So when I left you last I was leaving France on a ferry. I waved goodbye to the French coastline and spent most of the journey looking (in vain) for a way to get on the top of the ship (they only have an observation deck about half way up) and watching the cliffs of Dover approach. It was a gorgeous clear day, but really windy which also made it cold.
We made it to Dover without any trouble and I bought a bus ticket to London. I had planned on watching the English countryside, but instead promptly fell asleep on the bus and woke up as we were in traffic outside London. The bus dropped me off at Victoria station, which was conveniently where I needed to be to catch the train to Brighton. I bought a train ticket, decided it wasn't worth 8 pounds to store my bag, and set off for some brief sight-seeing of London. I decided I wanted to see Hyde Park, by way of fish and chips, so set off in that direction looking for food. I found a place near Buckingham Palace and so bought a late lunch and picnicked in the park across the street from the Palace. The queen's flag was flying, so she was at home, but I didn't see her. Oh well. I then walked through the park and took pictures of flowers and then went off to continue my search for Hyde Park.
I thought it was really cool, there was a cross walk that instead of a person as the walk sign, had a horse and a bicycle. It was awesome :) I passed a square with WWII monuments in it and across the street was Hyde Park. I walked along one side of it and saw some cool statues, the Speaker's corner, and lots of trees and green. It would be a great place to spend a sunny afternoon! At the end I didn't know where to go next so I looked at one of the maps from those tourist buses and decided to go to Trafalgar Square. I made my way in that direction and passed lots of shopping, the Eros statue, and Leicester Square. At Trafalgar Square I took pictures, climbed on a statue, and was sad to find that there were no pidgeons :( I did have a really weird feeling that the restaurant the Texas Embassy was nearby, which was weird because I had driven past it 3 years ago and so I shouldn't know where it was, but I felt like it was around there. I decided that would be a fun way to pass the time before my train, as I didn't really have enough time to go across the city, so I asked some tourists but they hadn't heard of it. I continued onward and saw Big Bend, the London Eye, and the Thames. At Big Bend I asked a policeman if he knew of the Texas Embassy and he told me where it was, next to Trafalgar Square! Pretty crazy, I either have a really good memory or a Texas homing device :P I headed back there for a drink. At the bar I met a guy trying to start a new clothing line who was meeting up with a producer and photographer to talk advertising. I talked to him and then his friends when they arrived. He took pictures of me and my English margarita, shared some wine with me, and then insisted on buying my drink. They were all very nice and I said good bye and good luck before heading back to the station and to Brighton.
The train ride was uneventful, I slept through most of it and then in Brighton caught another train to Falmer where Kristin met me and we walked back to her apartment. She's studying at the University of Sussex in Falmer. That night we went to the student bar on campus to meet some of her friends and have a pint of cider - drinks in England are so much cheaper than in Dublin! I was super excited for a pint to be only 2 pounds. After talking for a bit we went home and went to bed.
The next morning Kristin had class so I walked along some of the paths in the hills behind her apartment. There were a bunch of cool walking paths that I took, and I met some really sweet dogs :) I also climbed a tree that was just too cool-looking to resist. I met her back at her apartment and we went to a creperie on campus for lunch and then took the bus into Brighton. We spent the afternoon exploring - we went on the pier and saw what will be a crazy carnival when the weather gets nicer, looked at the beach, and went shopping in the Lanes which are lots of shops with tiny walk ways between them. There was a cup cake store that I had to go in and got a carrot cake cupcake with plenty of cream cheese frosting - delicious! We also had tea at a tea room, complete with cheddar scones for Kristin and pistachio cake with ice cream for me. After exploring we returned to her apartment and made a delicious cheap meal complete with pasta, bread, and wine. We were definitely very classy :P We spent the rest of the night planning for our upcoming trip across Europe :D
The next day I went into Brighton while Kristin had class and did some more shopping. I got a new phone since my other one broke and was rather excited about that, spent way more time in cooking stores than clothing stores and laughed at myself because of it, and then met Kristin in Borders to begin our afternoon adventures. We took a bus to Rottingdean to get cream tea, tea and scones with raspberry jam and clotted cream. It was super tasty! We then walked around Rottingdean and headed back to Brighton to see a movie. We decided upon Slumdog Millionaire, it was definitely good! Afterwards we went to a pub for some drinks and waited for Kristin's friends to join us. We split a few pitchers and then had yummy cheese fries before taking the bus back to Falmer and going to bed.
