Christmas in Dublin

A Trip to Eason's

My friend Janelle invited me to meet her at the Eason's on O'Connell Street just after noon today. She was going to have a book by Sarah Ferguson signed for her niece for a Christmas gift. So I got ready and as I put my jeans on I found €15 in my pocket! Happily, I walked out the front door and noticed frost all over the ground. Let me remind you - it was around noon!



I walked up to the bus stop in the bright sunshine and blue skies and thought 'what a great day!' It was super-cold, but so pretty outside. I had almost arrived at the bus stop when the 46A pulled up. My bus! No waiting! A miracle.
I got off the bus on O'Connell Street and walked into Eason's. The crowd in the store was thick and swarming around one particular spot in the middle of the store. Janelle called and I asked where she was and made a comment about the crowd and that even a television camera was there. She said, 'Well, it's the Duchess of York!" I felt so stupid. Before, I thought she was just talking about some Irish author and didn't make the connection. Sarah Ferguson - the Duchess of York! The original Fergie! (Not the Black Eyed Pea.)



I found them at the very end of a line for the signing. We waited for over an hour and there were several times we didn't think we'd get the book signed, because slowly we discovered the sad facts: she was leaving at 2, she was no longer taking photos, she was no longer writing dedications (only signing), then there was the fact that the line was barely moving.



However, good luck prevailed and we made it to the real Fergie. She was very nice, and since Janelle's niece's name is Ruby and the book is called Tea for Ruby, she dedicated it, signed it and smiled for a picture. Check her out!

Chilling Out in Amsterdam

I’ve returned from Holland! The weather was everything but warm. Michele and I enjoyed some moments of clear skies and sun, but we also experienced rain, sleet, hail and snow during the trip. All of these seemed to spontaneously appear out of nowhere. I have never been so cold!

We arrived on Thursday afternoon, and took the train from Schiphol Airport to Centraal Station – what a busy place! It reminded me of Grand Central in New York: not quite as busy, but in a grand building with a melting pot of people from everywhere going everywhere. We wound our way out of the station and into the streets of Amsterdam.

The first thing that blew me away was the sight of what looked like a billion bicycles, parked along the canal. Rush hour each day turned out to be more bicycles than cars, trams or buses. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the evening commuting cyclists with their umbrellas in one hand and one handlebar in the other. I thought, “Bicycles and umbrellas don’t mix!” I couldn’t imagine being that coordinated.

The second thing that struck me was the shapes of the narrow old houses, leaning along the canal. Next I noticed that winter was in full effect in Amsterdam, as there was hardly a leaf to be found in the city. It was not too cold when we arrived, but then again we were carrying and rolling our luggage to the b&b, so our minds were occupied with the hunt for our destination. It was a struggle keeping the photo stops to a minimum as we journeyed through the charming city.

We arrived at the B&B Jordaan at 2:00, as scheduled, and rang the doorbell. Paul came to the door and introduced himself, shook our hands and led the way up the stairs to our room. It was a large, nicely decorated room with twin beds, a table, a wardrobe and a bathroom. Simple and sweet. Paul’s wife Charlotte came to check us in. She answered our questions about the city and when to see what, and after a pleasant conversation about what to eat, drink and see in Amsterdam, we were on our way to the Van Gogh Museum.

The walk was a bit long and a little confusing. We had to refer to the map several times as well as watching the directional signs pointing every which way. We strolled through a park and saw a dog swimming in a big pond, which made me shiver to think about it. By this time, it was around 4:00 and starting to get a bit chilly. Well, that’s an understatement. It was very cold. I almost never wear gloves, and I had to put them on as we wandered the streets. It only got colder during the rest of our time there.

The museum was amazing. I never get tired of seeing the paintings I saw in Art History books during school in real life – on the canvas right in front of me. There is something awe-inspiring about standing in front of the very canvas that Van Gogh toiled over before anyone – even he, himself – knew it would be a masterpiece. We saw his darker, earlier works right up through the beautiful, brightly colored irises and sunflowers he later painted, advised to use more color by his brother, Theo. We learned of his life and death, and the story of his collection.

When we left the museum, it was most definitely dark and we were feeling a bit peckish. We went to Wagamama, an Asian noodle place in Max Euweplein, a plaza near the southern central part of the city. It was nice to get a hot plate of fried rice and a cold Kirin and a much needed break from the cold. As we left the plaza after our dinner, we strolled up to the Dam, another large plaza in the very heart of Amsterdam. On the Dam are, amongst a host of tourists from all over the world wandering about, the Royal Palace, the National Monument and the New Church. That night it was a busy place, and unfortunately also the place where it began to rain on us.

