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.

Birthday Party

The St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre is celebrating its 20th birthday, and had a laser show the other night. We stopped in just before watching the Arsenal v. Tottenham match at Sinnott's. This guy was living it up true stoner style. Check it out.

Amazing Day at Work

I was in the middle of a conference call today when it started snowing - huge, fluffy snow! In OCTOBER!!! Holy cow. You can kind of see it in this photo, but it really doesn't do it justice.



Remember I was here in Ireland this time last year, and didn't need to wear a coat the whole time I was here. People are saying this will be a cold winter for Ireland. Apparently it was the first time it's snowed in October in 70 years!

My heating is on and the fireplace is being used almost every night. Brrrrrr!

Loved Santorini!

My New Boyfriend

Trip of a Lifetime

Well, it’s been a decent week at work, considering I spent all of the previous week in the Mediterranean islands! Although I’d much rather be back there enjoying fun in the island sun, seeing beautiful places I’d only ever imagined, it was sort of nice getting back into a routine. I bet Dublin Airport will be calling me over the next few weeks, since I won’t be there again until November 20th. They’ll be wondering if something is wrong.

The trip was beyond my wildest dreams. First it was Venice, with its beautiful old buildings and endless charm, and the canal snaking through it. The first night, Friday the 10th I stayed in a hotel pretty close to the airport and it was adorable and the staff was very helpful, friendly and spoke English!! I ate pizza and drank a beer and fell asleep watching the only English channel I had – MTV, although I did watch a few minutes of Bruce Almighty in Italian. It was pretty funny.

The next morning after eating breakfast, I was on the bus to Venice. Getting that giant suitcase around was not my favorite thing, let me tell you, especially on and off of a crowded bus. I stepped off of the bus and into Piazzale Roma and made my way to the nearby information center. I was advised to take a water bus to Giudecca, where the Hilton was. This was where I was meeting Julie later. I thought €6.50 was a little steep for a little ride to the next island down, but whatever. The ride was nice and I got to see a lot of Venice from the canal and the lagoon between Venice city and Giudecca. When I got off the bus, I had quite a long walk to the hotel, and it included two bridges… with steps! So, I made it over the first bridge but I had to stop and rest twice. My suitcase was monstrous! When I got to the next bridge, I set the suitcase down and prepared to heft it over and this guy says, “Let me give you a hand with that.” I almost cried with appreciation and said, “Thanks so much – you’re my hero!” That was Mike, of Mike and Carol, probably one of the nicest couples I’ve ever met. I spent the whole hour I waited for Julie sitting with them in the lobby and chatting away. They are from Pennsylvania and were actually going on a cruise too! They had been on many cruises and just knew I would love my first cruise experience. They were interested in hearing all about my move to Dublin and my recent travels. They were so sweet!

Julie finally arrived at the hotel around 1:30 or 2 on Saturday. She had a rough time getting to the hotel from the airport – public transportation nightmare, which made me thankful I found my way so easily. Anyway, after she freshened up, we headed over to Venice on the free shuttle boat from the hotel. We stopped for gelatos immediately. YUM! I had forgotten how great it is to be in Italy with the pizza and gelato. I swear I could live on those two things alone! We spent the afternoon wandering the streets of Venice. We passed by countless glass shops and souvenir shops and stores with Venetian masks. The glass shops were beautiful. We found St. Mark’s Square (Piazza di San Marco) and went to the top of the Campanile, a huge tower that dominates the square (height-wise, anyway). The view was beautiful. After taking bunches of photos from our bird’s eye view of Venice, we went to Harry’s, where the Bellini was invented. We squeezed our way in and got yelled at by the waiters to wait until they wiped the table down to sit. We sat down and opened the menu to find the most expensive drinks I have ever seen. We ordered €15 Bellinis that were only about 8 ounces each, then abruptly left – after being yelled at again for trying to take a picture in the bar. We ended up eating full meals that cost less than the Bellinis at a restaurant in Rialto. I had pasta and Julie had pizza. It was good and fun to people watch while we ate and drank our wine. We found a complimentary bottle of Bellini in our room that night when we got back to the Hilton. We enjoyed it far more than our Bellinis at Harry’s, and no one even yelled at us!

