Wow… How long has it been since I’ve done an international trip? How much longer since I’ve gone international solo?
Let’s see. The last international trip was to Scotland, right before the Pandemic hit. When I had that really bad flu… right before the Pandemic. With COVID. That presents sort of like a flu. That I’ve somehow avoided getting, as if I’d already gotten it and gained an immunity… Okay we’re not going down that road the last time I went abroad was January 2020. Three years and change.
The last time I went on a solo international trip? Well, that’d be New Zealand, back in 2012. 11 years.
It’s high time I explored.
I got accepted to Trinity College’s MBA program back in November, and accepted the offer that same month… though I delayed admission until 2024, to give me some time to finish up in Oregon and save up a bit more money. While talking to the admissions officer though, I learned about a Business forum put on by Trinity in March – a perfect opportunity for me to stretch my international adventure legs and see if Dublin would make a good home for a year or three!
I planned, I packed, and I set off on my first solo international trip in over 10 years…
(Please note that these are my raw notes from the trip. I’m proofreading them for obvious mistakes… but they’re still short-hand. Because life is busy, and blogs don’t need to be perfectly edited.)
Thursday, 09-Mar-2023
Wake up later than planned… huh. I guess the forum was more taxing than I expected? I mean, I know socializing is draining, but… hmm. Interesting.
Grab a full Irish breakfast nearby, and start into some scavenger hunting for the day… mainly looking for a rock climbing guidebook for myself. Which… turns out, is really hard to find! Three outdoors stores and a bookstore later, no one has anything in stock. Kinda strange, but I’m not quite ready to call it a conspiracy just yet… That’s fine, though – I got some good walking in, and was able to scratch a few things off my scavanger hunt thanks to exploring so many shops, so… win!
My drive to find a climbing book quelled in failure, I turned to my usual for this trip – Museums! See… advantage to National Museums – they’re free, which makes wandering in super convenient. Which led me to my favorite museum of the trip so far – the Archaeology museum! A full walkthrough of human inhabitation of Ireland, from the earliest stone-age through to “modern” Christianity! It was really cool, and I spent quite a bit longer in there than I have at any other museum so far – so much so that I actually closed down the museum, being one of the last people out the door!
I wandered some more, toward an early dinner and an early bedtime, aiming for an earlier start tomorrow morning. Dinner was a surprisingly amazing BBQ spot, literally at least as good as anything in Oregon, if not better. Then home to do some laundry and relax away from the absolutely frigid rain!
