Monday, June 7, 2010

Dublin - Last update

So much has happened since I last wrote! 

I am at home in Illinois now, after an exhausting flight... I walk in the door and find out... I GOT INTO UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI'S WOMEN'S HEALTH NURSE PRACTITIONER DISTANCE PROGRAM!!! By the end of 2012 I will be a nurse practitioner... whoa. I am overwhelmed, but still SUPER excited at this point.  

Now to finish my updates on Dublin...

I woke up Saturday morning and went back to Lemon for brunch and had some sort of mixed pepper with guacamole and cheese crepe... it was delicious as I am sure you can imagine.  I think I could eat crepes every single day! There are so many tasty combinations!
It almost looks like a quesadilla!

After stuffing my belly of warm crepe-y goodness (it may be crepe-y but it was far from crappy! Ha! I'm huh-larious), I walked around the town to rid myself of cheese calories.  I visited the National Museum of Ireland and the National Gallery of Ireland.  The museum was mostly artifacts (kinda boring) and the gallery was art, obviously (way more fun). The gallery had free audio tours, so some of the paintings had numbers on them and they coordinated with little stories on the portable audio set they provided.  I don't have any pictures from the inside, because there was no photography allowed.
museum

gallery on left

After my quite educational gallery visit, I walked to Merrion Square, which is another big park in Dublin. I napped in the grass there for awhile until the bugs started annoying the bajingo out of me.  The grass in Dublin is like golf course grass in Illinois: soft, very thin, very short, perfect for napping.


napping in the park

On my way home I grabbed a fruit tart and some chai tea and went to the hotel to change and get ready to go see Jay present his poster.  He was so cute and professional.
um... yum!

so professional! and adorable!

From the conference we hopped in a cab and booked it to the Guinness Storehouse.  It was a self guided tour with 7 different levels.  When we got to the top floor we were rewarded with the best view of the city and a fresh pint of Guinness.  
lovely day for a Guinness

The perfect pour... poured at a tilt... fill the glass almost full, let it stand/settle for a couple min, then holding it straight up fill the rest of the glass... and serve.



After the Guinness tour, we headed home to get dolled up for the Conference closing banquet.  We were entertained by this amazing violinist.  We had monkfish for dinner, which was delicious.  We also got to see all of these super smart PhD dudes break it down on the dance floor, drunk on wine.  Hilarious.  

All of us then left the banquet and went to a bar called The Globe.  It was a bar atmosphere on the main floor and a more club-type atmosphere on the bottom floor.  We ordered "Irish Car Bombs", but real Irish people do not drink such things, so we had to explain to them what they were.  In America there are so many complicated drink combinations, but in Ireland they either drink beer, whiskey/scotch, or a mixed drink of just liquor and one mixer.  (No pictures from this night on my camera, it ran out of batts)

When Sunday came it dawned on me that my trip was almost over. So sad. We had to make the best of our last day.  We traveled to the fishing island of Howth.  It was a 30 minute train ride east of the city.  The town is adorable, with both really cute and giant/gorgeous houses facing the ocean.  There were a plethora of cute little restaurants serving the catch of the day, with all the seafood having been literally caught that morning.  We had lunch on the shore at a place called The Oar House. I ordered shrimp and crab cakes, while Jay had seafood soup, shrimp, and oysters.  He made me try an oyster, not quite sure how I feel about the whole experience.



After our delicious lunch, we stopped at a little outdoor market, where I found the yummiest cupcakes.  

Then we started our hike up the side of the cliffs and around about 1/4 of the island.  I cannot even explain how beautiful the scenery was.  You can just take it all in from the pictures.



After coming home and resting, Jay, Neil and I went out for a couple beers at this really cool bar.  We chose the place, because it had Jimi Hendrix painted on the door outside.  We saw a fun band there, who played a lot of oldies rock.  Then, we meandered toward the Temple Bar area stopping at a couple bars there before heading to Sultan's for our midnight binge (okay more like 3am binge)... then off to bed.  

Now its Monday... I am home in Illinois... and I want to be back there.  Oh Dublin, I will miss you dearly.  

I was able to talk to a Irish gentleman last night at one of the pubs, who was asking us how we liked it in Dublin.  We all told him we never wanted to leave.  He explained to us how he lived in America for 6 years and wishes he still lived there.  But why? Dublin is fantastic! He told us that it gets old.  All there is to do in Dublin is to drink, really.  He was right, there are cool things to do as tourists, but as a local, it would really get old after awhile.  Nice to know what may seem like the coolest place on Earth, is just another place to live to some people.  Perspective, for sure.  

Either way, I hope that I make it back to Ireland someday.  

The trip was amazing.



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My Spring & Summer Fun To Do's...
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1 comment:

  1. AshleyJun 8, 2010, 6:43:00 AM

    Beautiful pictures, dude! I'm glad to have you back.

    xoxo,
    Lover

    ReplyDelete

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