The next day we wandered some more, enjoying the sights and great weather in Venice. We ate lunch at a little café on the sidewalk in a piazza and drank good Italian beer with our food. After lunch we went back to St. Mark’s Square and toured the Palazzo Ducale. It was a great time. We goofed around in the courtyard taking funny pictures of each other. The tour was great, too. We saw some courtrooms and a prison and the “Bridge of Sighs,” where they would walk prisoners to their execution. The day ended with slices of pizza and being a little lost getting back to the boat pickup, but we found our way eventually without too much aggravation and made our way back to the hotel. We had some wine at the rooftop bar of the Hilton before retiring for the evening.

Oh, and the whole time we walked around these guys were selling counterfeit bags on the streets, and kept asking us, “You know how much?!” We loved it and joked about it the whole rest of the trip. At one point, Julie answered the guys “One euro?” They didn’t think that was too funny.

On Monday morning, we walked around Giudecca, which we discovered was not too exciting, but we found a nice little bakery and had a sugary breakfast and a cappuccino, which is another thing the Italians have the prize for – their cappuccinos, no matter where you get them, are amazing.

We headed over to Venice for the last time on the free shuttle bus to have lunch and board the ship for our cruise. We had a great waiter at another sidewalk café. He asked us how we could leave him and Venice so soon. He was cute. The weather was so perfect, we enjoyed our lunch very much and decided we could have sat there all day. It was not to be – we had a cruise to get to!

We took a water bus to our ship’s port and I soon discovered that neither my ATM nor my credit card worked anymore. This is not a great thing to happen right before you board a cruise ship, especially with no cell phone minutes left. I was stuck making a very expensive ship-to-shore call to America, but got it straightened out eventually and rejoined the world of the financially sound tourists (days later). We checked in at the terminal and dropped off our suitcases.

The ship was amazing and enormous. Being an Italian cruise line, the cruisers were mostly Italian and Americans seemed to be a minority. Each time an announcement was made or entertainment was about to begin, it came to us in five languages. You can imagine how long things seemed to take sometimes. It was interesting, though. We explored the ship and got our bearings. Our cabin was on the 8th floor, and there were 11 floors all together. We put our stuff in our room and waited for our luggage to arrive. The cabin wasn’t as tiny as we thought it would be. The bathroom wasn’t even too bad. Soon our luggage arrived with Lowell, our cabin porter. After Lowell had shown us how everything worked, we headed up to the 11th floor and top deck of the ship to watch the departure from Venice. Everyone else was there, too. The sun was setting and the departure was pretty cool to witness. A tug boat took us out of the harbor and off we sailed into the sunset!

At dinner, we had been assigned to a table of six. One of the couples was there when we arrived – newlyweds from Fort Lauderdale. The other couple joined us a bit after we arrived and they were from Dallas. We all got along famously. We felt very lucky, considering we could have been stuck with a bunch of yahoos that we couldn’t stand. The dinners – every single night – were five courses. First an appetizer, then soup, then pasta, then the main course, then dessert. Salad and a cheese plate were options you could add if you wanted. YIKES! Most of the meals were delicious. It was most often Italian, and there was seafood and steak available nearly every night. Good stuff. After dinner, there was a show in the theatre. Some of them were good, others were TRAGIC. We went to the first one but walked out after the woman sang three songs. She looked like a drag queen but wasn’t a drag queen. It would have been better if she was a drag queen. So we played air hockey and wandered around some more until it was bed time.

