Dublin :: Ireland
Around Ireland in a Seat.
Places: Cork, Berra, Bantry, Dingle, Galway and Dublin
Coolest thing I did: Observed roughly 25 hen's nights happen in sync (ahh, Galway).
Coolest thing I didn't know: The Blarney Stone isn' t very impressive. I'd expected an actual standing stone or something, not a brick.
As a quite regular visitor to Dulbin, the most common thing I heard before heading out of it was I'd find the rest of the country vastly different. This can most readily seen as true in the way the motorways give way to miles of blind corners, acute turns, cattle rails and single lanes almost as soon as you've left Dublin County. I haven't driven a car for probably going on 9 months, so trying to focus on driving a strange car in what can be trying conditions became quite tiring. I found myself hitting 100kph quite regularly in what would usualy be insanely dangerous conditions for me and building up a tailback behind me. These people are entirely fearless driving around with very little idea of what's coming around the next stone wall or over the next small rise, something I'm not quite used to. Lucky for me, I wasn't in a real hurry and didn't mind pulling over to let people pass regularly.
The country is much as I expected, but I was surprised at how regular the postcard scenes presented themselves to me. If I'd stopped to take a picture of every tall stone cross, ruined church, severe stone cliff or rural vista I'd have gotten nowhere. It's a truly breath-taking country to behold. I spent alot of time driving around the ranges of mountains that plunge themselves directly into the Altantic in the west of the country. Once I'd figured out my original plan of also visiting Northern Ireland within the week was far too ambitious, I was able to amble at my own pace around. It gave me alot of time to think about things and I think I managed to reconcile alot of things I'd had in the back of my mind for a long time. It's funny how you can start to tackle the tangle of unresolved internal conversations you have floating around your head when you've got very little else to do. That, and I listened to alot of radio. The only station that had reception all over the country (and not in Gaelic) was 2fm, which includes the countries' most popular morning talk show, hosted by Mr Gerry Ryan. Like all populist talkback radio, it concentrated on issues effecting the middle class of Ireland (SARS being the biggie, even though there are still no cases in the country), however it does have a certain irreverence you wouldn't find in the UK (the segment on strippers dressed as paramilitaries operating in Northern Ireland for example).
However, as much as the scenery appealed, after a few hours driving on your own, you do get cabin fever. The nights, however, were never dull. The places I stopped ranged from a small fishing village where I occupied the hostel alone, to backpacker-oriented towns to cities like Galway and Cork. The contrast isn't as big as you think it would be. As expected, the Irish love a drink and a chat. There was nowhere I felt unwelcome, and as there was a big soccer or rugby game every night the last week, I was never short of a starting point for a conversation (as an aside, it appears Manchester United are far more popular in Ireland than in Manchester). The young blokes here tend to treat Guiness as much of an old man's drink as the English lads do Bitter and Ale, so I did look a bit of a tourist drinking it next to their continental lagers. However, through years of self experimentation that I find the hangovers far less severe after a stout bender and I did have a fair bit of driving to do.
Galway was an exceptional circumstance. It is, mainly, a tourist town, even if most of them come from within Ireland itself for the big Saturday night. Also, Mark got a bus across the country to meet up with me. Galway on a Saturday night is a sight to behold. I managed to blow nearly 2 days budget in one night, but it was excelent fun. We did, however, peak a bit late and the whole town shuts down shop at 3am. Our roaming around town looking for somewhere to drink didn't net us much in the way of alcohol, but it did make us alot of staggeringly drunk friends. Oh, and for some reason Galway appears to be the hen's night capital of the country. I'm always a bit weary of hordes of drunk women, and the fact there was so many parties going on at once does make you a wee bit edgy. The evening ended with us drinking bad Sambuca directly out of the bottle with some students out on an athletics trip. Despite Mark's calls to go to the early bar where the dock workers drink at 8am, the whole thing wrapped up at around 5ish.
So the big question on whether Dublin is different, did that one get answered? Kind of. I've found the Irish, in general, to be a pretty friendly bunch of people all round. Sticking to the highly Disney like Temple Bar in Dublin probably won't introduce you to many Irish, but as I've worked out here so much, that wasn't too much of a problem. The diffence seems to be be that Dublin is very cosmopolitan City compared with the rest of the country. Whilst you get quite used to the sight of Japanese students walking down the streets of Dublin talking into their cellphones, you don't seen many people of non-Celtic roots outside the capital. This makes the feel of the place quite different. There are no Starbucks or McDonalds in most of the places I visited. In most towns, there weren't alot of curry houses or thai resteraunts, despite the presence of at least 10 bars in the smallest one street fishing village. I think this gives a different outlook on life. I found the Irish out in the country weren't that much different, just more traditional than those in Dublin. The story they are worlds more friendly seemed to depend on the size of the place I visited. The Irish are a friendly people, but Dublin, like London, is a huge, international city. People don't have the same sense of community as a place where it's possible to know everyone. And strangers tend to stick out more in smaller places.
I think the big difference between Ireland and other places is strangers are welcomed, rather than made to feel uncomfortable. Despite the almost language barrier accent differences, people were patient with me and wanted to listen to what I had to say. And they love a chat.
I did, however, come to realise out in all that country that I could never feel properly at home in small places. Being from a big international city like Sydney, I tend to feel more at home somewhere like Dublin than somewhere like Castletownbear. Walking around Dublin today, I did feel like I was leaving a place I had come to know quite well. Of all places outside London, I've visited none even remotely close to as many times as I have this one. For a place reknowned for exporting people only 2 decades ago, it's as cosmopolitan as either London or Sydney. Only, as with those two cities, it does retain some of the character that makes it belong in it's home country. I will probably not see this place again in the near future, and I will miss it.