Kristin was headed to Dublin for the weekend and I had booked the same flight, which left the next day so we spent the morning being productive students and then packing before taking the train to the airport. We got there pretty early and so chilled for a bit before getting the plane back to Dublin!
I spent Friday in my room recovering from traveling, posting pictures, and fighting with my computer... I think I have to buy a new battery :( Hopefully I'll figure that all out later - I'm traveling for most of the rest of March so I won't need my computer much until Trinity term starts :P
This morning I woke up really early to pick up my sister from the airport, she made it safe and sound from Texas to spend her spring break visiting me :D I'll update on our adventures later though. ttfn!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Paris = Food <3
Get excited about part 1 of my first trip of the break! We have 3 weeks off and I planned quite a bit of traveling (probably too much, but thats ok). The first bit was to Paris and then London/Brighton, where I currently am visiting Kristin. I'll give you the low-down on Paris first and then update on the England part of the trip when I get back to Dublin.
I left for Paris Thursday evening after my classes were done (yay, one term down!). RyanAir flies into Beauvais airport, which isn't actually in Paris so had to bus into Paris and then take the metro to Saloni's apartment. It was a fairly easy journey, but took me 2 hours to get from the airport to her place. That night Saloni and Chole, who was also visiting, had been to a party that Saloni's school hosted, so we just basically went to sleep that night.
The next day Saloni had class in the morning so Chole and I took to the streets and did a bit of wandering around Paris, taking pictures and just enjoying the city. We saw the Bastille, I ate my first pastry for breakfast (as you will see later, I ate quite a lot of food in Paris, it was kind of the theme of the weekend), we walked through the high-end shopping district and then through the tourist shopping district, took pictures of the Notre Dame, went through part of the Latin Quarter, stopped for a stuffed baguette (lots of cheese, ham, and I think cream cheese in the middle - very tasty!) and then went back to meet Saloni after class. We stopped at a grocery store to get some cheap food - Paris can get expensive! - and 2 euro bottles of wine (except for their wine :D ) and went home to make lunch and plan the afternoon. We decided to explore Saloni's neighborhood which has a lot of shops and cute boutiques. We shopped for a bit, there is a way cool frozen foods chain that sells anything and everything frozen, and Chole tried on dresses, and then meandered home, almost but not quite getting lost in the process. Saloni made us a french dinner which was delicious - green beans, pureed carrots, quiche, and an apple tart. That night we stayed in as well and just talked and planned some more.
The next day I spent with Fatima, we went on a culinary adventure in Paris. Our goal for the day was to try every quintessentially Parisian food experience, and I think we did a fairly good job of it :) We started out with breakfast at Angelina's, a tea house that is famous for their hot chocolate which is sooo tasty and basically just melted chocolate poured in a mug served with whipped cream. Also for breakfast they give you a croissant, pain du chocolat, and a raisin swirled thing, bread with jam and butter, and juice. After that we were quite full and headed off to the Musee de Orsay to see some art and digest a bit (we didn't want to be entirely overzealous hehe). I really liked the museum, and it's much more managable than the Louvre. After the museum we decided to head to a park Fatima had wanted to see. On the way we stopped at a street vendor and bought various pieces of candy and chocolate to try and nibbled on that throughout the day. Just before the park was a creperie and so I had my first crepe in France - ham and cheese. It was very delicious and we ate them in the park and then wandered around, saw a massive head statue, watched people play tennis, and wandered out.
We next wandered through the Latin Quarter and went to see the Pantheon. It was pretty on the outside but we didn't go in because it cost money and we're cheap :) We passed an outdoor market, but they were closing up so we didn't get to shop but saw it. Then while we were walking I had the weirdest feeling that I had been there before, and when we turned a corner I recognized a wine shop from when I had come to Paris on my HS trip. It was pretty crazy and I was a little weirded out that I remembered a place that I had only been once! As we left the Latin Quarter we decided to go get ice cream on the smaller island, I don't remember what its called, but I had heard there was a really good ice cream place there. It turns out that there are lots of ice cream places there, so we couldn't just go to the first one we saw. As we were looking for it I saw a cute bakery and went in and bought macaroons, 6 flavours though I'm not entirely sure what they all were. Fatima's allergic to nuts so I was the only one to enjoy this French dessert, but Fatima did ask the shop keeper about the ice cream place and he gave us directions. As we were going there we found a really cute shop that sold all sorts of crazy things, and we both bought adorable timers that are shaped like lady bugs :) We then found the ice cream place and tried fruit sorbets. They were absolutely delicious! I tried mango and raspberry and I think Fatima had coconut and strawberry maybe? Super tasty!
