Rarely Pure & Never Simple

Today was the day I wanted to see the infamous Kilmainham Gaol. It is one of those places everyone says you must see, but by the time I got around to buying tickets, they had already been sold out. I read online that they release a few every morning, so over coffee, I found two tickets for that morning. Kilmainham Gaol is the center stage for the creation of modern Ireland. It is a…

Dublin is much closer to Philadelphia than you think, so the flight was only about 5 hours.   There was barely enough time to sleep on the plane, which left us reasonably exhausted for most of the day.  When we passed through immigration, the officer asked us “why we were visiting,” and we told him about tourism.  He then asked what we had planned, and I decided to crack a joke and said, “A pint…

Sam and I made a spur-of-the-moment trip to Ireland over Thanksgiving. Typically, we host Thanksgiving at our house, but the pandemic blew up that tradition, and we realized Sam wasn’t working on the holiday. We spotted some affordable direct flights from Philadelphia to Dublin and planned a 4-day excursion to Dublin.

It’s hard to describe how shaken the Irish were about the previous day’s riots. You heard people talk about it everywhere. I bought the newspaper in the morning, and I overheard a college-aged guy talking to the newspaper salesman about “How embarrassing it is to be from Dublin today. It’s not who we are.”  Photograph: Tom Honan for The Irish Times. Here is how I understand what happened the…

This was our one day to leave Dublin. I booked a tour of Newgrange and Tara Hill with Mary Gibbons. This tour is highly recommended, and when you first sit down on the bus, you understand why. Mary Gibbons is what every historical guide aspires to become. When the bus started moving, she got on the microphone and started blasting us with information. At one point, I thought we might be listening…

I loved our trip to Ireland.  Dublin is a great city, and I would like to return to see the National Museum of Ireland, the Chester Beatty Library, and some theater.   You’ve likely noticed that we did not go to the Guinness Museum, which was deliberate.  I genuinely don’t care about the big corporate history of a product.  I want to return to Ireland and explore the rest of Ireland.  In the…

I am testing out Mastodon.

Iceland is fantastic. There is a reason it is a very popular destination, and there is no arguing about it. The people are nice, and the landscape is beautiful. There is nothing hectic about it, and there is something of a clean living vibe while you are there. You relax, enjoy yourself, and rarely overdo a vice. There was a joke in our house when Samer mentioned the idea of visiting Iceland. I…

This was supposed to be our last day, but plans changed.   More on that later.   We were leaving Reykjavik to visit our third and final thermal pool, the Blue Lagoon, before the airport.  However, before we got on the road, we stopped by Brauð & Co for a few pastries.  The Danish was excellent. In addition, Samer bought a whole loaf of Icelandic bread to bring home with us for the week. We are…