My husband and I celebrated our second year anniversary in Ireland earlier this year. We were intrigued by the culture, atmosphere and energy that we are missing in parts of the US. To our amazement, we enjoyed delicious healthy meals and learned much about the Irish’s lifestyle that we can all learn to adopt in the US.
Gluten free friendly and allergy friendly
I was surprised to find Ireland to be a very gluten free friendly country. To my amaze, many restaurants, cafe’s, bistro’s all readily had gluten free alternatives which I absolutely adored. I didn’t feel like I was deprived on vacation and actually indulged in new gluten free treasures.
Fresh dairy
Their dairy is as fresh as can be. There are no preservatives, added hormones or genetically modified anything to their dairy. Everything is naturally organic without even having to be spelled out. Many families have their own cattle which they heard and use for milk. I didn’t see many people with dairy allergies. Although, I’m sure it does exist as well.
Tea rooms galore!
The Irish love their tea! Whether it’s herbal, black, green or traditional Irish breakfast, you can find a tea room anywhere which is nice because we stopped in random small towns all over the country after driving for hours. It was refreshing to get a cup of nice warm tea!
Value Family
They value work but value family time more. Most stores were closed By 5:00, and naturally us Americans were appalled. But understanding why they do this is important. Having that family work life balance is important. In America we embody overworked, over stressed culture and in Ireland they value family. We need to adopt more of this balance so we can remain stress free and prevent burn out.
They conserve energy
Conserving energy is very much the Irish Culture. They conserve water with their flushing. They also have solar powers panels in many homes as well as wind mills producing alternative energy sources all over the country. We need to take heed and learn from them to protect our environment and preserve nature and our ecosystem.
