Hammer Checks-In from IRELAND

**Nigel** (0:05)
You're listening to The Hammer and Nigel Show.
My name is Nigel, happy to have Brian Alvey, longtime friend of the show, military veteran, all American badass filling in for Hammer, who is... I'm assuming, Hammer, you have a buzz right now in Ireland because you are five hours ahead of us, which is not that terribly late. But I got a picture of you at the pub with your two boys at noon, my time, or maybe it was nine o'clock my time, I forget when it was. How is Ireland? How you feeling? How's your buzz?

**Hammer** (0:44)
So I've learned a couple of key cultural things here, Nigel. First of all, thank you to all the filling hosts that have been filling in.
Brian Alvey is there today, so it should be business as usual. There's a loud obnoxious drunk from the south side there.

**Brian Alvey** (0:59)
I got you, brother.

**Hammer** (1:02)
But I've learned these things, Nigel. If you get really drunk and give somebody a head butt, it's called a Glasgow kiss.
If you pass gas in someone's face, it's called cutting an Irish rose. And it's normal for there to be bottle openers above the toilet in every hotel. So you could crack open a beer, sit down, take care of business, and you don't miss a beat.

**Brian Alvey** (1:32)
I think you just described my Mecca.

**Nigel** (1:36)
This is Brian Alvey's Mecca. So where are you staying? Several you've been there for like seven or eight days now.
Are you just staying in the countryside? Are you staying in one place? Have you stayed in several different places? And by the way, I've heard Northern Ireland is a little bit of turmoil right now. You're not anywhere near that, are you?

**Hammer** (1:56)
Oh, we're going there on Friday. Friday through Sunday when we leave, we got a little road trip to Belfast.

**Nigel** (2:03)
You're kidding me.

**Hammer** (2:05)
Your boy is gonna put his war paint on, go up there and see what happens when you have a few drinks. But no, we've been part of this tour. It's a graduation gift for our youngest where we've gone like two days in each city around Ireland, kind of making the big scenic loop. And then we end up up in Northern Ireland, which is Belfast.
And that's kind of the route we've been taking. OK.

**Nigel** (2:32)
And so how has your interaction been with the locals? Like, I'm assuming you're going to heavily like heavily touristy type areas. Are the locals accepting it? It seems like some of your tour guides that you've showcased on Facebook and social media have been pretty fun to be around.

**Hammer** (2:52)
Nigel, I thought you and I drank a lot.
But when I start speaking to the locals, I realize we're the JV game, man. Like these dudes go hard in the paint. And there's one thing that I think brings Americans and the Irish together. Because like you, Nigel, I was concerned. What's the perception of Americans? Are we spoiled? Are we fat? Are we entitled? The one thing that all the Irish locals say is, at least you're not the French.

**Nigel** (3:25)
I love it. Yes, at least we're not the French.

**Brian Alvey** (3:29)
Well, I guess if you're riding on a curve, that's sort of OK. That puts you way down.

**Hammer** (3:35)
And I get it, man. There's a bunch of like French tourists. Like, you know, you run into them. They don't understand the whole personal space thing. Like, I was on an elevator and then some French dude comes in there. We're the only two people in there. But he's like spooning with me like that close to the corner.
And it just makes you wonder, why is it the group of people that smell the worst, the ones that want to be the closest to you?

**Brian Alvey** (4:00)
Am I the only one having a flashback from that scene on the train in Euro trip? Me scoozie, me scoozie with the Italian guy spooning up on everybody. That's what I see right now. So I hope you feel OK.

**Nigel** (4:10)
I will say, the past few days, we've had some excellent weather here in Indy. We're going through some inclement stuff tonight. Just got off the phone with Jim O'Brien not too long ago from Fox 59 What's the weather like? Like it's June in Ireland, but I see you guys wearing hoodies and sweatpants and stuff like that. It doesn't seem like it's like summer, summertime there.

**Hammer** (4:38)
So they pretty much stay consistent year round. It doesn't get too hot. It doesn't get too cold in the morning. You know, it's anywhere from 40 to 50 by the afternoon, 60 Maybe you get into the 70s.