Things you notice about Ireland when you return from abroad?

Dangerous Man

I suppose the first thing you notice is how flat everything is, in Dublin at least. No skyscrapers or large buildings. Far too many skangers around making the place look untidy. Overcast.

I was there last year and there was a terrible atmosphere in Dublin. I spoke to an Irish lad from Galway at work and he told me he didn't want to go home because the atmosphere was so depressed during his last visit - all of his friends in Ireland are out of work etc.

Those are the most obviously noticeable, unfortunately.

Micky Dolenz

Temptamperu wrote: »

Ive noticed everything costs about 2 euro more than anywhere else in europe.

Where have you been lately?

I ask as I was in Holland,Belgium and France in the last few weeks and things seem mostly the same or more. Besides cigarettes, they are noticeably cheaper.

Taxi's are far more expensive in those countries then Ireland in my experience.

Quorum

zcorpian88 wrote: »

But its kept refrigerated, never paid attention to the expiry dates.

Yup, even when refrigerated, on the rare occasions we get high 20s weather in Ireland, I find that milk doesn't keep as well.

Biggins

unclejunior wrote: »

Things you notice about Ireland when you return from abroad?

How crappy the music is here many a time in night clubs!
Ten/twenty years behind often!

Micky Dolenz

Biggins wrote: »

How crappy the music is here many a time in night clubs!
Ten/twenty years behind often!

Biggins, hand on heart. When was the last time you were in nightclub?

Picking the kids up from outside doesn't count

poeticseraphim

Look guys there is a difference in saying hey these are couple of things i don't like and then saying THE PLACE IS A ****HOLE ..ALL OF YOU ARE HORRIBLE.. I HATE YOU...what do you expect people to say and how do you expect them to react to you if you come straight in with insults.

No one has the right to be rude to anyone whether it be abroad or at home.

When i came back to Ireland after being abroad for a while i noticed the accent. Which i love. I noticed clean air. And just being at home. I noticed people are more emotional here and i like that.


And yes i did notice some bad things.
I noticed how mean people are to others simply because we are all Irish. Well we can't help being Irish.

And yes i did notice how when i came home i suddenly was a D4 head again just because of my accent and the fact that i treat people with respect did not matter sometimes.

Customer service is not as good. I noticed the giving in to negativity and the lack of a can do attitude.

It is not all good and it is not all bad.

zcorpian88

Quorum wrote: »

Yup, even when refrigerated, on the rare occasions we get high 20s weather in Ireland, I find that milk doesn't keep as well.

Hmmm, learn something new everyday, will pay attention to that, next heatwave (yeah right)

Biggins

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Biggins, hand on heart. When was the last time you were in nightclub?

Picking the kids up from outside doesn't count

Just a few weeks ago.

Loved Germany (Bonn)/England (London/Manchester) and others at times for their more up to date techno and rave music.

Came back to Ireland a while a go and nights later walked into a local place called "The Earth" - they were still playing stuff from the nineties and a number from the eighties!

I was like "fcukin' hell... I'm definitely back in Ireland!"

Some places wouldn't know modern European music if you hit them over the head with it!

Micky Dolenz

Cool, never had you pegged as a raver.

Biggins

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Cool, never had you pegged as a raver.

Long story. if your at the night out coming up soon, will explain. :cool:

4zn76tysfajdxp

Temptamperu wrote: »

Ive noticed everything costs about 2 euro more than anywhere else in europe.

lol no.

Napper Hawkins

A simple "hello" or "thank you" and many Irish look at you like you've just raped their mother.

John Doe1

All the visually repulsive people

The quiet desperation

All the orange women

All the orangmen

Quorum

Wibbs wrote: »

Its less frenetic than many places, which for me is a good thing. For others maybe not.

Def for me too. As one example, London is great to visit but no way would I live there. I'm fairly sure I'll hate Toyko if I ever visit it.

The_B_Man

The relentless scaremongering and miserableness being sent out on the radio waves 24/7, not to mention the second wave of miserableness attacking you from the telly.

You go away, you're happy, then you get back here and within days you're worn down again by the lack of hope and horror stories and put back in your hole of no hope!

