Dublin: Prima facie impression

On the way from the airport to our residence, we had a small chat with the taxi driver, seeking his opinion on places of interest for first time visitors, and he suggested the Temple Bar area, as well as Trinity College.

The apartment was actually pretty good. In fact, it was the best among the three for this trip. 

As my friend aptly put, the price we paid per night for London, Manchester and Dublin was roughly identical, while the cost of living declined steadily. Thus naturally the quality of the apartments became better.

Coming out from the apartment, we realised that it was quite conveniently located near some of the iconic landmarks such as the Rotunda Hospital.

The Parnell Monument was also around the corner.

Dublin appeared to be quite a happening place, 

The Trinity College in Dublin, while not as grand as its counterpart in Cambridge, featured really beautiful architecture.

The famous Trinity College grass!

Coming out of Trinity college, we came face to face with the old Bank of Ireland headquarters.

Fallon & Bryne

After sending some post cards at a nearby post office. We headed for dinner at O'Neill's, which was highly recommended on both Tripadvisor and Lonely Planet.

The fish and chips was pretty good, though not as great as the one we had in London a few days back. The Irish breakfast was a hit and miss, while the sauteed  mushrooms were pretty succulent and tasty, the Yorkshire puddings were cold and hard. 

The stew beef was totally a disaster. While the beef itself was edible, and thus considered an accomplishment by English standards, the vegetable sides were downright disgusting. 

The beer, on the other hand, was actually pretty good. I was a little disappointed that the bar does not feature any house brews, though they do have a really wide rage of draught beer.

Week to the Isles: Introduction

Naturally no exchange to Europe is complete without roaming around the continent, just like no exchange to US is complete without a visit to the Caribbeans or Central America. 

Originally I thought I could fall back on the convenient and punctual European rail, which is second probably only to the Japanese, for most of my travel.

Only when I realised how expensive rail transport is in Europe, and how cheap airfare can be, by comparison.

For instance, while looking up a trip to Paris, we realised an oneway TGV ticket from Zurich to Paris would have set us back SGD139 to SGD179, while a return flight would have only costed SGD202. This is without considering some of the great deals on budget airlines like Ryanair and easyJet.

We booked our flight from Basel to London for CHF26, Manchester to Dublin and Dublin to Basel. In comparison, the train connection we took from St Gallen to Basel SBB costed CHF28.50.