Ireland - Relaxing Carefree Travel

Ireland has got to be one of the easiest and most carefree places I’ve ever traveled. The people are nice, getting around is simple to figure out, and the countryside is lovely. It’s a very relaxing and low stress place to roam. The only thing I’ve been told to be wary of are late night drunks in Dublin. Well, that’s a common sense no brainer.

From Killarney I took a Bus to Dingle where I stayed three nights. While there I climbed yet another peak, Brandon Mountain, in mist, fog and rain, combined with a long bike ride around the sea cliffs of Slea head. The following day I hiked the hills and valleys around Connor pass under mostly sunny skies. The landscapes full of green intermingled with gray, red, and black stone while being bathed in the constantly changing light of variable clouds makes the Irish countryside very easy on the eyes.

I stayed at the “Hideout Hostel” in Dingle right across from the small village Movie Theater. My roommate was a mid 50’s Moroccan man who teaches economics in Paris. It's not often that I meet a Moroccan backpacker. His name is Elmostafa and we tossed back a couple of pints while talking about travel, politics, and the Moroccan desert. It’s not often that I get to engage in good conversation with backpackers from a Muslim culture. Elmostafa and I talked about cultural differences and how when you get right down to it everyone wants the same thing. To have a home, to feel safe with family and friends and to a have good job. To simply be happy. At the base level this is what anyone and everyone wants. No question about it. Unfortunately there are a small few who like to stir up a hornets’ nest into a furry of emotion and misunderstandings that lead to negative outcomes. Live and let live, do no harm. That’s my mind set. Go ahead and worship purple monkeys if you want to. I really don’t care as long as it's not causing harm to anyone else. Elmostafa proved to be a great roommate. He left with an invitation to visit him in Paris and to trek in the Morroccon desert.

After three nights at the hostel in Dingle I debated what to do next. I already had an idea of where I wanted to go but wasn’t too interested in paying 11 Euros for a short bus ride to Tralee. A young German woman by the name of Larissa was thinking the way I was so we decided to hitch hike to Tralee. We had both been hearing good reports of nothing but normal people happy to giving backpackers lifts. I very rarely if ever hitch hike anywhere because I usually don’t think it’s a good idea but in the rural areas of Ireland, where people are accustomed to tourism, it’s about as safe as it gets.

There are two ways out of Dingle to get to Tralee. We tried the busiest way first and gave up after 45 minutes. We then walked about 15 minutes to the other more scenic less traveled route and got a ride in 15 minutes. The couple that picked us up could have been our parents. They were retired farmers whose first language is Gaelic. Their English is spoken with a thick accent that was hard for Larissa to understand but understandable to me as long as I listened closely. Ireland has changed enormously over the last 30 years. From when everyone was emigrating to the UK or America. To the Big Boom. To now, the big Bust.

The old Ireland of traveling gypsies, struggling farmers, and plain poverty was left behind as the country was catapulted into the 21’st century via the same economic boom seen throughout the rest of Europe and the USA during the 1990's. The problem is that most of the boom was a product of greed, imagination, and hype drawn up on Power Point presentations, TV financial shows and printed media. On the way up Ireland saw more blue sky than it probably ever will again. With loose foreign trade regulations and banks loaning money to anyone with a pulse, the limit was beyond the sky. Abandoned cottages sold for hundreds of thousands of Euros and construction demands reached an all time high. Some got rich, some lost it all. Well, the sky did turn gray and the clouds were the limit. In the end Ireland is a very different country. In many ways for the better but in other ways? We'll see. Thanks to the European Union and robust tourism coupled with legitimate businesses Ireland will be fine but in the meantime many are staring down a bottomless pint of thousand if not millions of dollars of debt. Real estate values have fallen, on average, 50% from where they were at the height of the boom. Everyone and no one has the solution.

The downside to Ireland’s boom and bust is that it’s one of the most expensive places to travel in Europe. Everything got so grossly inflated. Fortunately, prices are on their way down as things naturally and slowly correct. For the backpacker traveler restaurants are very expensive and the price of take away food is barely acceptable so cook your own pasta meals at the hostel is the best option. Hostel dorm beds run between 14 to 18 Euros. Buses and trains range from very reasonable to expensive depending on route. Even with this approach, by the end of the day, I’m spending more money in Ireland than anywhere else I’ve been on this trip.

The nice couple that gave me and Larissa a ride to Tralee very conveniently dropped us off at the bus station where we got a bus to Tarbert. From there we took a ferry across a bay and hitched a ride with a local to Kilrush where we found a hostel for the night. Later that evening a couple with a car checked into the hostel and Larissa commented before meeting them, “Ahh, our new friends”.

Our new friends turned out to be a really nice German couple by the name of Rafael and Inga. We met them in a pub later that evening and hit it off with good conversation. Today they gave us a ride to Doolin as we passed through old fishing villages, visited a lighthouse, and miles of seal cliffs including the famous Cliffs of Moher. We found a hostel and I opted for a 9 Euro campsite in the side yard with full access to the facilities.

Tonight, like most nights, I’ll probably find myself in a local pub with a pint of Guinness and musicians playing traditional music. It only seems natural and fitting when your in Ireland. Yes, It is a very relaxing and carefree place to travel….