The next morning, we were off on our excursion, having docked at Bari, Italy. Our tour guide was Francesca, and we decided that we loved her. All of her words ended with “–a.” For example, “in-a the village-a, the roofs-a were-a painted-a with-a symbols. Why? Because-a the residents-a wanted-a to feel-a closer-a to God-a.” She also said “Why?” after everything she told us before she gave us an explanation. It was so cute. We loved her. The excursion took us on a long bus ride to Alberobello, a beautiful old place filled with Trullo houses, which are white-washed stone with cobble cone-shaped roofs. There was a little bit of step climbing involved, so it was a bit warm, but absolutely gorgeous. We took lots of pictures in the village, then headed to the town square for a light pasta lunch with complimentary wine. It was mouth-watering pasta – perhaps the best I have ever had. I could have eaten about 20 pounds more of it! After lunch we went back to Bari, stopping at the Basilica of San Nicola (St. Nicholas – AKA, Santa Claus) which houses the grave of St. Nicholas himself. On the way to Bari, some of the people on the bus started singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town. It was pretty fun to laugh at them. The church was beautiful. After leaving the church, we went back toward the port and got back on the ship. Before and after every port, they scanned our cards out and back in. We also had to show our passports.

Wednesday was Katakolon/Olympia, Greece. This time our tour guide was over-informative, we thought. I stood there with my A.D.D., sweating while I waited to be able to walk around and explore the ruins of Olympia, but was glad we listened to him, because we learned a lot about the origin of the Olympic games. Apparently, back when they started, the athletes competed naked!! He mentioned this several times, which was funny. We saw the altar where the torch is lit for the start of all the Olympic games. It was pretty cool. Now I’ll appreciate it more when the Olympics are on TV. I will also appreciate the fact that the athletes are all clothed. After our tour of Olympia, we were taken back to Katakolon for lunch in a Greek restaurant, where we saw Greek dancing and tried some Greek appetizer-type food. It was fun stuff. We also bought some souvenirs at the shops after we finished eating, then we headed back to the ship.

And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for… Santorini! What a gorgeous place. We rode a bus to the highest point on Santorini and took some photos, then headed down to a village called Megalochori where we saw the white-washed houses of the famous photos. We also got to see a vineyard up close. In Santorini, they wind up the grapevines into a sort of basket that sits on the ground. They do this to protect the fruit from the very high winds of the island. We went for a peaceful stroll and our tour guide, Luc, pointed out bell towers and told us about life in the village and showed us the only street sign in town. He said it’s very hard to tell people where you live there. After we walked through the village, we got back on the bus and rode to taste some of the wine. I tried the white, and didn’t even flinch about drinking wine at about 9:30 in the morning! We enjoyed the beautiful view from the winery, then took the bus to a Greek Orthodox church that began our free time. We sat for a while at a restaurant on a terrace overlooking the majority of Santorini, and marveled at the moment. I couldn’t believe we were there. I nearly had to pinch myself, again thinking I could have stayed there forever! Alas, we could not stay. We were due back at the ship at 1:00, and had to take a cable car down the mountain to the boat that would take us back to the ship. We wove our way through the village and before too long discovered that we’d be waiting a while for the cable car. The line was about five people thick and as long as about a quarter of a mile. We nearly saw fights break out while we waited in the line. We experienced boobs and purses and other personal belongings in our backs as well. I guess some people think they’re going to get ahead faster by pushing. Anyway, we finally made it to the cable cars and took a pretty, yet somewhat frightening ride down to the harbor and took the boat back to the ship.

We ate a buffet lunch and rested for a while until it was time to hit Mykonos that night. We had agreed the previous night to meet up with our usual dinner buddies for dinner on the island. We hit the harbor around sunset, and dined at a gorgeous restaurant with bright pink bougainvilleas and lights surrounding us. I had a lamb pastry dish, and it was so tasty I thought I might cry over it. We had a great time at dinner and a nice stroll around the harbor afterward. Then we headed back for the ship and shortly hit the sack.

