Perhaps a good way to start a soi-disant travel blog is with a travel story? Even if it is just a wee little mini break, but anything outside Vienna counts, right? right. Always necessary to get out on occasion...
One reason for this is the first thing I'll note regarding my passport control experiences:
Ireland: Upon noting the visa from my other rather recent visit, asks if I am a regular. I just laughed, and said its just the 3rd time for my whole life (which averages out to once per decade, give or take). He observes that, well, something must be bringing you back...yeah, you're a lot nicer than the Austrians, har har. Which was responded to with a smile and 'well, we try!' and off I be on my merry way to 40-some odd hours of this..yessss! 'Failte' indeed.
Austria: I think I did manage to get a grunt when handing my passport over, right before the ferocious stamping proof of entry into it. I wonder if their particular talent for conducting any manner of transaction without actually speaking is innate or learned...
OK, I digress and won't continue on this for fear of turning the blog title into '10 Things I Hate About the Locals..'..I am sure this exists elsewhere though!
Having the place score higher on the 'niceness' factor scale was a definite asset in making this weekend a perfect tonic for the über-stressy week chock full of meetings preceding it. The final bits were still there as I arrived at the guesthouse and Anssi (of Thai full moon party fame) greeted me collapsed on one side of the door frame, suitcase on the other. buuaaaah. I will also blame this for my other little technobimbo sort of mishaps at the weekend, of which Anssi had a small list...but lest we forget I am not the only one who fell off the sidewalk pre-pint consumption, thank you.
Saturday 'twas a new day! A fine start to a sunny day in Dublin (no, that was not a typo..) is always a good post breakfast visit to the Guinness Brewery! Nothing like a morning pint with a panoramic view over the city. On the practical side, i.e., not to sound like some sort of raging alcoholic it is good to arrive early to avoid the mammoth queues. Sadly, the Jameson distillery was closed, and thus ended the alcohol production tour of Dub.
so the natural next stage is the drinking alcohol side, which was the easy option of Temple Bar. Yes, yes, this is probably the most touristed part of the city, however we seemed to have built in radar to the place and kept wandering into it, as if by default.
And there was always some...er...'live entertainment' as it were...from the standard giddy afternoon debauchery through to the pimping 70's outfits, complete with extra-buffante bulbous afro wigs, a smattering of kilt-clad Scots, mustache-fixated Indian blokes, dancing kickboxers and film-noir style depressives glowering over a Guinness pint. The music was equally as random as the people and trips to the toilets for myself often included encounters with pick-up lines unsuitable for this blog as I hope to keep it at a 'general audience' rating. Also had a bit of a lark as i collected overpriced cheesy souvenirs for St. Pats..which, wrongly, i'll be back here in Vienna for.
Sunday morning brought the rain to make Ireland feel more Ireland-like and the discovery that the gravitational pull to the Temple Bar was also useful for Sunday midday lights meals, tea, coffee and lovely reads about such contrasting topics as global warming and St. Patrick's Day in Chigaco...'what a load of Blarney'. Har.
Pity I missed out on the suggestions from my Irish colleague: Killiney/Darkley for the view, with the Druid's chair pub for a pint with smelly old men and for a good pint in the city centre, McDaid's....on the list for next time I suppose! Slainte!
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