There are certain trips abroad that you need to steel yourself for. Journeys to cities such as Oslo, Reykjavik, Hong Kong or Paris. Not because of danger, or travel stress, or extremes of temperature or culture shock, but because people will drive you to distraction telling you how expensive everything will be.
“Oh, it’s very dear,” was the refrain when I travelled to Norway for a short break a few years ago. “Nine euro for a beer. Maybe 11, even,” because there is nothing more Irish than spiking our cortisol levels over the price of a pint. Often, these warnings are followed by truisms about excellent public services and high wages, and more recently with dire…