A scheduling snafu left us in Shannon Airport without a reserved rental car for 24 hours. We are quick thinking people and we thought of a work around that led to at least two significant consequences:

1.) We ended up getting a lot of practice over our first two days in Ireland on how to drive here. I’ll mention more about this later.

2.) We got to go off-script and visit the closest major city, Limerick, which happened to have a rental car available for us for the day. Here’s how that went:

We took the #342 from right outside the airport door to the Limerick bus/train station. It was a lovely bus with a second floor that the girls (mostly) enjoyed, but it took a convoluted, stop-riddled path. That is one of the reasons we need a rental car here — there are few direct buses. They’re always stopping to pick people up and drop them off. Downtown Limerick is about a 20 minute drive to the airport, but it took an hour for bus #342 to get there.

Not to worry, our one-day rental car would not be available for a few hours, so we were able to wander the town. What do we like better than wandering the town? Very little.

Limerick, like a lot of Irish cities, I bet, is well set up for wandering. The downtown area surrounding the station features several parks and lots of narrow streets that are easy to cross. There are lots of things and people to see and look at. Despite a name that might conjure thoughts of poetry and whimsy, Limerick is a little grittier than many of the more touristy towns we’re going to visit during this trip. It was very welcoming, though.

We have been warned by Jen that the people we meet in Ireland are likely to be extremely kind and courteous. This matches the welcome we received here, particularly by the gentleman who gave us a tour around the inside of St. John’s Cathedral. He was careful to point out the elaborately painted pipes of the organ in the choir loft, and he showed us the location of three of the five bishops buried under the church floor. It is unclear if the man works for the church — maybe he is a bishop himself, only off-duty. He was certainly knowledgeable and very kind.

It was not difficult to fill a few hours in Limerick, but we were eager to get ourselves back on track. This city was not on the final spreadsheet of tour locations, so it was an extra benefit, but there was still a lot that we had to see.

The plan had been for us to pick up our rental car at the airport and drive two and a half hours to our lodgings in Sligo City. We were able to pick up this trail from Limerick, a few hours later and several kilometers farther away than originally intended. Still we were enthusiastic about finally being in Ireland, a place Jen has been promising to bring for years — some of us for decades.

There was a small army of helpful people waiting for us in the downtown rental car office — they even provided us an excellent breakfast recommendation. More importantly, they actually had a car we could use. We have been conditioned to recognize the major difference between a rental car reservation and an actual car to drive. The agents in Shannon asserted that there was a serious lack of cars available.

A lovely employee lead us out the back to a small lot with two five-seaters, and helped us wind our way with our luggage between them. There, previously invisible from our view, hid a tiny Hyundai earmarked for our use.

Seeing the subcompact with our name on it was not exactly a record-scratch moment, but we were all instantly able to do the spacial arithmetic to figure out that we were in for a tight ride.

We should take a minute to examine our emotional and physical state. Our previous transportation plan had not worked out and we spent considerable energy finding a plan b. We were generally unsettled by the situation, and we were working on very (if any) little sleep due to our red-eye flight the night before. Some of us might have still been a little nauseated by the hour-long bus ride from the airport — particularly those who didn’t factor in that the top floor of the bus rocks around a lot more than the bottom floor. Another thing — and this may or may not have been a factor — Aerlingus will give you two cans of wine even when you only ask for one.

Positivity still ruled the day. We used Tetris skills to fit as much baggage as possible into the minuscule hatch area; then we used similar skills to work our bodies and the rest of our baggage into the somewhat meager (for our needs) passenger portion. Thus settled in, we were ready for the almost-three-hour drive to Sligo.

Here comes the bit about driving in Ireland, are you ready?

It takes flexible thinking and a clear acknowledgement of the differences and similarities to normal driving.

Differences:

— drive on different (left) side of the road
— driver sits on opposite (right) side of the car
— shifter is to the left of the driver
— rearview mirror is up and to the left (not up and to the right, like we’re used to)
— traveling lane is on the left, passing lane is on the right
— direction of travel in (omnipresent) roundabouts is clockwise in order to facilitate driving on the left

Similarities:

— foot pedals go in the same order: clutch — brake — gas
— pattern of shifter — location of gears 1-5, plus reverse — is the same as we’re used to (with the slight exception that our car at — home has a six-speed transmission and it’s possible that if we really tried to put a car here into sixth gear we might end up putting it into reverse by mistake)
— directional signal and windshield wiper control are the same as we’re used to

Driving here is a lot about focusing one’s mind and keeping track of what is the same and what is different. Reserving courage to deal with extremely narrow roads also helps. We have been helped by the fact that the people here seem to be patient drivers and that we have a good navigation system and passengers/copilots who are helpful and encouraging. Also, it seems that we are not the first people to struggle with adjusting to Ireland’s rules of the roads. Ireland itself has taken some ownership of this situation and posts frequent reminders, including the on the inside of our rental car that says, “Drive on the left.” This is a new mantra for me. They even post arrows in the crosswalks to remind pedestrians that the first direction they should look is right because that’s where the first traffic will be coming from.

By the end of day one, we were able to cross streets throughout Sligo City safely and comfortably, though very much wearily because we had barely slept during our flight over (it left Boston at 6:30 pm and arrived at Shannon at 5 am local time and we had a meal and two snacks in between to keep us occupied). Still, we managed to stay up long enough to approximate a normal bedtime here. A fine dinner a downtown pub, featuring Guinness, cider, and live traditional music helped us stay awake through the afternoon.

Sligo itself was also very helpful. We came with eyes open to the realities of Irish weather, but the afternoon here was clear and bright. The city does seem more visitor-inclined than Limerick. That’s too harsh. There were lots more flowers hanging about — this and the sunshine made everything seem cheerier here than they were this morning.

That’s not to say it was difficult to pull ourselves from the lively scene in favor of having a 6 pm bedtime. But is was good to know that this all will be waiting for us when we eventually wake up tomorrow.