June 1, 2024

Dublin, Ireland 

Another bright sunny day for some fun in the Capital City of Ireland. Ran into this creative merchant on Grafton Pedestrian Street. Below some of the many bridges over the River Liffey.

Trinity College built in 1592 on 47 acres, sits right in the center of town, the City just grew around it over the years. The oldest building on campus, has been newly renovated and is one of 2 buildings on campus, now completely carbon neutral. Love that these opposing Greek style building are known as Heaven and Hell (exam hall). Also learned that in second year, students can sit for the scholar's exam, which is a general knowledge test, unrelated to their majors, and if the pass, they get 5 years free tuition and board, along with 3 meals a day, including Guinness! Last year 900 sat for exam and only 73 passed.

We had lunch in the Temple Bar area and then went to EPIC center, toured museum and had my genealogy appointment. In the one hour session I found out that my mom's father was indeed the surname of Timothy and there were 3 other families with the same surname in Co. Roscommon, when they were there - most likely all related. My great, great grandfather Martin was a surveyor and actually bought his land, 11 acres, before his death.   

By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
I really enjoyed my first trip to Thailand! On our final morning here we went to try breakfast at this spot, down the road, we had been hearing rave reviews on, King Of Bread . The hype was correct, the breakfast was delicious and they had some unique choices. I had eggs benedict on a croissant, in lieu of the standard english muffin and Bosco had it on Milk Bread, which was equally tasty.
By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
We love having authentic experiences with locals to really get a chance to see how they live and thrive in the Ports we visit. So when I found a cooking class, by a local woman offered in her home, we were excited to book. Um ( our teacher) picked us and brought us back to our hotel along with the family of 4 from Sydney, Australia, that had also signed up for this afternoon class. Um's house, which has a lovely open air kitchen, garden and dining area, was about a 30 minute drive and turned out to be on the beach, right next to the Grandparent Rocks.
By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
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