On Friday our excursion took us from the port at Rhodes to Lindos, a village with narrow cobblestone streets and lots of shops and cafés. We did some shopping and sightseeing and then met back with the tour guide and got back on the bus. On the way back to Rhodes, we stopped at a really nice family-owned ceramics store where everything was hand detailed and painted by the family themselves. Afterward we stopped for lunch at a beautiful resort hotel for a Greek buffet lunch. It was really good food and I enjoyed tasting as many flavors of Greece as I could fit on my plate. Completely stuffed, we wandered around the hotel and its surroundings, including swimming pools and a lazy river where people were floating peacefully in the sun. We even walked down to the seaside for a few minutes and admired the shore, which is nothing like the beaches in Florida. We made our way back to the bus and fought snoozing as we listened to Dimitris, our tour guide, telling stories about his family and Greek heritage and weddings. His humor and storytelling skills were all that kept us awake while we rode to Rhodes that afternoon. We loved him too; he was our favorite. In Rhodes, we toured the Castle and walked the streets for shopping afterward. Then it was back to the ship again. We had dinner and watched a Hercules competition that was absolutely hilarious with men who were nothing like Hercules at all dressed as women in crazy outfits dancing around. We stayed up late for the midnight buffet, which was crowded and poorly organized. We were also disappointed to discover that the only food they had on the buffet were desserts. We went to bed after a very long day.

We spent Saturday at sea, and did a little gambling and some bingo and a little sunbathing until it was time for dinner again. It was kind of a boring day, but we passed it quickly and enjoyed relaxing. That night we had dinner entertainment as it was the farewell gala. The waiters had sparklers and the dinner crowd erupted in a congo line around the dining room. It was fun. After dinner, we saw a variety show and our own dinner table’s Melissa (the newlywed) was pulled onto the stage to participate in the show. She was a star!

Sunday we visited Dubrovnik. Our tour guide was too quiet to be heard effectively over the crowds all over the town. Dubrovnik is small and very pretty, with the cleanest streets I’ve ever seen anywhere. It’s as if they scrub them down every night. Despite the troubles hearing the tour guide, I enjoyed the city very much, and would love to go back someday. We visited monasteries, churches and a palace and all were beautiful. That night we went to dinner and later met with our group in the lounge for the cruise talent show. It was mostly Italian singing, but there were a few silly things the staff did during the show that were pretty funny. After the show, we had to pack and put our luggage in the hallway for disembarkation.

Monday morning we left the ship; Julie left a bit before I did since she had an early flight. We said our goodbyes and I waited for my color code to be called. I picked up my luggage and took the shuttle bus to Venice again. I found a place to leave my heavy luggage, and wandered the streets of Venice until it was time for me to leave. I walked so much that day I thought I might have to take a nap on a park bench. I made it the whole day with no nap and flew back without incident, even got back to Dublin early.

Sorry this was so long, and I can tell you there are even more details I left out but I’ll spare you for now. I had a great time – the trip of a lifetime.

Back from the Mediterranean

I am back in Dublin after 10 glorious days of vacation. What a great trip! Italy, Greece and Croatia - all beautiful places. They lived up to all my expectations. I am exhausted but it was totally worth it. I saw places I never thought I'd see. The stuff of dreams!! I have been going through my 1133 pictures (I know, I have a problem) and will post some soon. Here's one of me in Venice:

In the park

First Irish Haircut

I was nervous, but it's not too bad!

Some people still like Heart!

I have learned that my neighbor's favorite song in the world is 'Alone,' by Heart. He did not tell me that was his favorite song. I learned it by listening to it blasting and vibrating through my walls and his - get this - singing (screaming) along with the song. It's been fun - four times during the past week.

Early warnings...

Well, I may be in for a little bit harsher cold than I'm used to. Today I took the bus to the nearby shopping center to look for a big stock pot. I stood there in the icy, freezing wind waiting for the bus. I had to wrap my scarf around my head to shield my cheeks from it and to keep my hair in check.
Then, someone told me - I was not a witness to this myself - that it snowed a bit this afternoon! October the 1st, folks.
Let me just say that the chicken chili I made in my new pot was the perfect dinner for tonight. And I'm happy to say I have leftovers to last almost throughout the entire winter season!

Happy Birthday Allison!

