After dropping Megan at the airport on Sunday afternoon, Liam and I headed to Eoin’s place near Dunshaughlin, half an hour out of Dublin. No sooner had we taken our bags out of the car and he had us out shooting clays in a nearby paddock where neither Liam nor I represented New Zealand brilliantly, but we had a lot of fun. Eoin generously spent the next day with us exploring Dublin including the fallow herds in Phoenix Park, Kilmainham Gaol, Guinness factory, and Jameson's Distillery. On our last day we biked out to The hill of Tara, postulated to have been the ancient capital of Ireland. Though the spot is only mildly elevated, it boasts 360 degree views of the countryside and supposedly on a good day you can see land features of half the counties in Ireland.

We spent our last evening trying to catch a glimpse of the elusive Irish foxes that I had kept my eyes peeled for since the day we arrived. It was a moonlit night and though we tried hard, we didn't manage to see one. Optimistically, having a loose end means there's a reason to return. As if the Irish bread and all the first-rate people weren't reason enough already.