My first friends in Dublin: Awww. Two little dogs, in front of my B&B window. They have been very loyal visitors since I made the mistake to share a small piece of a Subway sandwich with them.

It all began with a rather painful goodbye at Hamburg Airport, a pretty calm flight over the North and the Irish Sea, and a hard landing in Dublin (– not figuratively spoken: Nobody clapped. Not even the Polish passengers, who usually do, at least on Wizzair flights from Poland.)

I’m staying at Waterloo House, a truly superb four-star Bed & Breakfast in south Dublin city. A kind taxi driver took pity on me and my bike at the airport and took me on his van. But before being able to actually cycle left-sided, I had to find a bike shop where they would re-adjust the handle bars – of course, I would have done that myself, but a strict lady at the airport security check took my Allen key (a.k.a. Inbus-Schlüssel, yep, another one I learned these days!) from me, “due to the fact that this is a tool, and a tool aboard would be a security thread.” – Sure, whatever.

Long story short, after two hours of seeking, I finally found a bike shop that does repairs, and those guys helped me out in the wink of an eye. So, now it’s a guy from the cycling capital of Germany destablizing Dublin. (Although I can say, cycling left-sided isn’t much harder than driving the car. Maybe a little more dangerous. For me.)

As for the city – it hasn’t changed much since my last visit, only do I realize that those five consecutive days of good weather in May must have been absolutely exceptional. I’m going to buy an umbrella very soon.

Oh, and I’ve already made some friends here, as one of my next posts might show…