Tag Archives: Driving

Sep9

An adventure in Northern Ireland – The Drive

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Saturday, 16-Nov-2024 through Sunday, 17-Nov-2024

It’s been a while since I’d been to a new country. I’d adventured across Europe, explored countless amazing spots, and finally found myself in Ireland… But had gotten settled into a new life of apartment hunting, Irish trips, and classwork.

Thanks to my amazing adventure partner Andrea, that was about to change – Northern Ireland lay on the horizon! We’d split the trip planning up – I’d selected spots, and would be covering navigation, while she had found us not only a cheap rental car, but an amazing Bed and Breakfast to stay at outside of Belfast.

We packed the car, and headed North.

On our way, we took a few adventure stops – nothing major, but little pauses to stretch our legs, refuel the car, and on one occasion to pet an incredibly cute little puppy in its Christmas sweater. We Drove, we chatted, and we had an absolutely lovely time sliding out of the Republic of Ireland, and into Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom.



On the other end of the trip, the return journey, we didn’t take quite as leisurely a drive – we pushed through to Dublin in a solid run, though we made a point to take our time and not rush. We chatted, traded stories and thoughts, and earned a very lovely dinner and pint in a pub nearby, upon our return.

Aug13

Cap Canaille the second

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Saturday, 13-July-2024


It was still a bit too early to head home, after our jaunt of wine tasting… but it was comfortably early enough in the day still, so we retraced our steps to Cap Canaille, though choosing to go clockwise around the meandering road instead of our previous counter-clockwise.

As before, the views were absolutely amazing – and well earned, after a day of Kayaking, wandering, and wine tasting.

I don’t have much to say about the drive, or really the wanderings around the various parking lots… instead, I’ll simply comment on the beautiful serenity of the escapade. It was the last full day of my Mom and Steve’s visit, the last day that I’d have familial company on my adventure. We’d made an excellent week of it, and I was (and still am) endlessly thankful that they were able to come out and join me. We’d gotten a lot done, while also relaxing quite a bit.

I, for one, wasn’t quite ready to see them go… and so I savored this last brief escapade together. I’d been rolling solo since Iceland, for just about two months, and had gotten quite adroit at enjoying the quiet of my own company without getting lonely… but, somehow, I was scared to be alone again after the inevitable departure from the airport after dropping them off.

I’d persevere, I know, but… still.

This last adventure drive was appreciated.

Aug6

A car accident in France

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Sunday, 07-July-2024


On the drive home from picking my Mom and Steve up from the airport, a challenging situation arose.

As the title suggests, I got in a car accident.

I’d rented a car, since Cassis is a good ways from Marseille and we were considering taking some day trips into central France. I wasn’t too worried about it – France is a bit crazy with their driving (everyone is training to be an F1 racer. EVERYONE.) but they’re fairly predictable… at least in my opinion. And, frankly, I was confident – I’d driven in France and Spain before, and come out from it none the worse for wear.


I won’t include photos here, because car accident, but understand that it was thankfully quite simple and minor. It took a while to deal with, of course, but there wasn’t any blood and both vehicles seemed to work perfectly fine afterward. I also won’t include details here, since there was a police report… and I’ll let them stick to the official details.

Instead, the point of this post is to walk through what I did, and how I did it, during the parts that happened after the vehicles stopped moving.


Mainly, I shut up.

See, I don’t speak fluent (or conversational) French. Because of that, heated communication in an emotional time isn’t an ideal situation or decision. So, I shut up.

I moved the car out of the way, and let people do their thing. A car stopped to help, the police arrived, and we used Google Translate when necessary. I shut up. I was ignored, which isn’t pleasant… but far preferable to the alternative of being thrown off the side of the road by over-energetic bystanders who are sick of tourists.

I answered the questions posed, and kept the extra details to a minimum. And, 90min later, we were back on the road.

It wasn’t pleasant, and definitely took me a few days to fully recover from… but I’m okay with that. It happened, and we were able to move on from it. That, at the end of the day, is the only important part.