We were quite full at this point, actually , we had been all day, but were definitely reaching our breaking point now, but we still had several key things to try. First though, we walked past Notre Dame and I wanted to get a scarf because they were fairly cheap and I wanted a green one so we set out looking through all the vendors to find the particular shade of green I wanted. Fatima found it for me and I was super excited and bought it. We then went to go find another open air market, what used to be one of the biggest ones but is now a mall. We thought that it still had some market to it but apparently not, just mall. After that we headed to get coffee and chill at a cafe. On the way I had to stop at a chocolatier to satisfy my chocoholic-ness, and we passed the oldest bakery in Paris so I bought another pastry (I told you there were lots of them). Then we went to a cafe for some coffee, both to pick us up as we were tired from our long day of walking and as a French experience. After the cafe we went to more gardens and I ate my pastry - I don't know what it was but something strawberry with mousse inside. We decided to finish our day with french onion soup for dinner, as we couldn't eat much more than that. Fatima knew of a restaurant that made good soup so we went there for our final meal. I contemplated also getting a meat and cheese platter but my stomach said no. The soup was delicious but unfortunately my day didn't end there - Fatima had other plans. She told me that her favorite crepe place was just down the street, near our metro stop, and I couldn't have a food day in Paris without a banana nutella crepe. So away we went for the final food of the day. It was indeed a delicious crepe :)
At the end of the day we realized that we had walked through all of the first 7 districts and ate something in all of them. Our mission was a success, and neither of us wanted to eat anything for quite a while :P
That night Saloni and her room mates were having a wine party so I got back just in time to get ready and meet her friends in Paris while drinking some wine, I guess another quintessential parisian experience. Overall it was quite a good day.
The next morning, since I wake up crazy early all the time, I went to the train station to buy my ticket to London the next day. With my eurail pass I could get to Calais for 3 euro, as opposed to the 75 euro to go all the way to London directly, so I opted for that and reserved my ticket for 8 am the next day. When I called Saloni they were still just waking up so I decided to go see the Sacre Coure (I can't spell in French), which Saloni and Chole had visited the day before. It is a gorgeous church on top of a hill. You had to walk up a crazy staircase to get to it, but it was awesome to see, and the inside was cool too. I liked it more than the Notre Dame. After walking around I headed back to Saloni's and made a lunch before the 3 of us headed out for the day. We had lots more planned for the day. We started by walking to the Louvre and then headed down through the gardens below it to the Champs Elysee. We walked up it and stopped at an adorable bakery, Laduree, and bought pastries there. Their macaroons were amazing! My two favorites were the dark chocolate and rose flavored ones, mmm! I also got a madeline to try and an amazing chocolate cake/pastry that was incredibly rich. From there we continued along to the Arch de Triomphe (again with the spelling) and walked up to it and took lots of pictures. It had been raining/drizzling all morning, but the sun started to come out at this point and we got really excited.
We continued our walking in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, by way of chocolate shop which was unfortunately closed, so we just meandered and took pictures along the way. We got to the Eiffel Tower just as a break was reappearing in the clouds and so walked down the gardens to get a good view and took lots of pictures in front of it of us doing silly things like licking the tower :P Saloni got a call from Kristen saying a friend of a friend was visiting and headed to the Eiffel Tower as well, so we waited for him so he could go up it with us. We met him under the tower and then walked up. We walked to the 2nd floor and then took the elevator up. The day had cleared out really nicely and we took lots of pictures before heading down in search of more crepes and food. We went back to the eiffel tower to watch the lights go on which was really pretty, and then back to Saloni's for dinner. One of Saloni's friends was having his birthday at a bar that served drinks from baby bottles, so we headed over to that, but we didn't want to order drinks because they were expensive, and so the bartender made us leave. We ended up just heading back and going to bed since Chole and I were both leaving the next day.
