Ireland

From Ireland

We were excited to finally go to a country where the locals spoke the same language as us. Well our hopes were fruitless. In Ireland they speak something that resembles english, but is very hard for us to understand. It took us a few days to figure out what "feck" meant. You may think that Ireland is the land of lepracauns, football brawls, drunks, and all this with an average of 3 days of sun per year. If this is how you envision Ireland then you are completely correct.

Ireland has green pastures, big cities and tons and tons of beer. Not only do they have beer, they have serious beer drinkers. This is no pastime, this is real business to the average pub local. There are distinct rules of engagement that have to be followed when at a pub. Especially when rounds of drinks are being purchased. When in a local pub you must always be careful about talking about politics, religeon, and especially football (aka soccer). If you make a wrong comment you may find yourself on the recieving end of beating. I think we may have been close to some bloodshead on the night of the European cup championships. It was great watching the big game in a real Irish pub. We even spent a couple evenings enjoying drinks and food at a pub that was started in 1198. Quite and old establishment.

Jason, Heather and I had a great time in Ireland. The highlights were visiting St. Patricks Cathedral, the Guiness factory, drinking guiness for breakfast, drinking guiness for lunch, and drinking guiness for dinner. We took a day trip out to the countryside to visit some anchient pagan burial/ ritual sights. This included going inside of a 5,000 year old house that was built of stone and is still standing. The three of us really enjoyed the Irish countryside and the chance to see the tiny villages and green hills.

Other then not understanding the local language, and waking up and smelling like the village drunk every morning we all really enjoyed Ireland. Unfortunately Ireland was the last stop on our round the world trip and with a heavy heart we boareded a plane and flew home. We are still in a state of jetlag and will post a final blog posting in a few days.