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We all have those little annoyances. Things that aren’t really a big deal, and shouldn’t bug you but they do. Pet peeves - or pet hates as they are known here in Ireland. When I’m grumpy, I can write a pretty long list of pet peeves... People who say “literally” when what they mean is not literal. People who sit next to you on public transportation even when there are other seats available. When something I've been into for a long time becomes popular. People who scuff their feet as they walk down the street, especially if they’re wearing UGGs. Passive aggressive cc’ing on emails. People who don’t know how to get through airport security efficiently. It’s been 15 years. You know you have to take your goddamn shoes off and can’t have liquids and get your computer out of your bag.
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Case in point: What’s the craic? The Irish’s routine greeting. You’ll hear it in pubs, on street corners, over tea at work. I’m convinced you would even hear it in crèches (aka daycares) so that children learn it as part of their essential Irish upbringing (but I didn’t have time to research this officially). Unfortunately, the word is pronounced just like the English word “crack”, giving rise to potential awkward misunderstandings for tourists, especially those unaccustomed to this Irish turn of phrase.
It is used so frequently, I have secretly wondered if tourists sometimes think the country is teeming with drug addicts, searching high and low in every pub and meeting place for a bit of “craic”. Personally, I would love to use the word craic but when sliding off my lips, it comes across as a nasty violation of linguistics instead of hip greeting. Regrettably, I had to try it once to learn that lesson the hard way.  Perhaps the only beverage the Irish drink more often than beer is hot tea. No matter the occasion, there will certainly be a teapot filled with the caffeinated elixir of traditional Barry’s tea nearby. At Firefly (the company where I’m working in Ireland), my colleagues sit down for a cuppa religiously at 11am every morning. Given the prominence of tea in Ireland and its sacred relationship to cake, it is no wonder I can’t go a day without a sweet passing by my lips.
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Nice to meet you...I'm Andi (hence the blog name). I'm a travel aficionado, passionate eater, tireless explorer of internet rabbit-holes, and amateur thinker. Join me as I give it all up (ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration) and go around the world on a mid-career "soul sabbatical" & year-of-learning to figure out what to be NEXT when I grow up. Won’t you grab a cup of chai and stay a while?
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May 2018
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