The Bridges of Dublin County.

I had a good weekend (not over yet, it's only Sunday morning). Friday night afterwork I headed out with Susan for dinner. She took me to Cafe Bar Deli. I had walked past this place many times but always just thought it was a bar or deli as the name suggests, but I was wrong. Apparently it's one of the most aclaimed restaurants in Dublin, great food, prices and atmosphere. Susan and I stayed there for about 2.5 hours. We had homemade bread, pizzas and shared a liter of house wine. Very tasty dinner. Then we headed up to The Lord Edward pub. According to this website, the Lord Edward is one of the best kept secrets in dublin, and that's where I was. It felt a bit as if you were sitting in your granny's living room drinking a pint of guinness. Good craic.

It was a clear nite (and not that cold!), since i was headed home early 10pm i decided to walk. Walking around the city at nite is great because the city is alive with lights and my favoriate (not suprisingly) are the bridges. So here are a few pictures, hopefully you'll get the feel of how great the city is at nite.





Below is Walshes, my neighborhood pub with the nicest barman in town.


Last nite, Saturday, I again attemped my never ending quest for a pair of shoes. It's still neverending. Then I met up with Martina and Tommy for dinner (fried brie in a fruit sauce with a salad, whoa, delicious!) and then to see Pan's Labyrinth. It wasn't what I thought it would be like but still very good, we all enjoyed it. Then, as it tends to go, we headed to the pub, The Long Hall. We had a great nite, just drinks and talking. Pubs are great because, unlike bars, they have proper lighting and no loud music (if any it's usually tradidtional irish music playing low in the background). So, you can actually have a decent conversation. What always amazes me is the massive amount of Guinness that is consumed. I know I should be over this by now but it's still quite a site to see 15-20 pints of guinness lined up at the bar.




Today is going to be a relaxing watching movies maybe going for a walk kinda way. I'm looking forward to it.

PS. my spell check has stopped working on this blog thing so you're getting the raw stuff: Judy Uncut.

Thanksgiving

I'll be dreaming of turkey tonite. Actually i'm about to eat some delicious lamb stuffed cabbage i've made. Same old thing going on here, i'm lazy. I was going to go shopping tonite (still need to get some winter shoes, slip-ons aren't cutting it) but I've got a bit of a cold and its really cold and drizzling outside so i decided to just come home instead. Maybe start a fire, eat my dinner, watch some six feet under and have some tea. I'll go shopping this weekend.

Oh, i'm back on my cookie obsession. If i haven't mentioned it, ireland has the best cookies ever!!! Let's see, I had a stressful day at work, had a horrible meeting with a client. She was the very definition of the word Bitch, I've never wanted to walk out on a client meeting until today. I Won't get into it, just believe me. Then just really busy. Somehow I managed to stay in an uncalled for good mood all day.

Dinner's up. Happy thanksgiving everyone! Gobble gobble.

Entertainment over

Well, Ian came and went so now all of my planned entertaining is over. There is no one on the schedule to come visit me. Let's work together to change that. How about March? Sound good for anyone? That will give you 4 months to plan and save, perfect.

My new roommate has moved in. Her name is Fiona. She seems really nice, an Irish girl but has lived the last 10 years in Belgium. We haven't spent too much time together yet because she had a planned holiday this weekend, the weekend she moved in. Jessica (old roommate) just moved down the street to a cheaper place. We plan on going for a pint tonite.

Not much else going on, had a little excitement last nite. Something was going on two doors down and the Gardaí (police) were out front at around 2:30am. The worst was the house alarm was going off for about an hour. I'm not sure what was going on but I heard lots of yelling and fighting. Got back to sleep around 4am, I was glad it wasn't a worknite or else i would have been really tired, but instead i slept till noon. hehe.

1 month 29 days 23 hours 53 minutes

Yep that's right, flynn left yesterday morning and I'm already counting down until i get to see him again. But not only him, I get to see everyone!!!

This last week flew by, as expected. Contrary to how I though, I do not feel that time cheated me. I feel like Flynn and I were able to spend some quality time together and it felt great.

