I am not one who likes to rough it. A city gal through and through, I was never one for the great outdoors.
I like the bustle and buzz of city life and the convenience of being close to everything. I hate flies, mucky animals, dirt underfoot and travelling miles to the nearest cappuccino.
As a child I visited the country only twice. Once when I was sent for a month to *The Gaeltacht, a tribulation visited upon many an unfortunate city child and again when my father took us on my uncle’s barge down the River Shannon. Can you imagine it? Drunk in charge of a barge? My brother, not yet 2 years old, fell overboard and would surely have drowned but for the intervention of a stranger in a rowing boat nearby.
I did go camping once though. It was the late 70s. I was young and senseless and headed off to Ballisodare Music Festival with my 2 friends and a 3-man tent. It was only at nightfall, after innumerable 99 pence flagons of cider had been imbibed by all except myself, that I realised the 4 lads who came with us had not brought a tent and intended to share mine.
Six stocious bodies in a sober girl’s tent...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
My camping adventure ended when at dawn I awoke to find I had been puked upon. After washing the vomit from my hair under a cold tap, I stomped off to walk what I'm sure was several miles to the train station, sans friends, sans tent. Traumatised doesn’t cover it.
I didn’t set foot in the countryside again until some 40 years later and if anyone even suggested glamping to me, I’d poke them in the eye.
So, given a choice between camping in the woods or holidaying in a city hotel, it doesn't take much guesswork to know which I'd choose.
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Posted in response to 
asking 'Camping in the woods or holidaying in a city hotel? Which would you choose and why?'
The images are mine but do not necessarily reflect my views.
*The term ‘Gaeltacht’ is used to describe the regions in Ireland in which the Irish language is, or was until recently, the primary spoken language of the majority of the community.
