People who have never left Ireland, EVER!

humberklog

Dudess wrote: »

Yeah I couldn't handle backpacking around Asia/South America - I'd be miserable.

Not even that far or long. A simple weekend break in Europe I was thinking. The enjoyment is the restaurants and bars and taxis and a decent hotel to relax in.

The enjoyment is mingling anonymously and certainly not buttering bread rolls on park benches and staying in hostels.

heate

No going to elaborate on how much or how I travel but I can't believe that people nowadays haven't even been to the UK.

I think you can get a sail and rail return to London for €40. €40? If you've got the time.

annascott

I find people who have never left Ireland to have a parochial mentally that I cannot relate to. I just try and avoid them. They usually like country music too which adds eo my disdain. . I'm sure that there are exceptions, I just haven't met them.

Richard Hillman

South East Dublin>Everywhere else on the planet.

Nana Wan

LH Pathe wrote: »

Fyp's. Have all them formative years tending paddy fields taught you nothing?!

It do influcences me.
I was an arrogant guy, feeling superior to all of the other guys in my town, but when I came to a big city, I found I knew nothing. I felt low for a long time.

Now I'm 26, I realize that people don't need to worry about traveling less. Here I'm not saying people shouldn't travel. Just live in a way that you like. If you have enough money and time and like traveling, then go out to travel. If you don't, it's OK; Just live happily every day. Other people don't know any more than you know. I know how to grow good corn, but do the people from big cities know?

Every one has his way of life. The world is big: Mars, milky way, outer space. The earth is a villiage. Oh, btw, have you ever been out of the "villiage"?

grenache

People who have never left Ireland are to be pitied. I've met a few of them and by god are they boring.

kelle

My grandmother died at the age of 95 and had never been outside of Ireland, not even to northern Ireland!

I first went abroad at the age of 18 to London (had never even been to NI then!), but it may as well have been Tinseltown I was so excited to see tall buildings, red postboxes and phoneboxes, policemen with the tall helmets, people of different races (I had NEVER met a non-white person before then!).

I caught the travel bug then and have always holidayed abroad, I still think about what my granny missed out on. However, my son HATES travelling and says he'd prefer to do what I did as a child and never go anywhere! So when he's older and has the choice he'll probably prefer a weekend in Kerry, and won't feel he's missing out!

saa

heate wrote: »

No going to elaborate on how much or how I travel but I can't believe that people nowadays haven't even been to the UK.

I think you can get a sail and rail return to London for €40. €40? If you've got the time.

Think thats 40 euro each way well more like 44 now, as I recall the OH and I paid 166 return last time we did sail and rail.

Anyway I don't mind the fact that others haven't been out of Ireland, if their content with that is perfectly fine, if money is holding them back then that is sad as I'm there myself, I'd love to travel but its not just the cost of cheap flights when you're going somewhere, then you need the fare to get from the obscure airport, accommodation even hostels add up, food, more travel expenses, entertainment etc.

ash23

heate wrote: »

I think you can get a sail and rail return to London for €40. €40? If you've got the time.

Throw in a kid or two and it's more expensive. PLus travel costs to the airport or ferry.

For example when myself and my daughter visit the UK we either fly from Knock (flights are about €130 for us both) and parking charges of about €27.
Or I can get cheaper flights but then I have to drive to Dublin and pay petrol and parking or alternatively, get public transport but generally, it works out cheaper to fly from Knock.

Anyway, point is that it's not as simple as "get a cheap flight for €20". Maybe if you're young free single and live next to an airport...............

fishy fishy

fluorescence wrote: »

You can stay in a hostel for as little as €12 per night Food is dirt cheap too if you buy from supermarkets and not restaurants. A short trip in Europe can work out quite reasonably.

so you save up your pennies to get a cheap flight. You then looking for a hostel where you have to share bedroom/bathroom with complete strangers while holding onto all you brought, you bypass the restaurants in favour of a cheap supermarket where you can "guess" what is in the little packages, unless you have brought your dictionary with you. I'm thinking you would have to bypass the museums and galleries too as you didn't save enough to include them. Unless you brought your guitar where you could busk for a few coins.

great holiday that

token101

ash23 wrote: »

I find it ironic that many people I know simply cannot comprehend my lack of worldwide travel but most have not been to places like the Cliffs of Moher or the Aliwee Caves, Giants Causeway etc.

