Summer in Ireland

by Tasha in Ireland

I've never really thought of Ireland as a summer destination.

True, I've spent many a day daydreaming about wandering around the plethora of small towns, little villages and rolling hills. But in every dream (daydream or wistful), Ireland was always cold. Or raining. Or windy. Or cold, raining and windy. But - and this may sound practically un-Australian at this point - Ireland can actually get pretty hot. Before anyone jumps in and points it out - yeah, at its hottest, we are still only talking about 25-28 degrees Celcius. Compared to back home, this is a nice cool summer day. Practically beach weather.

But that's the point - it's beach weather! And people are going to the beach! In Ireland!

And they are pretty sexy beaches too!

I have to say it's thrown me. People actually flock to Ireland for the surfing. And those are words I never thought I would use together in a sentence. But, my astonishment aside, summer is a helluva busy time in Ireland.

In our Irish hometown of Killarney - summer is big business. In July and August, it is virtually impossible to book a bed if you haven't pre-booked in advance, which doesn't sound that big until you realised that besides Dublin, Killarney has more hotel beds than any other Irish city. Which explains why there are so many businesses in Killarney that only open in the summer months and close the rest of the year.

But besides the rush - I love our town. Despite the tourist traps, Killarney is a very cute little town, with two...that's two awesome ice cream shops (one who sells sea-salt ice cream which is ridiculously delicious), my little favourite candy shop (seriously, I would come to Killarney just for the candy), the best fish and chips in Ireland (and perhaps the UK) and a cute little cinema. Plant a Lush down in the center of town and I would be a happy little camper. 

Touristy or not, there is so much to do here and even through the busy-working-way-too-hard periods, there is still so much I want to do. Although there seems to be a conspiracy against me and my camera because we have had nothing but sun for the last three weeks - right up until I pull out my camera. Then we get clouds, or rain, or buckets of rain. Perhaps my camera is a magically bad-weather machine and if so perhaps I should market it online and retire a millionaire. 

Seriously...the sun was shining a minute ago!

Regardless the summer days do have a definite downside. My awesome loft room which is a staff perk also happens to have the boiler in it. Which in winter keeps the room nice and warm and in summer...sucks major balls. Also it turns out twisting your ankle in four story building with no elevator is pretty dumb. Even dumber if your only mode of transport is walking.

But hey! We are still meeting awesome people, making friends, saving money and chilling out (in the non-literal sense) in Ireland, so it's not all bad. And a cool little county fair has rocked into town with rides and games and I seriously can't wait to go. As soon as this stupid ankle heals.

Until then I guess I can just binge watch Avatar :)

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