I woke up pretty early to catch my train to Calais and headed out without incident. At the station I wanted to get an eclair as my final french pastry, but didn't realize that I had to go through customs becaue I was riding the eurostar, even though I wasn't leaving the country, and on the other side there were no eclairs :( I had an espresso instead and hopped on the train. I half slept and half watched the french country side and then got off at Calais and took a bus to the city center. There a very nice cab driver gave me directions to the ferry so I could buy tickets across and I walked through the city to get there. They had a gorgeous park in the center and I passed a bakery that had eclairs and bagettes! I bought them for lunch and happily continued to the ferry. Eurail pass won again and I got half price tickets to Dover. I'm pretty sure the security guards were laughing at me carrying a baguette through security, but it was super tasty. I also confused the British passport checker, cuz apparently I had been stamped in Paris as going all the way to London, and she asked me why I didn't (it would have been much easier and faster) and then laughed at me when I told her I would end up saving about 50 euro :P
I then got on the ferry and headed away from France! It was a fun trip, I definitely enjoyed France. I can't seem to be able to write short posts, sorry guys. I'll fill you in on the ferry ride and London/Brighton later!
I left for Paris Thursday evening after my classes were done (yay, one term down!). RyanAir flies into Beauvais airport, which isn't actually in Paris so had to bus into Paris and then take the metro to Saloni's apartment. It was a fairly easy journey, but took me 2 hours to get from the airport to her place. That night Saloni and Chole, who was also visiting, had been to a party that Saloni's school hosted, so we just basically went to sleep that night.
The next day Saloni had class in the morning so Chole and I took to the streets and did a bit of wandering around Paris, taking pictures and just enjoying the city. We saw the Bastille, I ate my first pastry for breakfast (as you will see later, I ate quite a lot of food in Paris, it was kind of the theme of the weekend), we walked through the high-end shopping district and then through the tourist shopping district, took pictures of the Notre Dame, went through part of the Latin Quarter, stopped for a stuffed baguette (lots of cheese, ham, and I think cream cheese in the middle - very tasty!) and then went back to meet Saloni after class. We stopped at a grocery store to get some cheap food - Paris can get expensive! - and 2 euro bottles of wine (except for their wine :D ) and went home to make lunch and plan the afternoon. We decided to explore Saloni's neighborhood which has a lot of shops and cute boutiques. We shopped for a bit, there is a way cool frozen foods chain that sells anything and everything frozen, and Chole tried on dresses, and then meandered home, almost but not quite getting lost in the process. Saloni made us a french dinner which was delicious - green beans, pureed carrots, quiche, and an apple tart. That night we stayed in as well and just talked and planned some more.
The next day I spent with Fatima, we went on a culinary adventure in Paris. Our goal for the day was to try every quintessentially Parisian food experience, and I think we did a fairly good job of it :) We started out with breakfast at Angelina's, a tea house that is famous for their hot chocolate which is sooo tasty and basically just melted chocolate poured in a mug served with whipped cream. Also for breakfast they give you a croissant, pain du chocolat, and a raisin swirled thing, bread with jam and butter, and juice. After that we were quite full and headed off to the Musee de Orsay to see some art and digest a bit (we didn't want to be entirely overzealous hehe). I really liked the museum, and it's much more managable than the Louvre. After the museum we decided to head to a park Fatima had wanted to see. On the way we stopped at a street vendor and bought various pieces of candy and chocolate to try and nibbled on that throughout the day. Just before the park was a creperie and so I had my first crepe in France - ham and cheese. It was very delicious and we ate them in the park and then wandered around, saw a massive head statue, watched people play tennis, and wandered out.
We next wandered through the Latin Quarter and went to see the Pantheon. It was pretty on the outside but we didn't go in because it cost money and we're cheap :) We passed an outdoor market, but they were closing up so we didn't get to shop but saw it. Then while we were walking I had the weirdest feeling that I had been there before, and when we turned a corner I recognized a wine shop from when I had come to Paris on my HS trip. It was pretty crazy and I was a little weirded out that I remembered a place that I had only been once! As we left the Latin Quarter we decided to go get ice cream on the smaller island, I don't remember what its called, but I had heard there was a really good ice cream place there. It turns out that there are lots of ice cream places there, so we couldn't just go to the first one we saw. As we were looking for it I saw a cute bakery and went in and bought macaroons, 6 flavours though I'm not entirely sure what they all were. Fatima's allergic to nuts so I was the only one to enjoy this French dessert, but Fatima did ask the shop keeper about the ice cream place and he gave us directions. As we were going there we found a really cute shop that sold all sorts of crazy things, and we both bought adorable timers that are shaped like lady bugs :) We then found the ice cream place and tried fruit sorbets. They were absolutely delicious! I tried mango and raspberry and I think Fatima had coconut and strawberry maybe? Super tasty!
