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10th Sep 2016

11 Things that happen when someone gets lost in Ireland

“If you pass that gate, you’ve gone too far.”

Her

We all love a good roadtrip – but sometimes the fun can be interrupted all with one wrong turn.

Whether you’re known for your patience, or are subject to a bit of road rage, you’ll find yourself stalling over the next few steps of every wayward traveller.

Here are 11 things guaranteed to happen when an Irish person gets lost…

A silence falls over the car

Normally you’re all chatter, but the minute you’ve taken a wrong turn it’s all over. Eyes also tend to squint a little… as if that’s going to solve all your problems…

Curse at Google Maps

What’s wrong with this thing? Why is the reception dipping in and out?! Why has the duration time suddenly jumped 40 minutes?

Refuse to ask for directions

There’s always one person who jumps on the first sign of being lost with desperation and they get the evil side-eye. We’re not asking for directions. Not yet.

Look for a road sign…

Only to be greeted by this…

Irish road signs

Well that clears NOTHING up…

Ring someone for help

Didn’t mammy say she’d taken this road before? No, your roommate’s boyfriend was lost down this way a couple of weeks ago. Best ring them so. They can definitely direct you…

Have a fight with your co-passengers

It’s inevitable. You’re all a little tense.

And if it’s starting to get dark, you can be guaranteed there’s one person silently eyeing up the back seat as a bed for the night.

Look like a creep

You finally accept you need to ask a local. So you start driving by, at a ridiculously slow crawl, rolling the window down… not creepy at all…

You’ve wandered into no-man’s land

Only to realise that now you want help, there’s not a single person within a 100 mile radius. Where is everybody?

“Is anyone out there? Can anyone hear me?”

And when you do find someone…

You’re just told where not to go. “If you pass that gate, you’ve gone too far”. “Don’t pass those crossroads, that’s the way back out of town”…

Just when you finally start making headway…

You pass the same landmark you drove past twenty minutes ago. Patience is a virtue. And you might just curse under your breath a few times.

But you finally do get there

Meaning when people ask how your journey was, you of course lie.

Your response includes terrible traffic, insisting it was grand and being sure to add that “we made it here, that’s all that matters”.

Lead image via RTÉ