Continuing on with my exploration of Dublin – I made a point to keep wandering, and keep poking around, as the MBA kicked off and our classes started getting more intense. My friend Brian came to visit, we explored, and I went out with friends from the class! We toured the Teeling distillery, and had a glorious grand old time.
I even got an invite to a pretty cool comedy event in town called “ADHD&D”, a very off-the-wall live D&D game, which was basically a live recording of a dungeons and dragons podcast, where the audience got to participate and help write the story. It was fun, and a grand opportunity to meet up with people both from class, and some friends from outside of class, and just get a good bit of exposure to “Dublin Craic”, just general good times.
My first two weeks in Dublin were focused pretty intensely on finding a new apartment… but that didn’t mean I neglected my exercise or adventures!
I wandered quite a bit – not nearly as much as I had throughout my Grand Adventure, but still a good deal more than I did back in Portland. Something I’m really appreciating about Dublin is that it’s quite walkable, and I made as good use of that as I could through the first few days in town.
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.)
Saturday, 11-Mar-2023
A day of hiking! But… in the city, so… does it count as hiking? I vote yes, since it was like… so long. Literally, checking the map, I did about 10miles (16km) of city walking.
I’ll be candid here – my legs did not feel great afterward. Definitely feeling the sore shins up in this biz, and definitely looking forward to a few days of downtime this coming week. That’s next week though; for this week, I had city walking to go on!
I started with pancakes and crispy bacon, because that’s a good way to start a big hiking day. Then picked up a suitcase from a nearby department store to schlep all my loot back to the States in, and then had a bite of lunch at the apartment. Like… a banana, I think, before heading to a coffee shop for a rest before the main leg of the hike – heading to the Irishtown Nature Park by the coast!
The hike was beautiful – I worked my way through old city architecture into modern apartment buildings, then back into small Irish cottages by the water. I didn’t go quite as far out as Katherine and I had the previous day… which makes sense, since I was walking.
It was long, it was beautiful, and it was a great chance for me to enjoy the movement and spend a bit of time alone with my thoughts. I put on a bit of music every once in a while, but wasn’t really consistent with music vs. quiet… I let myself slip between the two as I felt fit, enjoying both the freedom of the quiet and the comforting blanket of familiar songs.
It spattered rain intermittently, and soon enough I was walking along the damp trail along the harbor and into the greenery. The rain was actually appreciated, as interesting as that sounds, since it really tied the whole adventure together – It kept me cool, and fleshed out the feel of Ireland… While helping give some interesting lighting to the various scenes that I found myself gazing on.
It wasn’t a short walk, by any stretch of the imagination, and by the time I was back in Dublin center I was absolutely ready to put my feet up and nap for the rest of the day… even after a coffee and croissant on the walk back. I’m an adventurer though, and I still had a bit more excitement planned – so instead of a nap, I had a slice of pizza, a good glass of water, and made my way toward the final distillery of the trip – The fourth largest distributor in the world, the legendary Jameson Distillery.
I’ll be honest – Teeling was better. Maybe that’s because the Teeling tour was just three of us, vs. 15 at Jameson… but the fact that the Teeling Distillery is a working distillery and not a museum made a pretty big impact… at least, in my mind. Either way, it was still lovely and gave me ample opportunity for some excellent pictures (and a chance to buy yet more whiskey to carry home), so I’m not complaining in any sense!
After finishing up the tour, I made my way home for some well-earned rest and relaxation… followed by a quick adventure out to the nearby restaurant for some live music, Irish stew, and the chance to just kick back with a Guinness and read a bit of my book.