Passed Out

Horrible quality photo, but I had to share. This woman was passed out cold on a bench at a popular square in Stockholm. I didn't want to take a photo using the flash for fear of disturbing her rest! You can't tell from the photo, but she seems to be a normal-looking woman. She even has a small shopping bag!

Crazy Country Roads

I forgot to mention yesterday, while I was on my drive in the country I encountered a beast of the small and crazy kind... I was on one of those great narrow winding Irish roads and I saw something in the street in the distance. At first I thought it was a rabbit, but as I approached I saw it was a little dog. I slowed down to a snail's pace since there as no one behind me and nearly stopped to see if the little guy was okay, because he was really in the middle of the road. Well, the little devil started baring his teeth and fiercely barking at me! So I started trying to move the car on past the crazy thing and he ran TOWARD the car!! I heard a THUMP and screeched to a halt thinking I had killed the poor thing, but immediately heard more barking. Not yelping; more crazy barking. Then I couldn't see him at all and was afraid to move, but cars were approaching from behind me so I had to creep to a very slow start and move on. As I made my way further down the road, I checked my rear view mirror and didn't see a dead dog, so I felt okay about it but still a bit creeped out with my heart racing. What a weirdo!!! I feel sure that even though I didn't kill him, he must have died by the end of the day hanging out in the street like that. Dumb dog.

Sunday Cloudy Sunday

Today I woke up feeling like a new woman! After a week of feeling so badly, I was relieved to feel almost completely normal this morning. I had a car for the weekend and was dog-sitting, so I decided to stop by a friend's "boot sale" - which is like a garage sale in a parking lot - on the way back to Dublin. The boot sale was in Greystones and was very close to the seafront. After a gorgeous few days it had been raining early this morning, but it cleared enough for a nice visit and general observation of the sale. On the way back to the car, I caught this great photo of a sailboat on the sea. You can just feel the chilly mist, can't you?

Powerscourt Gardens

Today I got out finally, after a week of doing nothing. I went to Powerscourt Gardens in Wicklow. Great day for a stroll. Blue sky, sunshine, mild temperature. Perfect!

Stockholm Shots

My Trip to Stockholm

So… Stockholm – GREAT city. First, my room at the Crystal Plaza Hotel was small, but very clean and nicely located in the city centre. I got a great free breakfast buffet both mornings and a discounted dinner at the Thai restaurant in the hotel. The people of Stockholm were very friendly and helpful, and all of the people I encountered spoke English and spoke it quite well. Public transportation was fairly easy to figure out, and when I couldn’t figure it out I had the friendly people at the Pressbyran stores to help me find my way. The Pressbyran shops are where you buy tickets for the Tunnelbana, the buses and the trams. I never tried a tram, but I traveled by bus and T-bana frequently.

The first day I ate a reindeer and horseradish wrap on the way to the hotel from the central station, then checked in and took a LONG T-bana ride to a bus for the Drottningholm Palace. It was gorgeous, and the gardens were quite nice. I got tons of pictures and had perfect weather. Afterward, I took the long ride back and did the travel book’s recommended walk around the city centre. I saw Sergels Torg, where there was an international market going on, with lots of booths with food and products from around the world. It was crowded and buzzing with people. I had a delightful time wandering around and taking it all in. The rest of the walk took me around to the major sights of the city, including other squares, buildings, and churches, and even to the sight where the prime minister Olof Palme was assassinated in 1986. My walk ended around dusk, and I was exhausted after walking several miles. I hate to admit where I ate dinner. ONLY because it was conveniently located on the way back to the hotel, I indulged in the golden arches – that’s right, McDonald’s. After some greasy deliciousness, I headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Day two began with another suggested walk from the travel book, around Sodermalm, an island to the south of Gamla Stan (the Old Town), which is between Sodermalm and the city centre. Sodermalm offered excellent views of Gamla Stan, and was well worth the uphill hike I took to get there. I got a little lost after walking up the winding road with the great view, and headed on over to Gamla Stan, where I wandered the streets for a while and admired the old beautiful buildings. I went into the Storkyrkan Cathedral and looked around, then continued my walk around to the Royal Palace. At almost noon, I stumbled upon a growing crowd, which was gathering to watch the changing of the guards at the palace. Apparently, this is Stockholm’s most popular tourist event. I had no idea until I was standing there waiting for it to happen. It was a big show, let me tell you. It took about 45 minutes, and even after it was over, the band marched around the corner and continued playing to the cheers from the audience. I found the narrowest street in the city, and it was not alone – there were many narrow streets along my walk, and I took photos to remember them all! After eating lunch, I headed off on the Under the Bridges boat tour, which was the most relaxing two hours of my trip. They have a recorded guide on headphones that describes the sights as the boat cruises along on both the Baltic Sea and Lake Malaren. It was wonderful! After the tour, I did a little more wandering on the streets of the city centre, and then headed back to the hotel to plan my last day. I ate dinner at the hotel’s Thai restaurant – Szechwan scampi and fried banana with ice cream for dessert – and after a quick walk around the neighborhood to ease the full belly, I called it a night.

