Just Go! to Ireland (part 1)

Today we begin a 6-part series detailing a one-day adventure in Ireland.  The most adventurous part:  driving on the left-hand side of the road.  Yikes!    Read on!

Drive on the Left! (Part 1)
Sunday

She was so pretty, the woman at the Avis counter. With red curly hair and green eyes she looked like a young Maureen O’Hara in a regulation red uniform.

“I have a US driver’s license,” I said. “Can I rent a car here?”

“Of course,” she replied with a broad smile and a thick brogue. She quickly rattled off a few prices and assured me that they had automatics on the lot.

Foggy with jetlag I struggled to understand her sentences. “I may be back tomorrow,” I said and limped across the parking lot to my hotel.

All afternoon and evening I toyed with the thought: could I really rent a car in a foreign country? And would I really be able to drive on the left side of the road? In my sleep-deprived state the idea seemed like a folly, a bubble floating before me, ephemera. Battling sleep as I watched “Friends” reruns, I dismissed the idea completely.

Surely I could entertain myself without taking my life into my hands!

Finally, at eight o’clock I could fight no longer. I surrendered to my duvet-covered bed and slept the deep, restorative, unmoving sleep of one who has not slept in 36 hours – or a lifetime.

To be continued...