The Great Distraction 2007

1. Puppies


2. Coffee


3. Quick trips


4. google kittens and puppies


5. Flash


6. Ratatat


7. C.I.


8. Jake Gyllenhaal


9. Johnny Depp


10. Substitutions


11. Photography


12. Friends


13. Six Feet Under


14. Slayer


15. Not eating meat


16. Imagining

weekend photos.

This weekend I went back down to Killiney for one last look before they go to their new families.




This one was the hardest to leave...she also didn't find a home that day so it made it extra hard not to bring her home with me.


This is nacho, he reminds me a lot of Logan, and apparently doesn't mind puppies too much.


The beginning of the sunset on the way home.


This is just a crazy door in Dublin.

Home and connected

Guess who has has the internet!?! Yep, me.

I returned from my Spanish adventures to find the internet up and running at my house. Hooray. So you can once again expect regular updates from me.

What's new you ask? Well let me tell you.

First of all my boyfriend is now a handsome 30-year-old. Happy birthday flynn! The great girlfriend that I am, I decided to celebrate his birthday in Spain...without him. And this is how it went:

May 5 Saturday

Martina and Aishling picked me up in a cab and headed off to Dublin airport to catch our 3:45pm. After only a 2.5 hour flight we landed in Madrid around 8pm (an hour time change). We found our way through the metro to our hostel which was conveniently located in the center of the city. After a quick freshening up we hit the town to meet Aishling's brother, Rowan, who's been living in Madrid for the last year. After dinner we met up with a few of his friends and headed out to a bar. The bars that we went to were all great, good music, great people and cheap (but good) beer! Not much more I could ask for there.


The first bar we went to had no television...

May 6 Sunday

As true Madrilenians do, we stayed out all hours of the night and finally settled back into our hostel around 6am. Not the best idea for sightseeing the next day. However, we only had plans to go visit museums and some parks. First Aishling and I headed to the Museo del Prado, where I got to see Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. Then we met up with Martina and spent the remains of the day in Parque del Buen Retiro listening to the bongo's beat to rhythm in our heads.

Madrid Archetecture

May 7 Monday

We got up early, 7am which is early for a holiday, and made our way to the Madrid train station to get a train to Toledo. Surprisingly we found everything quite easily and had our tickets within 20 minutes so we had plenty of time to spare. We picked some breakfast and awaited our train. The ride was only a half our so it was almost over as soon as it began. We stepped off the train into the quaint historic city of Toledo. We hadn't a clue where to go so just followed our fellow tourists and soon found ourselves on our own, snaking up a hillside towards the city. Once we reached the top we were so amazed. Toledo is such a small quite town (even with all the tourists), surrounded by stone walls and beautiful old buildings.

The sign into Toledo

I can easily say that our highlight was the Toledo Cathedral, dating back to 1226. Now, I've taken lots of art history classes, and I've seen the slides of intricate alters, but I was not prepared for this one. One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, and unfortunately it could never be replicated in photos (believe me, i tried) and is something one has to see.

The apse of the cathedral

Wall painting

The current Cardnial

We wondered around the cathedral for a good two or more hours. We stopped of for some lunch and then visited Santa María la Blanca, a synagogue dating back to 1180.

We strolled around the city for a while before catching a train back to Madrid.

View of Toledo

We met back up with Rowan for Tapas and a few beers. The last bar we went to looked like it was straight out of the 1920s, light jazz was playing, we were surrounded by art and we were expecting some flapper girls to walk in at any moment. At the evening's end we took a short metro ride back to our hostel and said our goodbye's to Rowan and thanked him for being an excellent tour guide.

Tapas Bar

May 8 Tuesday

We were up early again to catch our train to Barcelona. We had bought our tickets the day before so we just headed straight for the station and where after a little hassle i was finally able to get some breakfast. Finally we settled into our train seats for our 4 hour ride to Barcelona. I passed the time watching the country side and reading The Courious Incident of the Dog in the Night. When we arrived in Barcelona we found our hostel easily, settled in and as usual, hit the town! It was only 5pm by the time we headed out so we took a stroll down La Rambla to the Mediterranean sea. We sat by the sea for while and then stopped in at this silly "fairy bar" for a few pints, where we ended up for the nite. Imagine if the enchanted forrest was a bar and you have a pretty good idea what the inside of this place looked like.

