A Well Kept Man

Well, driving on the left hand side of the road is a unique experience. Silly me decided to rent a manual transmission as well (why make things easy??). I'll be the first to admit my standard transmission skills are on par with my singing, dancing, and general movements (I've been described as a gazelle by some, a wounded chicken by most). Thankfully I had Susan (who incidentally has been sacked as of this afternoon and replaced by a British woman whom I shall refer to as Jane) who reminded me every time I asked her for directions that I should drive on the left. This included loud beeping and flashing pictures on the screen.

Alli was also good at reminding me which side of the road to be on as well as the speed limit I was pre-approved to drive (not always the same as the posted limit). I managed to stall the car about a half dozen times or so, usually on a hill or round about which I'm sure caused a few Irish persons to quickly pray to St. Please-move-this-American-out-of-my-way-so-I-don't-attack-them-with-my-shillelagh (the Catholic population is around 90% or so in Ireland, but we won't get into that here). I also managed to avoid hitting things with my car even though at times it seemed certain I would be a proud owner of the Nissan Note (you break it, you bought it).

Driving on the left isn't really all that hard, it just takes some getting used to (passengers apparently need more time to acclimate as they are in the de-facto drivers seat and don't have the same point-of-view as the real driver does). Our car was also very small as gas is expensive and I didn't want to get some gas guzzler, which meant we had the tiniest car I've ever been inside (it's slightly longer than a Mini). By the end of the trip I was ready to get back to a place where people drive on the right, and where the roads are large enough for more than 1.5 cars to drive on safely.