We got to the airport in Boston and boarded our plane without any major hiccups. Actually, the flight over was very nice, but we noticed that the stewardesses were all wearing incredible amounts of makeup. Like, crazy crazy clown makeup. I felt like I was in an episode of Jersey Shore, but with Irish accents. Very bizarre, especially to someone like me who goes for the, "Why, no, I don't have time to worry about what you'll think of my looks" look.
Anyway, we arrived in Ireland the next morning and got to the car rental counter. Here comes the truly traumatic part of our trip: The lady behind the counter informed us that, yes, we did pay for our rental car, but we also had to pay for insurance, or else put the ENTIRE VALUE of the car (over 5,000 euros) on hold on our car (and who travels with a card with that much open space on it? Not me…). So, we had to get the insurance or no rental car. Apparently, your credit card doesn't insure it, like it does in the States.
How bad can it be? Let's just say it was well over $500. Ouch. Didn't see that one coming….
Anyway, I was super proud of my husband right at that moment. He didn't freak out (I sure did) and said, "We'll just have to alter our plans a little bit." Then he just moved on. I, on the other hand, was crying and had decided I wanted to go home. Not my proudest moment.
Goodness, I'm glad one of us isn't a complete idiot.
So we went ahead and paid for the car on our credit card (what could we do?) and went down to the garage for our first experience with backwards driving.
We decided it was definitely them that are backwards, since the car was invented in America. Okay, maybe it wasn't. I think it was actually invented in France or China or something like that…anyhow, we're right on this one.
My husband, being a lefty, had absolutely no learning curve with the driving. I mean, none. He was really good at it. The only difference was that he tended to hug the left-hand side of the road, which meant that, at times, I was approximately two feet away (and sometimes less) from the hedges on the sides of most of the Irish country roads we drove on.
Keep in mind, these people drive like maniacs. Probably because they're used to the roads, but I wore out the imaginary brake on my side of the car. Holy crap. The roads there have no shoulder and everyone drives really fast. When the road is way too narrow for two cars, one of you has to drive into the hedges on the side, and just pray that you die a quick and painless death.
Seriously. I almost peed my pants every five minutes. Scary. Here's a picture:
Imagine going down this road, doing around 60 mph, with cars coming at you at a much higher rate of speed. Yeah.
So, anyway, we drove from the Dublin airport out to the countryside in Cavan county and stayed at our friends' adorable little cottage and got to meet their neighbor, who was super nice and helpful. Four days of relaxing and touring around the countryside and looking at castles. Not a bad first half of our trip.
Except the car rental stuff, which sucked. Big time.
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