I can deal with rain; after all, I have practice nearly two or three times a week living in Dublin. When you are sightseeing in the freezing cold, it’s not the most fun. We battled our hats, hoods and even my umbrella made an appearance. The whole thing was made even more comical since we had to constantly refer to the map, jumping under whatever awning was nearby. We accidentally ended up in the Red Light District, and I have to say it wasn’t my favorite place. Alas, we made it through the seedy neighborhoods and back to our own side of town. We found a bar close to the b&b, sat at the bar and ordered a Heineken. The music in this place was downright hideous. It sounded like we’d stumbled into an eighties movie – and NOT a fun one! It didn’t take me long to become completely uncomfortable when the hovering bartender and this old guy were sitting no more than two feet away from me all quiet and staring. We decided to call it a night when it was raining and hailing sporadically as we left the bar.

The next morning we got ready and went to Anne Frank’s house. The canal house was actually an office, and the secret annex where the family and others lived in hiding is the top floors of the old house. The tour was incredible. They had film footage of one of the helpers talking about the hiding period, and even a video of Anne’s father, who found and had the diary published after Anne’s death. There were clipped photos from magazines on the walls of the room that Anne slept in that she pasted there for decoration. The last room contained her original diary, which was particularly moving. I’m reading the book right now and it means much more since I was just in the house she wrote in and about. It’s hard to believe a little girl went through that kind of thing and captured the moments in a diary.

We decided to buy tickets for the “Fun hop on, hop off canal bus” (actually a boat) after we left Anne Frank’s house. This decision was made just after a pretty severe hail storm that left us soaked and freezing in a little stationery shop. We got warmed up and a little bit drier before walking to the boat stop. As soon as I bought my ticket, it was blown from my hands by the gusting wind and directly under the planks that served as the ticket office’s floor. Luckily, the ticket salesman saw it happen, so I was given another ticket. We soon learned that the tickets were fairly unnecessary because not one person ever looked at it again.

We rode the “fun” canal bus to the Rijksmuseum stop and walked over to the Heineken Experience, which lifted our spirits after the heavy tour of the Anne Frank house. I liked this better than the Guinness Storehouse. Heineken had much more to offer – a Brew You Ride, where you virtually experience being the beer as it is brewed, bottled, and sent off to a party. The floor beneath you moves and shakes! They also had places where you could bottle your own beer with your name on it, make a music video, and watch old Heineken commercials in a little green-lit pod. AND you get TWO free Heinekens!! Total score.

After our Heineken experience and getting caught in more hail (very hard this time) we ate lunch at a very cute café where the waiter translated the entire lunch menu from Dutch to English for us. He was friendly and we got our food quickly - I had chicken with mozzarella on a ciabatta with rocket and it was very good. Michele had a rib-eye sandwich that looked delicious too!

We got back to the boat and rode the entire tour around the canals, learning more about Amsterdam along the way. We discovered that the canals are over 100 kilometers in length and only nine feet deep. We learned that the houses all have hoisting hooks on their roofs to aid in moving furniture to the higher floors through windows. I can think of a couple of times that might have come in handy for my moves!

After we got off the tour, we strolled back to the b&b for some rest and I tried to plan out where we could go for dinner that evening. We’d been rained and hailed on all day and were wiped out and didn’t care to walk around much in the bad weather again. I found a couple of local places and we tried one first that was supposed to have bitterballen, which is a traditional Dutch dish of meat balls made with meat and potato, but they didn’t have it. We drank some Heineken and moved on. We came to a busy street and saw plenty of pizza places and cafes, but we ended up back near the b&b at a Tapas restaurant. The place was dark, barely lit by more than candles. Michele said it looked like a vampire place. I could see that. The menu, again, was in Dutch, so we ordered Tapas voor Twee (tapas for two) and hoped for the best. The wait was a bit long, but the restaurant was really entertaining, with a few big crowds being noisy, even singing Dutch songs that could have been school songs? We weren’t sure, but it was fun to listen to and even more fun to watch. After a salad, some calamari, some chicken, some sardines (only I ate those), some olives, some pork and some bread we left stuffed. It was pretty late so we went back to the b&b and hit the sack.

Saturday morning we watched the snow while we ate our breakfast, checked out and walked to the bus stop to wait for the bus to Centraal Station. While we were there, it snowed again, and I thought about how much nicer snow is when you’re watching it from inside a nice warm place. We rented a locker for our luggage inside Centraal Station and caught the canal tour again since our tickets were good until noon. This time we rode to Waterlooplein to see City Hall, the music theatre and the Waterlooplein Flea Market, where I am proud to say I bought a Big Lebowski t-shirt. I also bought some socks to replace the ones I had on, which were soaking wet.

