ON THE MOVE

BRIAN O'CONNELL'S ROUND-UP OF TRAVEL BLOGS

• Beth and partner Mark (www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/ BethElgert) are two Americans holidaying in Ireland

"The Irish are extremely fast talkers and it took us a while to finally figure out what they were saying and where we needed to go," she tells us.

We learn their first day in Ireland began with a visit to the doctor, organised by the hotel, for Beth. The source of discomfort was a sinus problem, which the doctor diagnosed before even beginning his examination. "I could tell by the look of you coming in. You can tell by the look, ya know," he told them.

Beth headed back to the hotel, remarking, somewhat ironically, that "all of this friendliness and good advice was only €150".

A day of rest later, the couple had a good nose about Dublin with the help of a Heritage Card. "It's a card that costs €21 and gets the bearer into probably a hundred sites owned and operated by the Office of Public Works, which, of course, in the United States would mean the sewage system but in Ireland means buildings and sites of heritage."

And what better way to experience Dublin culture than a literary pub crawl, guided by two actors and pints of the black stuff. Sinus, what sinus?

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