Well, well, well - our original six week sit in Dublin turned into a eight week sit after the Porto debacle, then we tacked another two or three weeks onto the end due to our fabulous hosts being held up in the USA due to a medical emergency. Serious. Life threatening - not once but twice. So that was indeed a stressful time for them and we were worried to death on their behalf. We ended up in Dublin for over 10 weeks. Yowser.

After we enjoyed our wintry Christmas it was a quiet period until around 3 January when the shops finally reopened. Not that we need to shop unduly, but nice to have something to amuse our eyes on long, long walks. For instance 20,000 steps - our weekly sojourn to Wetherspoon's down at South Strand for our cooked breakfast treat.

We were starting to hang out for a bit of culture by January and finally, after a couple of abortive attempts over the years, made it to the Chester Beatty Museum tucked away at the back of Dublin Castle. Last time we ventured there, we ended up at the Garda Museum by virtue of tripping over it first - which was great - but this time, made it to the Chester Beatty. He was a very, very wealthy fellow, an adopted son of Ireland, keys to the city etc and he gave his massive collection of exotic books and items from Asia to the city of Dublin on condition it was displayed and free for all. So Yay! We enjoyed the visit. We had also been keen to visit the National Gallery and knew there was a Turner exhibition on… we managed, fortunately, to turn up on the final day (so no crowds) and had a joyous time looking at stunning Turner water colours that are only on display for one month of the year, January. We went to the National Museum to ooh and aah over the Irish gold hordes and also made it to the Natural History museum which was under renovation back in 2022. We had rather thought that might be finished by now… but nope - another 5 years or so to get 'the zoo of the dead' back up to snuff.

Weather has been all over the show given it's winter. After weeks of dampness and strong winds we had a couple of stunning days including our walk to the Chester Beatty. The clear skies however did mean it got seriously cold. We visited one of our new haunts, the fruit and vege stalls on Moore Street. We never know what they will have but whatever it is it will be a half to a third of the cost at the supermarkets. One day we picked up a couple of kilos or so of nectarines which were hugely over-ripe (our favourite type of fruit). Carted them home and spent a cold afternoon making nectarine jam. Another day it was 9 kiwi fruit for €1. Turns out they were pink inside - not green or gold but pink - what a way to discover the new 'blush' strain. Good times indeed.

It seemed no time at all until James's birthday came around in January and we took the opportunity to visit an Indian buffet we had spotted on the north side of Dublin. A fun lunch outing and not bad - not Indian food like you'd find in India - but reasonably priced. Which is actually as rare as hens' teeth in Dublin. The only other spot we think is affordable is a hole-in-the-wall Thai joint we've been visiting for years - where our other indulgence is a Thai green curry every week or so. Yum.

Mid January also saw the one-month 'where to next?' nerves set in and we started looking around for our next destination. We had a sit lined up here in Ireland but what with one thing and another it turned out to be an unpalatable proposition and we were in a position to stay on in our current spot when our friends had a major (major!) medical emergency in the USA and couldn't make it back as expected in early February.

We find (funnily enough) the more we do in terms of physical exercise (or mental for that matter… just discovered Wordle), the more we can do. Our record in Dublin was something like 21,000 steps in a day - not bad in winter. Our all time record is something like 31,000 steps in one day and that was in Paris in 2019. By and large during our Dublin visit we would range between 10,000 and 18,000 in a day. In early February a major cold snap hit - overnight temps of -3 and -4 with a 'feels like' of 4 degrees colder than that, but stunning, crisp, blue sky days. Some days the long walks were dead set chill beaters. Even with the central heating on there were days when it was easier to stay warm out of the house and pounding the pavements with our breath freezing in the air.

We (and likely the rest of the planet) have noticed that prices have gone up in the last couple of years. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we are back in Ireland after 18 months more or less and can actually remember what things used to cost. Even worse - the Australian Dollar / South Pacific Peso's buying power has reduced significantly to create a double whammy. For example €100 was once, and for many years of our last 12 years of travel, roughly A$150. Now it's A$170. When we find a reasonably priced place to go - we go, that is for sure, be it the free museums and galleries in Dublin, monthly free museum day at the Irish Heritage places (Rathfarnham castle this time) or a weekly cooked breakfast with bottomless hot drinks and an extra long walk outing to Wetherspoons. By and large we don't go shopping for anything other than groceries - with the size of our bags after the clothes shopping in Porto, we definitely don't need clothes either. But 'need' is a flexible word when it needs to be.

We found another pair of my favourite-est shearling UGG street boots ever. Bought them for €17.50 and wore them out of the shop - these would retail in Australia for $400+ - even if we could buy them there, which we couldn't. These are certainly not collapsible boots so managed to pass on the originals from Porto to a friend as they were the bigger of the two pairs. We know they went to a good home and will be appreciated during forthcoming chilly Dublin winters. Honestly - we can't be trusted when it comes to being cosy and winter coats in particular are our weakness (well one of them). We normally avoid 'vintage' shops per se, as it's code for overpriced, over-curated and overly popular with youngsters who feel like they've discovered something new and impressive and environmentally friendly. However. Dublin is not too bad price wise We trundled into a few vintage shops in our travels and saw a thick and heavy shearling coat for James. It was on a sale rack and we were initially very strong and resisted. We resisted for several days, but the cold snap saw him wearing up to 4 jumpers under his Spanish designer shearling coat. It was getting ridiculous. We we popped back and he tried it on. Perfect fit, super cosy, possibly not one we would have paid full vintage price for at €60 odd, but for €20, a bargain. We bought it on our way into town, left it behind the counter at the shop and picked it up on our way home. We are, of course, as bad as each other when it comes to winter coats (remember the Astrakhan/curly lamb I bought before Christmas? Yep. As bad as each other.) When the ice age cometh in Sydney, we at least will be ready to go. Ready and waiting… though not holding our breaths.

