Galway Bay from Ballyvaughan
Advice for Future Trip Planning
If you are inclined to consider a future Ireland class, I suggest you factor the following into your plans:
If you don't already have one, arrange for a passport far enough ahead of time that there's no last minute concern as to whether it will arrive in time.
While some time was planned for local sightseeing at the end of Noel's class series, you may want to see other things in Ireland that aren't convenient to the location or time remaining. Consider arriving a few days early and doing some freelance travel and sightseeing before The Gathering starts. Spend a little time with a tour book or two in advance to get a feel for the area and what you'd like to see.
It
may be tempting to arrange for a rental car, but give careful thought to
this before doing so. The Irish drive on the left side of the road,
and once one gets off the main highways the roads can be quite narrow.
While I've seen no statistics, I've heard there's a high incidence of
tourists involved in head-on crashes as a result of momentarily confusion as
to which side of the road they should occupy, especially after exiting a
'round-about' or first getting
back on the road following a stop for meals or sightseeing. While the
keep-to-the-left concept sounds simple enough, old instincts tend to assert
themselves at unexpected times.
The bus and train systems are good and readily accommodate people traveling
with luggage. Taxi service is also available in most towns, and even
Ballyvaughan had a taxi service available by pre-arrangement. Check on
the details though, I'd planned to leave Ballyvaughan a few days before the
main body of the group and so I called in advance and verified that bus
service was available to the airport. However when I inquired locally a
few days before my planned departure, I found that it didn't run on Sunday,
and that was the day I needed to leave. Fortunately another class
member with a car was leaving the same day so I was able to ride to the
airport with them.
Meals in Ireland are surprisingly expensive. If you're on a budget, plan on utilizing the Ballyvaughan rental cottage kitchens, they're well stocked with the items one needs to prepare and serve meals and the local store will provide all the raw materials commonly needed. While paper towels seemed to be unavailable, you can generally expect to find all the basic items typically stocked in a small American hometown grocery.
Consider your communications needs carefully. It is possible to rent a cell phone for the duration of your trip, or even purchase one and establish an account, but this really isn't a cheap way to go. One could direct-dial back to the US from the rooms in the hotel, but I was told the rate ran between $.45 to $.80 Euro per minute if one went that route. I talked with some shopkeepers and they recommended a calling card (many different ones were available) that ended up costing me about $.10 Euro a minute and could be used from either a room phone or a public pay phone. I used the latter several times in Ballyvaughan with satisfactory results. Wait until you get to Ireland to purchase a calling card though, the one I bought at JFK that was supposed to work in Ireland was a pain to use and rarely worked.
Plan
on taking some pocket cash (in Euros) with you if you can find a source in
the US before departing. I've read advice on both sides of this issue,
some suggest you can wait until arriving and then obtain Euros at an airport
ATM or other such sources and at a better exchange rate. While that
may be, I've seen ATM machines 'eat' cards in the states, and then offer the
advice that one contact a certain local bank the next business day to
attempt to recover the card. I'd prefer not to be stuck in similar
circumstances in a foreign setting. You should be aware that some
credit card companies impose a surcharge on the dollar/Euro exchange for any purchases
or cash advances made in Ireland, so you might want to check on this in
advance of your trip and select the cards you use accordingly.
Take at least two different cash cards (credit or debit) and be sure you
know the PIN numbers for the cards, especially the credit cards. While
you may be able to get cash at a bank without knowing the PIN number, there
were no banks close to Ballyvaughan and the class group
never went to a town with a bank during the hours the bank was open. A
mobile bank did stop in Ballyvaughan (daily I think), but it was essentially
an ATM on wheels, so again, one needed to know a PIN number to get cash on a
credit card.
Finally, contact the financial institutions that issued the cards you plan
to use in advance of the trip. Most maintain a fraud watch on their
cards and if they see several substantial charges unexpectedly start occurring
in a foreign country (like for multiple days in hotels, rental cars,
jewelry, large meals and so forth) they are apt to put a hold on the
card. That could be pretty inconvenient if you're depending on the
card for cash, lodging, transportation and other needs.
If
you're looking for last minute gifts, be assured that there is a good
assortment available at the airport in Shannon.
I spent quite a while looking in various small shops in Killarney thinking
it would be my only opportunity to purchase things the folks at home might
like, but was quite surprised by the selection at the airport shops.
The shops I refer to are not the ones in the ticketing and
common concourse area of the airport, rather they could only be accessed after
passing through the security station and showing your boarding pass. I
expected to find just a waiting area and boarding gates on the other side but there was literally
a large department store of jewelry, gifts and candies there. I didn't compare prices, but I was impressed by the selection.
