Today we took a mellow day to just cruise around Dublin. The EPIC Irish Emigrant Museum was such a great place. They really do a good job with tourist attractions and museums around here. Everything is very interactive and meaningful.
The Irish are extremely resilient people. They are also hard workers. The Irish diaspora is almost as vast as the Chinese diaspora. The Irish have had such influence on the American culture. The Emigrant museum was really interactive and they even give you a passport so you can have it stamped at every station.
We then headed to the largest tourist attraction in Ireland – Guiness. It was such an impressive building. Guiness owns so much property in Dublin, and they also employ so many of its citizens. We were told that it’s not unusual to see three generation at the plant. Boy, we learned a lot about the brewing process. They use a lot of local products and really support the industries around Ireland. The Guiness family was also very generous. They donate to many charities around the country and really help the needy.
Tomorrow, we leave Ireland. We’ve had such a great time here. We are so blessed to be able to do this. A few observations about Ireland:
- People have been amazingly nice.
- The weather has not been great but we feel fortunate that we were able to see more sun than rain.
- Ireland is very expensive! Definitely a surprise.
- We were told that energy consumption is going to overshadow supply. Water is becoming an issue (shortage of water) soon.
- Trash is also a big issue. It seems like there is not a very sophisticated garbage collection system. Trash is just left out on the sidewalk and a truck comes by to collect it. But, the truck is basically a large pick-up vs. a dump truck. And, they have to do it every day. Very strange. Trash is everywhere because of this. I think this problem will only get worse if they don’t do something about it.
- Recycling is limited but they do charge for bags (good).
- The balance of power will shift in Northern Ireland soon as there will soon be more Catholics than Protestants. This will be an interesting occurrence to witness.
- Everyone is very nervous about Brexit. This will also put pressure on the separation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
- Fairy trees are real!
- Cows don’t stink in Ireland. We were in a field of cows and cow poop everywhere, but there was no smell. We need to learn from the Irish with this stuff.
- We will come back!!! Haven’t I said that about every single place we’ve visited so far?
Higman Travels 