My parents just spent 9 days travelling in Ireland. It was wonderful to have them here and also to join them on some of their adventures. They did some sightseeing in Dublin as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland while I was working. Then I took a few days off and went with them on a road trip around Southern and Western Ireland. My dad very accurately called it a blitz tour of Ireland. They saw as much of Ireland as possible in their limited time. They were able to visit my church in Dublin, see the Book of Kells, Grafton Street, Dublin Castle and Christ Church as well as my office and ride the train South to Dun Laoghaire and North to Howth.
I had a couple of surprises planned for my mom to celebrate her birthday, which was the middle of their time here. I had a few of my friends over for an appetizer party and had a birthday cake already baked and put candles on it and we sang. My mom was out on the deck and she came into the apartment singing happy birthday thinking that it was one of the friends birthdays. She was certainly surprised. As a birthday present, I got seats to Riverdance. It is incredible how fast their feet move. We sat right up front and got into the energy of the performance!
On our road trip allowed us time to see some of the Irish countryside and also some of the sites along the way. We went to several castles, Ashford castle, Ross Castle, and Kilkenny castle. I have to tell you that I can’t remember all the centuries and historical info, but Ashford castle is now a very fancy hotel. Ross Castle is very old and is a historic sight and Kilkenny castle has been refurbished to where it would have been in the Victorian Period. One of my favourite parts of our trip was a day touring around the Dingle Peninsula. It is the most western part of Ireland and it is very picturesque. It could explain why I took over 400 pictures while my parents were here!
We also made stops at the Cliffs of Moher, Muckross House, Charles Fort, Rock of Cashel, and Glendalough. My father was quite frightened to take my Mom and I to the Waterford crystal factory. We made it out of there with 1 crystal piece each and we didn’t completely break the bank. ☺ Our last stop was Powerscourt Gardens just south of Dublin. I had never seen flowers and gardens like these. My mom compared the gardens to Versailles in France. The gardens were not as large, but every bit as beautiful and amazing. I took over 140 pictures of just flowers. You have to love the digital camera!
It was an amazing blessing to spend time with my parents and to travel with them. They completely wore me out! They departed at 3:30am yesterday and they are now safely home in Colorado. I have only 4 nights to get ready for my next visitor. Bill arrives on Saturday and we also have a full travel schedule. Now I need to get the sheets and towels all washed and ready!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Upcoming Dublin Visitors
I am very excited for my visitors to start arriving! My parents will be here on Saturday...only 4 days away. My apartment is scrubbed, I have bought extra groceries and I have packed a suitcase for them to take home. Now I'm just waiting til they get here. We will be spending a few days in Dublin along with taking a road trip around SouthWest and Southern Ireland. I just found out that we will be in Tralee during a festival time. There is a pagent called the Rose of Tralee early in the week and then a festival.
Only 5 days after my parents leave, my next visitor arrives. Bill is coming from Dallas, TX and we will spend some time in Ireland, visit Waterford and a few towns in the South of Ireland and then fly over to Edinburgh, Scotland for a couple days. I am hoping to see the castle of Edinburgh...I have heard that it is amazing!
Then 4 days after Bill leaves, my cousin Cheri and her friend arrive. They have not ironed out their travel plans yet, but the are flying into Dublin and out of Paris.
I know that I probably won't have much time to Blog in the upcoming weeks, so I wanted to let you know what I am up to. I'll be busy just washing the sheets and towels around here! :)
I also formally extended my time in Ireland for 1 month. I am scheduled to go back to the states on November 16. My office in Ireland has requested a longer extension, and I am going to wait and see how it goes. Regardless, I am planning to go back to spend Thanksgiving with my family.
I have also put together pictures from when Ami visited. Send me an email if you are interested in the link to the slideshow. Just to warn you it is 100 pictures, but you can scroll thru them fast.
Only 5 days after my parents leave, my next visitor arrives. Bill is coming from Dallas, TX and we will spend some time in Ireland, visit Waterford and a few towns in the South of Ireland and then fly over to Edinburgh, Scotland for a couple days. I am hoping to see the castle of Edinburgh...I have heard that it is amazing!