Wattle

A big photo of Westlife that used to greet me at the airport when I was just off the plane. Made me want to turn around and leave straight away again.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

people here cant drive for ****,

dudara

I lived in the Netherlands for a year, and when I came back in autumn, I was blown away by the trees, the colours, the hills. Ireland is amazingly gorgeous.

Irish people, as a whole, are intelligent and well able to perform at the highest of international levels. However, see below...

Our downsides - we're pretty self-depreciating and like to take each other "down a peg or two". We're far too tolerant of cronyism, gombeen politics and corrupt politicians.

MPFG

Returning to the west of Ireland I am filled with mixed feelings

Irish people have a wonderful way of embracing the absurd, loving extraordianry characters and situations. They have a great sense of fun and love and value humour and a sense of comraderie.....They would give strangers their last spud and are very supportive in times of grief and loss...There is no group of people anywhere in the world I woudl rather party with

However they can be (like children) small minded and dictitorial on how the world should be and how people should live their lives....Gossip and the dictates of the 'norms' of society are enfored to keep all in line...eg...'its time you got married' , 'you know he is one of those', etc

The celtic tiger brought out the worst of Irish traits and people were very concerned with what they had rather than who they were as it was when I was growing up in Ireland...Now I find it a great place to visit but not to live in

Maybe I have changed to much

Dangerous Man

dudara wrote: »

I lived in the Netherlands for a year, and when I came back in autumn, I was blown away by the trees, the colours, the hills. Ireland is amazingly gorgeous.

Irish people, as a whole, are intelligent and well able to perform at the highest of international levels. However, see below...

Our downsides - we're pretty self-depreciating and like to take each other "down a peg or two". We're far too tolerant of cronyism, gombeen politics and corrupt politicians.

Absolutely. One thing that drives me feckin' insane is the backward capital / rural antagonism that goes on. Get this.

I won a raffle prize at work a while back - a pretty nice prize as it happens. Anyway, the woman who organized the contest was Irish, from Cork. So, I go to collect it and I meet a guy (Canadian) who gives me the prize, who has never been to Ireland in his life. We get chatting about this and that and he asks where I'm from in Ireland - I tell him Dublin and he says with a smile 'oh XXXX won't like that - she hates people from Dublin.'

It's bad enough putting up with that crap at home but in a different country... FFS.

The Idyll Race

The_B_Man wrote: »

The relentless scaremongering and miserableness being sent out on the radio waves 24/7, not to mention the second wave of miserableness attacking you from the telly.

You go away, you're happy, then you get back here and within days you're worn down again by the lack of hope and horror stories and put back in your hole of no hope!

Came home in February, watched/listened to RTE and TV3 for a couple of weeks, one of the best things about Ireland is being able to get the BBC!

CelticRambler

The Green. First time I came back to Ireland (age 12 after a year in Oz) I remember flying into Dublin through low cloud and rain and thinking "so much for the green fields of Erin". Now, it's the intensity of the green that strikes me almost every time, and I'm hardly away for more than six months.

Other things:

Fat children, tracksuited-teenagers, good-looking, well-dressed women (at least as good as the French), no smoking anywhere inside, proper sliced pan, signs of life after 9pm and - some of you won't believe it - loads of creative energy and a real can-do attitude. I can get more done in a week in Ireland than two months in France (six if that includes the summer).

ArtSmart

Wibbs wrote: »

The damp. It's a very damp climate. However out of that we get the green we're rightly famous for.

On the climate, while it rarely gets too hot, it rarely gets too cold too.

The cities are human sized. No huge hi rises and sky scrapers. Feels cosier, more village like.

It's not nearly as crowded as some places, England springs readily to mind. Though this does mean less amenities than some places because of the low pop density.

It doesn't have too many heavy industry type places. In many ways I'm glad the worst of the industrial revolution passed us by.

Its less frenetic than many places, which for me is a good thing. For others maybe not.

One bad one are the non motorway roads and footpaths. They're in a terrible state. Ditto for a lot of public transport.

Yes, very true about England, massive urban density - I think it's they're huge restrictions about buying a house in the countryside. (of course, one the other hand, we have bungalow blight...)

but in terms of the human city thingy, not so sure. cities like San Fran, Melbourne, Vancouver, Boston, Copenhagen, Stockholm, even Chicago and New York (well, ok Manhattan) are 'big' but one doesnt feel overwhelmed becasue of the layout. whereas Dublin feels like your being choked quite a lot of the time.

