So every country has had its little idiosyncrasies and, compared with the US, some of those idiosyncrasies are vestiges of days past. But Ireland, well...most of you won't believe me....Ireland does not have a postal code system. Rural addresses are specified by the county, nearest post town, and the townlan. They have cute names for their properties (but not always), and-- as you can imagine--it sure is hard to find ..... Certain cities, like Dublin, do use addresses, but I wasn't staying in Dublin.
After riding to Galway from N. Ireland, I absolutely could not find where the hell I was staying for the night. (Did I mention most streets don't have names, either?) A huge storm was rolling in and it was hard enough to find a garage hours prior, but without any way to contact my 'hosts' and with no one I spoke to knowing where the hell "Taoibh Coille" was, I rode around looking for a hotel.
Good thing I found one!:
And good thing the super ....... nice dude at the Hotel let me keep my bike in some sort of bomb-proof beverage storage area (I seem to recall puddles of Guinness on the floor, but that must be my imagination playing tricks), otherwise it would have no doubt not stayed on its sidestand all night.
Next day rode out to the coast where I'd be staying for a couple weeks.
The 'address' here was a bit easier to get to and went something like this:
Proceed East along the paved road from the Church towards the community center. Make a right at the first fork, then a left approximately 500 meters after the start of the stone wall. Continue over the rise in the road and follow the dirt driveway just prior to the coastal route sign.
I figured, ok, these guys must have SOME system of figuring out where things are. And they do. More about that later.
(Oh as of Spring of this year Ireland has begun to implement postal codes....)