We were quite full at this point, actually , we had been all day, but were definitely reaching our breaking point now, but we still had several key things to try. First though, we walked past Notre Dame and I wanted to get a scarf because they were fairly cheap and I wanted a green one so we set out looking through all the vendors to find the particular shade of green I wanted. Fatima found it for me and I was super excited and bought it. We then went to go find another open air market, what used to be one of the biggest ones but is now a mall. We thought that it still had some market to it but apparently not, just mall. After that we headed to get coffee and chill at a cafe. On the way I had to stop at a chocolatier to satisfy my chocoholic-ness, and we passed the oldest bakery in Paris so I bought another pastry (I told you there were lots of them). Then we went to a cafe for some coffee, both to pick us up as we were tired from our long day of walking and as a French experience. After the cafe we went to more gardens and I ate my pastry - I don't know what it was but something strawberry with mousse inside. We decided to finish our day with french onion soup for dinner, as we couldn't eat much more than that. Fatima knew of a restaurant that made good soup so we went there for our final meal. I contemplated also getting a meat and cheese platter but my stomach said no. The soup was delicious but unfortunately my day didn't end there - Fatima had other plans. She told me that her favorite crepe place was just down the street, near our metro stop, and I couldn't have a food day in Paris without a banana nutella crepe. So away we went for the final food of the day. It was indeed a delicious crepe :)
At the end of the day we realized that we had walked through all of the first 7 districts and ate something in all of them. Our mission was a success, and neither of us wanted to eat anything for quite a while :P
That night Saloni and her room mates were having a wine party so I got back just in time to get ready and meet her friends in Paris while drinking some wine, I guess another quintessential parisian experience. Overall it was quite a good day.
The next morning, since I wake up crazy early all the time, I went to the train station to buy my ticket to London the next day. With my eurail pass I could get to Calais for 3 euro, as opposed to the 75 euro to go all the way to London directly, so I opted for that and reserved my ticket for 8 am the next day. When I called Saloni they were still just waking up so I decided to go see the Sacre Coure (I can't spell in French), which Saloni and Chole had visited the day before. It is a gorgeous church on top of a hill. You had to walk up a crazy staircase to get to it, but it was awesome to see, and the inside was cool too. I liked it more than the Notre Dame. After walking around I headed back to Saloni's and made a lunch before the 3 of us headed out for the day. We had lots more planned for the day. We started by walking to the Louvre and then headed down through the gardens below it to the Champs Elysee. We walked up it and stopped at an adorable bakery, Laduree, and bought pastries there. Their macaroons were amazing! My two favorites were the dark chocolate and rose flavored ones, mmm! I also got a madeline to try and an amazing chocolate cake/pastry that was incredibly rich. From there we continued along to the Arch de Triomphe (again with the spelling) and walked up to it and took lots of pictures. It had been raining/drizzling all morning, but the sun started to come out at this point and we got really excited.
We continued our walking in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, by way of chocolate shop which was unfortunately closed, so we just meandered and took pictures along the way. We got to the Eiffel Tower just as a break was reappearing in the clouds and so walked down the gardens to get a good view and took lots of pictures in front of it of us doing silly things like licking the tower :P Saloni got a call from Kristen saying a friend of a friend was visiting and headed to the Eiffel Tower as well, so we waited for him so he could go up it with us. We met him under the tower and then walked up. We walked to the 2nd floor and then took the elevator up. The day had cleared out really nicely and we took lots of pictures before heading down in search of more crepes and food. We went back to the eiffel tower to watch the lights go on which was really pretty, and then back to Saloni's for dinner. One of Saloni's friends was having his birthday at a bar that served drinks from baby bottles, so we headed over to that, but we didn't want to order drinks because they were expensive, and so the bartender made us leave. We ended up just heading back and going to bed since Chole and I were both leaving the next day.
