With the Ireland trip fading nostalgically in the rear-view mirror, I wanted to share a few random thoughts that I had hastily scribbled in my journal, but hadn’t been able to find a spot for in the daily wrapups. I’ve also included a few pix that I hadn’t previous found a home for. So, casting organization, pertinence, relevance and timeliness to the wind, here goes …
*** Reviewing the pictures at the end of the day was really cool. Sometimes you get lost in all the incredible things you’ve seen, to the point where your head is spinning and it’s hard to form coherent thoughts on it all. So reliving some of the experiences through the images at the end of the day was not only helpful, but awesome.
*** Largely, the B&Bs were actually better than the hotels we stayed in. The B&Bs were much less intrusive and offered much more privacy than we expected. Basically, if you wanted to chat it up with fellow guests and compare notes, the opportunity was certainly there. If you were just looking for a home base to come back to between seeing the sights, without having to deal with, you know, people, that avenue was there as well. All of our hosts were gracious, informative and funny, while the hotels we encountered were both cold and subpar (one much more than the other).
*** Street signs basically don’t exist in Ireland. Even in Dublin, the signs are usually located on adjacent buildings, if at all, so it takes some patience, sense of direction and a dash of lucky guesswork to get where you want to go.
*** It’s exactly 300 kilometers from Dingle to Dublin, or 187 miles. This basically means that you can roughly go from one coast to the other in southern Ireland in a decent amount of time.
*** Personal space isn’t always valued by tourists. At one point, we had basically the entire second deck of the Hop On, Hop Off, double-decker bus to ourselves, so we sat in the far back seat to take some pictures and enjoy the sights. Well, at one stop, a coupla over-eager fellow tourists came bounding on with goofy smiles—and proceeded to walk down the aisle of the near-empty deck to sit right freaking next to us. Then, as if that wasn’t exasperating enough, they unknowingly spilled something at one point, and I got off the bus and noticed my pants were soaking wet. Jackasses.
*** In Ireland, you can get tax money back at the airport for buying Irish merchandise. Of course, the lines were very long and the people working them less than helpful, but considering the horrific exchange rate, any and every little bit helped.
*** We noticed that a lot of the music we heard in stores and restaurants was actually very cheesy late-70s, early-80s American easy listening. Do they really think that is what Americans listen to? If so, it only adds to the embarrassment and shame I already feel courtesy of W.
*** Tipping bartenders is not only discouraged, but is actually considered bad form. Having bartended and waited tables in the past, that was very weird and took some getting used to. Of course, not having to tip on an $8 Guinness is a little anti-climactic.
*** When you’re doing a whirlwind tour of a country, sometimes it’s good to stop and (literally) smell the coffee. Taking a stroll through St. Stephen’s Green with a mocha, watching the pedestrians and planning out the day was one of the most relaxing and fun times I had.
*** Keeping an open mind and a sense of flexibility is also key to immersion travel. When you have spent so much time and energy researching and working out an itinerary, it is natural to want to follow it as closely as possible. But sometimes, things are so different from expected when you get to where you’re going that you almost have to throw everything you planned out the window and start from scratch. So that willingness to bend and make changes on the fly can not only help you avoid some potential obstacles, but can also add some excitement and spontaneity to your trip.
*** Dubliners can be rude, aggressive, unaware and oblivious—like the citizens of any really large city. As a whole, the Irish people that we dealt with were humorous, overly helpful and grateful for your patronage. It’s just that going with the flow in Dublin itself can require a little more patience … and sarcasm.
*** One unique thing in Dublin was it was easy to notice a real and constant effort to keep things clean. Street-sweeping machines were everywhere, fitting with the environmentally conscious signage, advertisements and commercials that we saw along the way. The U.S. has a long, long way to go to reach the European standards of global and social consciousness.
*** We did encounter a multi-floored mall on Grafton Street that had pay toilets on the second floor. People were actually standing in line for the right to pay to use the bathroom. Amazing.
*** I saw a man riding a bicycle with a three-legged dog running behind him on a leash in Phoenix Park. I took a picture to be sure that I wasn’t making it all up in my head.
*** Dublin is incredibly pedestrian-friendly, and after you sort of get your bearings, it is easy to find any and everything. In fact, I must have passed for someone who looked like they knew where they were going and what they were doing, because by my last night, I was actually giving out directions! Someone stopped me outside of O’Neill’s and asked where the Auld Dubliner was, and before I knew it, I was directing him down to the Temple Bar district and around bends, even throwing out the correct street names. Osmosis, maybe? Perhaps, but either way, I think my directions might actually have even been right.
I hope these little write-ups have succeeded in somewhat passing along the feelings and experiences we had in Ireland. I’m enclosing the day-by-day links below if by any chance you want to check them out again …
Erin Go Bragh!
Ireland, Day 1
Ireland, Day 2
Ireland, Day 3
Ireland, Day 4
Ireland, Day 5
Ireland, Day 6
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