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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