Kathy and I had a nice long weekend in Dublin this weekend past, celebrating 10 years of hell together. Was good, except for getting rained on lots on the Friday (solved by buying umbrellas) and Kathy starting the weekend with a cold and me finishing with one. Bah.

I realised it's been about 5 years since I was in Dublin itself, rather than just the airport. Various comments:

  • The traffic lights still explode. This is fantastic and I think more places should do it. They sort of beep while waiting to go red (so a pedestrian can cross), then make an exploding noise and tick until going green again.
  • It's very expensive. When we arrived we ordered room service as it was late and though the prices quite high. And then discovered that they weren't really that bad when compared against the normal cost of eating out. What gives? I'm sure it didn't used to be so bad. That was pre Euro - is that the difference?
  • The Elephant & Castle still do the best chicken wings I've ever had.
  • Ryanair are bastards. I'd bought a cup of coffee just before they started boarding and they wouldn't let me take it on. They mumbled some nonsense about turnaround times or something, but given you can buy coffee on the plane I think it's fairly clear they just object to losing the chance to sell you something.
  • I'm not convinced Guinness in Dublin is any better than a good pint of Guinness in England. Maybe that's due to the fact it's all brewed in Dublin these days.