Ireland

 Ireland is a beautiful country and truly green, but most of all, the people are friendly and very welcoming. I went there in October of 2025 and stayed for only 2-1/2 weeks, but that was enough. I'm finding that my trip are getting shorter as I get older. There's so much hassle to travel today, mainly trying to deal with airports and the fact that everything is done online with an iPhone through apps and QR codes. Also, I feel like I have to preplan all my overnights or I won't get a place to sleep other than in a very expensive hotel room. 

I got a bed and breakfast on Homefarm Rd that wasn't very far from the airport and I just took the 19 bus to get to the house. It was also convenient to downtown, with a bus stop right outside her door. But though the room was convenient to downtown Dublin, the room wasn't big enough for me to swing a mouse. There was so much clutter in what felt like an 8 x 8 cell, I had to stack all the extra stuff from the room in the hallway outside my door just so I could move around. It was an old-fashioned place, stuffed with antiques and framed photos with linens covering all the furniture. It's my last Air BnB.

Dublin is an interesting city with loads of sites. I took the Hop On Hop Off Bus and had a great day. The bus stops at places like Trinity College, St. Stephen's Park, the Guiness Factory and so on, and you can get off and stay as long as you like at one site before boarding the bus again when you're finished. A bus comes every 20 minutes to the same stop and you continue on to the next site. What was also great about it were the spiels given by the bus drivers, some of whom gave a detailed history of the city and and weren't timid about slagging the British. All innuendos, of course. I didn't meet any British people while I was there and I got the impression they're not looked upon that favorably.   

Liffey Bridge

Temperance Bar