Amber and Daniel's European Tour 2007

Its funny how you take little things for granted when you live somewhere for so long... customs, food, signposts, weather.... things like that. This is what I miss the most:

1. Number one is signposts/street signs and all types of signs in general.

Ireland is really bad when it comes to directions and signage (lack of). Some places have tiny little plaques to show the name of the entire estate but there are no street signs or anything to show you how to get there. When pulling up at bus stops, you have no idea where you are because there is no names on the bus stop, or numbers. We had a lot of trouble looking for streets and houses when we were to view houses for accommodation and had to continually ask people where the hell we were. This is the same when we were doing our touristy thing in Dublin, Galway, and Cork. All the street signs are located 20 metres up on the wall of the buildings on each corner, either that or they are faded and can't be read or in Gaelic or some don't even have one at all!

2. Pumpkin.

Yeah, so your probably thinking, I can do without it, its not so spesh, its not that great. Yeah, well, your wrong!! We miss it!! Because we are always on the go over here, we buy meals that are quick to cook. We search the aisles for soups and we find tomato, carrot, potato and leek, potato and leek and carrot, tomato and leek and carrot and potato (you get the idea!) but no Pumpkin!! What's the go Ireland???!!

3. Vegemite.

Man, do I miss Vegemite!! You can only buy it in London at the Aussie shop. I should of really got some. We have eaten like 4 containers of peanut butter while we have been here, but its no where near as good. It just doesn't fill the void...*sob*...no rosy cheeks here :-(

4. Biscuits.

Strange hey, but there biscuit range here suck! They have this new craze here all to do with "digestives" which are like out Wheatons, they are gross and they try to mask this by dipping one side in chocolate... not good enough. They have the same biscuit everywhere just in different brands. We have found a digestive with a layer of caramel and chocolate, they are not too bad, but no comparison to a good old Kingston or a Tim Tam *droolz*

5. Local Produce.

All fruit and veg over here is the product of somewhere else. We've had grapes from Egypt, bananas from Columbia and Apples from France. Everything is imported.

6. Steak... or any real meat for that matter.

We are craving real meat! They have crappy standards for meat over here and ridiculously expensive pricetags on them. Alot of their meat would never get sold in Australia as it is bruised and old looking, but they are used to it over here. We couldn't afford a Scotch Fillet over here as it is about 30euro/kilo! and its horrible looking. We are craving a barbecue so bad, I'd even eat a sausage sandwich if it was given to me but all the sausages over here are made of pork and taste gross.

7. The weather.

It is meant to be Summer here, but we have not had one whole day of sunshine since we have been here. Sometimes we have a glimmer of hope and it appears that the sun breaks through the clouds but 15 minutes later its pouring rain again. So miserable! I don't know how people put up with this all year round because it only gets colder in Winter. Everybody keeps saying that it will be warm soon, but I will believe it when I see it! And I wanna see it for longer than a day to believe it too!!

8. Manners

Nobody says please or thankyou here, especially when you open a door or hold it open for them, they say nothing. It may be a little silly of me to get annoyed at something so little, but it really peeves me. It doesn't take alot just to say thankyou. So I don't even bother anymore, once I'm through the door, I don't care if it smacks them in the nose. They have no manners.

I will think of some more (there will be more for sure) and let you know...to be continued..........