Keep Left

A typical road in the West of Ireland.

The Irish - as a consequence of hundreds of years of political domination by their neighbors in Great Britain - drive on the left side of the road.  When you are planning your first trip to Ireland, you keep reading in guidebooks and seeing in pictures that the Irish drive on the left side of the road.  If you are a typical tourist on your first trip to the Emerald Isle, you fly into Shannon airport - located in the rural, West of Ireland - and pick up a rental car and drive through the scenic West and South of Eire and up into Dublin - where you dump the car as quickly as possible, preferably in a car park, and not in a ditch by the side of the road.

As you prepare for your departure before your trip and pack all your belongings, somewhere in the back of your head is floating around the notion that, "This time tomorrow I will be driving on the left side of the road in Ireland."  It's in the back of your head as you board your flight and try and get a couple of hours of sleep as you cross the Atlantic.  As you feel your plane descend and get your first glimpse of the forty shades of green coming into view on the island below, that notion of driving on the left side of the road starts to get a little more pronounced in your head.

You collect your bags, pass through customs and immigration and make your way to the rental car counter.  You show your proof of insurance, your American driver's license and pull out your credit card.  You sign and initial an endless stream of papers that state you promise to return your tiny, dented, manual shift rental car in Dublin within a week.  You are exhausted, jet-lagged, hungry and mostly just glad to finally be there at this point, but somewhere closer to the front of your brain is swirling around the notion that you are about to drive for the first time on the left - or "other" - side of the road.

Everything seems to be in order and the friendly Irish lass working at the car rental agency hands you the keys to the car, writes down the space number where it is parked and then asks you one final question: have you driven in Ireland before?  As you answer "no," you can sense an almost imperceptible flinch in her face, but she proceeds to give you a few more helpful tips for driving in Ireland (such as which direction to turn out of the rental car parking lot).

You walk away from the rental car counter with your rental agreement, car keys, baggage and, trust me, it still hasn't quite sunk in that you're about to drive on the left side of the road.

You find your car, undoubtedly while dodging a few particles of liquid sunshine as an Irish welcome.  Don't worry about the moisture because the forecast for later in the day is for "good sunny spells."  How do I know this?  Because there are only two possible options in the weather forecast in Ireland: "good sunny spells" or "a bit soft."  In the summer months, it's nearly always "good sunny spells."  The rest of the year, even in a driving snowstorm, the weather is still "a bit soft."

You put your keys in the lock, pop the hatch, place your bags in the back and then you make your first Yankee mistake.  You walk over to the left side of the car - what back home would be the driver's side - until you look into the window and realize the steering wheel is on the other side: the right side.  "Oh, yeah, that's right.  They drive on the other side of the road here," you remind yourself, even though you've been thinking about this fact in the back of your head for weeks.

Entering the car from the opposite side from what you've done all your adult life, you adjust your seat, check your mirrors and pull out a map of Ireland and explain to your travel partner which direction you are headed, and then, finally, put the key in the ignition.  Even though you are now seated on the right side of the car - the driver's side in Ireland - and you know you are about to drive on the left side of the road, you will probably reach down with your right hand, near the door, to move the stick shift.  No, that's not it.  You are about to shift with your left hand for a week because they drive on the other side of the road here.

Seat?  Check!  Mirrors?  Check!  Lights?  Check!  Map?  Check!  Ignition?  Check!  Parking brake?  Check!  Off you go! 

You will back out of the parking space, with your left hand on the stick shift and your right hand on the wheel, and then move forward to the guard shack at the exit to the rental car lot.  You pull up to the left of the shack - it feels a little weird to lower the window on your right to poke your head out the window - and another friendly Irish lass checks your rental agreement and wishes you a safe journey.

You move forward slowly, cautiously, a few feet and try and figure out which way to turn.  Left.  You watch the steady stream of cars going back and forth in both directions, and noticing a gap in the traffic, hit the gas and then proceed to turn left and finish your turn in the right hand lane on the road - the wrong lane! - and then as your travel partner screams in terror "LEFT SIDE!  MOVE TO THE LEFT!" a voice in your head will yell "HOLY SHIT!  OH, MY GOD!  WHAT THE ....!" and at that very moment, it will finally hit home that you will be driving on the left side - the wrong side - of the road for the next week.

I cannot exaggerate how strange and terrifying those first few moments driving on the left side of the road truly are.  It goes against everything you've done on a daily basis for years.  You quickly gain some speed and confidence and move north on the main road from Shannon up to County Clare.  Your partner's heartbeat has now dropped below 150 and you feel more comfortable every minute - "Hey! this is kind of fun!  I'm getting the hang of this!" - and you think everything's going to be just fine when you spot a sign in Gaelic, and please let that be English, that looks just like this:

This road sign indicates you are approaching a roundabout.

You are still jet-lagged and completely disoriented from a full day and night of traveling, when you notice the above sign that indicates you are quickly approaching a roundabout - the Irish version of an intersection - that varies from an American intersection in that there aren't any stop signs (cars entering the roundabout yield to cars already inside the roundabout) and that you can get trapped inside it for the REST OF YOU LIFE.  The other quirk about roundabouts is that the signs never tell you which direction - west, east, north or south - to take, but just prominent cities in each direction, and as in our example above, only one of which is anywhere near Shannon (Limerick).

This is why the first time you drive in Ireland it is very helpful to have a navigator - someone capable of holding and reading a map - in the car with you.  No matter how confused and panicked you may be approaching or driving through a roundabout, do not yell at the navigator, even if they seem more confused about which direction to go than you, although they are holding the map of Ireland.  It's a small island, so there's only so far you can travel in any direction.

It's a couple of hours later, and you and your travel partner/navigator have now adroitly maneuvered numerous roundabouts, swerved to the left to avoid several passing trucks, and as you drive out to the most remote part of Ireland, and draw nearer to your final destination for the day, you may come across a situation similar to this:

Rush hour in the West of Ireland.

My advice for those of you who have never read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is: Don't Panic.  You may be restricted to the left side, but livestock in Ireland have the run of the entire road.  It's time to just stop, grab the camera, eat a Cadbury bar and smile.  Isn't this why you left home and traveled to this charming island in the first place?

After a week of driving through some of the most scenic, narrow and decayed roads in Europe, you will arrive in Dublin and return the car, hopefully without any additional nicks or scratches. 

The next day you will find yourself staying up for almost 24 hours to return to your home in the States, collect your bags, hop on the shuttle bus to long term parking and then you will breathe a sign of relief at the familiarity of your good, ol' American (but made in Japan) car that you can drive on the right side of the road.  Just don't be surprised if after you put your bags in the back of the car and finally find your car keys, you catch yourself walking around to the right side to drive the car.

Don't Panic.  There shouldn't be any roundabouts or sheep in the middle of the road on the way home.