Vacation Culture Shock

We're leaving for Ireland in four days and I know that once again, Tim and I will encounter the worst culture shock we've ever experienced. Not from the Irish, they're wonderful and friendly and, from all we found during our last trip, truly make good on the "Land of 1,000 Welcomes" idea. The culture shock we will face is that of our polarly opposite vacation expectations.

Growing up, vacations with my family were scheduled. We set an alarm every day and got up - usually by 7 - breakfasted and were on the move. We packed more into one vacation than I think most people put into three. And my sister and I enjoyed it. It wasn't awful, nor did we ever feel as if we were being dragged from place to place with a "hurryhurryhurry!" attitude. It was still very relaxed. And at the same time, we saw 17 countries in 28 days one summer.

Tim, on the other hand, is of the opinion that alarms are anathema during vacation. You see what you see and you rest when you feel like it. If you spend half the day in your hotel room, it's not a big deal, because you're on vacation. I don't know if his family vacations were like this - frankly I find that difficult to believe knowing his dad, but then again, I find it imminently believable knowing his mom, so perhaps she just won the vacation plan methodology discussion.

And so, once again, we will endeavor to find the happy medium. You know, the mix between "I did NOT fly to Ireland to sleep half the day away. I could do that at home." and "I do NOT want to get home and need to rest up after my vacation." We struck a good rhythm on our last trip, so I'm hopeful that we'll find it again. But at the same time, we're going back to Ireland because we didn't get to as much as we'd hoped on our last trip. (Now, some of that is due to our unpreparedness for the roads - this time we know better than to assume that 60 miles equates to "about an hour drive".) Regardless...I'm looking forward to it...and don't tell Tim - but I made up an itenerary, scheduled by the half day. There's nothing that says our serendipity can't be scheduled.