Day 83 #100DaysOfOldDays

The first time I went to England to visit my cousin I got the ferry from Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead. My first time to leave Ireland! Flying wasn’t an option because I couldn’t afford it. It was the summer of 1985, just a few months before Ryanair began to grace the skies with their affordable flights—I’m not even sure if they were affordable in the beginning. 

I sailed on the ferry with my aunt and her three small children. It was very exciting getting onto the big boat. We dragged our bags behind us as we walked through the crowd from one end of the boat to the other to find a seat. My aunt had a buggy for her youngest child, and the bottom of it was loaded with bags. We eventually found a seat where we sat and ate our packed lunch. 

I went off exploring, swaying from side to side like a drunk. I couldn’t believe the boat had shops and bars and restaurants. I was such a culchie! I didn’t buy anything on the boat because I only had about £80 to last me for a week. A Cavan culchie! 

A lot of passengers were sitting on the floor because there were no seats available. Excited children ran around the boat with stressed mothers after them. 

I climbed the white painted steel steps to go out on deck. It was fierce windy, I had to hold on tight as I leaned across to look into the sea. White foamy waves crashed against the side of the boat spraying my face with their saltiness. The boat was noisy and didn’t move very fast at all.  

Ireland had disappeared. I couldn’t wait to see England. I returned to my aunt and we ate biscuits. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t.

I went back out on deck as we approached Holyhead. I felt very grown up but also quite vulnerable and nervous. Already I was thinking about the return trip that I had to do alone.  

People had started to move to the exits as the ferry got closer to docking. Some passengers still lay on the floor, in no hurry to move. Children who had run around with excitement earlier, were now crying with tiredness.  

The ferry docked and we walked off and made our way to our bus, which was included in the travel deal. Passports weren’t needed for the ferry back then; all you needed was your ticket. It was all so easy and stress free.

I expected everything to look different from Ireland but it wasn’t. The roads were the same, the tress were green and the people were just like us.  

My pale pink flowing skirt was very creased by now and had chocolate biscuit stains on it. I was hot and sticky in the blue knitted top I wore. I had no idea how to dress for travelling. 

People on the bus smoked and I gladly inhaled their passive smoke. I had ten cigarettes in my bag but at seventeen, I didn’t smoke in front of ‘adults’, so in my bag they stayed.  

I think that bus journey was about five hours—I thought I’d never get there. My belly was full of sandwiches! 

My cousin Louise picked me up at a bus station in some part of London, and my aunt and I said our goodbyes and parted ways. My cousin had a job interview to attend and she brought me along with her.   

She was being interviewed for a typist position in an office of some sort. I felt awkward, dirty and tired. But they were nice to me in there, as if it was a normal thing to do—take along your culchie cousin when you attend a job interview. They gave me tea. (It wasn’t Lyons tea but it was grand.) 

Part of the interview was a typing test to show how many words you could type per minute. Louise must have made an impression with her typing skills because she got the job. But she didn’t accept it for various reasons. One reason was, the price of the daily train fare would have taken a huge chunk out of her wages.

Well, I had a great first holiday in England. I saw Barbara Windsor crossing the street in London and I met Lewis Collins in a pub in High Wycombe, and I got his autograph! I was a massive fan of The Professionals.

I managed to get back home to Ireland safely! It was my first of many sailings with Irish Ferries. I was 26 before I got on a plane!