But a lot of the Irish countryside, with the 3-10 pubs not too far away, is better than most.

Madam_X

The people who say "It's a sh1t-hole" without putting any thought into it and who are likely to be living very comfortable lives.

Quality of life here, in general, is ridiculously easy.

Irish people, broadly speaking, are friendly - saying we're really hostile is just something that's said for the sake of it.

Room for improvement but just attacking it with one line and feeling all superior is completely disproportionate. Nobody has to like it either though of course.

MHalberstram

asherbassad wrote: »

Irish girls are approachable and good fun. Try chatting up an American bird in a bar and she'll look at you like you're scum or she'll start psycho-analysing you then banging on about where she "is in her life" right now or some such drivel.

As they say in the States - You've got that assbackwards.

ArtSmart

asherbassad wrote: »

Irish girls are approachable and good fun. Try chatting up an American bird in a bar and she'll look at you like you're scum or she'll start psycho-analysing you then banging on about where she "is in her life" right now or some such drivel.

MHalberstram wrote: »

As they say in the States - You've got that assbackwards.

as above

languagenerd

-The sheer amount of convenience stores (Spar, Centra, Londis, etc.) we have here. Sometimes you get three or four of em on the same road. In France you can walk ten streets and not find anywhere other than restaurants to buy a bottle of water. In Spain, a lot of places sell water, but you'll rarely find anything like a Centra to buy a bottle of 7up, a newspaper, packet of crisps and a chocolate bar :P

-Also the amount of different ready-made sauces in supermarkets here I mean jars of curry, tikka masala, cantonese, sweet and sour, black bean, garlic etc. to pour over stir-fried chicken & veg. Can't get any of those in Spain but there's a full aisle of em in my local Tesco here. Me and a friend went to five different supermarkets in the small Spanish town we were working in and found one jar of slightly dodgy sweet and sour - they just don't eat that sort of thing there (pretty bad for me, my cookery skills are limited as it is :pac:). Pasta sauces were easier to come buy but less variety than here. Milk too.

-That there are less smokers here (nowadays anyway!) than on the continent. Tis nice.

-How expensive public transport is

-That no-one bats an eyelid when you use the words "to give out to someone" and how much we say it in general. Apparently that's only used in Ireland. My English friends thought it was the same as "to put out" (sexually) :pac:

Fromthetrees

I'm going to be positive, a non Irish friend said to me once that 'yere' evenings are amazing, she said dusk lasts hours, the closer you get to the equator the faster a day turns into night, like a light switch apparently.

We have the best quality lamb in the world. Our milk, beef, cheese, chocolate is unbelievably good.

I feel extremely safe walking anywhere at night, granted I live in Cork which is much smaller than Dublin but I just feel at ease walking around, I simply didn't have that comfortable feeling walking around Amsterdam, Liverpool or Barcelona.

The clean air near the coast.

The temperature in the mornings is perfectly conducive to nursing a hangover, maybe that's why we're all alcos, waking up in a hot country with a head up on you is living hell, but here, open a can of fizzy sugar and get outside and your awake and back in the game.

We're a very charitable nation.

The main problem with Ireland is there's a hump load of fuktards with an IQ at a special needs level.

LordSutch

No NHS

Listening to Irish radio and feeling like I am in an 80s timewarp with a very lmited playlist.

Older people talking about getting messages (when they mean doing the shopping)

The word 'Pan' written on the side of a loaf of bread

Watching the Late Late and waiting to hear about the guests "Irish connection".

98% of the population still claimimg to be Roman Catholic.

Everybody still doing compulsory Irish in school, and yet, very few actually speak it!

People refering to the police (any police force) as the Gardai, I have even heard the London police called the Gardai.

Back to the radio again, and back to talking about the 1916 Rising, and the famine . . .

Teenage girls dressing like tramps (meaning torn track suits dragging on the ground).

Everything being so bloody expensive, compared to . . .

Less crowded roads, very few three lane motorways.

Very few Motorcycles on the roads, very few indeed!

And to end on a positive note, people here are friendly, very friendly, although
I would say the same about many English people too . . .

Quorum

languagenerd wrote: »

-The sheer amount of convenience stores (Spar, Centra, Londis, etc.) we have here.

