Some quick thoughts about Ireland...

• I went with €500 and I pretty much spent €500. So it’s a good thing I took that much… it’s also probably a good thing I didn’t take much more.
• I ran in a crowd where I heard We Made You by Eminem and Poker Face by Lady Gaga pretty much every day.
• The rules of the road in Ireland are not simply the horizontal flip of the rules of the road in Canada.
• You need a license for your TV set, but you can buy hard liquor in the same stores you buy milk, cereal, and toothpaste.
• Country Roads by John Denver is a surprisingly popular buskers song in Dublin.
• I never once heard Ireland’s national anthem played in my entire week there; rarely did I see an Irish flag, even on public buildings. I did hear the Angelus played at 6 p.m. on RTÉ once.
• Whatever it may once have been, today the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic is completely invisible.
• The name of the American medical-themed TV series, E.R., is pronounced by RTÉ professionals as "Eeyore", the name of the mopey donkey from Winnie the Pooh, which leads to such unintentionally-hilarious announcements as, "Tonight, don't forget to catch George Clooney on Eeyore!"
  
• If something’s a bargain, especially one involving your own financial prowess, you got it “for buttons”.
• Beer really is everywhere.
• Having seen it for myself, I’m convinced the green of the Irish countryside really is singular.
• Ireland might be the only place in the English-speaking world where a North American can be told his accent is “lovely” (I was).
• For the first and only time in my life, I heard crooked politicians referred to as "a shower of hungry cunts" — pardon my French.
• Anyone previously mentioned in a conversation is subsequently "yer man" thereafter, until the subject of discussion changes... in which case, a name is inserted, and that person is subsequently "yer man".
• Electrical plugs in Ireland are simply GIGANTIC — two or three times the size of North American outlets... and double the voltage. Ouch!