Ireland Part I -- driving

I have finally decided to write about our trip to Ireland this past summer. It'll come in several installments ...

We landed in Dublin at 8am on July 21st amidst a downpour. So, we were tired after some 15 hours traveling, in a different time zone, wet, and disoriented.

We rented a car in order to see more of the country in our alloted 11 days. Mike was unanimously elected to drive during the trip, and I the navigator. Before we left, everyone kept warning us about the narrow roads, crazy drivers, and having to drive on the opposite side of the road. After about 2 days, driving was basically okay with occasional moments of absolute terror.

The roads are narrow, curvy, and often lined with stone walls less than a foot from the edge of the road. Imagine driving on US country roads that are usually 30-40 mi/hr at best. These same roads - with the above added features - are often 100 km/hr (60 mi/hr). And if you happen to slow down below this speed, maybe to go around a sharp curve, the car behind will be tailgating and wanting to pass at the first available opportunity.

When the roads weren't lined by rock walls, they were lined by shrubbery. When another car would come towards us - on the right side of the road, which took several days to begin to get used to - Mike would veer the car as far over to the side of the road as possible since the roads are so narrow it feels like you will scrape the side of your car on the passing car. I became intimately familiar with some of the shrubbery as my side of the car dove into it. At least it was better to touch bushes rather than rock walls.

Most of the cars in Ireland are small which makes this whole scenario a little more tolerable. However, there are public and tourist buses running around on the same streets. It's a long story that I won't get into now, but we ended up on a bus to get us back to our rental car after 2 days on one of the Aran Islands. There was another bus that appeared to have broken down that we had to pass. At most, there were 6-12 inches between the buses as we __slowly__ passed the broken down one. We stared at the folks on the other bus and could have reached out to shake hands had the windows been open. Someone on the other bus shot a picture of us as we drove past.

The first picture is the only photo we got of the car. I meant to take another but forgot. Note its small size. The next is a caution sign I found amusing. The next is an example of the roads. The "shoulder" is generous here. The next 2 are us following a tractor. And the final picture, another sign I found amusing (which, in case you can't read it, says "burn fat, not oil" next to a picture of bike).

The last thing I'll say about this topic for now, is that we were strongly encouraged to buy car insurance while renting a car in Ireland. It, along with Portugal, I believe, is one of the only foreign countries where one's insurance from the US doesn't translate since the roads are just so dangerous. It was comforting to be able to drive around with relative impunity and not worry about having to pay hundreds of dollars if the car were to sustain a scratch or two. Luckily, I guess, we didn't end up needing to use the insurance. But we were certainly glad we had it.