Ireland Travelogue Part 3 - Irish love, North vs South Ireland, & some learnings

This is the third and last part of my Ireland travelogue 

• Part 1 - Ireland Travelogue Part 1 - Why? Why in Dec?
• Part 2 - Ireland Travelogue Part 2 - Itinerary
• Part 3 - Ireland Travelogue Part 3 - Irish love, North vs South Ireland,  & some learnings

In this post, I will talk about various takeaways that I had during the trip. This is a stream of thoughts and do not follow any order

Ireland & India - we have much in common 

First time, I saw the Irish flag, I was astonished - how is it so familiar to Indian flag? Turns out that it is likely that the Indian flag was inspired by Irish one. Ireland got its independence in 1922 from Britishers.  Not only this, we also share this history that the landmass was divided when independence was granted, again largely based on religion.  Bengal & Irish famine also have some very stark commonalities 

It is our common disliking towards the British, atleast the old guard, makes us united, I guess. 

Irish folks - the friendliest people

Perhaps, the nicest people that I have met in my travels. When we landed at Dublin, our luggage did not come and we were in a queue to submit form to claim luggage. In this queue, a stranger Irish lady comes to us and apologizes and says that this is not a true characterisation of Ireland. She didn't had to do it, she did not even know us. But she felt that she had to clarify this. She felt that she had to defend, to apologize for no reason. 

We saw this again at the Gap of Dunhoe where at the other end of our hike, at around 11:30 am, a cafe which was expected to be open was closed. A stranger walked up to us and shared that given it is holiday season, the cafe staff may not come and he apologized. Later, he corrected that he didn't had to apologize but he felt bad. Again, there was no need for him to come to us. 

At the end of concert, at the midnight of 31st december, the entire concert hall audience stood up, interlocked their hands, right hand holding the left hand of the person sitting on their left and left hand holding the right hand of the person sitting on right and did a shake. All strangers coming together and included us. 

The pub servers were very friendly, I never got an us vs them kind of feeling.  Even in NZ, in Germany, I found atleast one instance of racism. In my 18 days here, not one. A lot of people assumed that we live in UK and have come here. On clarifying that we are just traveling from BLR, they were amused and often asked why. 

I also felt that there is a sense of camaraderie still in the Irish folk which used to exist in India and is slowly going away. Perhaps, because their population is still less, they need each other and hence continue to be more open towards others. Trust comes very naturally to them. 

North vs South island

One of the most striking aspect when you enter or exit North Ireland is that there are no sign boards signalling this. The only way we got to know was that suddenly kilometers became miles :) Both in Google maps & in the signs. Other than that, you would not even know that you have changed a country. Our visa/passport was also not checked at any point of time. It looked deliberate that they do not want to call it out. 

North Ireland had damn straight roads, straight roads going for 10+ kms. If there was a hill or mountain up ahead, it did not matter. The road will climb the hill and come down. But it will be straight. 

Driving in Ireland is all about roundabouts, everything is a roundabout. North Ireland while has much straight roads also has roundabouts but they are laned roundabouts which makes it little difficult to follow. I made some lane discipline mistakes during my driving. 

I also saw many more Indians in North Ireland than in Ireland. Dublin had few but outside of Dublin, I did not see a single one. North Ireland also had a larger population density than south, just based on anecdotal observation. 

The history of violence, the separation still plays a key role in the minds of people. More so now, ever since the Brexit has happened and North Ireland folks are asking that they did not sign up for this. Ireland as a country has done quite well economically, so there may be more developments here in the near future. 

Ireland is expensive

One of my big discovery was that Ireland is expensive. At the time of Visa date booking, I had not booked flight/hotels. But soon after, as I started to plan and realized that hotels/flights were expensive. Ireland, I felt is 30% more expensive than Germany. Perhaps, it is also the timing, the war in Ukraine had definitely led to inflation. The petrol price was 1.55 Euro which translated to INR 136 per litre. This is even higher than Indian petrol price.  I found that North Ireland was even more expensive than Ireland. Experiences like Titanic centre were quite expensive. 

Typically, I would expect off-season rates to be slightly cheaper but perhaps lack of demand has resulted in a lack of supply which in turn has kept the rates same. It is an expensive place to travel to and the budget friendly options are not so budget friendly. Surprisingly, the cost difference between an average hotel and a good hotel was not that much either. 

Maybe because most things are imported, maybe because there is worker scarcity, or not sure but it did feel expensive. 

Travel without luggage

Last year, our Germany trip was a backpacking trip, so we had planned a lot and taken only selective things. This time in Ireland, we knew that we would have a car during the entire trip, we went overboard and took everything. When the luggage did not come, it was like a wake-up call. A lot of planning had gone in before the trip started and all that was lost. 

But, two things worked - First, the decision to continue with the trip instead of waiting for luggage.  Had we not made this call, we would have lost more time and gotten more frustrated. Second,  surviving on minimalism - minimal clothes, accessories etc. 

This trip taught me that you can do a 15+ day trip surviving on 3 pairs of clothes. A learning that I do intend to apply for my next trips. 

Ireland is not a veg friendly country

There are veg restaurants or restaurants with more vegetarian options. It is not that they do not exist but if you go to a pub, the popular ones, and look at their menu, veg options is less than 10%. Outside of big cities, options of veg restaurants also become very low. 

You can survive on bread, cheese salads etc but it it not the best of foodie experience places. 

Winter is an off-season but not because of weather. 

Weather-wise, it was an amazing time to be out there. I have traveled in worse weather. I think it is more of a perception that this is an off-season. It is in a negative cycle - places are closed because there are no tourists and even when few tourists come, they say that places are closed. Longer daylight hrs may also be a factor.  I believe as demand improves, this will change. 

Ireland is incredibly beautiful!