This. Even compared to the UK, we have a crazy amount of them!

languagenerd wrote: »

-That no-one bats an eyelid when you use the words "to give out to someone" and how much we say it in general. Apparently that's only used in Ireland. My English friends thought it was the same as "to put out" (sexually)

Again, this.

Butterface

I miss the local pubs in Ireland. Even in the small villages or country townlands over in England, the pubs seem to all have that same layout and design inside because they're owned by breweries. Therefore the pubs I like in my town over there are the ones that have a bit of a unique decor and not the same dinner and drinks menu that you find in all the other brewery-owned pubs.

When I think of Galway where I lived for many years, it's the pubs along every street and each of them with a different atmosphere and a unique decor and ownership that really emphasise the difference. Also there are more quality restaurants in the city of Galway than in all of Leicester city with it's Nandos and Jamie Olivers and Wetherspoons pub grub.

I love walking into a pub down in the backarse of Kerry and sitting at the bar looking at all the bits and bobs, signed jerseys, photos and other stuff hanging haphazardly all over the bar and walls of the pub!:)

The Idyll Race

What I love:

The greenery. Never to be taken for granted.
Rural pubs like my favourite one in North Donegal. A local pub for local people (visitors welcome)
Back roads, and plenty of them, with something to see around every bend.
The railways, where they exist. Still the most civilised way of travelling even if CIE did their best to **** them up over the years.
Decent towns like Westport, you'll be broke after but never bored.
Country house hotels like Rathmullan House in Donegal.
Dublin. A proper city but on a human scale. Special mention to Ranelagh and Rathmines.
A reasonably good choice of beer in some of our best pubs in Dublin. Honourable mention to O'Neill's of Suffolk Street. There are few places better to get bamboozled.

What I hate:
Groupthink, especially the sort that got the country into the madness of the Celtic Tiger.
The relentless pessimism of Morning Ireland
The "Hoino" mentality about beer supply where choice is deemed to be different mass produced lagers. No it isn't. We have craft brewers that need to be supported by Irish drinkers.
The cackness of Irish radio, except for Lyric FM and odd musical bits of RTE Radio 1.
The Little America mentality that wants to pave the country with motorways, industrial estates and rubbish chippers that incubate fights between idiots after closing time. Guess what, tourists won't come to your shambles of a town then except to pass through to somewhere nicer.

Cork24

How sh't it is.. And damp looking

eth0

Price of petrol gone up
New tax brought in

Place after getting a bit quieter and more relaxing
People slowly coming back down to earth after years of celtic tiger gob****edness, snobbery

Quorum

Butterface wrote: »

Also there are more quality restaurants in the city of Galway than in all of Leicester city with it's Nandos and Jamie Olivers and Wetherspoons pub grub.

Considering that Galway has a serious dearth of good restaurants, especially for a city, that's really not saying much for Leicester! :eek:

The Idyll Race

Quorum wrote: »

Considering that Galway has a serious dearth of good restaurants, especially for a city, that's really not saying much for Leicester! :eek:

Linky here for Leicester: http://www.tripadvisor.ie/Restaurants-g186334-Leicester_Leicestershire_England.html

It's not hard to find a good pub in England, just check the CAMRA guide. The only disadvantage of Irish pubs is that virtually every pub sells exactly the same beer, without any variance

Butterface

Ah there are a few lovely restaurants in Galway, even if they do go up and down in quality over the years. It's more the uniqueness of the restaurant, that it's doing something different and owned by somebody who's passionate about it rather than a corporate chain.

I love Cava, Ard Bia, the new place Rouge, Vina Mara, that place out in Salthill which I can't remember.. but you're never short of somewhere different to eat. Plus they're all reasonably priced and the meat and veg are usually locally sourced where possible. Often when I'm out over here I end up going into an Indian restaurant because that's all there seems to be if you're trying to avoid the neverending pubgrub! And you don't really know where your food is coming from!

Quorum

The Idyll Race wrote: »

What I hate:
Groupthink, especially the sort that got the country into the madness of the Celtic Tiger.

Groupthink is everywhere in the world. Seriously, everywhere.

The Idyll Race wrote: »

The Little America mentality that wants to pave the country with motorways

Motorways have been one of the best things to happen to this country.

