Ireland

It seemed like everything we heard and hoped might be true
We got a ride right away and she took us to the dunes
And we fell asleep to the sounds of a carnival
From a village further down the beach

We woke up the next morning on a bed of tiny flowers,
Packed the tent and went to get somethin' to eat
We bought a cheap jar of peanut butter and a loaf of fresh white bread,
We made sandwiches on the beach; life doesn't get any better than this

We walked in for free to the first castle that we found
It was empty, it was late, it became our campground
And we spotted a tent and we met another camper
And he told us his sad story--

Well he had been dumped by a girl that he loved and he told us not to worry
You can camp anywhere, no one's gonna care; why would they?
"It's not like this at home," we told him, "you know"
He said your home's so far away

We went west all the way 'til the land ran out
We slept at an empty house in the middle of a tiny town
We met a man at a crossroads who said it was his dream to someday come to Bloomington
We thought it was funny because for you and me, it was our dream to be here in Ireland

He was a big fan of John Melloncamp; we told him everything we knew about him
We invited him to come and stay at our house; when we got to our stop he didn't want us to get out
We stayed the night at the house of a guy from Albany
He was glad to meet Americans; he made us spaghetti

We met a man who said he was a doctor and he took us on some of his house calls
He taught us the best way to get a donkey to come to you is not to pay them any attention at all
And I crawled to the edge and peeked over my head and looked down to the sea
It was two thousand feet to the water below; it looked so blue, it looked so deep

And don't ever let 'em tell you that it rains in Ireland
Well if they tell you that you can be sure they've never been
'Cause the sun is always shinin' and the hills are always green
And people are always smilin' and offerin' you drinks

We'd set up our tent on the cliffs right by the sea
Almost every night and the waves rocked us to sleep
The postman from Wales and his friend from England
Bought us fries at the westernmost pub

We sat with them and two others we'd met
And we all watched the postman get drunk
And at first the Burren might seem like a waste land of broken stones
Look in the cracks and you'll see there's a secret there that grows

And Galway City really feels a lot like home
We went through Connemara and up to Sligo
And at the Slieve League we wouldn't see anything;
We decided that we should turn back

The mist was so thick that we couldn't find our feet
And the trail was called Deadman's Pass
On one side it was three thousand feet down to the ocean
The other was two thousand feet to the ground

And anyway our time was running out

And we crossed the country in less than a day
Our last ride to Dublin asked us the same things
They asked if we had any kin from Ireland;
They were surprised when we said no

When I said I didn't drink and hadn't tried the Guinness yet
They were the first ones to say, "way to go"
And as our ferry was leaving the Emerald Isle behind
We were already making our plans to come back sometime

And don't ever let 'em tell you that it rains in Ireland
Well if they tell you that you can be sure they've never been
'Cause the sun is always shinin' and the hills are always green
And people are always smilin' and offerin' you drinks