After his initial jet lag wore off we had a good time. We started the week off with some simple dublin walking around (I think flynn was sleep walking most of it). Then on monday we picked up the car, we were suppose to get a nissan micra, but they "upgraded" us to a 5-door sedan. Gee, thanks. I wanted a mini for a reason, because i knew the roads were small and the traffic crazy. I figured driving would be a cinch, I was wrong. Everything is backwards, every time I tried to turn the blinker on the windshield wipers turned on and the shifting was backwards and on the other side. So now, i was driving around completely confused in an oversized car. I managed to freak myself out in Kilkenny by clipping the side mirror of another car while avoiding a car coming head-on. After that it was no more driving for me, Flynn took his turn behind the wheel and suddenly felt a little more sympathetic towards me. Now, flynn usually hates driving but for some reason he found this new challenge to be "fun," where as I found it to be the most stressful experience of my life.

We stayed the nite in Kilkenny, where our overpriced hotel room lacked the splendor described on the website. The main reason I booked at Zuni was for its restaurant. Well, when we got there, there was a sign on the door: Restaurant Closed for Maintenance. Boooo! Flynn slept off the rest of his jet-lag while I hit the town for some Judy and Sarah 2001 memories. I really didn't recognize much of anything there from last time except for the castle, which was still beautiful.

I started off the next day with a Full Irish Breakfast, just to show flynn it was edible. Delish, even the black/white pudding was good!?! After walking around Kilkenny for a bit we got back in the Danger-mobile and headed West to Cashel. Two hours and only 80 miles later, we turned a bend to see a huge castle on a hill, the Rock of Cashel. We parked, headed up the hill, did some castle touring and got back on the road (this time me driving). But soon, flynn was in the driver seat again. Apparently I was being too cautious, because 50kph in a 100kph zone just wasn't good enough for him, not to mention he could tell i was extremely tense. Or maybe it was the fact that 30 minutes after we left Cashel, I mysteriously made a loop and ended up BACK in Cashel! Oops, crazy country roads.


By 5pm it was dark. We were trying to make it to the Cliffs of Moher for the evening and were told that no matter where we go don't stay in Limerick. We weren't too keen on driving in the dark and the rain was a comin...and we were in Limerick. We pressed on making it to the quaint village of Enis. Here we found a B&B and a pub and made an evening of it. A rather good evening.

Next morning, to the Cliffs of Insanity!!! er...Cliffs of Moher. We lucked out with the weather, only a light mist. Unfortunately there is a ton of construction going on at the cliffs and most of the areas were blocked off. We hung around for a while, taking in the view. Then off again for our straight drive back to Dublin. Except for a quick stop for lunch Flynn drove straight across Ireland, from West to East coast.


The next few days were spent walking around, drinking guinness, watching movies, going to museums and just enjoying seeing each other again. Thursday nite however, was spent at the GDBA Graphic Design Business Association IDEA Irish Design Effectiveness Awards dinner. We had no idea (ha) what we were in for. We were greeted at the door with all the Gin Martini's we could drink (for me that's two). After smoozing in the lobby, 500 or so, graphic designers and associates jammed into the ballroom for dinner and the awards. Think MTV awards, every time a company won an award some crazy music such as We are the Champions would play, lights would flash and cheering and shouting ensued. The craziness was instigated by wine, champagne and of course beer. Dara Creative walked away with two Awards, one Gold and one Silver. It was quite a nite.


For more pictures go here.

Overall I had a great time and I think flynn did too. Now, who's coming next?

we've got plans comin out the wahoo

Flynn's on his way to Chicago right now. Lucky him, I always get stuck with a transfer in Atlanta. We've got big plans when he gets here.

I've rented a car for three days and we're going to drive down to Kilkenny and then over to the cliffs of Moher (you may know them as the Cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride!). Then we will head up to Galway and make a circle back to dublin. The time we have together is packed! On thursday my work is winning an award at the Irish Design Effectiveness Awards, which will be a big fancy dinner, we get to go to. Then there are museums to see and pubs to drink in. I'm worried its going to make the time go by so fast (the last 3 months have flown!). But this is also my vacation from work and a chance for me to get out and see some of the country, so i don't want to just sit in dublin the whole time. Even though there is more than enough to see and do in Dublin alone.

Here's a cute little map so you can see where we're going:


You may not here from me for the next week so here are some more random Dublin pictures:

1 day 17 hours 37 minutes and 14 seconds

until flynn gets here! I'm excited.