Stuff that's on your doorstep is a lot less interesting usually. I've never been to a museum that's 5 minutes away from my house, but I've been to every touristy thing in Paris and Amsterdam. I suppose half the reason is because I know I could go any weekend. And I've been to the Aliwee Caves. The most boring f**king school tour I was ever on, only beaten by the Burren. There's some brilliant tourist attractions in Ireland, but there's an awful lot of over hyped sh*te aswell. Like Blarney for instance.

c_man

jetsonx wrote: »

Sure Enda Kenny only left Ireland for first time last year himself to go to some meeting in Germany.

Well that's bollocks. Off the top of my head, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2003.

parc

I honestly cannot fathom not visiting other countries.

I'm not saying that they have to climb mount Everest but there's loads of similar European countries out there to experience.

Nothing better than being in a holiday and exploring. They really are missing out

Run_to_da_hills

I met a good few normal people in the States and Australia that would have been in their mid 30's that never saw the sea in their lives. I wonder is there anyone in Ireland within that group that has never seen the sea?

fishy fishy

c_man wrote: »

Well that's bollocks. Off the top of my head, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2003.

well he might want to think about climbing it again - he's getting rounder by the minute, and sarkozy doesn't like tickling fat boys.

token101

FinnLizzy wrote: »

My OH's course went on a trip to Dublin the other day from Sligo. One of the girls, who's 19, was amazed by stuff like the spire and junkies.

Then she later mentioned that she never had a passport and was never abroad, not even England!

I also know an auld one from the village where my mum comes from, who never left Sligo until a few years ago, when she had to go to Dublin for medical reasons.

The first time I can remember going abroad was at the age of 8, but that was to go to England, and things didn't seem all that different. I wonder what it would be like now, at the age of 20, to go abroad for the first time and just be captivated by minor cultural differences.

Do you know anyone who has never been abroad? (specifically Ireland). And does it affect their worldview?

That's kind of pathetic really. If she's amazed by junkies she must be fairly naive, and at 19 that's not good. I pity her if she wins the Nigerian lottery!

krudler

I've been to Europe and the States loads of times, but never been to the North, just never had a reason to go up there tbh

FinnLizzy

krudler wrote: »

I've been to Europe and the States loads of times, but never been to the North, just never had a reason to go up there tbh

Fighting the good fight that our romantic heros left us in 1916?

FinnLizzy

Another reason to travel is for some of the amazing music festivals in Europe. I went to Sziget, Budapest in 2010 and it was an experience like no other! Cheaper than Oxegen, and longer!

It's only now that Oxegen is cancelled than people are looking towards Europe (avoiding Tomorrowland, Belgian knackerfest!). Before now, I'd find people that swear that Oxegen is the greatest music festival in the world!

Duggys Housemate

Era, one field of music is the same as the next.

Babybuff

Haven't been out of Ireland in about ten years, not too bothered by it saw enough of others places when I was young and I don't care much for flying. I'll be getting a bus to Cork at the weekend though, that's a little like going foreign hey.

Fluorescence

fishy fishy wrote: »

so you save up your pennies to get a cheap flight. You then looking for a hostel where you have to share bedroom/bathroom with complete strangers while holding onto all you brought, you bypass the restaurants in favour of a cheap supermarket where you can "guess" what is in the little packages, unless you have brought your dictionary with you. I'm thinking you would have to bypass the museums and galleries too as you didn't save enough to include them. Unless you brought your guitar where you could busk for a few coins.

great holiday that

I'm just saying you CAN do a nice weekend trip on the cheap :P Save up for a few weeks and you could do quite a lot more. A little money goes a long way!

walrusgumble

crapmanjoe wrote: »

Yeah my grandparents with to the UK in the 70's for a week and never left Ireland since or before.

