We spent far too little time in Dublin. We managed to meet a lot of people but too briefly, and we also missed a lot of people. We’re sorry if we missed you, and we’ll be back for longer next time. Alternatively, you could come to Australia. I know… it’s the other side of the world, it’s expensive to get there and they speak a different language but still… it’s an option. And to all those people we did meet who told us they would visit, I just want to let you know that we will hold you to that completely. We will take you at your exact word, even if it was your drunken word, and fully expect to see you Down Under within the calendar year.
It’s difficult to write a travel blog entry about your trip home for the people you met on your trip home, so I guess this one will be more of a letter to those people we love (and everyone else, obviously).
I’m writing this from our second flight (Amsterdam to Hong Kong). The aviation experience thus far has been excellent. Amsterdam is a much better transfer airport than Heathrow and we can tell you confidently that Cathay Pacific is the best airline we’ve travelled with long haul. The plane is modern, the media selection is vast, the food is tasty and the stewards are friendly to a fault. Whereas the staff on Qantas, Aer Lingus and British Airways are superficially friendly but actually apathetic, the guy serving our section seems like it is his genuine pleasure to refill my wine. Maybe the wine refills are what’s making me so approving, I don’t know. He seems like the embodiment of the movie cliché of a comedic gay Asian male. If you’ve seen Brüno or Queer as Folk, you’ll know what I mean. This is not to say that he actually is gay, as this is really irrelevant, but he seems so content in his job that it either comes across as genuine or somewhat weird. We chose to go with the former.
The Dublin trip itself started as a solution to a flight problem, but we are very glad we went home and somewhat in two minds about our return to Australia. We will miss the people – first and foremost – our friends and family. We were happy to be home to witness the slightly magic Obama visit. We will miss certain aspects of Dublin. We will not miss the constant talk of gloom, the weather or the skanger junkies in the city. In all our travels since India we were never troubled once by slightly scary people looking for money or smokes, despite many nights out in Australian cities and Hong Kong. In Dublin this happened four times on our first night. The city has a big problem with heroin and begging and it needs to tackle it but we’re not sure how. Other big cities seem to be better able to help people in these situations or – unnervingly – much better at hiding them.
We go back to Australia now to settle in Sydney – a city we know only as tourists – and find a place to live, a place to work and a place to make a life for a couple of years. We don’t know what’s going to happen or how we’ll feel in a year’s time. We don’t know how successful we’ll be at carving out a career, or how receptive the Aussies will be to us. We don’t, for that matter, know where we’re going to sleep after tomorrow night. We have a car, some clothes, each other and many people supporting us at home. Thanks to everyone we met. As to the next step well… we’ll keep you updated. Watch this space.
eightyfish 
