It’s official, we Irish are creatures of habit and we enjoy our home comforts so much that we take them with us on holidays. Teabags and Tayto crisps are the main items of food we stuff into our suitcases before we jet off to the sun, but what else do we Irish do on our holidays?
You can spot us a mile off, and we could pick each other out of a crowd of thousands, as Al pointed out;
“When I worked in New York Paula you could walk through Times Square, and in the thousands of people walking, you'd spot the Irish head coming against you and he/she would spot you too. There’d be a how's it going nod. Spot the bacon and cabbage head anywhere!” - Al
Here are some more things we do on our vaycay, as suggested by the listeners of The Early Breakfast this morning;
- “Saying it’ll turn to tan!”
- "We bring our own teabags, which doesn't really matter because the tea is ruined because of the manky milk which we complain about!"
- “We pick up everything in the shop, saying they have that over here, OMG! Like they are some kind of backwards country that wouldn't have Coco Pops!”
- “Paula I really do complain about the quality of the milk whenever I go on holidays. Are their cows that different? Manky!” – Cathal
- “We Irish head for the nearest Irish pub, which apart from the name on the door, has absolutely nothing to do with Ireland! It’ll be called The Shamrock, or Shenanigans or The Lucky Leprechaun but it’s usually owned by Jose, Pedro or Antonio and will be normally double the price for a drink than the bar next door.” – Jim
- “We obsessively check the weather app for weeks before going away. As if the weather would be the same 6 weeks after we start checking!”
- “Paula my husband wears his Cork jersey almost every day when we’re on holidays. Just in case people don’t know he’s Irish (you can spot one of our own a mile off) – he insists on wearing the jersey everywhere. He barely wears it at home!” – Pamela in Wexford
- “Paula I am 41 years old and I have 2 teenage daughters...every year we go away and get a braid in our hair. It screams WE ARE TOURISTS but it’s something we’ve always done since the girls were little. I thought they’d get embarrassed and grow out of wanting it but still going strong! Love the show!” - Grace, Limerick
- “Paula. We’re the only nation that actually stays in bed on holidays. We missed breakfast almost every morning on holidays last month. We’d arrive down to the pool by about midday and people there would have a day’s work done!” – Fionn, Dublin
- “Paula if I heard one more complaint about how he missed potatoes, I’d have killed him. We were in Thailand for a month earlier this year and guess what? They don’t eat a whole lot of spuds there. You’d swear he might have died from potato shortage!”
- “Paula whatever about complaining about lack of spuds, what about the terrible Guinness abroad? We still order it though, even if it is just to complain about how it’s not the same!”
- “Hi Paula. Every year I go on holiday I spend a day in bed with damn sun stroke. It's just a given. Good morning!” Sean – Sean please mind your skin!!
- “Paula as a female it’s easy to spot the other women from Ireland on holidays because we all shop in Penneys! We all have the same bikinis, sarongs, sundresses and flip flops!”
- “Paula, soup. I looked for any soup in Turkey even though it was 40 degrees celcius, they thought I was cracked but made it for me!” - Frank heading for the big smoke
- “Hi Paula, guaranteed when on holidays you will come across the customary Mayooooo jersey and O'Neills shorts!” – or any GAA jersey and shorts!
- “Anyone else get eaten alive by the local wildlife? Myself, my partner and our children look like lepers any time we’re away. Nothing works!”
- “What about praying and blessing yourself before the plane takes off?...my granny loves that one!”
- “Clap when the plane lands.” Lads, I’ve never experienced this and I never want to!
- “Being in a place for a week and never engaging with the local culture or language!”
- “Paula, talking about not engaging in local culture, I know a guy who went to Vilamoura for 10 days and ate at McDonalds every day!”
- “Paula having to point at the menu as they haven’t a breeze what you’re saying and waiting to see what kind of surprise arrives!”
Find the nearest Lidl or Euro spar
— ivan whyte (@luckylipsy85) August 1, 2017
" there has to be some bar with the hurling on "
— Shaymoose (@fullytogged) August 1, 2017
@sweetpmac Just caught end of show ..
I got this text from my boss last Friday literally as soon as he stepped off plane in Spain 😠#hols pic.twitter.com/2orlnE5Ygi— Maura O'Neill (@MauraONeill1) August 1, 2017
Find the nearest Irish bar and have a pint of Guinness and sing rebel songs both of which you never do in Ireland
— D-Lam (@DanielLamont86) August 1, 2017
@sweetpmac. Ya can't beat the broken as Gaeilge conversations so the locals/other tourists can't hear ya🙈😂. #irishabroad
— Siobhain O'Shea (@sooshea) August 1, 2017