Luckily, the hotel let me check out but leave my suitcase in a baggage room. My last day started with a trip to City Hall, a 1.5 mile walk, and a long hike up the tower, which is 348 feet tall. A lift takes you half the distance to the top, but it’s your own two feet that take you the rest of the way. I waited about half an hour in line to get up there, and it was worth the wait. Breathtaking views of the islands. After I climbed back down the tower, I walked over to the Vasa Museum on Djurgarden. This was not a quick walk – about 2.5 miles. I was so tired when I got there, but the Vasa was bigger and more amazing than you can imagine. The ship, which sank in Stockholm Harbor in 1628 on its maiden voyage, was salvaged beginning in 1956 and this museum is practically built around it! It was fascinating. The photos I got do not do it justice. The size in itself is the wow factor, but the story around it is intriguing as well. I went to the Skansen open-air museum last. It is the world’s first open-air museum, opened in 1891 to show industrialized Stockholm and the rest of the world the Sweden of the past. Authentic buildings from all over Sweden were moved into this museum. I stopped for authentic Swedish meatballs for lunch and to rest a while, then I strolled up to see the elks, reindeer, bears, foxes, wolves, owls and a number of other creatures in the Scandinavian Animals section of the museum. It was great fun, but I was extremely exhausted by the time I was leaving there. Luckily I found a bus to get back to the city centre. I picked up my bag from the hotel and got on the bus for the airport. I coughed the entire hour and a half ride to the airport, and spent the three-hour wait for the plane medicating as much as possible for the flight. I finally made it home at close to 1 AM last night. I am fully ill at this point, and quite relieved not to be flying again until next month. Welcome Amoxicillin!

