Well, it's been a week since I got back to Florida. The house is looking better, and I've accomplished some minor stuff during the week and even more this weekend. Still need to drop some things off at Goodwill and take some books to the used book shop, but it's looking better. The shed in my back yard now has a ramp that doesn't break and crack when I walk on it, thanks to my brother and father and nephew, who showed up at my front door like the cavalry this morning. While they were working on that, I worked on the front porch, which looks a wee bit better now. I had to scrape a squished lizard off the tiles with a spade, but it's gone and the place is looking better. Tomorrow I hope to spend an hour or two straightening up the laundry room, which is a collection of badly placed hodge-podge items with no home.
All these things I've needed to do have kept me busy so that I'm not missing Dublin as much as I thought I would. I worry about not having things to do but luckily, as a homeowner, there are usually a lot of tasks to keep a body occupied. Spring will be here soon and there will be yard work galore - lizards and spiders and snakes, oh my. I'll remember why I liked Ireland so much when I see my first snake I'm sure. Ew!
I am pleasantly surprised to be doing as well as I am so far, and even feel happy sometimes. Not so much during morning and afternoon rush-hour driving, but being near lots of friends and family is really nice. It sure is a different lifestyle.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Leaving Dublin (Almost)
Well, the apartment is nearly empty and definitely clean. My bags are packed and ready to go. The cable company will be picking up my internet equipment very soon. And so I write my last blog from this great city. As my time in Dublin is coming to an end, I wonder will there be anything more to write about as I return to Florida. Is anyone even reading this anymore?!
The past two weeks have been the definition of bittersweet. Although I have had so much fun and laughed so much and made the most of my remaining time here, it has been sad to say goodbye to my colleagues that I have come to know and greatly admire. I have to hope I have led the way I wanted to, and helped to establish a firm foundation in our group here. I hope the people I've come to call friends have learned half as much from me as I've learned from them.
Looking back on two amazing years of travel and adventure has also made it hard to depart. I have seen unbelievable places and things that even just a few years ago I could never have imagined as possibilities. Will I still get around and see the world? It's hard to know.
However sad it may seem to leave, I can only say good things about this experience as a whole. It has been a bit of magic in my life, and I know how lucky I am to have had it. I am forever changed, I hope for the better!
The past two weeks have been the definition of bittersweet. Although I have had so much fun and laughed so much and made the most of my remaining time here, it has been sad to say goodbye to my colleagues that I have come to know and greatly admire. I have to hope I have led the way I wanted to, and helped to establish a firm foundation in our group here. I hope the people I've come to call friends have learned half as much from me as I've learned from them.
Looking back on two amazing years of travel and adventure has also made it hard to depart. I have seen unbelievable places and things that even just a few years ago I could never have imagined as possibilities. Will I still get around and see the world? It's hard to know.
However sad it may seem to leave, I can only say good things about this experience as a whole. It has been a bit of magic in my life, and I know how lucky I am to have had it. I am forever changed, I hope for the better!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Dart to Dalkey
This afternoon Heather and I took the Dart down to Dalkey to meet up with Roisin (Ro-sheen), a girl on my team at work, to watch her field hockey game. Roisin took us around the town to show us where we could eat lunch while she and the team prepared for the game. She showed us Finnegan's Pub, where U2's Bono often has a few pints.
We ate a late lunch at The Queens, and walked to the field to watch the match. It was so much fun! And the school where they played was right on the sea.
After the game, Roisin's sister picked us up and drove us around Dalkey and Killiney Hill. We saw such beautiful scenery, and even got to see Bono's front gate!! It was a great day.
We ate a late lunch at The Queens, and walked to the field to watch the match. It was so much fun! And the school where they played was right on the sea.
After the game, Roisin's sister picked us up and drove us around Dalkey and Killiney Hill. We saw such beautiful scenery, and even got to see Bono's front gate!! It was a great day.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Last Weekend In Dublin
I can't believe my time is nearly over here in the great city of Dublin. The weather this week has been very cold, but mostly blue sky with sun. Dublin, why must you make me miss you more by spoiling me during my last couple of weeks???