Then 4 days after Bill leaves, my cousin Cheri and her friend arrive. They have not ironed out their travel plans yet, but the are flying into Dublin and out of Paris.
I know that I probably won't have much time to Blog in the upcoming weeks, so I wanted to let you know what I am up to. I'll be busy just washing the sheets and towels around here! :)
I also formally extended my time in Ireland for 1 month. I am scheduled to go back to the states on November 16. My office in Ireland has requested a longer extension, and I am going to wait and see how it goes. Regardless, I am planning to go back to spend Thanksgiving with my family.
I have also put together pictures from when Ami visited. Send me an email if you are interested in the link to the slideshow. Just to warn you it is 100 pictures, but you can scroll thru them fast.
Friday, August 10, 2007
SiSi's and Marks & Spencers
I went to lunch with a girl that I work with at this tiny little Italian place in the town where we work called SiSi's. When I say tiny, it is tiny for even Ireland. it has 4 tables and maybe 10 chairs. I ordered the lasagna and it was excellent. I only ate about half of it and was full. I was really wishing that I had a refrigerator back at the office so that I could take it and enjoy the rest for dinner. Not sure if I wrote this before, but there is no refrigerator and no microwaves in the office. NONE! It sure makes taking your lunch challenging. The girl that I was eating with jokingly said that I could ask the restaurant if they would keep it for me until after work. Even though I knew she was joking, I decided to ask. Crazy enough they said sure. I don't think I have ever asked a restaurant to hang onto my leftovers and refrigerate them for me! :) I picked it on my way to the train after work and happily enjoyed the rest of my lasagna later.
Marks & Spencers is a UK based company that has stores in Ireland that sell high end foods. Similar in produce and meat quality to Whole Foods. M&S specializes in prepared but uncooked food. For example, they have this wonderful chicken breast with wild mushroom sauce that comes in a little tin container and you just place it in the oven. It sounds like microwave meals, but they aren't frozen, they only last a few days and actually taste good. So, I went in there yesterday only to discover the shelves were nearly empty. I had been in a different M&S on Monday and it was nearly cleaned out too. I thought it was just because it was a holiday weekend and nearly everyone was off work Sat-Mon. I got back to the office and asked a bit and found out that Ireland has severely restricted food imports from the UK due to the recent confirmed cases of mad cow in England. I have not encountered a nearly empty grocery store before. They have about 3 sections of shelves about 6 feet wide and 6 feet high that are normally filled with all of the breads, croissants and pastries. Just to put something on the shelf, they have filled all 3 sections with hardened meringue cups. I think anything that they had in storage they are putting on the shelves just to not have a completely empty store. It was very odd. I know that there are recalls of certain food from time to time in the US, but they have never impacted my ability to buy a variety of grocery items from produce to meat to baked goods. I went in search of yogurt and strawberries and whole wheat bread. I walked out with empty hands...very strange.
