driving a manual transmission on the other side of the road was a great adventure in itself. apart from the motorways and major arterial roads designed to handle lots and lots of coach traffic, everything is two lanes. and by two lanes, i mean wide enough to accommodate two cars smaller than the one that i drive now (which is considered compact), and nothing else. no hard shoulder, hedgerows everywhere so if you’re not in open fields, like in parts of Co. Kerry or Co. Clare, then you’ve no idea what is coming around the bend. makes for exciting driving, that’s for sure.
when i didn’t have a car, i availed myself of the public transportation systems, local, regional, and international. for the most part, that meant Bus Eireann, the national bus service that connects pretty much everything in the Republic of Ireland. during the tourist season they run a bus from Drogheda to Bru na Boinne — very handy. round trip to central Dublin took about 40 minutes, and out to the beach at Bettystown in about 20. bus stations varied in size and amenaties — Busaras in Dublin, and Europa in Belfast are large and bustling, no surprise. and play host to all kinds of people. the one in Drogheda is mostly just a building to in which to shelter in colder weather. when i went through on my way from Belfast to Cork, our bus was heavliy subscribed (it was a Sunday), so they split us in to two groups: one heading to Cork city and one heading to points in between. it was there that i managed to capture a photo of a hairstyle that seemed to be quite the rage, in Belfast at least. not quite mohawk, not quite … i don’t even know, but certainly special!