This weekend I'm going to try to hit all the spots I may have missed over the past two years. My goal is to be able to say yes to any question that starts, "When you were in Dublin, did you ever see..."
Tonight I'll meet my team from work for what they call "leaving drinks." Do you think that means they want me to leave after it's over? Sorry! Not getting rid of me for another week, folks!
This weekend I'm going to try to hit all the spots I may have missed over the past two years. My goal is to be able to say yes to any question that starts, "When you were in Dublin, did you ever see..."
Tonight I'll meet my team from work for what they call "leaving drinks." Do you think that means they want me to leave after it's over? Sorry! Not getting rid of me for another week, folks!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
County Cork and Sally Gap on the Way Back
What a weekend - long and pretty, exciting and lazy, hilarious and sometimes not so funny.
Heather and I hit the road early on Saturday and made our way down the N8, through the dense fog into the Cork sunshine. It was miraculous after being so concerned that we wouldn't see anything through the white clouds nearly touching the earth. Our first stop was the Blarney Castle.
The castle was terrific - it wasn't one like I've visited before, hadn't been refurbished to look the way it once had. Just stood there in its glorious ruin. The rooms were damp and old, and a little bit creepy. It was such great fun, even the part where we climbed old spiral stairs to the top and back down again. We were... um, entertained (?) by a large group of American teenagers being loud, annoying and inappropriate during our visit. They weren't the only ones acting like fools. Witness the brilliance of this tourist:
Read much?
We left the castle and headed toward Kinsale, our final destination of the day. We were starving for lunch and Kinsale is the town that has the best food in Ireland, according to all the guides. Our drive was long, but we finally made it for lunch around 3:30 at Fishy Fishy Cafe, near the pier. It was delicious. The best fried shrimp I have ever eaten - I mean it! Heather had an open sandwich on brown bread, 1/2 shrimp and 1/2 salmon. It was to die for. For dessert, I had a bread and butter pudding that tasted like heaven. If you are ever in Kinsale, you MUST try this restaurant. It's well worth a visit.
After lunch, we wandered the streets of Kinsale, trying to see as much as we could before dark.
What a cute town! We sampled some of the night life after dark, dipping into a wine bar, then back through town to our hotel bar for some live jazz singers (pretty good, I must say). Then we tried to find the castle just for fun but weren't so lucky on our search. Having walked the majority of Kinsale, we went to our rooms and retired for the evening.
Sunday morning we woke up early, had our breakfast at the hotel, then headed up to Charles Fort, going the way we THOUGHT our hotel concierge told us about. We drove up the graveliest, narrowest, steepest and most frightening road I have ever been on, and discovered at the top that our journey could not continue. We had arrived at the top of a steep, narrow road that was blocked at the end. No where to turn around, I prepared myself for a backwards drive down the scariest road ever. Needless to say, I didn't make it too far. The car slipped on the gravel and the back of the passenger side came to rest on a rock wall (fortunately, I suppose, not on the other side, which would have had us sliding down a mountain). Heather called the hotel to try and find out what we should do, and in the meantime, this guy with his dog appeared from around the corner. I asked him if he had any idea how we were supposed to get out of there. He said we had to go back the way we came. I was like, "Right. Well, we would, only the car is now stuck on the rocks and I can't make it move." He asked if I wanted his help and I jumped at the chance. He handed over the dog on the leash and got in the car with Heather (who was stuck in there because her door was on the rock wall). As the guy's dog whined and carried on while he ran me down the hill and while his master expertly navigated the steep, scary hill. He got the car to a turning around point and I told him I had no idea what we'd have done without him, and thanked him with all my heart. He said no one had driven up there for 30 years. My question is, shouldn't the hill be blocked to cars at the BOTTOM???? Before someone gets STUCK AT THE TOP!!! After all that, the damage to the car wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it was severely scratched where it had hit and scraped on the rocks.
It probably should be funny by now, but I'll wait and see what happens when I return the car to determine just HOW funny it will be.
We did make it to Charles Fort using the route we were supposed to have taken in the first place, and it was really amazing. We were glad we'd made the journey despite the huge debacle of the morning.
We made a few stops on the road back toward Dublin, taking some snapshots along the way.