Marks & Spencers is a UK based company that has stores in Ireland that sell high end foods. Similar in produce and meat quality to Whole Foods. M&S specializes in prepared but uncooked food. For example, they have this wonderful chicken breast with wild mushroom sauce that comes in a little tin container and you just place it in the oven. It sounds like microwave meals, but they aren't frozen, they only last a few days and actually taste good. So, I went in there yesterday only to discover the shelves were nearly empty. I had been in a different M&S on Monday and it was nearly cleaned out too. I thought it was just because it was a holiday weekend and nearly everyone was off work Sat-Mon. I got back to the office and asked a bit and found out that Ireland has severely restricted food imports from the UK due to the recent confirmed cases of mad cow in England. I have not encountered a nearly empty grocery store before. They have about 3 sections of shelves about 6 feet wide and 6 feet high that are normally filled with all of the breads, croissants and pastries. Just to put something on the shelf, they have filled all 3 sections with hardened meringue cups. I think anything that they had in storage they are putting on the shelves just to not have a completely empty store. It was very odd. I know that there are recalls of certain food from time to time in the US, but they have never impacted my ability to buy a variety of grocery items from produce to meat to baked goods. I went in search of yogurt and strawberries and whole wheat bread. I walked out with empty hands...very strange.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Fire Alarm
About 6 pm the most horrendous sounding fire alarm started going off in my apartment. It was so loud that I could barely stand it...I wanted to sit on the floor and put my hands over my ears like small kids do when they hear a loud noise. So, in my sweats, I grabbed a jacket and my handbag and turned off the stove where I was cooking dinner and went down the stairs. An hour later the alarm was still going off and there had been no fire department and no management personnel. One of the girls that I was talking with mentioned going to the pub and so 4 of us went to the pub around the corner for drinks. An Irish girl, a Canadian girl, an Irish guy and me. None of us knew each other before tonight. It was a blast! We talked about Dublin life, places that I have to see in Ireland, jobs, European travel, etc. It was one of those rare occasions where you have your evening planned out and it goes completely different than expected and yet it was so much fun. Now I actually know a few of the people in my building.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Ranier Cherries & Other Updates
3 ½ months
I was wondering around the grocery store trying to decide what to have for lunch when I came across Ranier Cherries and they made my day! My mom introduced me to them at home and they have a specific season when they are available in the states as they come from Ranier, Washington so, I never expected to see them here. And on top of that I could barely contain my excitement when they were ½ off!!!! So I got my cherries and a salad and was smiling all through lunch :)
In other updates, our bible study group has grown to 3. Sherri is the President of the American Womens Club in Dublin and she joined us last week. Her husband is with KPMG and they are here on an extended assignment. When I met her and said I was from Denver we realized that we lived less than 10 min away from each other in the states. Crazy!
I have a 3 day weekend coming up because there is an Irish bank holiday on Monday August 6. I worked the last bank holiday, but this time I found out that the train system would be completely shut down between me and the office due to some major construction, so I can’t even get to the office. I guess I’ll just have to take the day off.
It’s the calm before my waves of visitors. My parents are coming and then a friend from Texas and then my cousin from Omaha and a friend. I just glanced at a calendar and realized that for 6 weekends in a row I will have guests. WHOA! That’s a lot of activity for my fairly quiet Dublin social life.
There are also 2 more Canadians coming over to work for my company in the next month and I have been emailing with them. It’s nice to have them ask questions about shipping stuff and cell phones and Dublin apartments and me actually be able to give them helpful information! I am meeting one of them for dinner next week, just like Roisin did with me when I arrived. Now that Roisin has deserted me and moved back to Canada, I have to carry on the welcoming routine.
I was wondering around the grocery store trying to decide what to have for lunch when I came across Ranier Cherries and they made my day! My mom introduced me to them at home and they have a specific season when they are available in the states as they come from Ranier, Washington so, I never expected to see them here. And on top of that I could barely contain my excitement when they were ½ off!!!! So I got my cherries and a salad and was smiling all through lunch :)
In other updates, our bible study group has grown to 3. Sherri is the President of the American Womens Club in Dublin and she joined us last week. Her husband is with KPMG and they are here on an extended assignment. When I met her and said I was from Denver we realized that we lived less than 10 min away from each other in the states. Crazy!
I have a 3 day weekend coming up because there is an Irish bank holiday on Monday August 6. I worked the last bank holiday, but this time I found out that the train system would be completely shut down between me and the office due to some major construction, so I can’t even get to the office. I guess I’ll just have to take the day off.
It’s the calm before my waves of visitors. My parents are coming and then a friend from Texas and then my cousin from Omaha and a friend. I just glanced at a calendar and realized that for 6 weekends in a row I will have guests. WHOA! That’s a lot of activity for my fairly quiet Dublin social life.
There are also 2 more Canadians coming over to work for my company in the next month and I have been emailing with them. It’s nice to have them ask questions about shipping stuff and cell phones and Dublin apartments and me actually be able to give them helpful information! I am meeting one of them for dinner next week, just like Roisin did with me when I arrived. Now that Roisin has deserted me and moved back to Canada, I have to carry on the welcoming routine.
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