I woke up pretty early to catch my train to Calais and headed out without incident. At the station I wanted to get an eclair as my final french pastry, but didn't realize that I had to go through customs becaue I was riding the eurostar, even though I wasn't leaving the country, and on the other side there were no eclairs :( I had an espresso instead and hopped on the train. I half slept and half watched the french country side and then got off at Calais and took a bus to the city center. There a very nice cab driver gave me directions to the ferry so I could buy tickets across and I walked through the city to get there. They had a gorgeous park in the center and I passed a bakery that had eclairs and bagettes! I bought them for lunch and happily continued to the ferry. Eurail pass won again and I got half price tickets to Dover. I'm pretty sure the security guards were laughing at me carrying a baguette through security, but it was super tasty. I also confused the British passport checker, cuz apparently I had been stamped in Paris as going all the way to London, and she asked me why I didn't (it would have been much easier and faster) and then laughed at me when I told her I would end up saving about 50 euro :P
I then got on the ferry and headed away from France! It was a fun trip, I definitely enjoyed France. I can't seem to be able to write short posts, sorry guys. I'll fill you in on the ferry ride and London/Brighton later!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Saloni's visit
Hello all! This is probably going to be a rather long post, so grab yourself a cup of tea before beginning ;) To start things, one of my friends from UT, Saloni, visited me from Paris. She arrived Wed night and left early Mon morning and we had quite a few adventures in between.
Wednesday we didn't do much except plan out our trips/tourism and then go to bed. Thursday was rather interesting because I have class every other hour and so couldn't really do much except meet Saloni between classes and point her in the direction of the next place to go. Fatima was supposed to come visit as well, but she missed her flight Thursday morning :( It was very sad, but I get to see her this weekend in Paris! We started out Thursday by walking around Merrion Sq - the flowers have started to bloom and looked so pretty! Then we walked down the street to Oil Can Harry's, a pub in Dublin that's not quite the same as at home, and took pictures at it :P Then I had class so I left Saloni to go shopping in Grafton St where I met her an hour later to go get chocolate and coffee before more class and then lunch time. After lunch Saloni went to museums and I went to more classes but we met up again at the end of the day to go grocery shopping. We got home and made dinner then went to O'Connell St for more shopping/wandering. We went in a crazy tourist shop and laughed at the crazy stuff they have there... We then wandered around Temple Bar and had a drink before going home.
On Friday we went to Glendalough, a glacial valley in the middle of the Wicklow mountains outside of Dublin. There's one bus that goes down there, and hour and a half drive, so we caught it and had 3 1/2 hours to go exploring. We took the main trail to the monastic ruins (Glendalough used to be a monestary and a hermit lived in part of the valley) and then up to the lake in the valley. It was gorgeous there and we took lots of pictures, though sadly Saloni's battery died near the beginning of the trip. When we got to the lake we ate our picnic lunch on an awesome log and then hiked up a path past a waterfall and to the hermit's cell, which was actually just a sign telling us where he lived. We had a bit more time so walked around the lake and then back to the visitors center to catch the bus back to Dublin. We both napped on the bus ride home.
When we got back to Dublin we went to a Celtic whiskey shop to get some whiskey that you can't get in the US (aka, not Jameson) and the guy let us sample several that were pretty good, and they had tequila and triple sec on sale so I got some for margaritas (story to come) and we headed home to make dinner and get ready for the night. One of the guys on the frisbee team was having a birthday party that night so we went out with them. It was a fun night complete with dancing and Saloni finishing her 1 pint of Bulmers :P
The next morning I had Women's Intervarsities, so I left Saloni to do more tourist sightseeing and headed out bright and early to the pitches for some frisbee-ing. It was a great tournament, a lot of fun to play. Trinity did really well and got 2nd. The team that won (DCU) actually included most of the Ireland team (they didn't have enough girls to actually make a team and so picked up alumni, some of the best players in Ireland). It was all good fun though and not too bad of weather, for Ireland and Santry in particular. After the tournament me, Jen and Courtney were planning on going to a pub to watch the Ireland v England rugby match, but when we got to my apt never actually got around to leaving. Saloni and I cooked dinner and thought about going out, but decided we were both really tired and so just went to sleep.
On Sunday we ventured up to Howth. We took the DART up and when we got off found a market in the town center. It was super cute and there were lots of things that looked really tasty and we each got a muffin (mine was berry with white chocolate, mmm!). We walked across the peninsula to the Howth Hill and tried to get to the lighthouse but found that you can't actually walk up to it. We did get lots of really pretty pictures though, the sea and cliffs were gorgeous! We then walked back down to the village and went to the castle and tried to find the castle gardens, but apparently they are more along the lines of wilderness than actual gardens. We then headed back home and I went shopping for groceries while Saloni read Twilight (she's addicted).
