Dublin City New Year’s

Happy New Year friends and family, We got to Dublin ireland in time to celebrate New Year’s eve here. It was a good choice. Dublin is small enough to walk, we would have been lost in London. And Dublin is a really friendly City; we joined a tourist pub tour. We are looking forward to a month in Ireland, both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In the republic, we are back to using Euros, but in Northern Ireland, we will need our Pounds again. It is an interesting time to be here, with EU and UK in the throws of Brexit. There are two major tensions here that Brexit is stirring up: fishing and the Irish border. Okay three issues, the third is cell phone roaming. Before we came here, I did not realize Ireland was two different countries. They have been separate countries since 1922 when Ireland (Republic of Ireland) won independence from England (and 6 counties in the north stayed with England). The fighting we remember in the 80’s was in Northern Ireland. I am sure we will learn more about that struggle when we get there. But it was a tenuous armistice and the problem was never really resolved. Stay tuned for more.

We, as is everyone else this week, are looking back over the year past, reminiscing and taking stock. 

So far since July 23, 2018 when we arrived in Europe the countries/cities we have visited: 

• The Netherlands Amsterdam (twice)
• Brussels and Brugge, Belgium
• Czech Republic: Prague
• Germany: Berlin (twice), Munich, Mainz, Boppard, Rhineland, mascherode braunschweig, Cologne 
• Denmark Copenhagen, 
• Poland: Gdansk, Torun, Warsaw, Krakow, 
• Slovakia, Dolny Kubin, Bratislava 
• England: London, Stokes Poges; York, Falmouth in Cornwall; Chipping Campden Cotswolds, Keswick, Lake District, Wateringbury Kent, Bristol (twice), 
• Scotland:  Inverness, Oban, Glasgow (twice), Edinburgh
• Ireland, Dublin. And we will be touring both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland for the next month.

So we have at this point in our journey slept in over 30 different beds, checked into that many hotels, rentals or other arrangements. I have tasked Mark with calculating how many miles we have traveled, stay tuned. 

What we like about this vagabond lifestyle:

1. No housework. This counts for more than one entry: no vacuuming, sweeping or mopping, no glass cleaning, no refrigerator cleaning, no bathroom cleaning, no grass mowing, etc.
2. No junk mail.
3. No car washing.
4. Recent addition: no putting Christmas lights on a second story house.
5. No traffic jams. It happens, we just are not driving, so it is not bothering us.
6. Never boring, seeing something new every day.
7. Weather. Having weather to deal with has not gotten old.  Ask again in February.
8. Learning: our brain is never idle. Simple tasks take some research.
9. Learning history, current history (you know what I mean). Learning the different concerns, opinions and priorities of different cultures. Different food.

What I don’t particularly like about the nomadic lifestyle:

1. Figuring out and getting used to a different shower every week.
2. Figuring out a new washing machine every time I do laundry.
3. Figuring out a new public transportation scheme in every city.
4. Not speaking the language.
5. Not knowing anybody.
6. Carrying everything we own, everywhere we go.
7. Getting lost, making wrong turns, not knowing where a restroom is when needed.
8. Not having a favorite standby restaurant.
9. Miss the DVR, commercials are back in our life.  
10. Lack of good TV.  BTW, Friends was a really great show.  If we get a US show, it is Big Bang Theory or Friends, sometimes Mash. 
11. Everyone we meet must ask how we feel about Trump.
12. Lack of variety of products.  Not as many options for shampoo, or anything else.

What I miss most:

1. Karma and Layla
2. Walking Karma and Layla, sometimes with LeVay, Ethan and Barbara, and sometimes with Jonathan
3. Cuddling up with Karma in the evenings (Layla doing her own thing).
4. Bayclub (and my fitness)
5. My family 
6. Friends
7. The Ponderosa
8. Mark misses refried beans.  I kid you not, they don’t have them in europe/UK and Mark keeps hoping. He also misses Subway. They have them here, I just won’t go.  
9. Salads.  
10. Strangely, I do not miss diet coke much. Nor the coffee. Restaurants do not offer endless refills, hotels do not have coffee, and I am not missing it all that much.
11. Manicured nails. 

We spend about half our time in hotels, half our time in short term apartments or cottages.  The apartments are sometimes barely bigger than a hotel room with a kitchenette.  Some have been pretty big (one 3 bedrooms). Always have a washing machine, which is key. I catch up on laundry and we can eat more fresh vegetables and home cooked food, closer to what we were used to eating in the states. 

What is different about hotels rooms here.

Rooms in Europe are not as small as they used to be, We have had very few tiny rooms.  We did have one small room.  We had to have the hotel store our suitcases because there was not room for them in the room.

Most hotels have had lifts (elevators) too. That was not the case 30 years ago.

There is no standard size for a double, queen or king bed.  General rule is that each European size is the size of one smaller in the US.  For example a European king is about our queen size.  A few of our beds have been short or narrow. A few have been barely big enough.

Amenities standard in the US are not standard here. I don’t think I have ever been in a hotel in the states that did not have kleenex. Or a tiny pad of paper and a pen. You never see that here. You get amenities like shampoo etc, only on the first day. Often the coffee service (usually instant coffee and tea) is not replenished either. I can’t remember the last time I saw a drip coffee maker. It is either instant, or nespresso. Refrigerators in hotel rooms are very rare. No ice machines either. But ha, we don’t need them. We put the food we want cold in the window sill.  Usually the windows here open. While we are out, we open the windows and the food can stay cold.  This won’t work in the Summer, but it is working right now. One time a sea gull stole our apple slices that we were saving for our oatmeal in the morning.  

QUIZ

Now for the interactive portion of my postcard. Most cities in Europe have a river running through them.  I have not gotten tired of the site of a river right in the middle of the city.  I have made a list of cities, and a list of the rivers.  Match the River to the City.  No cheating.  – that means no Google.  Send your guesses back. Next postcard, I will announce the first person that guessed right.

Note: to make it tough, two of the rivers go through two listed cities.

Good luck with the game. 

Answers