Bad Shower Week

On Monday I decided to color my hair to get rid of the grays that were starting to show. I gotta be young in my travel photos! So I got up early and put the color on. I ironed while I waited the 40 minutes or so for it to set and got ready for... the SHOWER. A shower, a HOT shower that is, is a critical part of the hair coloring process. It is the only way to get the color out before it burns your hair. Unfortunately and somewhat predictably, I had no hot water. I tried as hard as I could to stand the freezing cold to scalding hot cycle that is the procedure when the water won't work. Turn it all the way up to 9, wait for it to get warm, get under it until it's scalding, turn it down to 4, wait for it to cool back down enough to get under, stay under it until the water gets too freezing cold again and repeat. Unfortunately, the bearable periods of warmth were about 5 seconds long. Not nearly long enough to rinse out the color in a reasonable amount of time. Thus, I was forced to wrap myself in a towel and run downstairs to the kitchen sink to rinse. I couldn't quite stretch my body to adequately position my head under the water, so I cleared the counter and lay down with my head in the sink. More than once I filled my ears quite well with the warm water. But hey, at least I was rinsing the color out, right? I had a celebratory feeling of success until I realized I still had to condition my hair, so I squeezed out my hair as much as possible, still dripping as I ran back up the stairs to fetch the conditioner I'd forgotten in my panicked haste to get the color out. Then I applied the conditioner and let it sit a minute or two and ran back downstairs to rinse again, reassuming my extremely uncomfortable position on the kitchen counter. I'm thinking €200 for professional hair coloring doesn't sound so bad at this point!
I called my landlord and told him to fix it. "Today," I said, with obvious hostility. He stopped by later and removed the filter from the power shower. Not that it mattered, because of course when he showed up the darn shower worked perfectly. So he thinks I'm a stupid person who can't operate a shower. However, he told me he hoped that the filter removal would fix the problem and asked me to call him if I had more problems.
Tuesday came and I enjoyed a hot shower with no problems. Feeling like a million bucks, I wondered if maybe the problem was solved. Until Wednesday morning, when the shower was freezing cold AGAIN. I took a bath, because for some insane reason the bath tap is sourced from a different tank than the shower. Hot bath, soapy hair all day, another call to the landlord. Not surprisingly, he came back over and it worked fine for him again. This time he literally played with the dials a couple of times and told me it was sensitive and I shouldn't mess too much with the settings. Which, by the way, I only do because I don't like freezing cold showers. I'd leave it on the same setting all the time if only it would WORK!!!
This morning I had a nice hot shower again, but it's only a matter of time... probably tomorrow morning at 3:30 when I have to take a shower before I leave for Stockholm it will be like ice water again. I'll let you know when I get back.

Vienna Beauty

A taste of Vienna

Beautiful Vienna

I'm back from the insanely gorgeous Vienna, Austria. I couldn't believe how pretty the city is. I had a great time, despite fighting a cold and some bizarre knee issues (only at night while trying to sleep). My hotel was small but nice and superbly located. I found it easy to get anywhere from there, mostly on foot, but a U-bahn stop was very closeby and convenient. I only got lost once and it was because I was "off the map." Even then I found my way fairly quickly.
There were many highlights during the trip - too many to name them all! I enjoyed all the churches and museums, the food was terrific and the locals were all very nice. The first day was super hot, the second day was a bit milder, and the third day was almost cold - definitely windy - but absolutely beautiful.
I went to art museums, mostly, but also took the time for two other somewhat peculiar museums: the criminal museum and the clock museum. The 'Kriminalmuseum' was pretty far away from the main part of the city, but it was a beautiful morning on Saturday when I set out on my journey. I took the U-bahn and walked about a half a mile or so to get there. It was as if I had stepped into the twilight zone. The museum is in an old house with winding hallways and stairs, which is creepy in itself. The displays were all described in German, so I was given a photocopied handout sheet that gave me the VERY abridged version of each exhibit. There were about 20 rooms, and each had very disturbing objects and photos on display. In some cases, they had the actual weapons used in murders and the skulls of some of the criminals and victims. Yuck! Also, I was the only person in there, so it was EXTRA creepy. The clock museum had about a million old clocks and watches in it, and although I did enjoy it, I could have saved the admission price for something better. For example, the Bratwurst I ate immediately after the clock museum was far better and only cost €3!
I saved a visit to the Hundertwasserhaus apartments for last, and they were truly amazing. It looked like a combination of Beetlejuice and Dr. Seuss - totally bizarre. I wish I lived there!
All in all, it was a wonderful trip. I am going to rest as much as possible over the next four days... Friday I'm off to Stockholm!

Sunday is Movie Day!

After some delicious eggs benedict at a restaurant not far from my apartment, today I saw a movie called 32A with a couple of friends. It's an Irish movie about 4 teenaged girlfriends. It was very cute. It won some Irish film awards. I feel I am more educated now about being an Irish kid in the 70s. It doesn't seem too much different from the 70s in America except they listened to cooler music.

After the movie, we went shopping at Penney's and Tesco. We went out of the mall using the wrong exit and ended up climbing down a steep hill with all our shopping bags to get back to the LUAS. It was a fun little adventure. I was happy to have not been caught in the rain - third Sunday in a row!

