Notes from a Neurodivergent Mind

 Hello, as I'm departing Zurich to head to Luxembourg City to kill a couple of hours. But what is better than visiting one tiny country in a day?-visiting two different tiny countries two days on the trot! So, as suggested, yesterday I went to Liechtenstein, one of the tiniest countries in the world! With just 5000 inhabitants, its capital, Vaduz, is more small-town, than capital city, but it's what makes it an interesting proposition to visit when in the area. It's about 1hr30 using public transport from Zurich, but is very straightforward to get to from the Central Station. The train takes you on a stunning route through mountains and Lake Zurich, and yes, there once again was people of all ages swimming- a painful reminder that I didn't bring my trunks with me. WIth such close proximity to the capital, you can certainly see why living in Zurich is appealing- especially with such good public transport, and many swimming facilities to use in the Summer. Still, you can ...

 Hello from sunny Zurich (you'll be relieved to hear), where I'm staying in a quiet, little idyll outside of the city. After a mammoth day of travelling, yesterday, I felt surprisingly alert upon arriving in Zurich, and was composed enough to be out of the accommodation by 10am for a day of sightseeing.  I hadn't really made any major plans for the day, but going to the Lindt Museum/Factory was on my wishlist. Sadly, you needed to pre-book tickets in advance, and they'd all sold out, so I had to think of a Plan B.  I was in Zurich for a few hours this time last year, before flying home, and saw some of the imposing churches (or Munsters), but never got the opportunity to go inside them, so decided to set out to do so, this morning. However, it was a Sunday morning- and of course, that equals church services. Both the Fraumunster, and the currently-renovated Grossmunster weren't open to tourists at this time, but the St. Peter Church, with its  clock face, was.  ...

 Hello from St. Pancras train station, where I am sitting in the station lounge. I shouldn't really be here, but I am. Now if it was down to me, I wouldn't be forking out extra money for a ticket that grants me access to a lounge. If I'm going on holiday, I pretty much want to do it as cheaply as possible. But my hand was forced.... You see, when I tried to book my Eurostar tickets using my Interrail pass, I thought 3 weeks would be good enough notice. I hadn't seen anything to suggest that I couldn't get a ticket. But I was too late- not only that, I couldn't use my pass to get a Eurostar home. The inner hypochondriac in me thought about cancelling the trip, altogether. I briefly looked at other destinations, but then came bac to my accommodation bookings, and alas, neither of my stays were refundable. So, with skinflint mode activated, I had to go ahead.  The trusty travel bottle with a complimentary Sprite from the lounge. I knew about Eurostar Snap, a servic...

 One of my favourite Irish words is craic- I love how it can be used to describe a variety of things in a positive way- and it epitomises how the trip was good craic. There was some irony in the fact that I had visited 24 countries in my lifetime, but had failed to go to one of the geographically nearest ones- Ireland. I've been subjected to numerous tourism adverts over the years, highlighting what the island has to offer, and after experiencing what I would describe as having quite a rough patch following my trip last Summer, I wasn't looking to push the boat out too far when it came to travelling this year, but knew that I still wanted to contribute towards my ambition to visit 30 countries before I turn 30. Therefore, going to Ireland seemed to be a viable way to ease myself back into things.  One of the things I'd learned from my big European trip last year, is that I need to do things on a step-by-step basis, hence why I decided that it would be good to experience the...

Yes- there is some irony there, but it did happen, coinciding with a visit to Dublin yesterday. You join me whilst I am (well, as of yesterday) sailing over the Irish Sea back to Blighty, milking the amount of data left from my eSIM. But, there'll be no more talk of milk in this blog post, as there will be talk of a different drink, instead. But more on that later. It was my first time in the Irish capital, and in hindsight, we'd not left a good enough amount of time to peruse it, but, we did what we could in the given time.  After arriving at Connolly Train Station, we remarked on how quiet it was for such a central station. The quietness continued as we walked alongside the River Liffey, but the fact that it was Easter Sunday in a heavily religious country could well have played a part. We sauntered at a leisurely pace towards the Guinness Storehouse, passing through one of Dublin's most renowned tourist traps (*cough, areas, even), walking past the legendary ...

 Hello! I'm now not in NI, and am back to where I was at the beginning (well, slightly tenuously, albeit) of the trip- Dublin, for the last leg of the journey. But it would be remiss to not reminisce about the last full day that we hid in NI, so here goes... And from the not so rural- to the rural- after 2 days of city-hopping, we visited the Causeway Coast, with its variety of landforms- some of which are known more than the others. There are many scenic places along the Causeway coastline, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out why it draws in the tourists. First up on the agenda was Mussenden Temple and the Downhill Demesne. The temple is perched on the edge of the cliff face, overlooking the wild seas. Some chap in the past had a lot of money and built it to use as his library.  Any person of a certain age would have flashbacks to "Storm on the Island" from their GCSE poetry anthology- especially thinking about the typically clement Irish weather! You couldn...