again concern but not too much. The place is kind of old and messy but I see some dogs and chickens.
Tom drops me off just a few kilometers from Rosslare.
The last driver who stops for me I can not remember the name! Rugh!! Sorry, man! He is so nice! He tells me he has two children: a boy and a girl. His car is full of some stuff because they are moving somewhere. There is just one child safety seat but he says I am lucky because that day he is alone making a trip back (I guess), but usually the whole family are together and he would not be able to stop for me. A very nice guy who drops me off in the Harbour! Yeah, exactly in the Harbour. Thank you very much!
It was almost 2 o’clock but I still have to know if there is a seat available for foot passenger in the 18.10 p.m. ferry. There is! And the guy who sell it me looked very surprised with my concern. Pff… Poor naive man… do not know anything about my life…
In those 4 hours waiting I eat my noodles (the best one prepared ever!) and see some other backpackers too.
Then one French guy from security it is asking for those ones who are going to France, checking their tickets and passing the metal detector in their bags.
Another guy, who at the beginning freaked me out but than I realized that he is not from the security or the immigration, but is just making a research about your staying in Ireland. They were some stupid questions that get me nervous but just at the end I realized that do not needed name or any ID.
The travel is OK but I could not get wi-fi. Of course that around the time we arrive in Fishgard there is no immigration or anything like that. I get a little lost at the beginning, when I leave the station, but then I follow some girls and end at Tesco buying some cracker to the next day.
When I find the place where I suppose to cross and get in the camping area, there area a few trucks around, with music, drinks and talking. I walk a bit further, in a open field, closer to the motorway than I expected. If I was scary that some one could pass or come at night and be a jerk? Yes, of course. But I had to do it anyway so after finishing with my tent, I try to sleep. Tomorrow will be a new day: I am back in UK and I have a lot of stuff to do in a very short period of time.
10 Years Around the World 