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3)Listen to the music

The Irish love music, which I base on the fact that they pipe it into all the restaurants, buses, trains, shopping malls and every other indoor public place. Now while it may be true that in the US we do the same (except maybe buses), the Irish don't just go for innocuous elevator music or soft classical background music (except in the nicer restaurants) - they like pop music. Especially in the buses. Europop, dance, trance, contemporary American pop (Britney and Christina are popular), classic 80s pop (Lots of Lionel Richie and Huey Lewis) and also angst filled 80s ballads remixed as modern dance tunes (think "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (remember that one?) heavily reworked with lots of repetition and a heavy and fast dance beat. Very cool). The two biggest Irish pop bands are Westlife and Girls Aloud. I think Girls Aloud is from Ireland (Maybe UK)- they are really popular there anyway. Westlife is definitely from Ireland, Dublin specifically I think. If you want good traditional pub music go to Cobblestone, north of the River Liffey near the chimney lookout tower where the old distillary used to be. They have live musicians playing old Irish tunes and, while it is crowded, it is mostly locals. North of the Liffey is a little dangerous after night so go with a friend or two. I went with some professors from New York that were also staying at my hotel.

4)Remember the storey convention

That is stories as in levels of a house. If someone from the UK or Ireland says "You are on the first floor," you are actually one story up from what an American would think of as the first floor. They call the first floor the ground floor. So in the elevators (when they have them in newer hotels) the ground floor is marked with a "0", the next with a "1" and so on.

5)Be a young woman travelling alone

This is also true in Scotland actually. Here in Ireland I barely ever had to carry my bag, because just as I started to heave it up the stairs (they never had lifts here in the old hotels- elevators I mean) a cute Irish bloke would appear out of nowhere and offer to carry it for me. So nice! In Dublin my room was 133, which I thought meant the first floor. I had forgotton the storey convention as illustrated above, so actually that meant the second floor. So when a nice Irish lad offered to carry my bag I accepted. Turned out that number meant HOUSE 1 (the hotel was a converted row of Georgian houses) FLOOR 3 ROOM 3. For those of you following along you know that what they call the 3rd floor I would call the FOURTH floor. What I'm saying is my room was MUCH higher up then I thought. The stairs just went up and up, and not just up but over and up, getting narrower all the time. I told my gallant assistant that he was free to stop toting my bag at any time when I realized how high up it must be but like a gentleman he persevered. So I didn't have to carry it at all! Such a nice guy! So yeah, be a woman traveling alone. People carry your bags, buy you food and drink, and in my Bed and Breakfast in Scotland they even made me dinner free! It's great!

6)St Paddy's Day tips

If you're staying in a hotel, look for the bowl of cut shamrock sprigs and safety pins in the morning. They usually offer them. Don't wear tons of green (like I said) unless you don't mind being labeled as a tourist. If you want to meet the locals party the night before St. Patrick's Day. According to the radio and the people in the hotel bar, Irish people celebrate on the night of the 16th, because they get the 17th off from work so they can recover then. The have to work the day after so they don't party that night. I met some people from London in the taxi to the airport who came over St. Paddy's day morning, partied all day and all night and went home the next day. They told me they didn't meet a single Irish person. Lots of Germans, Australians, Britains, and other tourists but no locals. I can assure you the Dubliners were sure having a good time on Wednesday, though! I could hear it from my window. I wasn't out there, honestly!

So visit Ireland. Stay in the big city first (though they consider them all big - even Glaway, which I thought was kinda small. Even Dublin is smaller than San Francisco, which isn't huge), then get smaller and smaller. I loved staying in Cashel, which was tiny. You could really get to know it in the small ammount of time I had though. Beautiful Irealnd. I love it all!