The Home Exchanger

Last Minute Listing: Ireland for the Bay Area

The Intervac members who own this home, near Galway - one of the best cities in Ireland to visit and home to arguably the best traditional Irish music - are looking to do a home swap in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are looking to exchange for 3-6 weeks in May and June of this year.

The home sleeps four and has three bedrooms and three baths.  To see more Intervac listings available for home exchange in 2006 in the Ireland area, click here.

Home Exchange Arranged: Ireland for Florida

Here's another example of someone looking for a specific home exchange and getting it.  The Intervac members who own this home in Tampa, Florida wanted to spend their vacation in Drogheda, a small city in Ireland.  Drogheda is near New Grange, an ancient burial site that is really something to see (just bring your umbrella and expect to stand around outside for hours waiting for your turn inside).  Drogheda is also home to Evanna Lynch, the lucky girl who beat out 15,000 others to play Luna Lovegood in the next Harry Potter movie. In fact, Drogheda sounds like a city JK Rowling would use in her books.

Anyway, the US members DID find a home exchange in Drogheda for this summer. They will be trading homes with the Irish Intervac members who own this home. They signed a very thorogh agreement. The only advice I have is don't go to the Drogheda  restaurant we did - it was awful!

Three-Way Home Exchange Completed Successfully

We've heard from a long-time member in Hawaii that he recently returned from a three-way home swap involving him, an Intervac member in Connecticut and an Intervac member in Ireland. While these are difficult to arrange, they certainly can be done as proven by this home exchange vacation.

The couple in Connecticut really wanted to stay in Hawaii, but the couple in Hawaii wanted to travel to Ireland. So once the Connecticut members found out from the Hawaiians when they wanted to visit Ireland, the Connecticut couple took the initiative to contact Irish Intervac members about an exchange during those dates. They then told the Irish families that it would the Hawaiians --not them-- that would be staying in their house.

It was a smashing success. The Irish family were able to explore New York City from their comfortable suburban base. The Connecticut couple got their dream vacation in Hawaii. And the Hawaiian couple were able to stay in the Dublin suburb of Bray for free. They visited the Kennedy Center in Ireland and tracked back information about where their grandfather left from, where he arrived at and what boat he was on while emigrating from Ireland.

This year, the couple from Hawaii are interested in finding a house swap in Washington, DC.

Home Swapping Hindsight is 20/20

What could have been done better on our home swap?

1. I would have arranged better the transfer of keys upon return (I just focused on the key-exchanging in the beginning). 

2. I would have cooked more. More money could have been saved. But we really enjoyed the food and eating out.

3.  I would have bought my plane tickets earlier.  They were expensive.

4. I would have pre-booked our hotel in Cork for our mini-break. It was expensive.

Learning about Irish culture via home exchanging

The queries we received from our home exchange partner about our garbage disposal were priceless.  She asked, "Where does it all go?"  "You just put anything in there and it disappears?" Clearly, garbage disposals are not the rage in Ireland.

This is the sort of insight into another country that is difficult to get without meeting some of the natives or living in their houses. That's what home swapping is supposed to do. Other things we learned on our two week home trade in Europe was that most of the Irish get by just fine without clothes dryers (or garbage disposals, for that matter). We also wondered why that most wonderful of European item, the towel warmer, is not common over here. Love those things!

And of course, that sneaking suspicion that most people in the United States have that the Irish are a friendly, outgoing bunch blessed with the gift of the gab was reinforced with many personal experiences.

Coming Home

After a long trip, we were excited to get home. Until I remembered that I did not tell our home swap partner what to do with our keys ! That was a silly mistake...remember to do that on your home exchange.

We had left our home swap partner's keys with their next-door neighbor, who gave us a ride to the airport bus.  But I didn't tell our partners that we only have one house key - and they had it.  So when we got home, my husband was able to force a door open. We had to tell the alarm service that everything was OK.  Whoops!! Our keys were on the kitchen counter.

Our home looked like a professional cleaning service had cleaned it - everything was sparkling and pretty. It looked better than when we left it. Fresh sheets, flowers and a nice card were all provided.  Lovely!

Irish Food is Surprisingly Good

As we prepare to leave, I am sort of disappointed that we did not cook more. I was counting on cooking at our home exchange partner's home as a way to save money. What we didn't realize was how delicious the restaurants are here. And I'm not talking about the splurges - the two expensive restaurants we ate in that we had budgeted for - I am talking about inexpensive restaurants (under 20 Euros for lunch or dinner). Every restaurant we have been to (except for the one in Drogheda) has been of good quality. So why cook when such good food is readily available?

Some highlights: the farmer's market in Dun Loughrie for wonderful Irish cheeses and some of the best sausages I have ever had, Table 8 and Cibo in Cork for modern Irish food (think cabbage and corn beef pizza - no really, it was yummy!), T & H Doolans in Waterford for a tasty pub meal, and the Quay in Cobh for fresh seafood. Some restaurants were recommended by guidebooks and locals, some not.

I think the high quality of the produce and meat are partially to be credited, but there is some innovative and delicious cooking being done here. So Irish chefs - kudos! You have made my pocketbook lighter (and my waistband tighter) but it was all worth it.

Next week: diet and exercise begin. Click here for a video extolling the virtues of Irish Soda Bread.

Cleaning Up

One thing about doing a home swap is you need to clean up your home before you leave - the rule of thumb is to leave it better than you found it. Our home was super clean and tidy to begin with - and I am kind of anal when it comes to cleaning, so this home was a good match for me. We have cleaned as we go, so there's not too much work to be done at the end.

Here's what I did: I vacuumed the whole house, cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen and did laundry so our home exchange partners would have fresh sheets and towels when they arrive home. Other than that, not too much to do. Total time: about 2 hours.

Driving Across Ireland...

...is exhausting! The combination of being on the wrong side of the road and the narrow two-lanes roads led to driving fatigue for Josh, our designated driver. Luckily our home swap partner's car, a VW Passat, is a comfortable ride.

We started to head out of Cork this morning with the plan to get back to Dublin tonight.  However, fun sidetrips to Blarney Castle (yes, the tourist trap that everyone tells you to avoid - but I loved it), the port of Cobh - where many Irish emigrants departed from by ships (including the doomed Titanic and Lusitiana)  and Fota House, a beautiful grounds and house with an exhibit by Daniel Liebskind, the famed architect.

By the time we really started driving, too much traffic and slow trucks took their toll. So we decided to stay in Waterford, which is two hours away from Dublin. We will finish our journey tomorrow morning.

Click here to see video of our sidetrip to Bray.

Tourist Ireland vs. Real Ireland

Last night in Cork we did a pub crawl through Ireland, with the purpose of seeing traditional Irish music.  We went to three different pubs and saw an Irish balladeer who was quite good, a band in a pub that was apparently just for Americans (the band leader yelled out at one point "Is anyone here from Kansas?" and a girl shouted back  "Kansas City is in the house!") and best of all a group of Irish musicians jamming and singing in Gaelic.

The experience was a reminder that although we have been to a number of tourist sights, we haven't really felt like tourists because we are living in the midst of an Irish neighborhood and have dealt mainly with locals. We have had lively conversations with the people we have encountered. Everyone has been so warm and hospitable.