Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road

Our final day in Dublin mostly consisted of packing and getting everything back to the airport to pick up our rental car. The nice thing about Dublin is that they have one bus that goes all around the city and picks up/drops off people coming from and going to the airport. The bus picked us up right in front of our hostel and dropped us off right in front of the rental car place.

When we got there, we learned that the extra insurance we’d purchased online was invalid in Ireland. So our car ended up costing us almost twice what we thought it would. Thankfully the lady working with us had eaten her Lucky Charms that morning and had magical abilities to subtract things and make our rental as cheap as possible. We got several euro/day off of our insurance, a full tank of gas and a free GPS! All in all she saved us nearly 200 euro! We will be writing a very good review for her.

Dublin is scary enough to walk around, but once you get behind the wheel it’s terrifying! Irish people drive like maniacs! Not only do you have to drive on the “wrong” side of the street, but you’re sitting on the “wrong” side of the car! Their streets are so narrow that there are times when you have to drive in the other lane just to get down the street. Add the crazy high speed limits (that are apparently more of a suggestion…) and you’ve got near chaos. Parking on a sidewalk with your car halfway into the street is a common occurrence and you’re just expected to veer into oncoming traffic (at high speeds) to navigate around the parked cars.

The only place I felt really comfortable driving is on the newer “motorway”. There are two lanes and you pass on the right. Everyone pretty much stays in the left lane unless they’re passing. The speed limit on the motorways in 120kph, but there’s no minimum speed. So you’ll be cruising along at 125kph and nearly rear end someone going only 60kph. You have to just swerve over to the passing lane to avoid a collision. Then there are the crazies that like to go 140-160kph… it’s very dangerous to say the least.

White-knuckling it on my first day driving in Ireland.

 We finally arrived at our B&B after a couple hours of navigating the crazy Irish countryside. It was nice to hear someone talk without an Irish accent. (Meaning we could understand him!) Michael is the owner of Glocca Morra B&B. He’s a very charming man and we really enjoyed our stay with him. (He also happens to make amazing pancakes!)

Glocca Morra B&B

Michael recommended a place called Gooser’s for dinner. It was a short drive into the nearest town, Killaloe (Kill-a-loo). Dinner was amazing and since it was such a nice evening we decided to walk the town after our meal.

The local park had workout equipment set up along the jogging trail and Eric just had to try some of it out.

The walk was nice and I got several lovely pictures of the cute little town.

We went back to the B&B and just hung out for the rest of our evening. It was nice to have a quiet place to relax!