After the market we sat inside a coffee shop for a while with a hot chocolate (Michele) and a chai latte (for me). I changed my socks and began to feel thawed. We walked to the Dam after our toasty beverages, to see it in the daytime. It was such a nice walk. We had blue skies for about two hours while we strolled and stopped into a few souvenir shops and markets along the way. As we approached the Dam, it began to hail again… the hard stuff! We hid under an awning and then ran into a store across the way.

It was at this point I realized my socks were not defective – my shoes were. Apparently they were leaking from the soles and my feet were again soaking wet and freezing cold. Beginning to worry about frost bite, we snapped a few photos and headed back toward Centraal Station to get into the lockers so that I could change my shoes. We had to pay again, but it was worth it. I had dry feet for the rest of the day and was a lot happier for it.

We asked for directions to a spot called Elf for lunch and took a long walk there only to realize it was closed. Anyway, it was a nice walk because it wasn’t raining, snowing or hailing and the sky was even a bit blue. We walked back into the center of town for lunch at this really weird place that had steaks and stuff. This place was near the touristy place with all the coffee shops, so we were a bit concerned about the quality. We had salads with grilled chicken and surprisingly it was very good.

We made a few more sightseeing stops and then headed for the airport, which we hate by the way. This place was monstrous, first of all. The signs are a little confusing and from what we could tell you can’t check in with a human, it is done only by the electronic kiosks. Therefore we were not able to sit together on the plane, since I had booked a seat and Michele had not. To make matters worse, the security checks happen at the gates, which you would think is more effective, but I now have my doubts. When we got to the gate, we went through security where I was yelled at not ABOUT my liquids, but about the container they were in. It’s clear plastic, but too big apparently. I have traveled to and from the US, Scotland, Austria, Italy, and Sweden and have never had a problem. Anyway, they let me through and I tried to get into the next part of a divided seating area but had to show my boarding pass, to which the man remarked, “We are sending you to London Heathrow.” I said, “I don’t want to go to London Heathrow.” He told me to go sit back down in the first area to wait for the Dublin flight. There were more seats in the second area, and no one was sitting in them because they were boarding the plane for London. Confused, I sat back down, enduring Mr. Jokey Jokemaker’s jab that I just didn’t want to go to London because Madonna had left. Hardy har har. Then another guy came up to us and told us we’d have to go through security again because they were going to close up again before the Dublin flight. Irate, we walked back out to the front and I HAPPENED to notice that the gate for Dublin had changed (no one told us, so I’m glad I saw it by accident). We proceeded to the new gate, where there were no chairs outside the security and boarding area. What confusion! Before too long, we were on the flight and all was well except for the dozen or so babies on the plane. But hey, that’s how it goes sometimes.

All-in-all, a really good trip despite the bad weather, wet socks and airport confusion.

Rainy Tour of Kilkenny

Even though it rained all day, we had fun in Kilkenny. We had a nice pub lunch and toured the castle and had a nice walk around town. Below are photos of the castle grounds, fallen leaves in a puddle and a spider web in front of a church.

A Quick Trip to the North

We made our way up north yesterday and saw Giant's Causeway and the northern coast. The weather was pretty decent, although at times we were freezing! That coastal wind will get right into your bones, and sometimes even seems to try to push you right over. Luckily at Giant's Causeway, we climbed about 200 steps to get to the vista so that warmed us up a bit! We had a good time and didn't even get lost. Kudos to Michele for lending her excellent navigation skills!

'Tis the Season!

Michele is visiting and we met some friends at the Duke last night. Fortunately (and I don't say that often about this) we got a bit lost and ended up on Grafton Street. It is all lit up for Christmas, and boy is it gorgeous!! This photo doesn't capture the full effect, because the lights twinkle. So pretty. I'll be strolling that way more often for the rest of the year.

An era has ended...

No more cold showers, folks - new shower installed today!! This may be the happiest day of my life.

