We were sad to leave Paris (it's first-equal with Sydney in terms of favourite places in the world) but happy to arrive in Ireland. James had his 50th birthday in Ireland back in 2015 when we really started in on the housesitting caper - so it's a coincidence that we can be there again for his 60th - that and Ireland and Malta are seemingly the only places in Europe where it's possible to buy 'proper' Christmas nummies like iced christmas cake, plum puddding and (fruit) mince pies. Not to mention massive turkeys for not-a-lotta cash. Spain didn't used to be bad, the M&S in Paris was passable - but both have gone downhill since Brexit (of course).

When we knew we were coming to Ireland and had 10 days to fill in, James found us 'the cheapest airbnb in Ireland'. Truly, just put Ireland in the search bar and sorted by price. We didn't actually mind where we stayed, it was simply done on price (and needing to be in a city so we didn't need a car). I still don't quite know how he did it, but as a magician myself, I know not to query the magic. So. €50 per night for a 2 bedroom, cosy apartment just 5 minutes walk from the centre of Waterford. Wow. Just wow.

Now that we're here and ready to explore, we've investigated and found that they have excellent, world beating, museums in the Viking Triangle. It would cost €40 each to visit all 5 - or €18 if we bought their 'Freedom of Waterford' pass online. Another no-brainer. We can never resit a keenly priced City Pass type deal and we proceeded to take advantage of every museum on the pass and the included walking tour of the Viking Triangle. The highlight was probably the gold vestments and the Medieval museum - actual gold. These were ordered in the 1600s (?) and then during the turbulent times buried in a chest and forgotten about. Until miraculously rediscovered - just one would have been impressive - 7 were incredible. We also walked around the remnants of the city walls and the defensive towers, checked out the ruins of the old churches and walked a reasonable stretch of the Waterford Greenway. We could have done it all in a week in a relaxed fashion so 10 days was actually a pretty good amount of time.

The other main highlight of the Waterford stay was their Fire and Shadows Procession held a week prior to Halloween or Samhain (pronounced 'sour-win' - I know right…) Absolutely fabulous and very spooky pooky. Brilliant photos from the night will bring the memories flooding back.

The time in Waterford (and the fact we had a most excellent Chinese takeaway just around the corner), meant catering for the stay was easy and we filled our Thermos food jars up the morning we departed with some luscious Chinese food, rice and veges. Well wrapped up they lasted until dinner time that day.