What is solo travel? Ireland, Spain, United Kingdom (10)

(13) Ireland

Ireland is an island country west of Great Britain in Western Europe, with Dublin as its capital. Overall, it is a little less well-known than other European countries, but some people are puzzled when it comes to Ireland on their backpacking itinerary.

Some people confuse it with Iceland because of the name of the country, and even if they don’t confuse the country, there are quite a few people who know that it is not spelled as Ireland, but as Island.   

It seems that it is often excluded from European travel, especially since Ireland’s location is biased towards the western tip of Europe, and if you put Ireland on the list of countries to visit, it is quite ambiguous, and it seems to be relative to other European countries that attract many tourists.

However, apart from its low profile, Ireland has great advantages as a pleasant country to travel to, such as the friendly atmosphere that allows travelers to have a very peaceful and relaxing trip.

In fact, if you stay for a day or two, you can see that there are good security issues, including petty crimes such as pickpocketing, and it is not dangerous to drink in a pub and walk along the riverside at 3 a.m.

First of all, if you look at the Irish, in terms of physical characteristics, they tend to have darker hair color than people in Northern and Western Europe, but their eyes and skin color are lighter.

In the case of the Irish, these characteristics are the exact opposite, and they have blue eyes and beautiful blonde hair like the Spanish and Portuguese.

Traditionally, Catholicism has been dominant, but although its influence has been greatly weakened in recent years due to social secularization, it is still a country in Europe with a Catholic ratio of more than 80%, along with Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Poland.

Most of the schools are mission schools, and depending on the religion, they go on to Catholic or Protestant schools.

Elementary and secondary courses are compulsory for 6 ~ 16 years old, 8 years for elementary and 6 years for middle and high school.

In addition, there are universities, institutes of technology, national institutions, and colleges of education, each of which is funded by the government and operated with autonomy and autonomy. 

The administrative division, which means ‘five pieces’ (Cuige/Cuaighe), was traditionally divided into four main districts: Ulster, Leinster, Connacht and Munster, which are now divided into 29 states and 5 cities.

In terms of national language, the official first language is Irish (An Ghaeilge, or Irish Gaelic), and the second language is English (An Béarla, Irish English), but English is the most spoken.

The point of the trip can be said to be cultural travelogues and natural scenery, especially as a country with developed culture and arts such as literature, music, and theater, so there are many experiential tourism resources, so you can meet great performers on the streets and pubs right away.  

If you are a professional musician, you can try busking with musicians, and if you are interested in English literature, you can enjoy a literary travelogue following the trail of famous writers, and you can enjoy the healing point of the unique Irish excellence that you could feel in the movie Once.

In addition, there are many wineries of Guinness, Murphy’s, and other dark beers, as well as Irish whiskey such as Jameson, so if you are interested in gaelic games, it is a good idea to visit during the summer (June~August) when there is a season.

The nature of Ireland is also a shelter for people who are tired of urban life in Europe, which is an overcrowded area, but when you leave the city center, you will find green pastures on gentle hills, and a peaceful landscape of scattered sheep.

In the sparsely populated West, where glaciers have swept through, the endless stone walls between trees bent by strong winds and barren pastures can be said to be nothing like a landscape painting.

Moher and Galway are cliffs that have been eroded by the rough waves of the North Atlantic Ocean over a period of 3 million years and are 200 meters high.