Wexford Town
We made a short trip down to Wexford for my birthday this year. Thanks to some slightly adjusted routing, I was able to drive us the whole way there and back with my provisional licence. I think it went relatively well - there were a couple of strange moments such as someone driving on the wrong side of the road and another car pulling out dangerously in front of me from an Aldi but I reacted well. It was probably the best driving practice I've had so far and also my first time being able to drive on a National road.
We stayed in Whites of Wexford which is a very nice hotel and it's right in the centre of the town. I think we got a good deal for staying midweek as well and the room had a nice view of the sea. We had dinner in the bar that evening which was nice as well. It was nice to not have any major plans and to just relax for a few hours.
The next morning, we had breakfast and I went off to do a little shopping. I picked up some new runners in Sports Direct as mine were getting quite battered and browsed the local CEX and bookshop. Wexford has a small retro game shop, I think it's just called the retro game shop actually, which I always like to visit. It was a bit sparse this time, but I had a little flick through their binders and bought some cheap Pokémon singles. I think they might have a lot of their good stock boxed up for conventions now so visiting the shop itself hasn't been quite as good - I also noticed afterwards they seem to use a lot of AI on their Instagram which is a bit disappointing.
I got back to the hotel and we relaxed for a little bit. I suppose Monday is the day they practice ringing the church bells because they rang and rang for a good hour. I was starting to consider calling a noise complaint on the church!
We pottered around the corner to the Arc cinema to see Spider-Man that afternoon. That cinema is really lovely. It's very small - I think it only has 3 screens, but each screen is really nice. The seats are well spaced, they all recline and it is probably the cleanest and best kept cinema I've ever visited. The movie was great as well, so it was just an all around wonderful afternoon.
We ordered pizza that night and headed back home the next day to collect our beagle from the dog minder. It was a good birthday.