2013年6月19日星期三

Driving in Ireland is Akin to Playing an Arcade Game MB Star C3

Ireland is a country of spell binding beauty.  Its people are deservedly  known for their friendliness and hospitality, but I'm convinced that a major reason its population is less than half what it was in 1840 is because of the invention of the automobile.

Most roads in Ireland are about the width of an average American driveway. For the most part, there are no shoulders and trees and telephone poles and other hard and unyielding objects closely border streets and roads. That makes for exciting driving when a speeding bus or truck approaches without slowing and misses your car by the width of a potato peal.
Driving in Ireland is akin to playing an arcade game in which one wins extra points for avoiding sheep, cattle, dogs and bicyclists when they unexpectedly pop up a few feet in front of your car's radiator.
As many Americans who have spent their entire life right of center on two-way roads, as I gingerly steered the car around z-shaped turns I had to continually deny my instinct to cross to the other side of the road on blind curves.   I fervently wished that when Ireland won its freedom from England, it had showed its independence by moving over MB Star C3  to the other side of the road.
"Most drivers have the same experience when they get here," said Mairead Bateman, whose inviting and peaceful bread and breakfast, Park House in Bunratty, is a 15 minute drive from the airport. "They are a bit shaken, but you'll soon learn the ways of driving here.  Just go slow. Don't worry about the drivers behind, just pull off the road and MB Star C3   let them go by where there's a place."
I got similar advice from Tom Kelly, who has been driving a tour bus around the 112-mile postcard beautiful Ring of Kerry for 33 years without an accident even though the roads are narrow and mountainous, traffic is heavy in the tourist season and sheep frequently insist on their share of the highway.
Even though most were driving rented cars, the tourists on the bus had smartly opted to pay approximately 15 American dollars each for the relaxing day long tour rather than venture on nail-biting, unfamiliar roads.
The tours start from Kilarney MB Star C3  and the buses pick up and drop off passengers at hotels or bed and breakfasts. In the summer,  similar tours run from Kilarney to travel the equally compellingly beautiful Dingle peninsula.
I looked on the tours obd2 center as a way to survive another day on Irish roads.
Did I tell you about road signs in Ireland?
Thank heaven, there are no highway billboards to mar the lovely scenery.  But there are signs, lots of signs, too many signs.  Some signs are helpful, some just bewilder a driver VAS 5054A new to Ireland.
One of them is a white circle with a black slash through it.  It took me days to learn it wasn't a command to slow down.  It means, surprisingly, that the 60 mile speed limit is allowed on that section of the road.

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