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Alan Creech
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aaron klinefelter
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September 15, 2006
> 11:45 AM
ireland > post trip observations  I've been recounting the story of my trip to so many people as they ask how it was, I thought I'd record a few observations that stuck with me from a week in Ireland here. I'll put them in a list to make it easier, and try to be brief.- It's an amazingly beautiful country. You may know this already. It's not all beautiful, but much of it is, what hasn't been screwed up by people. People don't always screw up beauty when they add to a landscape, but you know, we do, and they have there too. That's in the romantic ideas busted category. - There is a LOT of litter in that country, even right in the middle of some of the amazing ancient ruins that I loved crawling around on so much. Big beer cans and other trash just everywhere. Shameful. I know this phenomenon well. I'm from an area that is incredibly beautiful (the mountains of Eastern Kentucky) and strewn with litter - terrible. - It's certainly not all quaint like that little cottage up there. That's in a folk park that you pay 13 euros to walk through. It's pretty cool to see life of a bygone era, but it is mostly gone. There are a few of those cottages left around the countryside that people still live in. I saw them. Of course they have electricity now, maybe internet access and likely TVs. There are lots of newer houses even in the country. I will say that the new houses seem to be trying to stay within a certain Irish way of looking. - Tourism has changed a nation. I remember having a thought one day, after probably having paid several times to see cool old things that one would have imagined you'd just see for free - "once upon a time, the Irish were who they were, farmers, fishermen, merchants in between, but that has changed." Long ago, people fell in love with a predominately agriculturally based, subsistence level culture with fishing on the edges. These people lived from the land, herded cattle and sheep and grew crops as they needed them to live. They told stories and sang songs and played music and danced, and drank as they saw fit. They also prayed, often and the Church was central. Now, of course a good bit of that is still there. But the country and it's people have changed. Tourism will do that. When your focus becomes tourists, who look for nostalgia and romance, you tend to give it to them, your focus becomes being what the tourists want. Yes, there are still farmers who could give a cow pie for what tourists think, but if you drive around and pay attention, everything is geared for us, for the strangers. It's a little disconcerting. Don't let that keep you from going there. It won't keep me from going back. Ireland is still Ireland. It's not what it was in 1920 but little is. A few quick ones... - "salad 'n chips or veg and mash with that?" - "coffee is it?" "petrol is it?" - There are TONS of pubs, many per street, all serve full food menus. - Driving is more polite there - drivers that is. - Roundabouts, roundabouts, roundabouts! - Flushing a toilet - they call "bathrooms" toilets - is a violent experience. - Traveler's checks are useless there - get cash or use a credit card. - More people still speak the Irish language than you would imagine. technorati tags > ireland, vacation, tourism, culture Labels: ireland 0 Comments:| permalink | e-mail me | 
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