Giant American visits Ireland, thinks cars are too small and radio stations below par
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Always interesting to read what visitors to our shores think about us. Ellen Creager from the Detroit Free Press recently published a couple of articles about her visit (here and here).
Not surprisingly, rain and prices featured quite a bit. Also, the Ford Focus is apparantly “tiny”. It’s pretty normal sized as far as I’m concerned, but I guess if compared to the gas guzzling monstrosities in the USA ….
I really love the “10 amazing Ireland facts” though, especially
If you are driving, bring CDs. The radio stations outside of Dublin are not, to put it kindly, up to standard; it seems to be all B sides.
and
Ask an Irishman for directions, and he’ll help you — if you can follow him. An actual example: “Go to the small roundabout, then a large roundabout. Take the first left. Then go through another small roundabout and then at the next roundabout, take the second left, then the third left, then you’ll be on the dual carriageway, then follow the signs to Tralee.” He was right.
Cheek. Those directions are perfect.
Men’s bathrooms are called the “Gents” room — and most of them have urinal troughs like at the old Tiger Stadium.
How quaint that Americans still call them bathrooms.
She is dead on about prices though.
Photo owned by ironmanixs and used under the terms of a CC License
4 Comments
August 25th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
“The radio stations outside of Dublin are not, to put it kindly, up to standard; it seems to be all B sides.”
And oddly enough I can never get 2FM in Donnybrook.
It strikes me when visitors to our soggy shores are surprised about the weather. It’s not as if we try to hide the fact that it’s one of the wettest places on earth.
August 25th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
The only word, as it was explained to me by a Canadian, that has any consistency for referring to the bathroom/gents/jacks/johns/WC/shitter/crapper/can/head/toilet is Washroom because it’s the only thing you always do there. You don’t always bathe, rest etc, but you do at least or should at least, wash your hands.
As for the 2fm Donnybrook thing, there was a weird thing that a minor transmitter had to be installed in the Donnybrook/Stillorgan area because there was no signal for RTE. Right where all the staff lived and all. The main transmitter is up on Three Rock, the signal gets beamed up by microwave from RTE, but there is another transmitter for the local area. Near Radio na Gaeltachta in Galway you cannot pick up a damned thing except RnaG. Which must be annoying for the neighbours.
Personally I welcome our American overlords.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
never found a problem with rte reception in Donnybrook but I’ve only ever driven by with the radio on.
Major, ah – I can see the sense of washroom / bathroom now
August 26th, 2008 at 4:34 am
*”Carlow, a suburb where I got stuck in a “car park”"
*”the big town of Cork”
*”Waterford: A surprisingly nice town in southeast Ireland”
*”I highly recommend the well-run tour of the factory, which shows how every single piece of crystal is hand- blown, molded and made. This is the real factory, not a visitors center version.”
Hang on, Carlow – a suburb? Cork – A Big Town?
Waterford Crystal Factory – Where “every single piece of crystal” is made?
Gotta
LoveHate Americans