That night we were celebrating Texas Independence Day (a day early) so I bought supplies to make enchiladas and margaritas. We made Conrad's enchilada recipe and then tomatillo enchiladas for the vegetarians plus rice and salsa and margaritas and iced tea. Sean, my room-mates, and a bunch of people from frisbee came over and helped us celebrate Texas :) It was quite fun.
The next morning Saloni had a 6 am flight so we went to sleep and woke up really early to get her on the bus to the airport. I said bye, but I'll be headed to Paris this weekend to visit her!
Wednesday we didn't do much except plan out our trips/tourism and then go to bed. Thursday was rather interesting because I have class every other hour and so couldn't really do much except meet Saloni between classes and point her in the direction of the next place to go. Fatima was supposed to come visit as well, but she missed her flight Thursday morning :( It was very sad, but I get to see her this weekend in Paris! We started out Thursday by walking around Merrion Sq - the flowers have started to bloom and looked so pretty! Then we walked down the street to Oil Can Harry's, a pub in Dublin that's not quite the same as at home, and took pictures at it :P Then I had class so I left Saloni to go shopping in Grafton St where I met her an hour later to go get chocolate and coffee before more class and then lunch time. After lunch Saloni went to museums and I went to more classes but we met up again at the end of the day to go grocery shopping. We got home and made dinner then went to O'Connell St for more shopping/wandering. We went in a crazy tourist shop and laughed at the crazy stuff they have there... We then wandered around Temple Bar and had a drink before going home.
On Friday we went to Glendalough, a glacial valley in the middle of the Wicklow mountains outside of Dublin. There's one bus that goes down there, and hour and a half drive, so we caught it and had 3 1/2 hours to go exploring. We took the main trail to the monastic ruins (Glendalough used to be a monestary and a hermit lived in part of the valley) and then up to the lake in the valley. It was gorgeous there and we took lots of pictures, though sadly Saloni's battery died near the beginning of the trip. When we got to the lake we ate our picnic lunch on an awesome log and then hiked up a path past a waterfall and to the hermit's cell, which was actually just a sign telling us where he lived. We had a bit more time so walked around the lake and then back to the visitors center to catch the bus back to Dublin. We both napped on the bus ride home.
When we got back to Dublin we went to a Celtic whiskey shop to get some whiskey that you can't get in the US (aka, not Jameson) and the guy let us sample several that were pretty good, and they had tequila and triple sec on sale so I got some for margaritas (story to come) and we headed home to make dinner and get ready for the night. One of the guys on the frisbee team was having a birthday party that night so we went out with them. It was a fun night complete with dancing and Saloni finishing her 1 pint of Bulmers :P
The next morning I had Women's Intervarsities, so I left Saloni to do more tourist sightseeing and headed out bright and early to the pitches for some frisbee-ing. It was a great tournament, a lot of fun to play. Trinity did really well and got 2nd. The team that won (DCU) actually included most of the Ireland team (they didn't have enough girls to actually make a team and so picked up alumni, some of the best players in Ireland). It was all good fun though and not too bad of weather, for Ireland and Santry in particular. After the tournament me, Jen and Courtney were planning on going to a pub to watch the Ireland v England rugby match, but when we got to my apt never actually got around to leaving. Saloni and I cooked dinner and thought about going out, but decided we were both really tired and so just went to sleep.
On Sunday we ventured up to Howth. We took the DART up and when we got off found a market in the town center. It was super cute and there were lots of things that looked really tasty and we each got a muffin (mine was berry with white chocolate, mmm!). We walked across the peninsula to the Howth Hill and tried to get to the lighthouse but found that you can't actually walk up to it. We did get lots of really pretty pictures though, the sea and cliffs were gorgeous! We then walked back down to the village and went to the castle and tried to find the castle gardens, but apparently they are more along the lines of wilderness than actual gardens. We then headed back home and I went shopping for groceries while Saloni read Twilight (she's addicted).
That night we were celebrating Texas Independence Day (a day early) so I bought supplies to make enchiladas and margaritas. We made Conrad's enchilada recipe and then tomatillo enchiladas for the vegetarians plus rice and salsa and margaritas and iced tea. Sean, my room-mates, and a bunch of people from frisbee came over and helped us celebrate Texas :) It was quite fun.
The next morning Saloni had a 6 am flight so we went to sleep and woke up really early to get her on the bus to the airport. I said bye, but I'll be headed to Paris this weekend to visit her!
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