I find myself surrounded by mountains like big jagged teeth, and me in the middle feeling very insignificant and tiny in my little tin can of a car. I have a daunting task. I’m currently in one of the most beautiful places in the world, the west Irish coast, my mission: is to drive the width of the country from west to east on my own in a new car that still smells of previously being valeted, and it is still shiny.

Getting up at 4am was a struggle. Packing my cases from a stay in an activity center where I now previously worked was a mission. 5am I’m up and running, the car is full to bursting and I can’t see out of my rear window, thank god for wing mirrors. Feeling relatively confident, apprehensive but still nervous, I start my journey. Driving through the mountains and around bends in the road, I feel so calm. The most spectacular setting you could dream of driving in, it’s just so surreal, there’s literally no one else on the roads: it’s just me in my little shiny red car that from above probably looked like a small red beetle compared to the vastness of the towering mountains around me.

As the sun comes up it illuminates the green trees and shows me for the first time the colours of the countryside, lots of greens, browns, reds, and yellows. The mountains now have halos of bright light on them and the lakes look like pools of blue paint, still and non-moving.

As the landscape changes my mood does too, instead of being in awe of the landscape I feel content now the landscape is flat, not dull as such but the colour pallet has changed to orange shades, fields as far as the eye can see, and the sun still shining down on me. The world is awake now, more cars emerge, life is abundant with wildlife and locals working in the fields. Finding a filling station was problematic but I made it just in time.

The expanse of the country is a lot to take in, but my nerves have subsided and I have been enjoying it in the most. My music tastes have also varied, from big musicals in the mountains to easy listening and country tracks on the flat, and the time just flies by.

After what feels like longer, but was probably only a few hours the landscape changes again to one of an urban one, Dublin approaches. More houses pop up and people are milling outside smoking cigarettes and talking to friends and family.

The unfamiliar city is daunting but confident with my directions I keep going, the industrial and urban look of the city feels like a million miles away to where I’m heading back to, and where I came from. I navigate through a bustling city towards the airport and my destination where my father is waiting, parking was interesting, but eventually, I found a spot. With a text my heart sank, the text reads ‘ meet you at the bar’?!, Dublin, bar, my next question was which one, after a lot of just misses I eventually find him having a lager in one of them. The rest of the trip was seamless, hover boat to Wales and we split the journey driving home to Devon, and to its lush green hills and pebble beaches, the difference between the rolling fields of Devon and the shear mountains in Ireland is one I will never forget.

Oxford Spring

Twas brillig in Oxford on a sunny day

The eagle and child were all cheerful and gay

In spring the universities overflowed

And tourists bustled in the museums and were told  

That authors and poets were the reasons they came

Some budding writers would also descend, who claimed they were different but were actually the same.

Cardiff University

The morning is fresh from the spring-summer breeze

The students that studied were calm and at their ease

Families and tourists alike would come to see

And take stock of future choices and some for high tea

Everywhere around are shops and pubs

Even the punters on the river admired the luscious shrubs

And on a sunny day, the university shone

The glad graduates took stock, and then with a flourish, they were gone.