With Jen back home from the States, we decided to take a trip to Ireland. A choice made primarily because my passport was away at the Saudi Arabian Embassy for a visa update, and I could travel to Ireland using my UK driving licence.
We took the train to Holyhead and then with a combined ticket caught a ferry to Dublin as foot passengers. It was all very easy.
Dublin was busy despite the time of year, and it seemed that most people knocked off work for the weekend at around ten o’clock on a Friday morning. I was happy to do the same and we wandered around the touristy bit around the river, mixing with the stags, hens and those who simply fancied a mid-morning Guiness.
I’d never been to Ireland before which is odd given its proximity and the fact that Ryanair used to fly from Teesside Airport. That meant that my first game would tick off another country in which I’d watched football, bringing my score up to sixty.
Whilst that seems a lot, most people who have followed their country home and away for a few years would probably have seen games in more countries. It’s only really when you’ve watched games in around a hundred or so countries that it becomes anything out of the ordinary.
The match was at the Irishtown Stadium, but on the astro pitch outside rather than in the stadium proper. It was a third-tier game with around eighty people braving the cold and the lack of anywhere to sit down. There was plenty of shouting, both on and off the pitch, but with little of it directed at the ref. I like that.
Wanderers were the better side, but it was competitive until the last ten minutes when two late goals sealed a three-nil win.
Tags: Dublin, Irishtown Stadium
Trail of the Lion King 
Leave a comment