Six weeks is a long time for 4 people to travel together,
but here’s why it worked so well….
Obviously we are great friends, and the 4 of
us are interchangeable, you might say.
Many times Paul and Julie will work on something together (usually route
planning or cooking) , while Mike and I sit back and smile...
...and just as often
the two guys will go off on their own, talking technical stuff or whatever,
while Julie and I hang back or hang out.
And of course, Paul and I went off on our own at times, and left Julie and Mike to
their own devices.
The 4 of us have a
very natural flow and are pretty easy going.
Overall, we saw many
incredibly beautiful things, from ancient cathedrals to scenery beyond
imagination.
Our outings varied from museums to live music to hiking, but
one of the keys to a great trip was that we had enough time to just chill out
and relax.
We saw lots of old stuff…. I mean really old stuff…
Europeans are justified when they laugh at what Americans consider old.
There are countless buildings and ruins here
that date back to the 1100s and earlier.
You know the history is old when the
Vikings were the invaders…. In the year 1050.
Some of the buildings still in use today are so old, the plumbing is on the
outside.
Each of the countries we visited had some definite
differences from what we are used to in the U.S.
In Scotland, for instance, the only choice in salad dressing
is “on the salad” or “on the side” . There is only one dressing, although it
does vary a little based on location. Chips
are fries and crisps are chips, which wasn’t too hard to remember.
Also, they don’t put ice in their drinks. If you ask for ice, they look at you funny,
but are happy to oblige by putting in a cube or two….no more than that.
I was very happy to have fresh seafood on the menu, until I
read the word “whole” in front of the word “fish”.
Being unsure, I meandered past someone’s
table, and yep, sure enough, there was the fish on their plate, staring at
them.
No thanks.
Google was our
friend, as there were many times we couldn’t figure out what a menu item
actually was until we did a search.
When you are done with your meal, you have to ask for your
check. When you owe for lodging, you
have to ask for the bill. Never once did
anyone ask us for money. At first it was annoying, but then we got the hang of
it.
We gave up trying to pronounce Gaelic names, and sometimes
gave up on the English version as well…usually some garbled mess came out of
our mouths.
There were other things we used google for as well….we
googled things such as the instruction manual for the washing machine that we
couldn’t figure out,
how to change a
setting on the car, or what does the clothes dryer mean by “water tank full”?
The money, bills in particular, vary in size, and of course,
look different from what we are used to seeing- that caused Paul to leave a $20
tip at dinner….his excuse? It looked like monopoly money!
Time and date required a constant calculation. Europeans
write their dates Day/month/ year, instead of month/day/year, and everything is
in military time…yes, in theory subtracting two hours shouldn’t be rocket
science, but it was sometimes hilarious trying to figure it out.
It was quite a while before we consistently tried to get in
the correct door of the car. Mostly one of us would look up and ask “who is
driving?” as a gentle reminder to go to the other door.
Driving in general was a bit of a challenge for a while.
TURN RIGHT, THINK LEFT could be heard frequently from the passengers. Scotland
had many single track roads, but Ireland did not. While Ireland certainly had
the better roads, what they didn’t have is shoulders…ever.
The signage is different from what we are used to, and at times, interpreting a sign was a fun pastime…
There were many times we laughed out loud at things we
heard…
-On the hiking trail:
“ I hope we don’t have to go up as far as we are going down”
-At the dock, a conversation between the ticket taker and
someone trying to board the ferry: “Do you want to go to Inis Morn?” Her response: “yes, but maybe tomorrow, not
today.” Huh?
-By the ferry captain, in his safety spiel “ follow us, we’ll be the first ones off the
boat”
-at the rail station, over the loud speaker “ North bound
service will be delayed 20 minutes due to bad behaving trains”
Our accommodations, for the most part, were pretty good- we
really enjoyed the self cater places, where we had the whole apartment or
cottage to ourselves.
That made it easy
to cook our own meals, and pack lunches when we didn’t want to eat out.
It was nice to have guys who are mechanically inclined, as
their tasks included fixing a fan, installing light bulbs, and sharpening
knives (using a nail file).
Still, most places were pretty good, some not as good as
others (at one place we were the dog sitters while we were there!).
Our mantra was “we’re only here
for a few days” sometimes said with a sigh of regret, sometimes with a sigh of
relief.
Our place In Doolin stood out
from all the others- it was an incredible space, extremely well laid out and equipped.
From a practical standpoint there were several things that
made the trip easier:
Topping the list is T-Mobile. With Mike and Paul’s phones, and my ipad
having T-Mobile service, we had signal almost the entire trip. That made
navigating and communicating extremely easy.
We used Whatsapp to text back and forth by creating a group name, and
while in the cars, the walkie talkies proved to be invaluable (once, we found
ourselves in a crowded city, looking for a grocery store- it was very quick and
easy to say “lets get the hell outta here”).
It was impossible to split every bill 50/50, so I took on
the task of tracking who owed who how many pounds/euros. That way we could
adjust who paid for groceries etc and kept things reasonably even. At the end,
the Porters owed the Swains $8- not too bad!
Mike and Julie, having traveled more than us, gave us
several great ideas on what to pack. We bought a set of bags to keep clothes
separated, which made moving them around simple and neat, and made it easier to
organize so that we didn’t have to bring in all our suitcases every night.
The other thing we brought was a top sheet.
I would never have thought to bring that, but
almost none of the places we stayed provided top sheets, just duvet covers,
which can be too heavy and hot.
And then there was First Class. We flew First Class, and traveled on the train First Class.
I think traveling domestically, I wouldn't care as much about the benefits of First Class, but with a long flight it was really nice to have the perks- Our seats made into beds, we had plugs for our electronics, a pillow, 3 blankets and we were fed on a regular basis.
There was an actual menu to choose from, and the food was served on real plates, and the wine in real wine glasses.
Overall the trip, for Paul and I, was much less stressful,
and a lot more fun, because Mike and Julie did a large chunk of the work in the
planning and booking, and we completely appreciated it.
As I said, the 4 of us mesh very well, and have never had a
bad time together:
