Lisdoonvarna

This weekend, Tennille & I both had days off and were looking for an adventure. Boy did we find one. We found a cheap last minute hotel deal and headed off to County Clare. We stayed in Ennis which is a beautiful little town. Our hotel was great and we spent our days in the pool, hot tub, steam room, and spa. Friday night we asked the friendly people at the front desk where we should head for and one of them chauffeured us into town. You wouldn’t get that in the States. We ended up having a great night at Knox’s in Ennis town. Saturday we decided to head to the near town of Lisdoonvarna for the annual Matchmaking Festival. Basically, the whole month of September is dedicated to matchmaking. Think Janine Garofalo in “The Matchmaker” and if you haven’t seen it, go out and rent it now. They have a matchmaker on duty during the day and then they pack the pubs at night. There were people from all over. It was the greatest people watching event ever...even better than being at the airport. The choice of men mostly consisted of ones over 50, ones missing one or more teeth, ones who still lived with their mothers, or some combination of one or more of the above. What makes this interesting is that there is a rule that you can’t say no if someone asks you to dance. My favorite partner was one who may or may not have still had a pulse (see pictures). Tennille & I spent a lot of the night dodging people that we weren’t interested in. It was fun and we actually had a great time two-stepping away. I would go back but maybe next time I might wear a fake wedding ring as a deterrent. There are pictures of our weekend under the “Clare” link.

Mal's Spring Break

I sent Mallory off back to Iowa this morning (sad). We had a great time (see above picture). We rented a car which was great. I didn’t want to return it. I forgot how great it was to have one. We started out in Donegal for a long Patty’s Day weekend. We saw a few country parades. The first one was on Saturday in Carrick. After that, we watched Ireland beat Scotland in Rugby and then had an early night due to Mal’s jet lag. Sunday we slept in (that sleeping pill I gave Mal worked all too well). We hit up the parade in Ardara. We gave first float prize to the one that re-enacted the Hudson Plane Disaster. Pretty good. We hung out with the locals that night in the pubs. Mal worked on understanding the country accent. We went over to the Keeney’s house after bar time for some tea and toasties. A few friends joined us and we talked politics amongst other things. Monday we saw some local sites including the waterfall, sea cliffs, the churches, beaches, etc. Tuesday was the big Paddy’s Day Celebration. We went to the parade in Glencolumbkille and then they had a reception at the town hall with music and dancing. Tara (the daughter of the family that runs the B&B I stay at...my Irish family) is a hard core Irish dancer. She was so cute! After the reception everyone headed to the pubs where the singing, dancing, and music continued. Even Cathal’s brother amused us with a song. We broke up the celebrating with some dinner at the chipper and then headed back. The highlight of the night was at the end when only the strong were still standing and everyone was taking turns singing songs. We met some people from La Crosse. The girl was from Wausau and her dad is the plant manager at Nueskes (best sausages ever!). We also met a crazy guy from town who has been living in Milwaukee for 12 years. Turns out all of them were on Mal’s flight. Small world indeed! Wednesday we spent the morning at the Keeney’s and saw some of the new babies. Then we headed back to Dublin. Thursday we took a day tour to Northern Ireland. “The Troubles” are starting to brew again so I wasn’t really comfortable driving around that part of the country on our own. We started in Belfast and had a quick tour of the city. Highlight: the Belfast branch of Unisys! Then we headed to Derry for a tour of the city. We saw the Bloody Sunday site (cue U2 music) and the murals. After that it was off to Dunluce Castle for a quick photo stop and then the Giants Causeway. It was amazing. It’s definitely a natural wonder. We climbed around the rocks for a while and took lots of pics. The day ended at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. I wouldn’t say I conquered my fear of heights but I felt like I had to do it. Mal really helped by shaking the bridge behind me. Anyways, it’s done and I never have to do it again...just like the Blarney Stone. The weather was fabulous the whole day. We ended the day back in Belfast and then heading back to Dublin. Friday and Saturday we did Dublin. We saw the GAA museum in Croke Park. It was pretty impressive considering. The players aren’t paid which is also impressive. Eventually I’d like to see a match there. It’s no Lambeau though! We ended the day with some shopping and dinner. Saturday we went to the Botanic Gardens which were beautiful...and free. After that we drove through Phoenix Park and saw the deer park and the US Ambassador’s Residence and the polo grounds. We had lunch at the highest pub in Ireland, Johnnie Fox’s. It was a good atmosphere and great food. We did some more shopping after that (including buying Jordan’s b-day pressies) and got some Chinese take away (it’s actually different here). Sunday we did another day tour to the Wicklow Mountains (same one I took Niki on). We had another great weather day. We had a great meal that evening at Gallagher’s Boxty House (Rachel Ray’s recommendation). We met some Fed Ex pilots from The States. Sounds like a pretty sweet gig. We finished the week this morning with an Irish Breakfast and then we had to say our goodbyes. My only consolation is that I’ll be home in a month! Back to the grind tomorrow night :(.

Barcelona

Tennille’s friend was here from Australia for a couple of weeks (Mel). We love her! Anyways, we decided to head to Barcelona for a weekend for Tennille’s 30th b-day. I love living here because it’s so easy and cheap to fly to the rest of Europe. We did the city bus tour to get all the important sites in. I posted pictures in the picture section. We ate a lot of tapas, drank a lot of sangria, and saw a lot of flamenco. It’s a beautiful, clean, friendly city. The highlight of the sites was definitely The Sagrada De Familia. Gorgeous, gorgeous church! We loved Spain so much that we’re planning to go back and see Grenada towards the end of the summer.

Housewarming Party/NKOTB

We (finally) had a housewarming party last weekend. It kind of served a triple purpose, Roisin’s B-day was earlier in the month and Tennille’s b-day is the end of this month. We had some people from work over, some other people from the apartment, and other friends from various places. I even convinced Cathal to come down for the weekend (Jen’s boyfriend is also from Donegal so they kept each other entertained). We had food, drinks, and cake. About 15 or so people showed up, it was good. We had lots of cleaning up to do on Sunday but it was well worth it.
When I heard that the New Kids On The Block were coming to the O2 (new arena just outside of the city center) I knew I had to go. The tickets came out right around Chandra’s b-day so I bought two and bam, there’s birthday shopping done. Luckily she loves them as much as me. The concert was actually really good. They played for about two hours (and no, they weren’t even out of breath). We had amazing seats and could see everything. The whole thing took us back to about 1990. They pretty much look the same. Jordan, my bro, was definitely named after the right New Kid, he has still got it. Chandra’s alliance changed from Joey to Donny but to each their own. Ireland was loving them, probably partially due to the Irish/American/Boston connection. When they came out in their Celtic jerseys and with an Irish flag the crowd went nuts. There were actually quite a few Polish folks representing in the crowd as well...who knew. Overall, well worth the money. I hope they’re back together for good.

An Apple A Day...

I’m pretty impressed with myself for going 9 months without needing to go to the doctor. I could’ve gone longer but I needed a prescription refilled. I wasn’t really sure how to choose a GP (general practitioner) for myself so I went for sheer convenience. There is a “surgery” just across the street from the hospital and close enough to the apartment. I don’t know why clinics are called surgeries here. There are no actual surgeries performed there. This one, much like most surgeries, is a house converted into a clinic. My new GP, Diarmud O’Connell, is like a million years old and limps. I can’t be too mad because he basically just did what I told him to do. He said he figured he should probably check me out as long as I was there. My “check up” consisted of a blood pressure check and a urinalysis...that’s it. He said I should have the same done yearly. The whole urine dipstick test thing seems to be an Irish medical system phenomenon. Every admission we get at work gets one, no matter what they are admitted for. Apparently it’s the same in adult care. I’m not sure what the point is...is there really a high incidence of asymptomatic UTIs here?! The dipstick doesn’t even really tell you anything exciting. The main reason for my visit was to get my Hepatitis A Vaccine booster. He didn’t have any at the office so he wrote me a prescription which the “chemist” next door filled for me. He told me just to come back with it and he would administer it to me. I think I’ll save some cash and have somebody at work do it. The visit cost me 50 euros (I’m telling you...universal health care doesn’t mean free health care). It’s alright for healthy people who only have to go to the doctor a couple times a year, it’s cheaper than paying monthly for health insurance. I imagine it’s not great for people with chronic illnesses. Between work and my GP visit, I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to the healthcare system here.