The first AC game has been sitting on my shelf for a while now, and today I finally decided to give it a shot in the hopes of catching up story-wise to AC 2 and Brotherhood. I like the assassinations and viewpoint stuff, and the other side missions seem entirely fine (though I'm not fetching any of those fucking flags). What I can't stand is the traveling from the "main castle" (you know, where the guy gives you back your shit in increments) to the other cities. I hate sitting on my horse at negative six miles per hour just so I don't piss off those fucking guards. Usually I just storm past them and hope that I eventually lose them but it is irritating nonetheless. Does this get better in future installments or am I just not the AC "type"?

There isn't any travel really.

there's no horse

Traveling gets much less tedious in the other two games.  It gets progressively better as you go forward in the series.

In brotherhood there is a fast travel system. I have completly forgotten about travel in 2, sorry.

There are entrances to an underground sewer syste scattered throughout the city. You can quick travel between these entrances.

" In brotherhood there is a fast travel system. I have completly forgotten about travel in 2, sorry. "

While there is still horseback riding, there's rarely any traveling from city to city on horseback except a few missions that has you do it to unlock the next area. 
After you unlock an area, you're free to use any of the Fast-Travel stations to get from city to city. 
 
That was in Assassin's Creed 2. Couldn't tell you anything about Brotherhood yet.

I know exactly what you mean.  
 
I can't speak about Brotherhood, but Assassin's Creed II did away with that massive hub-world the original game had. Instead, you only have to worry about a series of increasingly large cities, which have a bit of open landscape around them (if you're dying to ride a horse around), but you're not going to be riding around some barren wasteland looking for the right way to get to the next township.  
 
Also, Assassin's Creed II introduced a fast travel system. You have to discover the fast-travel locations by finding those tower viewpoints, but once you locate one you're able to warp to any other fast-travel location you've found in the game, which is way handy for jumping from, say, Florence to Venice (which would otherwise take a while, through load screens and separate cities).  
 
And the castle thing you refer to isn't totally gone from Assassin's Creed II, but I think it's definitely less irritating. Instead of a several-story castle on top of a mountain, itself ridged with a number of terraces, you're just dealing with a easily-navigable villa in a relatively small settlement. 

Alright, thanks. I have to say the game is starting to grow on me a bit now. Glad to hear the series gets that much better.

Later on in the first game, there is a bit of fast travel: once you hop on your horse and ride through the first area outside the city you are leaving, a menu will pop up and ask you where you want to go and you can be instantly transported there. I don't know what triggers this, if it's the memory you're on or just having visited all the cities in the game.

Ive been playing 1 lately and it had fast travel once I reached memory block 4. Not sure if it stays like that since im yet to complete block 4 but id imagine it does.