I have been experimenting with more baking this weekend. The chocolate cake I made last weekend turned out far better than what I ended up with last night. I tried to make a 'Neiman Marcus cake' (whatever that is) and the ingredients were cake mix, butter, cream cheese, eggs and icing sugar (two different layers). The recipe reminded me of ooey gooey bars but what I ended up with was cake and cream cheese mush. I halved the recipe and put it in a round cake tin, so I'm hoping that was the problem. It's pretty weird. So tonight I have to bake again for this guy's birthday tomorrow at work, and I have no idea what to bake yet. I'm thinking since I have enough leftover ingredients for the Neiman Marcus cake I may just try that again. If it doesn't work right then I can at least say I tried.

That was my weekend.

La Clique

Last night I saw "La Clique," which was sort of a variety show that kicked off the Dublin Fringe Festival. We saw contortionists, a juggler, a woman with four hula hoops who could whip them off the floor with one foot and hula them all the way up to her neck, a guy who danced from the ceiling from straps over a bathtub (that one is really hard to properly explain)and many other acts that were jaw-dropping - Just amazing! It was sort of like a circus, but without the animals. Check out the link: http://dublinfringefest.ticketsolve.com/events/events_for_show/300085
Here are some photos:

Rainbow at Work

Man On Wire

See this movie. It is a documentary about Philippe Petit, a Frenchman who walked a high wire between the World Trade Center towers in 1974. You can read about some of his other wire-walking adventures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Petit
The movie was amazing and truly inspirational. Please check it out.

Feeding Pigeons

This guy had the pigeons sitting on his lap and literally eating from his hand.

Creepy Kitty On My Wall

M&M Day

Museum and Movie Day! As I made my way to the National Museum on Kildare Street, I stumbled across an Indian Festival where I heard lots of chanting and then saw this Hare Krishna float. They even held up a sign teaching how to sing the chant.

I arrived at the museum, which wasn't too crowded at first. I was soon joined by tourists as I wandered around looking at artifacts from prehistoric, medeival and Viking Dublin. Amongst the gold and the arrowheads and other artifacts, on display they had bodies that had been found in bogs around Ireland - you should do a search on google image for bog bodies. The preservation that occurs in that natural environment is quite interesting.



After the museum, I went to the movies to see Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, but it was okay for an hour and a half. Outside of the movie theater, there is a sculpture called "Mr. Screen." Here he is.

It was a nice day and I was glad to get some culture and have a nice stroll on a pretty day.

Dublin: City of Cranes

Dusk in the Docklands

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to Lee and Kaitlin!

100th Post

Can you believe it? A hundred posts! I am quite the blabber-mouth. Thanks for reading.

...and the birthday continues...

Last night my friends surprised me with a ticket to the Literary Pub Crawl! We met at the Duke and watched our two actor guides perform a scene from Waiting for Godot, a play by Samuel Beckett, in the pub. After hearing a bit about Beckett, we moved on to Trinity College to hear some tales about the college days of Oscar Wilde and some of his travels. Next on the tour was the MJ O'Neill pub. We were given 20 minutes to enjoy a pint (well, I had a glass, which is only half a pint) and met up at St. Andrews church across the street. St. Andrews is now a tourist information center. In front of the church we got another performance from our guides, who were quite talented, and some more stories of Dublin's literary past. We moved on next to the Old Stand for another pint (again, only a "glass" for me). Then we were off back toward our starting point, where we were given a quiz and a couple of prizes were awarded to the winners. The last stop on the tour was Davy Byrne's, a very chic old pub with magnificent ceilings and decor. After our glasses of beer, we were feeling peckish and made our way to none other than the fine dining establishment of Grafton Street, Burger King. We walked around the corner to Bruxelle's, which we decided was too crowded and then took a long walk in the drizzle and rain to Pravda, a Russian bar on the north side of the Liffey, just over the Ha'Penny Bridge. Exhausted after only about a half hour, we took a taxi home.