Dear Family and Friends,

Hope all is well, happy Thursday, and hello from Dublin! My hotel is in a good location, and though it’s not a luxury hotel, it’s very well suited to business people with clean, practical rooms, fast internet, and long high top tables in the lobby with outlets that are so well suited for working. High tops are my fave. Here is the River Liffey that runs through Dublin:

Here’s what’s been going on the past few days. I’ll work backwards. Today was incredibly productive. I sat down for breakfast at 8, started working, and before I knew it, it was after 4. I barely moved. I was in the survey zone, making calls, doing internet research, really killing it, and I also managed to answer a few normal work emails. I am no longer nervous or overwhelmed about the amount of work in front of me here.

I left my hotel and wandered over to the restaurant through Trinity College campus. The library, which is apparently super, was closed for a book launch, so I’ll visit another time. I ate dinner at The Pigs Ear, which was phenomenal. I had a scallop appetizer and then short ribs. The short ribs dish was so decadent. I also has a glass of delicious light red wine from Cotes du Rhone that was recommended, read my philosophy book, thought up some new rhymes and made myself laugh, and thought about the Social Contract.

Starting today, I feel like I’ve finally hit the “survey stride” point in the trip (the second through fourth week were always the easiest) so now I’m a little sad it’s almost over. But it will be nice to get back. Yesterday was also productive. I had meetings all morning between the meetings I had quiche, my favorite food, and salad and Matcha tea from a super healthy modern food places in the techie expat area, and then worked all afternoon from a different hotel. In the evening I walked around the city centre, made a reservation at The Pigs Ear, and ate dinner at a place called The Farm, where I had Fish Pie, which I didn’t completely realize was anything other than a joke from the Beatles song Penny Lane. Turns out it’s cooked salmon and mashed potatoes, baked with cheese on top, and a specialty at The Farm. Really good!

Then I went to meet my friend Angela, who was also in Dublin, but went to the wrong Slattery’s bar! Oops. It was okay though, I had an after dinner drink and chatted with the bartender and an Irish army officer, who had traveled a bit as well and was pretty excited about the Giro d’Italia bike race that was on tv. We talked about politics, of course. Here, people ask me all about Trump and what it’s like in America. In other recent travels after the election, It’s come up less.

Tuesday, I began in Sligo and ended in Dublin. It was a day of work, travel and fun. I got up super early, finished work, and drove up to the Bushmills distillery in Northern Ireland, a detour on my way to Dublin. The distillery tour was great. After Auchentoshan and Bushmills, I now have an excellent understanding of how whisky is made. On the tour there were some older guys taking a morning off from their golf trip. I noticed I gained their respect and interest after explaining to the group why Bourbon barrels from the US, one of the types of barrels used at Bushmills, are so popular for ageing whisky. One reason is that they give a delicious flavor and color to the spirit, and another is because they are inexpensive due not due to low quality but due to high supply.

Bourbon barrels cannot be reused so distilleries in Kentucky sell them off more frequently than, for instance, sherry wineries in Spain might sell their barrels. It also helps to explain why the whiskies aged in sherry barrels or French wine barrels are often more expensive. So I chatted with these guys, one pair of brothers and their friend all from Seattle. One of the brothers is apparently a famous NFL referee who has done the last 4 Superbowls 🙂 And the other brother traveled all his life for work. Cool! So we discussed travelling, work, and Bill Belichick. I only had a tiny taste of whisky there because I was driving, but got to pick up some bottles you can only get from the distillery.

Then I went to Giant’s Causeway, which is also in Bushmills, Ireland, on the coast about 6 minutes away from the distillery. Giant’s causeway is the outcropping of pentagon-shaped rocks on the coastline. It’s pretty wild. There’s a walking route that takes you up a cliff and wow, it’s so beautiful. I also lucked out with the afternoon weather.

Then I drove to Dublin airport, dropped off the car, and taxi’d to the hotel. The driver was called John F Kennedy and he was cool! I walked around, had a Guinness (it’s good – I’d never actually had one before), learned how in Ireland you have to let the Guinness settle and then the bartender tops it up. Then had okay tapas for dinner.

On Monday I went to meetings all morning and it was very productive. Later in the afternoon, I visited Sliabh Liag (pronounced like “Sleeve League”). Since it gets dark so late in Ireland right now, it’s possible to do awesome things even if you start late. Great! I was interested in a gin distillery there (rounding out an education on spirits) and got a tour and explanation of how to make gin from a company that wasn’t even in production yet because of working out tax stuff! I learned if want to make gin, you need juniper berries.

On the drive there I stopped at a roadside restaurant/bar to use the toilet, having consumed a lot of water and coffee. I was in and out and the owner of the restaurant said to me “you have a hard time relaxing, don’t you?” Yes. So then he said, just sit back and relax. And we sat together outside at some tables, chatted, and appreciated the scenery for 15 minutes. Then I was on my way.

They said there would be cliffs at Sliabh Liag. They weren’t kidding. These may have been more amazing than the Cliffs of Moher and hardly anyone there. I walked up a huge cliff face and it was soo windy at the top. In jeans and the silk shirt I had worn for work, I was not expecting such a hike! But it was okay. There were sheep grazing around the cliffs area and I stepped in so many sheep poops, but cleaned my shoes after.

I drove back and ate fish and chips for dinner in the town of Killybegs, and felt very at home in the small maritime town. Back at the hotel I had planned an early night in, but then I went down to collect laundry at reception, visited the bar to get a bottle of sparkling water, and somehow that turned into a few glasses of whisky and interesting discussion with an adorable younger bartender and a pretty drunk businessman who seemed to have some interesting stories, but wasn’t able to tell them properly. The last pic is Killybegs.

I’m very excited for another working day in Dublin tomorrow!

Love, Annie