Unlike my expectations, the Belgian Railways indeed managed to get me to the airport on time and without any trouble. I got airborne with no frills, meaning no disgusting air-food, no rediculously small cokes, no comfortable seats, and most important no space for my legs. Yeah, you gotta pay the price for cheapness. Remember one golden rule when flying to Ireland in the early evening: Sit on the left, for you are about to witness a beautiful dusk with increadible light over the sea! — Upon arrival in Bail Átha Cliath (or Dublin, in English), Alice picked me up and she introduced my to the Irish capital, where actually 1/3 of the Irish population lives and works. Well, at least the southern part of the city, where also Alice resides, works, the north is criminal, run-down and unemployed. Roughly… The easiest way to the city is the Aircoach, a bus dropping you right in the middle of the city at Trinity College. From there we took one of Dublin’s busses, and one does good to have a great deal of patience with the rather random arrival of busses and complete ignorance of schedules. — In the following days we explored the city till our feet hurt. I saw everything! Well, almost. I will not cite the tourist-guide for what to visit and what not, but just to make sure I do not cause people to think that culture for me is not solely included in “Kulturbeutel”, the interested Dublin-visitor should definitely go see St. Patrick’s Church, Christ Church, The Book of Kells, and Trinity College. You can find more information here. Make sure you take a walk along the cliffs. We went to Bray and took a long walk along the coast following the “let’s see what’s behind the next corner”-system… Since the weather was not always really astonishing, Alice and I decided to pay a visit to what is Dublin known for worldwide: Guinness! We started our really academic excursion with a market analysis (we went to a typical pub), followed by an assessment of the quality of the product (pint of Guinness). The absolute highlight of our research of locale-specific “wines and spirits” was the Guinness-brewery. As a student you still pay 8 Euros entry, but a pint of Guinness above the roofs of Dublin is included. Be sure that you will never get a fresher Stout than in the brewery itself! — Talking of prices: Ireland is extremly expensive. One pack of cigarettes is 5.30, a pint 3.60, a BK meal 6, DVDs 35, fruit and veggies double the price than over here, rents skyhigh. It’s said that the country got wealthy 5 years ago, and as Constance, the landlord of Alice, puts it: “People spend the bloody munney hea, where else would ya go?” True, when on an island. So Constance did not fail to reward my work of installing a broadband router and linking every room of the house to the Internet with a gift voucher for a meal for two at the best Indish restaurant around. Really cool move since the food was outrageous. — All in all it was a fantastic trip made possible by the low fares of Ryanair, although the landing on the flight back felt like the first parking tryout of a Belgian drivers-license aspirant ;) I also did not mind the 40cm-share of Alice’s matrace, though it was, well, crowded in the beginning. I expect Ireland to be even more beautiful when everything is as green as always said, so I might fly over again and have a look at the countryside then. — So much for now, blog on regularly and take care!