In Dublin, there are No Road Signs

...at least, none that are particularly obvious or helpful. No, really. It's kind of bizarre. Yes, there is plenty of highway signage on the way into Dublin City proper, and again on the way out, but once you're in the thick of it, right on the River Liffey, you suddenly find that signs are placed in locations where no driver would ever spot them without the aid of a sniper spotter, or maybe a warg from Game of Thrones and a well-placed hawk.

See, the thing is, most of the road signs in Dublin City aren't free-standing; they're nailed/drilled to the side of whatever building happens to be on the corner.

Here, an example:

Looks clear enough, right? Right? Well, here's a similar sign, as viewed from the opposite sidewalk:

Sometimes, I swear the roads just weren't labelled at all, as if some mischievous sign-stealing leprechaun had made his rounds just prior to my arrival, and the locals, used to their city as they are, simply failed to notice. At any rate, adopting a method of "zen navigation" based on Douglas Adams' fantastic Dirk Gently novels, whereby you latch onto someone who looks as if they know where they're going, and follow them. You might not end up where you WANTED to go, but you'll always and up somewhere interesting.

As it happens, this is a very good method of navigation for the at-times confusing side-streets of Temple Bar.

Yes, if I had not followed this random flow of people, I would not have successfully found Cow's Lane and the Temple Bar Food Market (held on Saturday). So there you have it. Zen navigation. For travelling!

And now, some stray thoughts...

Meal of Note:

This delicious brunch came from 3FE Coffee Shop in Dublin. What we have here is Baked Eggs in Lamb Tahini Sumac, with Mango Lassi and some rye bread. Easily the best meal I've had so far. The restaurant is really much more of a coffee shop/bar, but damn their chef makes some mighty tasty fusion food.

Wildlife:

None. Although there was this cute cat outside of Christ Church Cathedral.

His steadfast refusal to acknowledge the people around him earned my grudging respect.

Pro-Tips for Flying:

In the form of anecdotes. First, did you know that you can answer Westjet's constant refrain of "Cookies or Chips?" with "Yes"? I sure didn't! But the sheer ballsiness of the man seated next to me on the flight from St. John's compels me to try this in future. It sure worked for him, and he walked away enriched by possessing both cookies AND chips.

Second, I must pay special homage to the man who occupied the third seat in my row. As he approached me and our second seatmate, he observed askance the empty row behind us, and with a calm, polite tone, asked:

"Is the flight full?"

Then...the reply that changed everything: "No."

Like a Greek myth, he swept boldly into the empty space, leaving second seatmate free to slip sideways into the free third seat of our once grim-looking row. Where before we were three slaves consigned to the same bench of a galley oar, now we were, truly, three kings.

When later, the attendant asked me if I was all right, I bit my lip and, with a shuddering sigh, murmured "Yes...I'm just...so HAPPY."