On the subject of our coat addiction. Yes, it is clear we are now committed to two checked bags each and resigned to the fact. C'est la vie. We will get inordinate pleasure out of our shopping treasures back in Sydney. We are happily using up our stash of Avianca Lifemiles to trip about Europe in business class - for the bags' benefit of course… not ours. Aside from massive and heavy jacket purchases, we are also filling corners with nice-to-have items that we've always wanted but never purchased during our travels. For instance, in one thrift store we perused during our regular city walks, two hand made Moroccan pierced brass lamps had just been dropped off. We have a couple of small tealight versions at home in Sydney but to have the lightbulb versions - wow - we knew the minute we saw them at €10 for the pair that they were (almost) the bargain of the Irish trip. Aside from the effort of carting them around, the cost to buy them in Marrakesh would be closer to €200 - not to mention the endless haggling to get to a remotely sensible price. So they came back to the house with us and were in solid use for the rest of the stay. Then there was the art glass paperweight from Kerry Glass in Co. Kerry made prior to 1985. We've been around the Ring of Kerry and toured that part of Ireland a couple of times, so this is a fabulous but heavy souvenir. I swear it weighed about 200 grams when I found it for €4. Pretty sure it was up to 2 kg by the time I carried it around the city for a day. But beautiful and we hope to get a small battery operated light stand for it to sit on so it can be enjoyed to best effect. Speaking of art glass, one of my oldest friends in the world has a holiday house on (in?) the Isle of Wight, so when I saw a swirly blue, hand blown glass perfume bottle with intact stopper from a studio on IOW, well it was a no-brainer. Straight into my small boxes and bottles collection, alongside the Chinese red overlay snowflake glass snuff bottle we picked up for €2 in a flea market in Porto. Most hilarious thing about that find was that it was a flea market in an arcade of dealers/sellers/collectors of old stuff - not traditionally a spot for bargains one would think, but there you have it, keeping our eyes open pays dividends. The contents of my 'actually I'll carry it, it's a bit fragile' cabin bag mean it is growing by the week. Fortunately it's small and very rarely gets weighed as, logically, how much could it possibly weigh. About 13 kg as it stands.

My small boxes and bottles collection is one thing, but the jewellery collection is another entirely and it is always fun to go treasure hunting in the op shops/thrift stores of Dublin. Whilst it can be hard to write off paperweights as 'not very heavy' it's another story entirely with bits and bobs of jewellery - none of it is very heavy (admittedly, in one pile, it is starting to weigh a bit - as a friend said, it'll need it's own seat on the plane soon.) Treasure hunting is doable but as our friends in Ireland say, there never seems to be any when they look. I liken it to 'metal detecting in op shops' (check out the hilarious BBC series 'The Detectorists'). Compared to metal detecting in the countryside with a large bit of equipment, when I do it it's just me and my gold sniffing senses. Finds on this trip include a little plastic box which had been sitting on a shelf in a jewellery cabinet for around 3 weeks. Two pairs of earring charms/pendants and a single. I'd been looking and hemming and hawing - finally pulled one out for a close inspection and it was actually 14K gold and natural stone. So well worth a couple of euro and I mustn't let a nasty plastic box put me off checking properly in future (in my defence, it was there for 3 weeks - obviously no one else bothered to have a good look either). I also nipped into a shop on a Saturday morning where someone had just donated around 20 pairs of earrings. They were sitting on the counter stuck in a couple of sheets of cardboard. 90% costume, 1 pair of silver and amethyst drops and one particularly retro pair of large Italianate gold and cabochon amethyst studs - looked, felt and smelled like gold. It was only when I got them home for a very, very close look that I could discern the 14K marks on the posts. Excellent find at €2 per pair. It's not all gold earrings falling off shelves and into my hands mind, a few pairs of silver earrings, a couple of silver pendants and chains, rings and brooches - some to keep and some to perhaps sell on during an eBay binge when we return to Australia.

Dublin's weather has certainly kept us guessing during our 10 week stay and the highlight occurred on the first day of Spring when, to everyone's surprise, it snowed. Properly snowed! There was a good four or five inches and far too many photos taken as we spent the day indoors, snugged up and enjoying our delayed White Christmas on the 1st of March - just beautiful.

Finally our time in Dublin came to an end and one of lovely owners made it back from the USA leaving the other in the states suffering (still) from TB(!) and consequential lung scarring. But at least he hadn't been infectious and was finally receiving the correct treatment - very hard to treat something if you can't figure out what is wrong. On a positive note, if he'd been in Ireland, Australia or New Zealand for instance, they might never have figured it out and at least two near-death non-breathing episodes could have ended differently. The cats, as expected, were not particularly impressed with their owner's return after 10 weeks - apparently they warmed up again within a couple of days.

It was great to have a catch up and we headed off to an airport hotel which is becoming our Dublin 'go to' at around midday. We had a good afternoon, drinks at the bar, enjoyed the club lounge and nibbles in the evening - membership of the hotel programme does indeed have its privileges and on the off chance we stay at a hotel, we get outsized value for money. The night of the 3rd passed quickly and as always with a 'stupid o'clock' flight we didn't sleep particularly well, but it was a super smooth travel day on the Monday - onto the shuttle at 5 am, checking in at 5.10, settled into the lounge for breakfast and then off from Dublin to Zurich and onwards to Ljubljana, Slovenia for an actual 'holiday'. Will someone buy that country a vowel!

(Photo: The Liberties on a grand, soft Dublin day.)