Free Bus Trickery

Today I woke up early to take the first bus to work, and I made my way to the bus stop in the freezing, gusting wind. Our bus is wrapped in a Vodafone ad (the whole bus is an ad) that is bright red and very easy to spot as it approaches the stop. My friend Lee was there waiting already and we started chit-chatting away about his trip to Howth yesterday. Howth is just north of Dublin. He and his wife saw a seal!! So I was listening to his story about the seal and he looked over at the curb and turned back to me and said, "Sorry, I thought that was our bus." But it wasn't red. So I looked over at it and noticed a Vodafone logo on the side and just in time to see it pulling away, noticed that YES! It was indeed our bus. I guess they re-wrapped the bus in a Christmas theme and it looks nothing like it did when it was wrapped in red. So we missed the bus and had to wait for the next one to come by half an hour later. Of course this couldn't have happened on a milder day. The wind was at an all-time high and it felt so polar!! I bet that psycho bus driver was laughing at us as he pulled away. We call him Mr. Happy because he is the grumpiest person on earth. I am afraid of him. My bus stop is just before a giant s-shaped curve and as soon as the last person's foot is in the door he slams it closed and races around that curve, I think hoping that someone sustains an injury before getting safely to his or her seat. I have seen it almost happen quite a few times. We call the other bus driver Red, because he's a jolly fellow with red hair. But we do kind of make fun of him too, because he calls out "See-uh-laaahr" when we get off the bus. For weeks I didn't know what he was saying, but it sounded friendly enough so I didn't ask right away what he was saying. Then one day I asked someone and it turns out he's saying "see you later!" I love this country. I never get tired of the experiences.

Super Soaker

After stopping at the SPAR for a paper, I spent yesterday afternoon at a coffee shop with some friends, which could possibly become a Saturday ritual. While I was digging for the change to pay for the paper, the clerk handed me a free copy of Vanity Fair with the cover ripped off. One of my friends had picked up a DVD player for me during the week, so he brought that to the coffee shop. After coffee, we went to a bakery around the corner (walking past the Bernard Shaw birthplace) and I picked up a loaf of rye bread. I went back to Janelle's place because her boyfriend had a scart cord, which I needed for the DVD player. After eating some of the carrot cake Janelle had bought at the bakery to pass the time while it was raining, we headed for the tram. Right after we got out the door it started pouring and the wind went insane. In two blocks, my umbrella had turned inside out 4 times! With all of my bags of stuff, I decided to get a taxi. It was well worth the €5 I spent. However, I left my hat in the taxi, so now I have to buy a new one. BUT... my umbrella seems to have survived the debacle. I have had that umbrella for about 6 years now. Takes a lickin' and keeps on... well, working if the wind isn't crazy.

Disgruntled by yesterday's super-soaker, I stayed in most of today. I only went to the store to pick up some stuff for dinner tonight. Luckily, I made it out and back in between showers. There was even some sunshine for my stroll!

Shaw Birthplace

Yesterday I was out and about, as I sometimes like to be on the weekends here in Dublin, and stumbled onto the Bernard Shaw birthplace. How neat!

Jimmy Flynn

Holy cow - I almost forgot to mention this morning's bus stop run-in.

Ok, so I got up for the early bus this morning, and fortunately when I got there my buddy Lee from work was already there. If this had happened while I was standing there alone I would have been a little freaked. Anyway, I was standing there looking for my tic tacs (they help me not to cough) and I had my morning paper in my hand and this old guy walks up and starts talking to us about the sports headline! He asked us where we were from and started calling us Americanos and asked us about the election, "but I'm not gonna ask ye's who ye voted for!" Then he asked how we liked Ireland. He said Ireland was "HELL'S KITCHEN!!" He was slurring (obviously) and says, "ye's know how the Irish live? Ye's wanna see?" Then he whips a bottle of Smirnoff's out of his jacket and takes a big old swig on it. "That's how we does it! Eh heh heh heh heh!" He asked us all about our jobs and told us about his job (well, we think he did anyway. the slurring was pretty bad, I tell ya). He'd just eaten a full Irish breakfast at the Burlington Hotel, apparently, which is just up the street from our stop. He told us he was Jimmy Flynn and asked our names and we told him and he shook Lee's hand and then held my hand for about 3 full minutes while he tried to think of a song to sing to me. Luckily the bus pulled up at that point.

Now, I hate to paint a bad picture of Dublin. It's not all bad - you know I love it here. And in its defense, this is the only really urban place I've ever lived. For all I know, drunks could be wandering the streets in big cities everywhere at 7 in the morning. It's really hard to be bothered by them here. Jimmy was a jolly fellow. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to get by. At least he was clean and didn't smell like pee. Hey - he was probably warmer than I was with that vodka in his system!

Flu Shot

Good news - I was able to get the flu shot. The lady took my temperature and I didn't have a fever so they went ahead with it. If only the flu shot covered EVERY kind of illness... still feeling bad today! The nose is slightly better and I've graduated to the tickly cough.

Sick.

Again!

I was supposed to get a flu shot at work tomorrow and now I can't because I'm sick. Again!

I think I'm just going to live through it this time. I am not shelling out any more money at the doctor's office.