May 9 Wednesday

This day was dedicated to Antoni Gaudí First we headed to his Casa Batlló. Amazing, and once again something that pictures can not capture. If only every house was created with this much thought and passion.

Roof of the Casa Batllo

Next we headed to Sagrada Família. Now, I knew that this building was still under-construction, but I had no idea to what extent. It's basically a construction site, men with hardhats, cranes, machinery, lots of hammering and drilling and throughout all of this are tourists wondering around the perimeter. The front facade is very angular while the back facade is the most intricate piece of architecture I've ever seen. Every time I looked at it, i saw something that i hadn't seen before. We were also able to take a lift to the top of the cathedral where we had great views over Barcelona and could get closer to Gaudi's incredible designs.

stained glass

Me and Aishling, view from the top

We continued our Gaudi walk to Parc Güell. We spent several hours here walking throughout Gaudi buildings and artworks.


Gaudi has now jumped to one of my favorite artists. I've never seen anything like his buildings and I never imagined anything liked them existed. On our way home we stopped at a xocolata cafe for a cup of chocolate and churros!

May 10 Thursday

Today was was our museum day. We began the day by visiting the Salvador Dali Museum. What a wacko!


Next off to the Palau de la Música Catalana . Just when I though I'd seen it all with Gaudi, along comes this building. Unfortunately for us, we could only take a guided tour through the building and no pictures were allowed. The interior was pure eye candy at the hight of the Art Nouveau period, right up my alley.

After a short trip on the metro, we found ourselves at the Joan Miró museum. I can't say I'm the biggest fan of Miro, but it was bright and colorful that's for sure. Some of his paintings were beautiful, others were simply a black squiggly line on a white canvas...the kind of painting that makes you say..."I could do that." But you gotta hand it to the guy, he was dedicated. There were Hundreds of paintings and most of them were on wall-sized canvases.

For dinner we headed to the Café de les 7 Portes, established in 1836, where we had paella in the same seats as, Orson Welles, Dalí, Picasso, Miró, and Che Guevara have eaten.

After dinner we headed to Bar Marsella, an absinthe bar, where we stuck to beer, and tried to gain some of the genius of Miro, Picasso and Hemingway who had all drank there.

May 11 Friday

Beach day! We laid on the beach all day, with the occasional dip in the Mediterranean. When the sun started going down, we headed back to the hostel to freshen up. We found a great little cafe for dinner were were had the best dinner of the trip.

The modernist trail, trail markers throughout the city

Local Graffiti

May 12 Saturday

Flynn's Birthday! We took one last stroll around Barcelona, grabbed some lunch and headed to the bus station to head to Girona. We had an 1.5 hour bus ride to the airport and then a 2.5 hour flight home. I can't say it was the best to be home, because that means I have to go back to work and no more sunshine. But it does mean I get to sleep in my own bed and not spend so much money.

And that was my trip to Spain.

As always for the complete slideshow visit my picasa page.

Disconnected

Hey everybody... I still don't have the internet at home. boo hoo. But I've managed to get some time at work to upload some photos. Here's a taste of what I've been up to:

St. Paddy's Day

Parade


After the Parade

Dublin Zoo




I toured the zoo with my friend George (yellow) he met Ted while we were there.

Trip to Malahide



Visited Susan in Killiney - where here boyfriend's parent's just had 8 puppies!!!





For more pictures go to my picasa page.

Internet cafes

Hi, My name is Judy.
And I'm an addict.

I still have no internet at home!! I'm going crazy. I have an internet addiction. I'm at the internet cafe just down the street. 1 euro an hour. I have loads of pictures to post but i can't hook up my laptop, i have to use this crappy pc instead. Okay, it's actually a pretty nice pc.

Today is Easter! Happy Easter everyone! I'm about to go celebrate the rising of Jesus by eating some great food and having a guinness. I think that's how Jesus would have done it if he was Irish.

The new house is good. Flatmates are great. Work is busy. Weather is amazing. That's the short of it all. Hope all you (those who still read this) are doing well.

I'll post pictures next time I actually get my laptop to a proper connection. Promise.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I think this will be my last post for a while. I'm officially moving to my new house. We're working on getting the internet there but pobably won't be up until next month. I'm moving the last of my stuff now (ie, my computer).

