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Black and white, night and day, dark and light. That would be the difference between Porto and Dublin. We were up bright and early in Porto and rip-snorting ready to go. We were scheduled on the 10 am flight but had only booked that so we wouldn't have to rush. As it turns out we were deathly keen to rush and move on to our fabulous stay in Dublin. Even with loads of traffic getting into the airport departures drop off area we were at the counter and checking in at 7.45 am. We knew the lounge in Porto wasn't supposed to be anything flash, so when the great man from TAP Portugal asked if we'd like to travel on the 9 am flight to Lisbon instead - we jumped at the chance. It would mean us arriving in Lisbon an hour earlier and having more than 2 hours in the outstanding Lisbon lounge. It turned out, even with only 20-25 minutes in the Porto lounge we still had a great time. Some scrumptious fruit salad, coffee and a sweet moscatel wine to start Travel Day.
It was an excellent, if short, flight to Lisbon, just enough for a snack on board and it was great to be in Lisbon early - and the lounge was just as good, if not better than we remembered. We sampled the breakfast offering, moved on to the lunch offering when it popped out and kept the excellent bartenders busy - always outstanding at this lounge. We weren't sure if lunch onboard would be anything exciting - so bird in the hand etc. As it turns out, it was a great lunch on board with rye bread, smoked salmon, sour cream, cheese, pickles, dessert etc. For the first time ever we were the only two people in the business cabin - 10 seats - and just us 2. It was killing people as they continued through to economy and saw all that empty real estate at the pointy end. Amazing how many comments people had but you don't see them 'paying to play' as it were. Ah well. We had a Flight Attendant all to ourselves and she popped a bottle of cava for us. Phenomenal use of our TAP compensation vouchers.
We landed on time at 4 pm, sailed through immigration and waited just 20 minutes for the hotel shuttle to sail around again - we were the only two passengers on the gorgeous electric bus and very much enjoyed the short trip to the hotel. We settled in and having been eating and drinking all day we had no plans to eat in the evening but were given club access so enjoyed the drinks and sausage rolls on offer. Given we didn't have a bath in Porto and won't be having one during our Dublin stay, we managed to use the bathtub 3 times in around 18 hours. We were treated to a superb buffet breakfast on Saunday morning, returned to the room for another bath and eventually tootled across to our friends' house at 1 pm - we thought the traffic would be non existent on a Sunday, but no! Apparently midday onwards it's just as bad as every other day - it's the 'everyone is up now' rush according to the cabbie.
Was fabulous to see our friends and their kitty cats again, chattered like mad for a few hours, wine and cheese during the afternoon and saw them off on their travels to the Baltics for a couple of weeks then off to the USA until February.
It was an amazing first couple of weeks in Dublin and we set off our first full day to hunt for Christmas delicacies - suffice to say the Whiskey and Pecan fruit mince pies were just as splendid as we'd hoped. We picked up a few bits and pieces and bought our 'Small' fresh Irish turkey - 4kg! - as soon as they came on the market on 20 December. It was so large we decided to get Christmas underway early and cooked it for dinner on Christmas Eve. Then had it for lunch on Christmas Day as well - and followed it up with a long walk on the canal in the wintry sunshine - all the way up to the Grand Canal Dock and the River Liffey. It was a fabulous Christmas altogether and we cracked open one of the bottles of cava we brought with us from Portugal. The joys of the EU are particularly joyous when it comes to booze - essentially no limits from country to country - so a couple of bottles of bubbles, 4 bottles of port - wish we could have brought more - but luggage size was the issue - not the weight - our extra 2 bags are a bit on the small side for booze transportation.
We are enjoying the chance to have the central heating on - could still be warmer on days when it is below 3 degrees - but lovely to have heating at all after our Porto experience. The weather has been coming and going but there has been very little rain all things considered and we've certainly been using all the warm coats and shearling boots and jumpers we bought in Porto. Nothing is going to waste especially with the strong and very cold winds that have been frequent visitors.
We've been exploring new areas, getting in some amazing walks, checking out the various thrift shops - a few nice pieces here and there but nothing major to write home about. In one vintage joint called 9 Crows (which we'd never visited before), we took a quick look and found a glorious Astrakhan short jacket from the 1960s made by a furrier in Paris - even had the original owner's initials sewn into it and lined with poppy red silk. Glorious. Only €25. Would have been a crime to leave it there since they had trashy, fake fur vests at the same price point. We also found a single pure cashmere glove in a trunk at one store - then hunted through the trunk until we found its mate - Pringle of Scotland and retail for €130. For us? €2 and a bit of fossicking. Treasure can take many forms and it gives us a focus.
We certainly like being near the canal. We took another walk just the other day across to Ringsend as we've never been down that far before and then treated ourselves to a late brunch at a Wetherspoons pub - phenomenal value at only A$20 for two cooked breakfasts and unlimited coffees. Will definitely be doing that again - at least once a week.
And that brought us to the end of 2023. What a year - hard to believe it started in Buenos Aires then Ushuaia (Argentina), Antarctica, Santiago and Val Paraiso in Chile, cruised back to Sydney via Arica (Chile), Lima (Peru), Easter Island, Pitcairn Island, Papeete (Tahiti), Rarotonga, Aitutaki (Cook Islands), Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington and Milford Sound (NZ), and finally Hobart and home to Sydney for six months (though we fitted in time in Bowral and Melbourne as well!) We hit the road again in mid-September to Khao Lak (Thailand), Saigon, Hoi An, Hanoi (Vietnam), Porto (Portugal) and Dublin (Ireland). Who knows what the new year will bring - but here's hoping for a healthy and happy 2024.
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