Travel Gripes

Baggage Apes

I am back from a week long journey to my native country of Ireland.  It was a fantastic trip that covered most of the southern Irish cities and countryside.  We hit Dublin, Bunclody in the county of Wexfod and Killarney with it's Rings of Kerry.  We also had the opportunity to see Notre Dame play Navy while in Dublin.  All I have to say is it was FANTASTIC!  Thanks to Greg Paulson and Paulson Tours we all had a great time.  Now, you are thinking this is The Right To Gripe so why isn't he complaining?  Actually, I only had one Gripe with the trip and that was with the luggage handlers at JFK.  To them I say "F*#@ You, you filthy bastards.  These slack jawed baggage monkeys ripped the crap out of my suitcase and my son's.  Mine was ripped so bad I had to shrink wrap and tape it closed for the trip back to the states.  These blunt skulled apes have no regard for people's property which is exhibited with the way they throw suitcases around.  I watched them load the carts that they use to drive out to the planes.  These clowns actually throw the suitcases on the carts like they were bales of hay.  When I got to Dublin Airport and saw my suitcase, I almost went postal!  ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME!  I fly for 6.5 hours and I get this!  I wanted to explode all over the airport, however I kept my cool since I didn't want to get hauled away to the local hoosegow in a foreign country.  That would not have been good.

During my trip throughout this grand nation, I had a chance to notice a few things and reflect on the similarities or differences that we Americans have with the Irish.  An example is trash and littering.  On the streets of Ireland you will be hard pressed to find any trash.  Here is the U.S., our streets are strewn with trash.  The inconsiderate pigs here will open their car windows and toss their garbage right to the road side.  Hell, they will toss an entire sofa to the side in a secluded spot.  I also noticed how friendly the Irish are when you pass them on the street.  The look you straight in the eyes and say hello.  Here, people will lower their heads and walk right by.  If you do say hello to them all they do is grunt and click like a neanderthal.  This drives me nuts!  I always try to say hello but rarely get one back.  While in Ireland, I also noticed that they keep their old, historical buildings up and available to tour.  Here, we can't wait to get a bulldozer to them to rip them down.  We rode on a double decker bus one day to get to an attraction and the entire time the driver was giving us a moving history of the buildings we passed.  It was great.  That got me thinking.  What type of tour could we give people who come to Wilkes-Barre?  That is what our next Gripe will cover.  The top 5 tourist attractions of Wilkes-Barre.