Category Archives for Ireland (Republic)

Thoughts on Ireland

Ireland was a really surprising and wonderful little country and so many things were totally different from what I had imagined. My ideas of what to expect – rain rain rain – before leaving Holland I was obsessed about trying to get a long rain coat and then when I was in Ireland – in the fall – I never got caught once in the rain. People were sunbathing on my last day and I even got some mosquito bites so thats Ireland for you in October.

Another thing that was a surprise was how the prices of everything is the complete opposite from Holland. In Ireland food is really expensive – double the Dutch prices – while clothing and car parking was amazingly cheap. If you want to eat out in Ireland go to the places which serve hearty Irish food and avoid fast food places. Coffee (except for Italian brands) was awful but the tea was delicious. The roads and towns are very clean, even in the middle of Cork City. Hotels were just as expensive as Paris.

The thing that makes Ireland what it is though are the people. I’m convinced Ireland is actually more to the south than how it appears on the globe as the Irish don’t seem to belong to the neurotic, dark northern Europeans. One of my memories of Ireland was knocking on the door of a tiny antique shop while looking for Celtic artwork. A little old lady opened the door in her apron and then began to roll off names like O’Shea’s, O’Hearnes, Mulligans where I could try. Another amazing moment was in a bar called “Jack C” on High Street, Killarney and talking to old Jack who owned the bar. He told me about the time when Guinness was the only thing they drank and now how he couldn’t understand why people nowadays wants all sorts of fancy drinks, and all served chilled. Jack C, the bar is ancient, like walking into the 1940′s so if you are in Killarney I recommend you go there as it’s fabulous as so un-hip and caught in it’s own era. Also if you are in Killarney go to the bar called O’Connors and listen to the traditional Irish music at night, you will never forget that moment. Driving through the mountains with Irish music full of melancholy on the radio I kept feeling like I was going to cry, the music and the scenery both playing off each other.  Other countries have mountains that are much higher but they don’t have the romance of the mountains of Ireland.

The Irish people are unique and I can’t remember the last time I felt so welcome in a foreign country. I didn’t even have one bad experience with the people the whole time I was there, not even one wrong glance or one wrong word, just real genuine people.