🇮🇪 Ireland Roadtrip
I have some time off, so I'm going on a short trip around the West Coast of Ireland. I've never been before!
I'll post some photos as I make my way around, and if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!
Obviously, the starting location for a roadtrip is...up a mountain in Wales 🏴
First stop: a cave, with @linus 
Update - Linus got rickrolled: https://donotsta.re/objects/fef0770f-e962-424d-b434-e6ddc6315ad6 
Yesterday: to counteract the effect of going far underground, we went up a really big hill (@linus insists these are not "mountains" 
)
Today: since most of my day is taken up on a horrible ocean going torture device, and I've never been to this part of South Wales before, I went for an early morning castle trip to balance things out & tick off another monument.
A smorgasbord of Critical National Infrastructure on the way out.
Loads of LPG terminals, an oil refinery a solar farm, power station and windturbines.
Plus Popton Fort, of course.
(If the images don't load, have a cup of tea and come back later 
)
Goodbye UK...for now 👋
(My uplink breathes a deep sigh of relief!)
Welcome to Ireland! Well, Waterford specifically.
Impressions so far:
- RoI feels oddly like the UK...but unexpectedly different
- We share the same sockets, side of the road and signs (mostly)!
- The infrastructure (I've been on) is *really* good - no potholes 
- In general, it feels like a better designed and maintained version of the UK
I don't understand the massive hard shoulder though.
Trip continued around the Ring of Hook, all the way down to the Lighthouse (oldest in UK & Ireland) and round to Tintern Abbey, stopping at various points of interest along the way.
It's clear the tourist season hasn't started yet, although I did see some confused looking Germans (by numberplate) 
This suits me - it's super quiet, and you have time to absorb the stunning scenery 
(If the images don't load, have a cup of tea and come back later )
Naturally we were reminded that we were #netthier at Hook Lighthouse.
And if anyone can tell me what on earth this device, found at an old garage in Ballyhack is, I will:
a) be very impressed
b) update the alt text
Edit: @tykling won :) See below or alt text.
I'm fascinated by the street furniture in Ireland.
The traffic lights are mostly the UK standard design (although there are some European ones creeping in) with different pedestrian call buttons, but used in wacky ways. They don't seem to use the L shape for filters...so just double up.
And there's extra aspects which don't do anything on some lights.
Plus, Cork has some excellent street lights which I fully dig.
Separately: I am at the F5 offices in Cork to collect my Nginx Plus license in person, please and thank you
Today I visited:
- a bottle return machine (novelty item)
- an English fort
- the Cork City Waterworks
- a postbox
(Amongst other things, including a black pudding factory & an excellent pub)
One thing I don't have a photo of (it would have been rude, and y'all complain about image loading anyway 😅) is the massive gaggle who took over (sat in) the bike lane & on the harbour wall outside a pub & cafe for an early evening chat. Seemed very wholesome and a notable number of folks.
@hugh Weird. The return machines here either have near-360-degrees scanners, or they rotate the object until they find a barcode. I haven't had a rejection (of an undamaged bottle or can) in years, I think? And I just put them in at a random rotation.
@joepie91 They all seem to be like that. I put it in the wrong way a few times and the can was rejected