Double Oh Dublin?

I have mixed feelings about Ryanair, the low cost European flight provider. For one, it's cheap. I mean dirt cheap. 50 bucks, including taxes, for a trip from London to Dublin kind of cheap. But, you get what you pay for. It's the only airline I've ever been on where you can actually pay 4 euro to board BEFORE woman, children, and the elderly. If there is a balance between the inconvenience and personal values you will deny in order to get a good fare and cost, Ryanair has just about perfected it. For 100 bucks, I would have said, "Up yours." But for 50? Give me my ticket, Bloke and move over, Granny.

At any rate, they got me to Dublin safe and soundly in time to meet Steve, for a bit of crack (uh, good conversation, for those not familiar with Irish colloquialisms...) in a pub in Temple Bar.
Steve and I have a bit of a funny history. He tells me we were introduced 4 times, over a ten year period, before I remembered who he was. Maybe that's because we were young, and I had no time for boys my own age in high school. Or, because he was always changing his hair.

Nevertheless, he didn't hold it against me and we had a lovely time hanging out at the Dublin Fringe Fest, the aformentioned erotic circus and with his many and varied friends in pubs across town where I made my signature face, featured below.


Dublin is a cool little town. Walkable, take-in-able, and beautiful, if somewhat rainy. I haven't perfected my Irish accent yet, but maybe that means I'll have to go back. Even if, at least according to Steve, all the time in England has only gotten me a bad stage version of an English accent.