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Food

We expected some food to be different, and some food to have different names. Some things were still a shock to me.

I spent a lot of time wandering around grocery stores just staring at the food on the shelves because it was so fascinatingly different. Some brands are exactly the same, like Campbells and Kelloggs. Some of their products were the same, some were the same but looked different and had different names, and some were things we have never seen in America. For example, you can't find any canned Chicken Noodle soup, but Campbells does make Oxtail soup and soup involving lentils.

Hamburgers don't exist in Switzerland. In Ireland, the beef tastes different and the burger often comes plain. (I tried to order "no pickles," and they didn't know what I meant.) In Scotland, they come with or without "salad" - aka lettuce. Often, extra sauce like ketchup or barbeque sauce cost extra.

Spicy food also does not exist in Ireland or the UK. The only salsa brand we saw was Doritos, and not surprisingly, the only tortilla chips were also Doritos brand ("Dippas"). The "hot" salsa was about what we would consider mild. Salsa in a restaurant meant something like pico de gallo with less flavor, pretty much just chopped tomato and onion. Even the jalapenos that came on our nachos tasted like pickles. We even tried "spicy" Chinese food with no success.

We could not find any kind of dinner salad like you can easily order in America. Jason's side salad in Donegal consisted of a pile of cole slaw and a pile of cold mashed potatoes, with some bitter greens on top. His Chicken Caesar Salad from TGI Fridays in Edinburgh was about the size of a side salad and came with cherry tomatoes...

Soda does not usually come with free refills. In fact, if you order a Coke, you will often get a glass and a can of Coke. (For $2.50 - $3.25!) Once, my Coke came in glass with a huge slice of orange in it. There was pulp in my Coke! Jason's root beer came with a slice of lime too. (In Ireland, Coke was easiest to find. In Scotland it was Pepsi. Mountain Dew did not exist anywhere.)

General medicines that we buy at the grocery store are not so easily available in Europe. To find Tylenol (NOT called acetominophine) or Robitussin, you have to go to a pharmacy and speak to the pharmacist. The only exception was at the Tesco Extra (similar to a Super Walmart) in Inverness. Pharmacies close on Sunday, so make sure you get what you need during the week!

Driving

Driving in Ireland was... interesting. They do not have normal highways across the country. The national roads are still 2 lane roads that are often very narrow and poorly maintained, but the speed limit is still 60 mph. The rural roads are worse, often being lined with potholes on both sides. Of course, this means that everyone drives in the middle of the road. It's easy to want to swerve to the right when you meet another car. Also, there tend to be rock walls along the sides of the road. (There are rock walls everywhere in Ireland.) That makes things even more interesting when a car comes from the other direction. It's like a nationwide game of chicken, and it's not going to be the local swerving out of the way, it's only going to be you.

The roads in Scotland are a little wider and better maintained, but only a little.

To make matters worse, they don't use yellow lines to separate directions. The only lines in the road are white ones, often the same broken white lines we use to separate lanes going the same way on a road. This means that on a three lane road, you just have to know which lanes go which way. (If two lanes are going your way, they put up all these big signs saying "Dual Carriageway," because two lanes in one direction make for a big, important road indeed.)

In Ireland, yellow lines are used to designate parking restrictions on the side of the road. (Double yellow means no parking ever, etc.) These designations don't seem to be used for anything though, as the Irish park anywhere and everywhere, including sometimes the middle of the road and often completely on the sidewalk. Of course, this means that people also feel free to stand anywhere, including the middle of the road. Rick Steves said to drive as if a sheep or babystroller might be around every turn. He wasn't kidding, about the sheep or the babystrollers.

In larger cities, they have this interesting habit of renaming roads every block. That means you can't look for the road you need and then find the address. You have to find the right BLOCK of the road, and then the address. This makes driving in a city particularly stressful. You might want to adjust to the whole left side of the road thing BEFORE trying to navigate a city (towns are not so bad).