I know it was a way of life but trapped on this island for your entire life is my idea of a nightmare.

Fair enough, but its not Craggy Island every where, Jack

walrusgumble

grenache wrote: »

People who have never left Ireland are to be pitied. I've met a few of them and by god are they boring.

hmm, and people ****ting on about their adventures on the J1 in America or picking grapes for feck all in Australia can be tedious too after a few hours.

walrusgumble

heate wrote: »

No going to elaborate on how much or how I travel but I can't believe that people nowadays haven't even been to the UK.

I think you can get a sail and rail return to London for €40. €40? If you've got the time.

Why go if there is no need? Ireland has alot of the shops in the UK, football matches is a big thing, fair enough. Until recently travelling was did not necessarily mean who always had to find work.

Dublin has greatly improved. Belfast is a good city. The English are said not to be going to Ireland as much. Some of the reasons being the costs (fair enough) and the fact that its rarely no different to what they can get in other British places.

Since we are European, its a good thing now that Paddy is able too and confident enough not to just pick UK as their number one destination in order to get work. There is more to the world than the UK (not slagging off the UK)

Don't get me wrong, I went to London only once (exclude travelling through) I loved it, and would like to go over again, but won't go just for the sake of it. Rather try out Berlin or go back to Paris , which was class.

hondasam

walrusgumble wrote: »

Don't get me wrong, I went to London only once (exclude travelling through) I loved it, and would like to go over again, but won't go just for the sake of it. Rather try out Berlin or go back to Paris , which was class.

I was not impressed with Paris thought it was dirty tbh. The cleanest city I have been to was Copenhagen, I would go back there.

I don't think there's anything pathetic about not having left Ireland by the age of 19. It IS expensive to travel. Those going on about Ryanair flights seem to be forgetting all the other costs associated with holidays and weekends away - accommodation, food etc. This is usually much, much more expensive than the flight unless you're fortunate enough to have someone to stay with. I had travelled a lot within Europe and gone to America twice by the time I was 19, but because I had parents who were fairly well-off and were able to take the time off work to travel every year. I haven't been anywhere in the last year because I don't get paid holidays at work and I just can't afford it, even cheap package holidays which are 'only' 300 for a week. That 300 is my spending money for the entire month. It's difficult to travel when you're poor.

Also, travelling doesn't necessarily open the mind at all. I know plenty of people who have been to far flung places and hung out with other Irish people the whole time, learning absolutely nothing. I've only been outside Europe a few times, but I consider myself 'better travelled' because I've actually lived in several European countries, learned the languages and experienced the culture. I once went for nearly 2 months without speaking a word of English when I lived in Spain, except to call my parents at home. I know people who have been to 'exotic' places like Egypt and Barbados and are as small minded as the 'culchies' they like to put down. One beach resort is the same is any other, tbh.

grenache

walrusgumble wrote: »

hmm, and people ****ting on about their adventures on the J1 in America or picking grapes for feck all in Australia can be tedious too after a few hours.

Never been on a J1 or to Aus. Have no interest in visiting America. Italy, France and UK are where its at. But the point is taken.

cloptrop

I fixed a sink in an elderly womans house. Her son was in his 40s lived in Phuket. He rang her every morning she was so proud of him . I wanted to tell her he was a pervert but I just didnt have the heart.

snow scorpion

FinnLizzy wrote: »

Do you know anyone who has never been abroad? (specifically Ireland). And does it affect their worldview?

You live in the Western Hemisphere which puts you at the top of the food chain -- you're not going to find anyplace better. I would think that Ireland, England, mainland Europe, America, Canada, Australia are, for the most part, interchangeable: they all have Judeo-Christian value systems, democratic governments, stable societies (well, maybe not Greece ) most of the people are nice, a few of them are a$$holes. The differences are all surface stuff: different accents, different foods, different pastimes. How would that change your way of looking at the world?

I don't have to go to Afghanistan or North Korea or the South Pole to appreciate how good I have it here and now.

So the question occurs to me: how specifically would you expect travel abroad to change someone's world view?