One of my favorite parts about traveling the world has been learning about different countries, cultures, and understanding more about the world. Of all the places we traveled, I learned the most about the Philippines and Ireland.
Ireland is a beautiful country with a magical type of charm to it. We first touched down in Dublin and stayed in an Airbnb on a quaint, pretty street that is about a 10 minute walk to the city center.
That evening, I wanted to give Rachel the authentic Dublin experience so we ate at a pub and I ordered a pint of Guinness. Much to my surprise, Rachel really enjoyed the beer. In our entire relationship, I think Rachel had consumed a total of 2 beers. By the time we left Ireland, I think she had polished off about a dozen Guinnesses. Later that night, we visited Temple Bar, the party area of the city, with the hope of seeing some good live music. The first bar we went to was solid, but the real jewel of the night was a singer named Jake Hallam performing at the Auld Dubliner. This dude has a great voice and played mostly popular songs from the 90s in mashup format. Since Rachel and I had a few Guinnesses in our bellies by that point, we sang our faces off and had a great night.
The next day we toured Dublin and saw all the most popular tourist sites - Trinity College, St. Stephen's Green, and of course, the Guinness factory. I thought Rachel would be bored and we'd last maybe an hour, but to my surprise, we spent over 4 hours at the factory drinking Guinness, learning about beer, and watching Irish folk music and dancing. After the Guinness factory, we were lucky enough to catch a performance of Once, the musical adaptation of the movie of the same name. Once is a very simple love story, about both people and the city of Dublin. The music in the movie/musical is incredibly powerful. In addition, the performance we saw included the entire cast playing traditional Irish music for 30 minutes before the show with an on-stage bar where viewers could grab a drink and mix with the cast. A truly awesome experience.
The next day we packed up our stuff, went back to the airport, and picked up our rental car - a super small silver Peugeot. I was a bit terrified to pick up the car for three reasons: the last time I drove in Europe (in Barcelona) was the scariest hour of my life, Ireland is a left side of the road country, and I had heard the roads were extremely narrow. Nevertheless, we soldiered on and made a pretty uneventful drive from Dublin to Galway. With a boost of confidence from the drive (which was all highway), I decided the worst was behind me and driving in Ireland wasn't a big deal. That was a mistake.
The next day we decided to drive on the Wild Atlantic Way, which is a series of roads on the west coast of Ireland that overlook the Atlantic Ocean. It's basically Ireland's answer to the Pacific Coast Highway, if the PCH was half the size and contained even more hairpin turns. There are sections of the road that look like they will only fit one car (total, not each way), but 2 cars somehow manage to fit through. There are bridges that really only fit one car, and you have to cross them blind and pray that another car won't be coming in the opposite direction. And then there are sections of road where you and another car get to play a game of chicken to determine who is going to back up into the field and let the other car pass. Why would anyone put up with this nonsense?
This.
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And this.
Driving around Ireland unlocks its true beauty. From the Cliffs of Moher to the Burren to the Dingle Peninsula (yes, that's its name and yes, the name is hilarious), all of Ireland is just a beautiful, green, raw, picturesque postcard. I was truly jealous of Rachel because while I was navigating hairpin turns and snapping twigs avoiding other cars, she had the best view of Ireland's tremendous beauty. During the 6 days we spent driving around the country, we pulled over to the side of the road multiple times a day to just stop and take in what we were seeing.
Back to the beginning about learning about a people and a place - as we explored Dublin, especially on the hop on, hop off bus tour, we would hear snippets about the country's history. After a few days, I knew there was a rebellion in 1916, the country officially became a Republic in 1921, and that there was a civil war immediately after the formation of the Republic. I was trying to piece this all together with my limited understanding of the politics here - which was basically that Ireland (Catholic) and Northern Ireland (Protestant) were 2 different countries and that they really didn't like each other. That's where Cyril and the Irish Folk Storytelling come into play. Cyril was our bed and breakfast proprietor in Cork. He's about 60 years old and knows everything about Ireland. I used our 3 breakfasts together to pick his brain about Irish politics and gain a better understanding of why things are the way they are there. I won't bore you with the details about the Irish fight for independence and how Ireland and Northern Ireland came to be split, but the learning is already paying off. Last night, I was driving home from the Phillies game when 'Zombie' by the Cranberries came on the radio. I've heard this song 1000 times over the past 20+ years and never gave a second thought to what it's about. When I heard, "it's the same old theme, since 1916," I figured I was onto something. As it turns out, 'Zombie' is about an Irish Republican Army (IRÁ) bombing that killed 2 kids in 1993, and served as a plea for peace between Ireland and Northern Ireland/Britain. Shortly after the song was released, the IRÁ ended 25 years of hostilities towards Northern Ireland and the British. It's moments like these that make learning fun.
The learning continued our last night in Ireland when we returned to Dublin to experience Irish Folk Storytelling which is way more interesting than it sounds. Our storyteller, Mike, was about 60 years old and had a fantastic Irish accent. During the show, I was transported back to my childhood when I would sit on my grandfather's lap and he would tell me and my brother stories from his childhood. We would hang on every word and couldn't wait to hear what he had to say. Mike had the same effect on me, but luckily I didn't have to sit on his lap. During the course of his stories, I learned that Ireland's population is less than 6 million, but its diaspora (people of Irish descent) is about 100 million strong worldwide. Those are crazy numbers and become even wilder when you realize that the population of Ireland was at 8 million before the potato famine in the 1840s and still hasn't come close to recovering to pre-famine levels nearly 200 years later.
We were very sad to leave Ireland as it was one of our favorite stops on the trip. If I had to pick one city we visited to live in, I would pick Dublin. The intangible charm of the city is incredible and you will never meet a more friendly group of people. Sure, I'd have to buy some thick sweaters as the temperature didn't reach above 65 in the middle of August, but that can all be worked around - there's plenty of Guinness to keep me warm.
Jeff
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