Dublin is reaching its peak summer weather, with highs in mid 70s F / mid 30s C tempered by a refreshing breeze. I have been decompressing over the last couple of days since my CMA exam on Wednesday. Yesterday I took the DART commuter rail down to Dalkey to pay a visit to my landlord who lives there. Once I knew I would be staying in Ireland through at least the end of 2021, I negotiated a 10% discount on rent in exchange for paying a few months at a time upfront in cash. I have only taken out cash a few times since arriving to Ireland, and it was a surprise when I went to the bank to withdraw the funds to find out that the largest denomination of banknote available from the teller was a €50 euro note. Although €100 notes can still be found sometimes, the Central Bank of Ireland does not introduce €200 and €500 notes into circulation. If these denominations are spent in Ireland by people from other Eurozone member states, they are unlikely to be passed to other consumers and will find their way back to the banks. In 2019, the €500 note was removed from circulation across the EU due to worries about it “facilitating criminal activity,” which is also why notes larger than €50 are rare in Ireland.
It was only the second time that my landlord and I had met face to face, the first time being October 1st when I arrived to Dublin and he met me at Sprangers Yard to give me the keys to my apartment. We met at his home, which is part of a row of townhouses perched up on a hill above the small town of Dalkey, with a lovely view of the sea and one of the small islands not far off shore that is home to the Muglins Lighthouse… alas, I did not take any photos as that would have been uncouth. We sat down at a table-turned-desk positioned in front of a large living room window to take advantage of the view, then we got down to business. I handed him the envelope from the bank containing a fat stack of €50 notes, which he recounted for the sake of due diligence, then we chatted for awhile. He is a bit of a mysterious character… grey haired, tanned face, fit, in his late 50s to early 60s, of amiable manner and down-to-earth. Every so often he will forward a quirky meme to me over WhatsApp (the communication channel preferred by everyone in Europe it seems), the latest one being about England’s defeat in the Euro 2020 football/soccer final this past weekend. I learned a few scant more personal details about him during our exchange. He is divorced and has at least one child, a daughter, who lives in Spain. Apparently he has been very busy with work, although I have not pressed him about what he does for a living. He said that next time he’s in Dublin we should go out for a few pints, so perhaps that will present an opportunity to learn more about him.
When I got back into Dublin, I met up with my friend CJ to plan a road trip for next week. We have been discussing the idea of doing a trip together awhile, and now that I’m on the other side of my CMA exams with a couple of weeks to go before I start at University College Dublin, it seems like the perfect window of opportunity… especially given the gorgeous weather lately. Despite the short notice, we were very fortunate with our bookings and leave on Sunday returning Wednesday. I’ll save the details for future posts, so stay tuned!
Today I spent most of the afternoon doing some clothes shopping, since my wardrobe is somewhat lacking in warmer weather choices. Grafton Street was very busy with shoppers, taking advantage of sales for vacation attire and “back-to-school” clothes (already?!). Sizes in Ireland (and Europe in general) run much smaller than the U.S., so it’s a bit challenging to find things that will fit me well here. However, I found some basic casual wear items including a few polo shirts (on sale for just €5!) and a pair of swim trunks at Dunnes, a department store which feels similar to the now defunct Mervyn’s chain in the U.S. — a middle of the road, not too cheap but definitely not higher end place. As I was walking back towards home, I snapped a photo of Bewley’s Oriental Cafe in full summer mode with an array of hanging flower baskets as can be seen everywhere in Dublin.
The spread of the Delta variant in Ireland has resulted in a much faster surge in cases than expected. Yesterday the count of new cases fell just short of 1,000 (up from 200 just a couple of weeks ago), and today’s count is almost up to 1,200. The reopening of outdoor dining and bar service has been pushed back to the week of July 26, although the government is still working on details as to how restaurants and pubs will be able to screen customers for COVID-19 status.
Until next time….
