Ireland - Dublin

Our vacation in Ireland is almost at an end. We said goodbye to the rest of the tour group, who flew home today.

We have added a few days by renting a car and driving back across Ireland to Belfast. I drove the whole way and what an experience to drive on the other side of the road and the other side of the car. Most of the time we were on a divided highway and not much was different, except that I kept drifting over to the left of my lane so that either I was encroaching on the left lane, bump bump bump, or I was getting real close to the curb, "Steve, look out for the curb".

But when we got into the city, that was different. I had to constantly remind myself to stay on the left side of the road, especially when making turns onto a perpendicular street.

We made a side trip to a section of Dublin called Howth, a seaside town. We stopped in to a beach cafe called "East Cafe," which is a quaint eatery on the ground floor of the King Sitric Hotel and restaurant. After a serving of fish and chips, we fell into a conversation with Susanne and Marlene who told us about some local places we should visit.

We were not disappointed with this advise. This reminded me of a fact that all of us had agreed about: the Irish are such kind, considerate, and helpful people anywhere. And we think humor is a mandatory subject in school.