Road signs are sometimes like ours, with one sign giving all the relevant information. Often however, they are the old-school kind where a post has 10 different arrows sticking off of it showing destinations, usually not road names. This means you have to have the time and correct angle to read all the different arrows to find the one you are looking for AND remember which way it was pointing. (A local told us that it is somewhat of a national pastime to turn the signs. That's helpful. Fortunately we didn't run in to that.) The signs are always in Gaelic, and usually also in English. In the areas that don't use English, it is essential to have an ordinance map that shows all the place names in both languages. Some Gaelic names could be deduced, but some are completely different from the English names. Even so, in America, roads peroidically have signs stating the road name. This is not at all the case in Ireland. We learned to just laugh and figure that we'd eventually turn up somewhere and not worry about being lost.

In the end, you have to assume that if things go well, you will average about 40 mph during your trip.

Church in Ireland

Ireland is officially Catholic, so if that's the kind of church you are looking for, you're set. There is also an official Protestant church - the Church of Ireland. From what we heard, these churches vary based on the minister, but many are along the lines of a Lutheran or Presbyterian church in feel. Anything else, Baptist, Assemblies of God, etc. is considered a cult. In the end this meant that we didn't really see churches anywhere. After growing up on the East coast, I thought Colorado didn't have many churches. Colorado is nothing compared to Ireland! I wanted to try to catch a Calvary Chapel service somewhere, but they are so few and far between we never ended up near one on a Sunday. (In Europe they use different terminology to describe churches, so if you want the kind of church we were looking for, you need to ask for an Evangelical church.)

Staying in a Hostel
Hostels are very cheap compared to hotels in Europe, and you can find them just about anywhere. It is important that you know what questions to ask before you pay for a bed though. Some have mixed dorm rooms (guys and girls), some are male or female only. (Traveling together, we didn't want to have to stay in separate rooms.) Some don't include ANY linens, including sheets - that's really relevant depending on what you're carrying with you. Most don't include towels, but SOME will let you rent one for a small fee. (None of the larger hostels had any kind of toiletries provided, like soap or washcloths; so bring all of that with you. Bring a towel too if you have room.) There are several possible arrangements for storing your luggage. Some just expect you to leave your stuff hanging out in the room, but some have lockers or bins under the beds. These usually don't come with a lock - you may be able to borrow/rent one, but you might consider bringing your own. Often larger hostels will also have a "left luggage" room, so if you are checking in later that day, or you checked out already but don't want to carry your bags around, you can leave your stuff and come back for it later that day. This room is usally locked and must be accessed through a staff member. Some hostels also have lock-out times, so you must be back in the hostel before that time or you're out of luck. (We only found one hostel like this, but it's worth asking if you intend to go out to a pub or something.) Some hostels don't have any parking facilities, and the ones that do often charge extra for them. It's usually a better deal than paying for parking otherwise, so definitely ask about it - just don't expect it to be free.

Most hostels did not serve any kind of breakfast, but when they did, it was always Corn Flakes, Rice Crispies, toast with butter and jelly, and milk and orange juice. All the hostels have a refrigerator and freezer you can use, but it may well be full before you get to it - you should check that out before you go grocery shopping. Pretty much any time you eat a meal in hostel, whether they provided it or you cooked it yourself, you have to clean up after yourself - wash, dry and put away all your own dishes. If that is the case, there will be signs saying so, and they will provide dishsoap and a dishtowel. (Some hostels also ask that you strip your beds before you check out and bring all the linens to some central location to same them time.)

We found that hostels in larger cities usually put a lot of effort into security. They may ask to see a picture ID before you check in, and they will often give you some paper as proof that you are staying there. You then cannot get back into the hostel without this paper. Many have security cameras out front and will lock the door at night. If you come in late, you have to buzz the front desk and give them your name before they will unlock the door for you.

We also found that hostels in the city book up fast, especially on the weekend. Try to make reservations during busy tourist times or weekends if you want to be in a central city location. If you don't have a place in mind, the city tourist information office may be able to help you. Some will even call and check availability/make reservations for you, but they may add on their own fee. It's convenient to use their services, as it guarantees that you won't have to run around the city finding a bunch of full hostels; but it's cheaper just to get the info from them and do everying else yourself if you're not worried about finding an open bed. (Maps showing affiliated hostels are often available for free in the hostels themselves, so don't spend a bunch of money buying one in a tourist info office unless you have to.)