Im on top of the world after my weekend
Arrived in Dublin at 10-30 am on Saturday on the 4-40 AM Tel aviv – Frankfurt flight
I was giddy in anticipation of this trip
Ditched my possessions in the cheap hotel that we organized and headed out to ramble about town at circa 12pm
Dublin, whilst I know the city well enough is still a grand spot for a random weekend of boozage, it has nothing else to offer really, it is most unsightly, disgustingly overpriced but to give it credit decent craic can be had if the right folks are assembled and dubs in general are decent sorts
O Donoghue’s off Grafton St, was assigned as the Saturday meeting point, its proximity to a boylesports, the hotel and the fact that they were showing racing and the west ham game meant it had what we needed, a decent group assembled, all lads abroad , great discussion, three of us first time fathers, one lad divorced the other lad a messer, sunk 6 great pints, got my EPL fix and great banter with the bar staff.
On the Sunday , up early for a wander about, there was a beautiful chill in the air , the colour around town was great, one of our team decided we go to a place called The Living Room to watch the Liverpool match, this was a disgusting experience, I floored a pint and 2 of us left this hellhole where sky sports drowned out conversation, we headed to Gills corner, met two men from Bruree and had serious hurling discussuon , floored 2 guinness and off to the ground.
Im not going to dwell on the game here, these Cork lads owe nobody anything, they gave me great joy last year as I sat on my own unable to return to Ireland for personal reasons listening to their games on county sound, look they didn’t play well and to a man they are gutted, Tipp are lovely side with great hurlers and I wish then well
After the game was wonderful, the Big Tree was phenomenal, as was The Hogan Stand, filled with lads having banter and talking about hurling, Tipp men are some of the soundest you could meet, we sat in a chipper next to a group of lads in their 50/60s who gave us a can of cider each and just wanted to chat about hurling, it was class… the banter was savage, I had 8 pints over the day and 3 cheeseburgers, back to the hotel at 10-30pm, up at 4am and took the 5-45am flight to Frankfurt and back home.
It was a phenomenal weekend , I agree with many things @Tassotti said above, especially with parents growing older, they don’t see me or their grandson , its fucking brutal sometimes but these are the situations we find ourselves in, sometimes we need to leave Ireland to really understand how much a wonderful country it is and what we have, maybe I had to leave to understand how much my family meant to me and now im in a situation where I rarely see them but maybe this is why I value them so much.