Wednesday, 13-August-2025
Regardless of job hunt stress, general frustration, or chaos… it’s important to get dressed up for date nights and cook a fancy meal. At least every so often… such as monthly, when Andrea and I celebrate our month-versary.
Saturday, 03-Aug-2024, through… Well, at least a year.
I’ve hit a bit of a roadblock here, dear readers.
I arrived in Dublin on 03-Aug. I stepped off the plane, got a cab, stepped into an AirBnB, and… felt… something. A sense of calm? Of pending tumult? Excitement and optimism and… it was like standing at the crest of a huge mountain pass – pride at making it through the pass and to the crest, awe at the vast world ahead, and a bit of apprehension at the path still yet to walk.
The first few days in Dublin were amazing, overwhelming, and exciting. I had the entire country ahead of me, and really only one goal in mind – finding an apartment. Before I started into that, though, I took some time to relax a bit. I wandered, revisited some of the spots that I’d last seen when I toured Dublin in March of 2023, and found a few interesting spots for a few interesting meals.
I edited photos, blogged a bit, read a bit, and even reached out to people a bit. I found shops, and started making up a list of the various places I’d want to visit in town – gyms, etc…
In short – I planted myself, and started to prepare to grow some roots.
Thursday, 18-July-2024, through Wednesday, 24-July, 2024
Zermatt was glorious and I loved it.
Simple and to the point. End blog post, we’re done here.
Not really, of course. I mean, there’s food to talk about and show pictures of, exploration of the town itself to describe… all that fun stuff!
We’ll start with the town – an absolutely gorgeous Swiss chalet, overrun with tourists and adventurers. I saw more hiking and mountaineering equipment here than I’ve seen in recent memory… and probably more than anywhere outside of an REI in Portland. I saw watches that cost more than a reasonably-priced used car, and saw the same exact souvenier shot glass priced anywhere from €26 to €85 depending on how elitist the shop was.
Seriously – I considered if there was some way I could buy low and return high, but in the end passed up on the opportunity in favor of more hiking.
The food was lovely, and absolutely excellent – I had one less than optimal sandwich at one point, but everything else was absolutely lovely:
The fact that almost all the food was great was really appreciated, since Switzerland lived up to its reputation as an expensive country… I’d say it was probably the most expensive country I’ve visited so far, though time will tell what the actual per-day expenditure tallied out to be.
Interestingly, though, it was a sort of “expense by average” – normal breakfasts and dinners were much more expensive than other countries, but high-end meals were actually quite reasonable… about the same price as other European countries, and noticeably less than their United States counterparts.
Ohh… what else about Zermatt?
It was amazing. I adored being able to just walk out my door and start a hike. I adored the tiny little utility vehicles and mini-busses that were the only vehicles allowed in town (from what I could tell), and I appreciated how everyone biked everywhere. The grocery stores were quick and efficient, and there were amazing views literally everywhere I went.
If you have a chance, definitely come visit.