Since travelling around the fantastic country of Ireland, I have been making some comparisons with my state of Tasmania. I started thinking we were very similar but the further we travelled the more differences I noticed.
- Lots of stone fences
- In lanes, lots of hedges with stone under them
- Lots of houses in between villages, many more villages than in Tasmania
- Many brand new houses for sale
- The awful smell of slurry – dangerous as well – two deaths while we were here
- The friendly people
- Narrow roads especially L roads
- Drove on the correct side of the road
- Loud noisy crows in the trees
- Lots of roads around the coastline
- Every Irish country has a different accent, even within one county different accents
- Lots of rhododendrons and fuschias in the hedgerows as well as blackberries
- Very little natural forest, mainly pine plantations
- Very little food being grown, the occasional potato field or onion field but didn’t see any orchards or strawberry fields
- Every meal contains onions of some sort and usually potato as well
- Great road signs but some are overgrown by the large deciduous trees
- Friendly drivers when Miss W got in the wrong lane and indicated to move over
- Smell of the sea especially seaweed around the coast
- The amount of tourist buses in such a small country
- Similar teaching resources in Irish schools and Tassie schools
- Friendly kids and teachers
- Ireland 68,890 square kms in land, Tasmania is 68,401 square kilometres
- Tasmania has over 2000 km of walking trails, lots of walking cycling trails in Ireland
- Tasmania has 18 national parks and about one third of the state is reserves, parks or World Heritage.
- National parks in Ireland usually relate to bogs and peat while in Tasmania they are most often natural forests
- Tasmania population 510,900 while Ireland has 4.78 million or thereabouts
- Lots of cyclists not wearing helmets especially in coastal touristy areas
- Many towns with hanging baskets to welcome visitors
- Still light around 11pm in Ireland during daylight savings
What else would you add is typically Irish that I have missed out?