The Idyll Race

Quorum wrote: »

Motorways have been one of the best things to happen to this country.

M50, M1, M4/6 and M7/8 good. The rest seemed to be an outdoor relief scheme for some lucky landowners.

Quorum

The Idyll Race wrote: »

M50, M1, M4/6 and M7/8 good. The rest seemed to be an outdoor relief scheme for some lucky landowners.

Limerick to Cork needs one. But the above-mentioned are the ones I meant.

token101

neil_hosey wrote: »

the availability of milk, i mean good quality milk, not like that ****e UHT milk you get on the continent.

Jaysus i love milk

This!! In South America you can't get fresh milk in 99% of places with the exception of big supermarkets in big cities. And even UHT milk is hard to come by sometimes. Coffee without milk is dire. Also the quality of fresh food in Ireland is superior to almost anywhere I've been, Europe, South America, US.

Dangerous Man

token101 wrote: »

This!! In South America you can't get fresh milk in 99% of places with the exception of big supermarkets in big cities. And even UHT milk is hard to come by sometimes. Coffee without milk is dire. Also the quality of fresh food in Ireland is superior to almost anywhere I've been, Europe, South America, US.

I've said it before - we're spoiled in Ireland when it comes to food. It's hilarious - the French are known for their cuisine yet you go to a store to buy milk and it's all UHT. We really do have great food in Ireland - when you go abroad you see just how good our produce is.

beks101

Everything is so small (buildings, supermarkets, cereal boxes, etc)

Sea breeze...FRESH AIR...beautiful

How WHITE this country is (nowhere does ethnic diversity quite like Toronto)

How WHITE white everyone is. Like milk bottle white. People moan and moan about their white Irish skin, but it's actually unique and quite interesting looking.

Random banter with strangers. God how I love the banter.

How quickly everyone speaks.

The diversity in accents.

Rain. Everywhere. When you expect it. When you least expect it.

TheUsual

I'm not a big coffee snob but it is generally much nicer abroad - especially the smaller black coffee shots. Miss that here.

Dairy foods here are some of the best around and we grow up with them so don't appreciate them until you can't have them for weeks or months at a time.

admiralofthefleet

its so green and looks good. (compared to the uk anyway)

nervous_twitch

I genuinely wonder if the people who have nothing but bad crap to say about Ireland have ever lived abroad for any extended period of time?

I've lived in Spain and France for several years, and while they were great in their own ways, there was so much I missed from home; namely, humour. I really think the Irish have this great way of looking at life - we are one of the few countries who are happy to rip the piss out of themselves.. I think the Irish just want to enjoy living life, as opposed to living for as long as possible.

rannerap

beks101 wrote: »

Everything is so small (buildings, supermarkets, cereal boxes, etc)

Sea breeze...FRESH AIR...beautiful

How WHITE this country is (nowhere does ethnic diversity quite like Toronto)

How WHITE white everyone is. Like milk bottle white. People moan and moan about their white Irish skin, but it's actually unique and quite interesting looking.

Random banter with strangers. God how I love the banter.

How quickly everyone speaks.

The diversity in accents.

Rain. Everywhere. When you expect it. When you least expect it.

I'm living I'm Belgium at the moment and I stand out a Mile with my ridiculously pale skin. I wouldn't change it for the world!

flanum

Things you notice about Ireland when you return from abroad?

The fact i can actually say im "here" rather than "there"!

Xavi6

A few things stand out.

The good:

- The sense of humour can't be beaten
- The green is quite nice when you're flying in to Dublin Airport (or white as it was the last time)
- The cost of living for someone coming from a country with a strong currency. I'll live like a king over the Christmas this year.
- The atmosphere down the local never changes no matter how long you're away.

The bad:

- The fake tan and oompa loompa looking women, horrid.
- The weather. Living in Perth for nearly six years has me used to actually having a summer. Don't think I can go back to that misery permanently.
- The price of petrol.
- Scumbags all over Dublin.

lavelle72

neil_hosey wrote: »

the availability of milk, i mean good quality milk, not like that ****e UHT milk you get on the continent.

Normally I'd agree with that, but I have to say the milk in Oz is comparable to back home and I happily drink it here (I wouldn't touch the stuff in Spain, for example)