AlexG's Full Review: Tony Hawks - Round Ireland With a Fridge Books
I’ve never been to Ireland. After reading this book, Ireland certainly moved up on my “to see” list. I learned a lot about the country—not about its history, not about its tourist attractions. I learned a lot about its people in a way that few books and travel guides would reveal.
I hereby bet Tony Hawks the sum of One Hundred Pounds that he cannot hitch hike round the circumference of Ireland, with a fridge, within one calendar month.
This is how the journey began. Tony Hawks, an Englishman from London, made a drunken bet with his friend and embarked on the adventure of his life—round Ireland…with a fridge. Never mind that the fridge alone cost more money than the prize of the bet.
After landing in Dublin, the starting and ending point of his trip, where he picked up a refrigerator, Tony put his destiny in the hands of Irish drivers. However, shortly prior to hitting the road, Tony had dropped a note about his adventure into The Gerry Ryan Show—a national morning radio program. Gerry Ryan got excited about the absurdity of Tony’s idea, and with one phone call the country was mobilized in Tony’s support.
Hitch hiking with a fridge presents certain problems, one of which is that the drivers may think that the hitchhiker is insane or just out of the hospital for the mentally challenged, making their desire to stop for such a person a very remote possibility. It’s also easy to imagine the following conversation of two people in a car…
--“Was that a fridge?”
--“What?”
--“That guy back there-hitching-did he have a fridge with him?”
--“You’re tired, darling. Stop in a minute and I’ll take over the driving.”
Yet, despite all the odds, Tony made it from Dublin, by way of “the absolutely bloody marvelous” Donegal Town, to Bunbeg in the Donegal county. One of the requirements of the bet was to reach Tory Island, which turned out to be a problem because the ferry was unavailable for several days. Tony’s new Irish friends, taking the matter seriously, “almost” convinced the Ministry of Defense in Dublin to authorize the use of the Air Corps helicopter to fly Tony to the island as if it was a matter of national importance. And who says it wasn’t?
Tony’s trip hit a new gear when he was invited to appear on the Live At Three TV program, which for some reason was broadcasted in the middle of nowhere in Northern Ireland—not far from the reassuring and comforting sign with a picture of a man in baklava and the words “SNIPER AT WORK.”
More crazy activities followed. In Sligo, Tony took the fridge wave surfing—“a magnificent victory for Man and Domestic Appliance over the turbulent and untamed sea.” In Westport, the fridge got christened, baptized and later blessed by Mother Superior from the convent of Benedictine nuns. In Letterfrack, Tony and the fridge spent a sleepless night in a hostel room with a fellow whose snoring reached the level, which would have won him medals in the European Championships. In Wexford, Tony made up for that sleepless night by having a night to remember in the doghouse with a girl from New Zealand. This all culminated in Tony’s triumphant entry (a title he considered for the chapter outlined in the previous sentence) into the capital city.
Round Ireland with a fridge is one of the funniest travel books I have ever read. It is extremely well written. It is smart and educational. I couldn’t control my laughter at times while reading it on my way to and from work in the NYC subway. It is that funny. It is a perfect book for any traveler with a sense of humor.
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