A Rather Short Rundown Of My Grand Old Ireland Trip

For starters, I loved everything about Ireland except the fact that a lot of people smoked. It seemed every time I opened my mouth someone was blowing ciggie smoke into it, and if you know me, you know how often I open my mouth. I think I second-hand-smoked at least a pack a day. I must go on the patch to sort this out.

There seems to be a lot of animosity from the Irish people over something called 'The Spire' which stands erected in the center of O'Connell Street. Originally named Monument Of Light, it is a stainless steel, pin-like toothpick sort of thing. As far as I can tell it does nothing and cost about three million Euro to make. Some issues with it are: it was supposed to be self cleaning but isn't, it was supposed to light up but only about an inch at the top does, and it holds no candle to Nelson's Pillar which stood there before. Some wonderful nicknames the Irish-folk have come up with are: The Stiletto In the Ghetto, The Stiffy by the Liffey, and The Pole in the Hole. If nothing else, it brought me good laughs and a lot of confusion as I tried to figure out what it was.

There are a lot of old things in Ireland, and ten days is not enough time to see them all. I saw a vast amount, but I reckon it was less than a fourth of what the land has to offer. Canada doesn't have old things like Ireland does. We are a baby country and our 'ruins' are about as old as Ireland's newest building.

A lot of people asked if I was a student. Next time I return, hopefully before I am eighty, I will simply tell the people who ask that I am a student so I won't have to explain what I am. Since I don't know what I am, it was a lot of rambling for a very simple question.

Ireland's tallest mountain is 1,038 metres. Canada's is 5959 metres. I would recommend not calling their mountain a hill, they are very sensitive about it. I learned the hard way.

There wasn't any candy I could eat.