The Paddy's day festivities have begun. I attened the parade this morning and will post pictures later. I have a few more plans for the weekend so we'll see how they pan out.

TTYL

Where have I been?

Looking for a hew home, that's where. And I finally found one! I was concentrating my search on the south side becasue I feel like I am really familiar with the north side having lived up here for 7 months. So I went to lots of interviews for lots of overpriced rooms. There were a few good ones, but they always went to someone else quickly. So I broadened my search, and waddayknow? I found a place just up the street from where I am now. It's exactly what I was looking for, except for the location. But the price, people, room, neighborhood is worth it. Here's a map to help out:


I will be moving from Stoneybatter to Phibsboro this coming weekend. It's still the old part of dublin. My new house is an old georgian house, three stories, large living room and kitchen. I'll be sharing with 3 other housemates; Donnchadh (who owns the house), Kieran, and Tanya (who I have yet to meet!). Both the boys seem great though. Oh, and my room is the attic and has it's own bathroom!


So now that I have a house sorted out, I can turn my attention to making plans some holiday called "St. Patricks Day," whatever that is...

They followed me home, can I keep them?

From the BBC, "A pair of Sumatran tiger cubs and a set of young orang-utans, all abandoned at birth, have become inseparable after sharing a room at an Indonesian zoo."

These are the days of our lives...

My visit to the Irish Modern Art Museum.


Oh Jesus!


Our town.


I just can't escape New Mexico.


Door number one?


We Judiths tend to stick together

Choose wisely

When I woke up this morning it was soooo nice outside. Walked to work. Sat in a building all day. When I finally left the building, it looked like armageddon outside, lashing rain and the sky was pure black (at 5:30 when it's usually light). But by time I got to the bus stop it stopped. So once again I decided to walk (my new years resolution). About half way home, guess what? Yep, you'd think the flood was 'acomin. And guess what else? Yep, forgot my umbrella, so I ducked under a ledge.

When the rain lessened I continued on my way home. When I neared the crosswalk to head onto my street, I noticed people stopping, looking as if they were going to cross but then continued on their way. When I got the the  crosswalk I saw why, the street had narrowed and now had two streams (approaching white water rapids status), 5 feet wide at least, on both sides. I live on a bit of a hill, so all the water from the hill was rushing down the streets and apparently Dublin's medieval sewer systems aren't capable of handling the rain water (???).

Dilemma: walk up the street to the next crosswalk or go swimming.

I went swimming. I knew I couldn't jump the water, so the next best plan of action was to one-foot hop to the center and then hop out. It turned out to be a two hop. Both feet took their turns hopping in the water up past my ankles. A good time to point out that I made the decision this morning NOT to wear my boots, but to wear my cute open-topped maryjanes instead. So, then I found myself standing in the island in the middle of the street. This was truly an Island, completely surrounded by water. I had the other side still to venture across, same formula as last time.

Once safely on the other side of the street, a meer minutes from home, I looked down at my feet, completely soaked, socks, shoes, jeans. I laughed out loud and wore a huge grin all the way home.

V-day

Well, I just found out that St. Valentine actually resides here in Dublin, well his remains at least. I guess I should have went to see him today. Instead I helped Ashling celebrate her 27th birthday with dinner, wine and Diamonds. Maybe I'll go check out the Saint this weekend.

Anywhoo. Happy v-day everyone!

Doin' time.

Today I went to jail. Kilmainham Gaol was built in 1796 to house all of Irelands criminals. Before the jail was built all criminals were shipped to Austrailia, most of them dying on the 7 month voyage. The jail is most famous for holding Irish Rebelion leaders, Joseph Plunkett caught my attention. Most of the men involved in the 1916 Easter Rising were not your normal military leaders, they were artists, poets and musicians. Irish history is passionate, so much devotion to the country and people. I will definitily study up on it a bit more.


Main gate

East reformation wing

Execution yard

The cell Plunkett was held, 1916

After the jail, Martina and I got a little lost but hopped the LUAS back to town for some Pizza, then for a drink at 4Dame Lane, and ended the evening at the Irish Film Institute. Many of our nites end up there (or start off there). We watched For Your Consideration, a good laugh after walking through a dreary jail all day.

Home again, it's only Saturday (oh wait sunday now, its 1 am.) I have all day tomorrow to enjoy.

But there's still the question of: