Catching Up

In Avoca, Ireland. This man is handweaving a blanket. So old school and so very cool!

An authentic Irish breakfast: pudding sausage, blood sausage, barley sausage, eggs, bacon, toast, beans

Today, we slept in on this rainy Saturday and have enjoyed lounging around in our pajamas all.day.long. It's now 4:00 and I can proudly say I have only left my bed to eat (twice) and go to the bathroom. I love it! This week was a long week at work as we hustled and bustled in preparation for the students who will arrive next week. So my laziness is very well deserved. So far, without leaving my bed this morning, I've: 1. read my People magazine 2. consulted one of my favorite Christmas presents from the in-laws, Lonely Planet Costa Rica, for more ideas for our August trip, 3. Facebooked. Is that even a word? Now I'm trying to motivate to go to the gym but it just started pouring (again!). Ugh.

Last week we went to Dublin for an early celebration of C's birthday with Mickai. It was our second trip together since we all went to Elba back in 2006. We are all very compatible travel buddies and had tons of fun together hanging out. We topped off almost every night by playing one of my favorite games, Apples to Apples. This is an awesome game for groups- I highly recommend it!

Overall, I was impressed with Dublin, especially the cute little characterstic neighborhoods. Our favorite was the Temple Bar. (No, it's not a bar. It's a barrio/neighborhood and I never found out why they call it Temple Bar. ) This was my second time to Ireland and I can still say that my favorite thing about Ireland is the people. They seem to like Americans a lot and are the friendliest, jolliest lads I've ever met! Of course the scenery is also great, with rolling green hills in the countryside. We did a day trip to the small country towns of Glendalough and Avoca, where we saw actual handweavers who wove amazingly soft blankets and scarfs.

In Dublin, we stayed in a two bedroom apartment, right on the river. Ellis Quay apartments

were clean, central, and had an excellent, fully equipped kitchen. We (um, I mean, er, the guys) cooked two of the nights we were there and we went out to eat the other two. We ate excellent fish and chips and the BEST clam chowder I have ever eaten in my life at Ryan's on Parkgate Street and then later in the week had a great, Irish-French influenced meal at a restaurant called The Winding Stair. We found the menu at the pub part of Ryan's to be more "Irish," plus the ambiance was less stuffy than the restaurant upstairs. The Winding Stair is a former library and offers a great view of the river. I had mussels and the boys had manly steaks and delish duck confit. (I don't remember what Blondie had :)

We stayed busy and out of the rain by taking tours of the Guinness Factory and the Killmanom prison, which were both very interesting. We also did the get on/off city bus tour! On our last day there, it was so windy and rainy and gross so we decided to see the chick flick Bride Wars. C was a trooper and suffered through it right before we hailed a taxi and got to the airport just in time to catch our two hour Ryanair flight back to Pisa. The trip was a great way to start off 2009!

At a REAL Irish pub with REAL Irish Guinness beers at Ryan's on Parkgate Street!