By Kevin Micklo

I'd always heard how nice and friendly the Irish people are to tourists. After a 17-day trip covering nearly the entire island, I found out how true that really is. Every place, from the remote country villages to the big cities of Dublin, Belfast and Galway, was filled with wonderful, genuine people. We saw beautiful countryside and buildings, churches and graveyards that were hundreds or even thousands of years old. But the genuine caring and compassion of the Irish people can be summed up in one tiny story.

One morning we were leaving a small town to continue our journey but the streets were tricky and we couldn't find the route to the major roadway. I pulled the car over, and after turning the map every which way I was resigned to the fact that we were lost. I asked a person walking along the sidewalk if he could help me and he thought for a moment. "It's a bit tricky," he said "wait right here and I'll be back in just a moment." My wife and I looked at each other, shrugged and went back to the map. A slight honk pulled me away from the useless map and I saw the man in his car waving for me to follow him.

It took a while for us to process what was actually happening. This complete stranger was walking along the street going about his business, then stopped and got his car to lead us out of town and on the major road we needed. By the time he'd get back into town he must have lost 20 minutes of his day, and he thought nothing of it. All we could do was laugh and wave thank you to him as we went on our way.

One word of caution: avoid visiting Northern Ireland in the first week of July. That's the "Marching Season" and there is a great deal of tension between the Catholics and Protestants. We ran into some trouble there and had to leave earlier than planned but the rest of the trip more than made up for it.

Date Entered: 1/26/2000