Mark's random trip

Back home!

OK, so apart from the ferry to Ireland being cancelled and so that making me four hours late getting to Cork on the first day, I had a great time.

Here are my photos of Manchester, Holyhead, Cork, Lismore, Waterford, Rosslare, Fishguard and various points in the middle of the Irish Sea.

I got to within five miles of my chosen random location.  It was just a little too far for me to get to comfortably, but still, an achievement:

I may do one of these random trips again one day... if I do, this blog will be the first to know!

Itinerary sorted!

OK… so the itinerary has been sorted:

Day one:

• Pre-dawn train from Leeds, then change at Manchester and Llandudno Junction to get to Holyhead.
• Two hours on the ferry across the Irish Sea to Dublin
• Then bus and tram across the city to Heuston station for the train to Cork.
• Arrive in Cork, collapse at hotel.

Day two:

• Morning and afternoon in Cork, followed by bus to Lismore

Day three:

• Long walk out of Lismore to appointed random location, then back to the B&B

Day four:

• Stay in Lismore and (probably be unable to) move very little

Day five:

• Bus to Mallow, then the train to Waterford via Limerick Junction

Days six and seven:

• Morning and afternoon in Waterford
• Evening train to Rosslare harbour for the overnight ferry to Fishguard
• Back to Leeds on the 1.50am train, changing at Swansea and Bristol.
• Get home around 11am.  Collapse in own bed :)

I can't wait now.  I'm really looking forward to it.  The Lismore B&B and the Waterford hotel are booked, just need to sort out the Cork hotel and the train and ferry tickets.

And then go to Ireland for the first time :)

[Photo of Lismore Town Centre © Richard Webb and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.]

I'm off to Ireland then

Thanks to my friends, colleagues, friends of friends, friends of colleagues, random strangers and Geoff for voting.

Despite a flurry of votes towards the end for the West Lothian location, it looks like I'm off to Ireland sometime soon.

I'd better get planning my trip :)

Random Trip

What am I doing?

I want to go away for a few days sometime between now and Christmas.  Instead of trying to decide where to go, I though I'd leave it up to the internet.

So I decided to choose some places in the British Isles at random, and then get people to vote for which one I should go to.  A sort of 21st century opening-the-atlas-at-a-random-page-and-going-to-the-place-your-finger-lands-on.

Why am I doing this?

I quite like the idea of getting out of my comfort zone (a bit).  I like where I like, but I want to discover new places.  Perhaps one day, once I've done this, I'll do the same thing with the entire world, rather than just the British Isles?

Of course, this may not work - and everyone might think I'm a loon.  But they nornally think that anyway!

How did I choose the places?

Simple. I:

1. Wrote a random place in the British Isles locator, then
2. Made a note for the first five places that come up that weren't in the sea (or weren't in that bit of France that sticks up near the Channel Islands):

Here they are, on a map.

What I would like you to do

You can vote for which place I head to.  The aim - using public transport, my feet and a GPS thingy - is to get as close to the longitute and latitude on the map as possible.

The five places to choose from are:

Near Aukside, Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham
Near Ballyin, County Waterford
Near West Calder, Livingstone, West Lothian
Near Tregynon, Newport, Powys
Near Gayton, Kings Lynn, Norfolk

All you have to do is look at the map, then VOTE!

Oh, and share this page with people.  Only 100 people can vote with the free survey I have set up, so the sooner people vote, the better.  Plus I can then start planning my jaunt.

Thanks,
Mark