First month on ‘The Emerald Isle’
Chomh ciotach le muc i sciathlán*… Yeah, that’s not exactly easy to understand, right? Years of living in Asia has made us more aware of our European identity; moving from Chinese- and Japanese-speaking islands to a European one should have felt like a homecoming in terms of language. Boy, could we have been more wrong; Ireland has its own rich and distinctive language culture, and it’s been fascinating to experience! We’re still in kind of a reverse culture shock, but in many ways, a good one. People here are incredibly friendly, talkative, and refreshingly direct, which makes everyday interactions feel open and genuine. We are also stocking up on products we’ve missed over the past seven years; cheese, dairy, salads… we can’t get enough! Although it’s wonderful to cook for ourselves again and have a big kitchen, it’s also a must, given how steep the prices for dinner outside are. And another thing (especially Viola) has had to get used to again is the cold, wet winter weather… something we didn’t really miss. Luckily, almost every day the sun peeks through the clouds. And it’s true what they say: you can experience four seasons in one day around here, which definitely keeps things interesting.
Remote?
Although our heads are still very much in Taipei, where we’re actively promoting and distributing our cycling guide, the place we ended up living in couldn’t be a bigger contrast to this metropolitan! From a busy city with everything at your doorstep to a rural area on the North Atlantic coast. We are living about 300 metres from the shoreline, surrounded by idyllic stone walls, cows, donkeys, horses and sometimes another human being. It’s rough and remote, but beautiful and very, very quiet! We also received our first delivery last week. When we said, Wow, it’s so nice that you deliver this remotely, the driver burst out laughing. You think this is remote? Try going further up there…-followed by a list of place names we immediately forgot-…where you won’t see another living being for miles.
We also landed in one of the most traditional parts of Ireland, which is very cool, as there’s a strong effort here to keep old traditions and revive the Irish (Gaelic) language. That said, it also makes daily life a little more challenging for newcomers like us…Many road signs and posters are entirely in Irish, but fortunately people themselves happily switch to English, and they’re very talkative! Luckily, we understand about 70% of what people say to us (when they speak in dialect English).
Local Traditions
Talking about old traditions…someone casually mentioned that if we ever see lots of smoke and smell burning turf, it’s probably because someone nearby is making poitín (traditional Irish moonshine). Interestingly, another nickname for this stuff is mountain dew; so if you ever drink the chemically green, branded, soda drink on a roadtrip, be happy it’s not its stronger brother!
Apparently, back to the poitín, the first bit that comes out can be around 80-90% alcohol (+methanol). Innocent Erik, ever the voice of reason, asked: Isn’t that the stuff that can make you blind? You’ll probably throw away that first bit, right? Our newfound friend stared at him, utterly bewildered, and replied: No, that’s the best part! And if you only take small sips, you won’t go blind, don’t you worry about that! Well, I guess we’ll pass on that Irish tradition!
To set the mood, here’s a song about the legendary mountain dew!
Galway Craic
Galway city itself is full of character and history; narrow cobbled streets, colourful shopfronts, and plenty of old pubs around every corner. Quite the change again from a 7-11 on every corner. Galway pubs are a big part of the city’s charm: during the week, they’re mostly local hangout spots, where you’ll find regulars sipping a pint and enjoying a chat while nibbling away a bag of crisps. But come in on a Friday evening or on the weekend and the city comes alive. The pubs are packed, you can hear music coming from every corner and then there’s the food scene… If you can call fish and chips a food scene… They definitely have taken their fish and chips to another level; from smoked fish to ray, and everything in between, we can explore flavours we didn’t even know existed!
We’ve also been joining random running clubs to meet people, and we should not have been surprised by the following. Irish people are tough people, maybe it’s the rain, maybe it’s the peatlands, maybe it’s the overkill of potatoes, but everyone wears shorts in winter! Which led us to quickly learn another local saying: “You know you’re in Galway when you’re wearing shorts in the rain.” Yeah… we (Viola) still have a long way to go before we fully blend in, but it’s definitely great ‘craic’ so far.
We also learned that people here are just as proud and picky about potatoes as they are about rice in Asia!
From our running friends we also learned one crucial rule: don’t say you’re from Cork when you’re in Galway as there is quite some rivalry between cities in Ireland. For example the Whiskey rivalry between Jameson (Dublin) and Paddy’s (Cork, but now made in Dublin). And you can easily have an hour-long discussion about the quality of a pint of Guinness…(that shouldn’t have surprised us maybe;). We also learned that people here are just as proud and picky about potatoes as they are about rice in Asia!
All in all, we’re settling in well. We miss our time and friends in Japan and Taiwan, and are so happy we had the opportunity to live there for so many years. But we’re really looking forward to this new chapter and are excited to explore a new region.
* Used to describe a particularly awkward individual, this translates to ‘As awkward as a pig in a parlour’. It describes someone that is very out of place and uncomfortable in a specific setting.
