Traveling

After spending nearly a week out of the United States, on my first ever extended trip outside of the country, I wanted to share some random thoughts on things that have surprised me about Ireland, being in Europe, and basically being outside of the comforts of home.  To my better-traveled friends, some of these may be amusing, some may be self-evident, but perhaps a few these thoughts may be enlightening. These may be things that are true with all of Europe or may simply be localized to Ireland or the UK.  I’d definitely love some comments to help me confirm and clarify some of these things.

• Given how narrow these roads are, and how there doesn’t seem to be a method to dictate who has the right of way on these one lane roads, it’s a wonder that there are now more accidents here. On the contrary, in all of our driving we have yet to see cars on the side of the road from accidents or breakdowns.
• Just because the architecture and infrastructure is old in Ireland, don’t mistake that for being dirty or run down – it’s quite the opposite. Many of these hole-in-the-wall local pubs are quite clean and well-kept
• In Ireland “Bacon” is what Americans refer to as “Ham”
• The water here is relatively decent. It’s nowhere near Colorado-level taste, but I would say it’s on par with Texas water
• Most power outlets have their own switches on them, very convenient if you’re too lazy to unplug your device.
• The bathrooms in our cottage and hotels have the light-switches on in the outside. I’m not sure if the designers of these houses have ever had kids or mean siblings.
• The term for “bathroom” here is “Toilets” more direct, but perhaps a more graphic image, especially when you’re in a restaurant?
• For men: The public urinals don’t flush. Many of them are tied to the same flushing system that seemingly goes off on its own schedule. Thus the men’s rooms typically smell worse
• Many of the sinks here have different faucets for hot and cold water, I’m not quite sure how to create warm water unless you create a basin of warm water, or run both faucets at the same time and alternate your hands between them.
• Nearly all public toilets/bathrooms don’t have paper towels, but rather have air dryers that only work for a few seconds at a time.
• Police here are called “Garda”.
• When we eat out and have finished our meal, every single time we’ve had to ask the waiter to bring our check. We thought this may be simply that things move slowly and didn’t want to be rude, but there have been instances where nearly 20 minutes have passed between when we finished our meal and when we saw our waiter again.

I’ll add more to this list as I notice more things, but I wanted to shoot a few of these surprises out there. What aspects of international travel has surprised you?

For our third day of travel we were westward bound – all the way to Westport.  Pam, Bethany’s Step-mom, had ancestors that were traced back to this area, so we wanted to explore the town.  This was quite a drive, and probably will be the most time we’ll spend in the car on this trip.  Many of our pictures were taken from the car, and in some cases where the road was one lane, we had to take some moving pictures.  Hopefully these pictures will give you an idea of some of the beautiful countryside we’re seeing.  I’m not quite sure how to explain the terrain in terms of American comparisons.  I would maybe say “Kansas, but much greener”, some parts are as beautiful as taking a drive in the Rocky Mountains, but not as mountain-y.

Westport itself seems like a typical small Irish town, with many shops along the town square and shops that line the busy streets. For friends that have been to Fort Collins, imagine Old Town, but with an older appearance and on streets that are a little more narrow and a little more busy.  It’s not a very good description, probably because the towns in Ireland are different than anything that I’ve seen.

In the center of Westport they had a big structure called “The Octagon” – almost like a town’s clock tower without the clock, instead they have a statue of St. Patrick at the top.

We stopped by the Westport house, which is basically a tourist attraction with activities for kids.  We walked around a bit, but opted not to pay the admission to see the house up close.  Instead on the way over there we saw these kids that were put into these big round balls and rolled down the hill. I couldn’t help but wonder how many times people have gotten sick inside of those balls.

We then stopped by Croagh Patrick, the mountain where St. Patrick went up and fasted during Lent in the 5th century and drove all the snakes out of Ireland.  In the last week of July over 15,000 people make a pilgrimage up the mountain.

Below the grounds of Croagh Patrick lies a moment for those who suffered while seeking refuge from the Potato Famine.  While they escaped Ireland to immigrate to the United States, the ships they sailed on had horrid conditions that resulted in many of them dying along the way.  If you look at the picture of the ship, you’ll see that the masts are made of skeletons to signify the life that was lost during those journeys.

We then drove through Doo Lough Pass, a beautiful but windy road across the hills on the way to Galway.  There we saw some beautiful sights around a large lake.  It was drizzling throughout the drive and made for a very pretty two hours.  We had to slow down a few times to avoid some sheep alongside the road. This reminded me of when we’re in Colorado and people stop to take pictures of the elk – now it was our turn to take pictures of the sheep.

We finally reached Galway for dinner, and choose from what seemed to be 100 pubs and rastaurants in this small walking area in the town.  There were some pedestrian walkways that looked like an old version of Pearl Street in Boulder.  We’ll be back in Galway later on this trip, and I’m looking forward for the opportunity to explore some more.

Day three is in the books! Thank you for continuing to accompany us on our adventure!