Corey Terrell is a 25-year-old first-time international traveler and visited County Wicklow during the St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Originally from Texas, he now resides in San Diego, California where he is a software test project lead for a cellular phone handset manufacturer.

Corey’s website is at http://www.downtozero.org

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1. You recently spent some time in County Wicklow as part of a vacation in Ireland and England. What made you decide to include County Wicklow on your itinerary and where did you visit while you were here?

It was quite an interesting circumstance, actually. During the planning stages of this trip, it was decided that my cohorts and I should spend our final day in Ireland driving across the country in a rental car. Ireland is one of the most beautiful places on Earth and we wanted to see some of that first hand.

When we arrived at the Dublin Airport from London, we were talking with an older Irish couple who asked us what we planned on doing for our three days in the area. We mentioned that, among other things, our plan was to take our last day and drive from Dublin to Limerick and back. They immediately cautioned us against this as Limerick has somewhat of a poor reputation for safety. Whether or not this is true we will never know.

Instead, they suggested that we visit Galway because they had really nice pubs and good craic. We were a bit startled at this suggestion because, “craic” has the same phonetic pronunciation as, “crack” which is an illegal narcotic in the United States and that gentleman was telling us where to get some. After clarifying what the gentleman was
talking about, we decided that Galway was too far for a day trip and that the Wicklow Mountains/area south of Dublin was a better choice.

Concerning where we visited while in County Wickow, I am decidedly remiss in information. We started in Dublin on the M50 and allowed the GPS to be our guide. Our first destination was Wicklow Mountains National Park which we reportedly reached but found little more than an unpaved parking lot. We drove for most of the day all over the area
admiring the stunning views and counting on the GPS to get us back to the M11 at some point. We also visited the town of Wicklow itself and had a pint before heading back to Dublin to catch a flight home.

2. Looking at your Flickr photos of the trip - you seem to have had the typical ‘March of many weathers’ experience. Did it make a refreshing change or was it a bit of a drag?

The weather was one of the most amazing facets of the day we spent driving around the Wicklow Mountains. It had been a tad cold (2C to 3C) with a strong north wind (upwards of 40kph during gusts) but it had been dry for the most part. As we left Dublin and started rising in elevation, a storm hit and snow began to fall as fast as the temperature. Many of the pictures we took show a low hanging cloud or fog in the distance; that was actually snow that was moving quickly due to the strong winds.

All in all, I wouldn’t have changed anything about our time in Ireland. It was cold, but not so much that you couldn’t go outside, and there was ample sunshine most of the time. Even on the day we had so much snow, we would cross a hill and have beautiful blue skies with puffy clouds. It really was something to see.

3. Wicklow is known as the Garden of Ireland - did it live up to this title do you think?

I think it did. Lush green landscapes were especially prevalent in the countryside outside of Wicklow town itself. Even driving down the M11 it felt like a scene out of eastern Europe with its rugged beauty. And of course there was a great deal of agriculture with actual gardens and livestock.

4. Your top 3 best and worst things about the visit to Ireland? Be totally honest!

Limiting the best to only three is quite a task!

Three Best:

1. Guinness. ‘Nuff said.
2. A small restaurant in Laragh where I had one of the best meals of my entire life.
3. Ireland’s astounding beauty.

Three Worst:

1. Dublin Public Transit. After spending a few days in London with the Underground, Dublin’s public bus system seemed infrequent, always overcrowded, and not well serviced. I imagine it didn’t help that we were there during a large tourist holiday.
2. Exchange rates. With the average price of a pint being around four euro, it was costing us around $9 US for a Guinness.
3. Cleanliness. While not a problem in Wicklow County, Dublin was quite dirty. There were lots of tourists in town but it seemed like nothing was done on the streets to pick up trash or other rubbish.

5. How many times did people ask you “do you have Irish relations or ancestors?”

At 203cm tall and weighing in at roughly 172kg I was most often asked where I came from instead of who I came from. =) One of my friends with me on the trip had some Irish lineage and was not hesitant to point that out to anyone who would listen.

6. How did you find driving on the wrong side of the road and did the legendary Irish road signs leave you confused or have they improved for the visitor?

In a word…disconcerting. We had a team pow-wow before heading to the rental car office to go over the particulars of driving on the, “wrong” side of the road and dealing with other interesting road hazards…I mean traffic features…such as roundabouts. Road signs were a little tough to make out sometimes due to the inclusion of Gaelic on them. Thankfully, we spent the extra 15 euro to get the GPS navigational device; this made road signs mostly a moot issue. I had also spent a lot of time poring over maps on the Internet so that the road signs and GPS information actually made sense instead of just being information.

Combined with the nature and type of traffic in Ireland, we had to contend with the driver’s seat being on the right side of the car and shifting with our left hands. We took a couple of laps around the rental car parking lot prior to actually getting on the road and I think that was invaluable. While it did require a great deal of concentration on the part of the driver and navigator, we had no notable issues while driving in Ireland.

7. You were in Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day - what was your overall impression of the national holiday celebrations?

In discussions with the gentleman who told us about craic, we also learned that St. Patrick’s Day was mostly a tourist holiday and that most Irish folks didn’t really do a whole lot with it. We found this to be true as we met more Americans and other Europeans (Spanish, Czech,Polish, and some British) than we did Irish citizens.

It was, to say the least, a giant party. We missed out on the parade in favor of visiting the Guinness Brewery but did spend that evening in Temple Bar. I won’t regale the faint of heart with a catalog of our exploits but suffice it to say that we had a great time. As mentioned before, the only thing Dublin didn’t do a great job of was keeping the
streets clean.

8. How does the pace of life in Ireland compare with that of either your home state of Texas or your current residence in San Diego?

Ireland is considerably smaller than both Texas and California. Texas is roughly 1378km wide; California is that big from north to south. It’s about 200km from Dublin to Galway. We found that we could drive all the way across Ireland and back in one day. It certainly forced a change in perspective knowing that even the furthest places were not all that far compared to what we were used to.

Concerning pace of life, it was a mixed bag. Most of our traveling outside of Dublin occurred on Sunday, March 18 which was Mother’s Day in Ireland. Everyone was in that sort of holiday mode; I imagine it would be a different feeling if it were a normal workday. Traffic on the motorways was considerably different as well: no one was in a big hurry. In Southern California, if you’re not going fast you’re being run over.It was more relaxed and that was a welcome change.

9. If you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 luxury items would you want to have with you?

1. A solar-powered satellite phone with data capability.
2. My laptop with solar power accessories.
3. USB-powered coffee maker.

Can you tell I’m not one for desert islands?

10. Your top tips and Words of advice to anyone following in your footsteps on a visit to the Emerald Isle?

Spend more than three days there. There is so much to see in such a small area, comparatively speaking, that you could spend two weeks there and just scratch the surface; do not drive in Dublin City Centre; though you don’t see the actual brewery, the Guinness Brewery tour is worth it; craic is not bad for you; evil is bad and good…isn’t.