10 days in Ireland

Céad Mile Fáilte !! (A 1000 times welcome in Irish) to my scribblepad, which has been blank for little over 7 years now !! 10 days spent in this history-loving country made me open my blog again !!

Few facts/ observations from my experience   :

1) Republic of Ireland is the southern part of larger Ireland island, with UK taking up Northern Ireland. There are lot of stories on Irish independence struggle against the British rule which reminds a lot about our Indian history. I am not going there as it's a long one and I am no historian ! 

2) The country has a vast coastline with several small towns & villages dotted across the coast. Blasket Island, Dingle is literally the land's end after which the next city is Boston USA!! 

3) 24 (out of 46) US Presidents claim Irish lineage. I was at a  service station at Moneygall named 'Barack Obama Plaza' and had a museum documenting his as well as President Kennedy's Irish roots to the village. We did manage to get a photo with former Mr & Mrs President too!! 😁

4) Republic of Ireland has seen a surge in corporates moving from UK post Brexit. This has in turn increased the number of migrants coming in for new job opportunities being created. This sudden influx has led to an expanding GDP.

5) Sustainability of this growth needs to be seen though. Public infra still needs catching up to do. Public transport beyond Dublin is still very restricted hence dependence on cars. The housing supply is under pressure from the increasing demand. I also understand there are challenges in healthcare sector too with paucity of qualified doctors and nurses.

6) The quality of roads are amazing. I would have driven over 400km daily at average speed of 90-100km/hr.. even the local city roads are pothole-free and as a bonus, we get a scenic coast line view too!!!

So now about my trip - firstly the reason of choosing Ireland as against Europe trip was because of my younger brother & family who decided to move from God's own country (Kerala for the uninformed) to Dublin in Feb 2022. So on May 3rd 2023, me, my wife, 2 kids and parents flew down to Dublin airport to spend few days there.

Getting there

There are no direct flights from India. We flew Indigo on codeshare with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul. One problem which I realised after booking was that the longer leg Indigo flight (Mumbai-Istanbul) didn't have an entertainment system so keeping children engaged was a challenge.

Visa:

Ireland is not part of Schengen nor UK, and needs a separate visa. It took us 10 working days to get the tourist visa. If you opt for a multiple entry visa, you would get BIVS (British Irish Visa Scheme valid for Indians and Chinese tourists) stamped on your visa which allows you to visit UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) while you are in Republic of Ireland.

Cash v/s card :

We didn't carry / use any cash during our trip. ICICI Bank Prepaid forex card worked even in the remote places. The public transport in Dublin did require a Leap card for entry which you get for €5 deposit.

Car rental:

While I used public transport in Dublin, I rented a car for our 5 day trip to South-West Ireland. Hatchback came at €50-60 per day excl petrol costs. The driving is similar to India's except for the discipline followed. Luckily for me, the 4 year stint in the UK helped in driving !

Iterinary :

Our holiday iterinary was split into 2 parts - 5 days in Dublin and the other 5 in Killarney, Kerry, Dingle peninsula. I plan to complete and publish seperate blogs for the 10 day experience and iterinary. Hope I get some love / comments on my return-blog !!

Cheers

SP

p.s. some more trivia / information

- Ireland population (5million) is 1/5th of Mumbai (25 million), while the country economy is 10 times of annual Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) budget.

- If you are going out for night out at pubs, please remember that kitchens close at 9, so ensure that you order food well before. The drinks can continue till late night. 

- While on drinks, the first brand which kind of symbolises Dublin is Guiness beer.. their sprawling factory campus covers a large part of one Liffey river front in Dublin. I was never a fan of dark stout but I liked the taste of Guiness in Dublin, and I was told by its better because it's fresh out of the brewery across the river !!

- There are 4+ million sheeps co-sharing space with these 5 million Irish people. Other than sheeps or other farm animals, we couldn't find many other animals which was strange given the extensive green cover found across parks, forest trails etc. Either I was bad at spotting them or they were smart enough to remain hidden.

There was a lone deer which was ready to pose with my daughter.

Hope to see you soon on my next blog sharing Dublin City experience !!