We drove back home to Dublin through the Wicklow Mountains, via Sally Gap, which was gorgeous but very scary at times. I actually had to drive on snow a couple of times, but other people's cars had been there before me and sort of carved a path, so it wasn't too bad. We got through the winding, narrow roads just as darkness fell. It was perfect timing, thankfully.
Oh, and one more sign we found amusing in Wicklow.
They take dumping and dumpers very seriously.
Heather and I hit the road early on Saturday and made our way down the N8, through the dense fog into the Cork sunshine. It was miraculous after being so concerned that we wouldn't see anything through the white clouds nearly touching the earth. Our first stop was the Blarney Castle.
The castle was terrific - it wasn't one like I've visited before, hadn't been refurbished to look the way it once had. Just stood there in its glorious ruin. The rooms were damp and old, and a little bit creepy. It was such great fun, even the part where we climbed old spiral stairs to the top and back down again. We were... um, entertained (?) by a large group of American teenagers being loud, annoying and inappropriate during our visit. They weren't the only ones acting like fools. Witness the brilliance of this tourist:
Read much?
We left the castle and headed toward Kinsale, our final destination of the day. We were starving for lunch and Kinsale is the town that has the best food in Ireland, according to all the guides. Our drive was long, but we finally made it for lunch around 3:30 at Fishy Fishy Cafe, near the pier. It was delicious. The best fried shrimp I have ever eaten - I mean it! Heather had an open sandwich on brown bread, 1/2 shrimp and 1/2 salmon. It was to die for. For dessert, I had a bread and butter pudding that tasted like heaven. If you are ever in Kinsale, you MUST try this restaurant. It's well worth a visit.
After lunch, we wandered the streets of Kinsale, trying to see as much as we could before dark.
What a cute town! We sampled some of the night life after dark, dipping into a wine bar, then back through town to our hotel bar for some live jazz singers (pretty good, I must say). Then we tried to find the castle just for fun but weren't so lucky on our search. Having walked the majority of Kinsale, we went to our rooms and retired for the evening.
Sunday morning we woke up early, had our breakfast at the hotel, then headed up to Charles Fort, going the way we THOUGHT our hotel concierge told us about. We drove up the graveliest, narrowest, steepest and most frightening road I have ever been on, and discovered at the top that our journey could not continue. We had arrived at the top of a steep, narrow road that was blocked at the end. No where to turn around, I prepared myself for a backwards drive down the scariest road ever. Needless to say, I didn't make it too far. The car slipped on the gravel and the back of the passenger side came to rest on a rock wall (fortunately, I suppose, not on the other side, which would have had us sliding down a mountain). Heather called the hotel to try and find out what we should do, and in the meantime, this guy with his dog appeared from around the corner. I asked him if he had any idea how we were supposed to get out of there. He said we had to go back the way we came. I was like, "Right. Well, we would, only the car is now stuck on the rocks and I can't make it move." He asked if I wanted his help and I jumped at the chance. He handed over the dog on the leash and got in the car with Heather (who was stuck in there because her door was on the rock wall). As the guy's dog whined and carried on while he ran me down the hill and while his master expertly navigated the steep, scary hill. He got the car to a turning around point and I told him I had no idea what we'd have done without him, and thanked him with all my heart. He said no one had driven up there for 30 years. My question is, shouldn't the hill be blocked to cars at the BOTTOM???? Before someone gets STUCK AT THE TOP!!! After all that, the damage to the car wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it was severely scratched where it had hit and scraped on the rocks.
It probably should be funny by now, but I'll wait and see what happens when I return the car to determine just HOW funny it will be.
We did make it to Charles Fort using the route we were supposed to have taken in the first place, and it was really amazing. We were glad we'd made the journey despite the huge debacle of the morning.
We made a few stops on the road back toward Dublin, taking some snapshots along the way.
We drove back home to Dublin through the Wicklow Mountains, via Sally Gap, which was gorgeous but very scary at times. I actually had to drive on snow a couple of times, but other people's cars had been there before me and sort of carved a path, so it wasn't too bad. We got through the winding, narrow roads just as darkness fell. It was perfect timing, thankfully.
Oh, and one more sign we found amusing in Wicklow.
They take dumping and dumpers very seriously.
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