I suspect these shops are 'Duty Free' but didn't look into that aspect at
the time.
I should also mention that if you're from outside of the European Union and
purchase jewelry and certain other items in Ireland, there's a substantial
tax (The VAT [Value Added Tax] is something on the order of 17%) that you can recover if you take the
appropriate steps. Depending on where you make such purchases, you may
need to get a tax recovery form from the shop that sells the items and then
take the completed form to a dedicated desk at the airport prior to
boarding your flight. If you fail to do this before leaving, you
may not be able to recover the tax funds. I wasn't feeling inclined to
deal with this when I left (thinking I could easily do it later by mail from
home), and so lost out on recovering about $100 US. I still get irritated
when I think about it. I advise you to fully explore the details
of this topic with the retailer before making purchases.
If
you're from the US and inclined to take a radio along, you should know that the European
standard for AM and FM frequency assignments are different than that used in the
US. That could pose problems for radios that are digitally tuned.
AM stations in Europe use 9 kHz (kilohertz) station spacing rather than the
10 kHz spacing used in the US. Digitally tuned radios sold in the US typically
tune AM frequencies like 550 kHz, then 560 and 570 and so on because of the 10 kHz scheme,
but if they can't be reset to use a 9 kHz standard then they won't be
able to lock in on European AM station frequencies (like 549 kHz, then 558
and 567, and so on). If you're an math whiz you may have figured out
that both 9 kHz and 10 kHz interval schemes would tune 540 kHz because both
9 and 10 will divide into to it evenly, but don't get distracted by this novelty.
In the case of FM, rather than ending on odd numbers (like 88.5 MHz, 99.7, etc.) as
is the case with US stations, FM frequencies in Ireland end
in even numbers (like 88.6 MHz, 99.8, etc.). While non-digitally tuned
radios have
no difficulties receiving these signals, some digitally tuned FM radios
designed for the US market are locked into the odd-number tuning scheme and will
not tune the European frequencies, thus they will always being off by 0.1 MHz.
Attempting to listen to an Irish station with such a radio will not be a
satisfactory experience.
The bottom line on this issue is that if you are planning to take a
digitally tuned radio
along, make sure it will be able to tune to the local stations. If you
opt to take a non-digitally
tuned radio you'll likely
have no issues since analog tuned radios will effectively tune any frequency.
Galway Bay FM is an
example of what can be heard in Ballyvaughan, and here's a link to Clare FM.
If you're interested in a broader perspective of what can be heard in
Ireland, have a look at this.
Pay
special attention to the electrical requirements of any "plug in"
devices you take to Ireland. Here in the states we use 110 Volt 60
Cycle AC as our national standard (yes, I know it can vary from 110 to 120)
and that's what you expect from a wall outlet. But in the Republic of
Ireland the national standard is 220 Volt 50 Cycle AC. I understand
that in northern Ireland the voltage runs 230 to 240 VAC at 50 Cycles.
If you make the mistake of plugging something designed for 110 VAC into a
220 VAC outlet, you'll have immediate problems, likely including smoke as a
minimum and possibly something even more exciting. Fires are a
distinct possibility (not to mention burns), and of course don't expect the
device to ever work again.
A unique three-prong plug is required to access the power from most Irish
wall outlets, so that offers some protection from innocent mistakes, but
it's possible to purchase a foreign plug adapter kit that allows you to make
the physical connection but doesn't address the voltage issue. As a
result, you could manage to plug your hair dryer (for example) directly into
twice the voltage is was designed for. The solution here is to either
purchase an adapter kit that includes a voltage reducing converter (Radio
Shack sells such items), or only use devices designed for the higher
voltage. Note that many notebook computers will work on either 110 VAC
or 220 VAC (check yours and its manual to be sure). Research this area
carefully for any electrical items prior to plugging them in, and if you
have any doubts, the hotel desk will be happy to advise you.
The good news is that many hotels have hairdryers in the rooms (the
Gleneagle definitely did), and both the Gleneagle
and the Ballyvaughan rental cottages had 'shaver' outlets in the bathroom
that dispensed 110 VAC. I used these outlets to recharge my 110 VAC
electric razor and recharge the battery in my mini-disk recorder without
needing a voltage converter, though in one case I needed a plug converter
(which I had) to be able to plug into the outlet. Be advised that
these 'shaver' outlets are typically low wattage and won't handle the
demands of something like a hair dryer.