Ireland...A Few Months Late

I had originally wanted to blog about the entire trip, but as it's been so long I don't any longer feel like typing and rehashing my thoughts. However, since I did find a Word document of a couple of the main thoughts I had, I thought I'd copy and paste those thoughts here for posterity's sake (and because I feel that since I have started this blog, I must now write at least one entry here per country that I visit). So thoughts on Ireland:

-Dublin is both gorgeous and clean. Also, all the side streets look nice (how do I explain this to someone who hasn't been to Cuba?) Each time I glance down an alley, I expect to see laundry hanging freely, loose dogs in the street, a domino game between old men in tattered undershirts, or some sign that the seemingly gorgeous facades are actually crumbling in stately yet shabby glory as time passes. I haven't found this yet. And somehow I feel that, in my heart of hearts, that the obvious evidence of decay that was always visible in Cuba, to be a beauty that is grittier, more arresting, than the sterile streets of Dublin. The only similarity is in the color: Dublin has the multicolored doors which are an echo of the bright laundry hanging from every available space in Havana streets.

-Gas is even more expensive here than in the States. A liter is about 114.9 cents Euro, times 3.8 to get the price in Euro cents/gallon, times 1.5 to get the price in dollars, equaling roughly $6.55/gallon. Ouch.

-Doesn't seem that the Irish are our biggest fans. Because we are American in general, or because we always roll in to a place at least 15 people deep?

-Difference in drinking styles: in America, drinking is semi-stigmatized by society at large, and we go balls to the wall. It's also pretty important as a social lubricant. In Ireland, it seems that drinking on a frequent basis is more commonplace, but at the same time it's more low-key; it's as though it adds fun to an occasion but is never the REASON for an occasion, nor does it influence the success of a get-together.