Saturday, 18-July-2026


The botanical gardens are one of those places in Dublin that everyone says I should go see… but it’s just touristy enough that I’ve never actually made the jump to explore.

No more! Today, I do the tourist thing! Today… I see the Botanical Gardens!


See, it’s never possible to go to tourist things in your own city on your own. Just a rule of the universe, like magnetism or the speed of light. It’s just a thing, don’t worry about it. But when you have a friend visiting from out of town… well. That’s a new story!

I had a friend visiting! She’d landed earlier in the day, so as our first adventure… the botanical gardens!

I really enjoyed them. They’re pretty, the greenhouse was great, and the grounds themselves were pretty and immaculately maintained. There were even a whole ton of people walking around, including a random Oregonian who we ended up chatting with for a bit… which is always nice to see. I have a special place in my heart for “third spaces”, and seeing them well attended brings a smile to my face.

Of course, there was one negative… because there’s always some little negative aspect: A very entertaining sign we saw. I hadn’t noticed before, but it turns out that there’s no trash cans in the gardens.

Why?

Well. Did you know that it’s expensive to deal with trash disposal? And it’s cheaper to not do it yourself, and just get the city to do it for you?

True story. So the garden decided to remove their waste receptacles, and instead direct people to the public trash cans outside the gate.

Extra special no comment.

It was really pretty, though. I can’t fault that.