Weekends in Dublin

Since we don't have a car, we are always out and about on the weekend, no matter what the weather.  While it is usually cold and will some times snow (but never stick to the ground), it is never unbearable.     I'm happy that I live in a place where the weather is not extreme, especially because we have to walk every where.  I wanted to blog today about our adventures on the weekends.  We usually go out for brunch in the mornings, go to Grafton street to walk around and take Connor to the parks that are close by.  

I still haven't seen a famous person around the city centre, but I know a few of them have been spotted like Conan O'Brien and Justin Bieber.  I'll just have to keep my eyes open.  

We have also just booked our next trips.  For St. Patricks Day we are going to Prague and for Easter we are going to Amsterdam for the tulip festival.  I know, you would think we would stay for St. Patricks Day since we are in Ireland, but I don't think it will be our scene, especially with a child.  

We also need to get our flights in because Connor will be 2 soon and we'll have to start paying 90% of the adult airfare price!

So, here are some pictures from our weekends in Dublin:

Playing with chalk

Playing in Merrion Square

Riding a bike in Phoenix Park

Walking on the Sean O'Casey Bridge

Looking at Art at the National Gallery of Ireland

Connor's favorite chair in Merrion Square

Playing at St. Stephens Green playground

Playing hide and seek in the Museum of Natural History or Dead Zoo

Reflections

We had some particularly cold windy weather in Dublin during the past few weeks and today was the first day with a good amount of sun.  However, it was still extra cold outside.  There were a few days where we had snow but it melted when it hit the ground. Snow is nicer than the rain, however, every Irish person will always reminisce to 2010 when the snow stuck to the ground and Dublin came to a halt... for two days.

My apartment is always cold.  Our storage heaters do not work very well and it is never a comfortable toasty temperature.  We have been to other people's apartments here in Dublin and they never seem to have this problem but it is because they have a more modern place.  Our place is definitely older and does not have modern appliances.  I still love the location and I am happy that I can walk to work every day and not have to rely on mass transportation, so I suppose it is a give and take.  But some times feeling so cold makes me angry.  I miss modern appliances and I miss having a lot of space.

I have noticed that I will write emails and interject my speech with Irish sayings when I am at work.  I don't know if that's the right way to put it but I will phrase things in a way that my Irish colleagues would say it.  Hard to explain, but I definitely notice it.  Sometimes it makes things a lot easier to be a little more relatable.

So, six months later, and while I have my days where I doubt myself, this is how I am feeling:

1. I am glad I came here and am having this experience.
2. I love all of the travel we have already accomplished.
3. Doing this with a toddler is HARD.
4. I like living in the city center and being close to everything.  Dublin is a great city to live in because it is not so crowded and there is not high crime where I live.
5. I am happy that Connor is able to be outdoors so much, even in the cold.
6. I don't feel as overwhelmed at work, I am more sure of myself/know my way around and am liking it more. The opportunities I get here are incredible and nothing I would have been able to experience if I stayed in my old office.
7.  I miss my mom, friends in Tampa, Chick-fil-A, Mexican food, Sushi, and Olive Garden more than I thought possible.  

All in all, I am happy I have the opportunity to experience living/working in a foreign country but there are days when I think we must be crazy!

Remainder of 2012 Recap!

Happy New Year!!

I can't believe it but I have been here for almost 6 months!  It has definitely gone by fast.  Since I have been a little lax about updating my blog (ie. work has been kicking my butt), I thought it would be good to have short recaps of the trips we took since the last time I posted.  For Christmas and New Years we took a 2 week trip to Thailand to visit family there.  If anyone wants to know more about the places I went to, just leave a message on my blog post.

I am definitely looking forward to what this year will bring!  Just need to get through this busy season (next four months)...

Here are a recap of the trips that we took since the last time I posted:

Budapest, Hungary - 3 day weekend 

Szechenyi Thermal baths - it was like a big heated swimming pool

We took a Danube river cruise

Old city of Buda

Looking at old city Buda from the Pest side at night

Cork City & Day tour to Ring of Kerry:

We went to Cork for a three day weekend and took a day tour with Paddywagon from Cork to the Ring of Kerry.  It was great, we had such beautiful weather!

One of the many views of the beautiful Ring of Kerry

Waterfall in the Killarney National Park

Ring of Kerry

Munich, Germany:
In December we took a 3 day weekend trip to Munich, Germany to see the Christmas Markets and to see Neuschwanstein.  We planned the trip ourselves and took a train to Fussen and a bus from Fussen to the castle.  It was extremely cold and snowy there!

Mmm, that beer was bigger than my head!

Train ride to Fussen

Enjoying the snow at the English Gardens

Snow at the train station

Neuschwanstein!

 Thailand:

We had such a wonderful time in Thailand!  The weather was very warm and the food was cheap and delicious.  Connor was able to see my side of the family over there.  We celebrated Christmas and New Years there and stayed in Bangkok, Koh Samui, and Pattaya!  I will have to load more pictures from our trip later.  The computer is being slow.

Happy New Year 2013 Friends!!

Kind regards

So I've been posting mainly about our vacations and not so much about our normal day to day life.  We are settling nicely into our life in Ireland.  I was walking home from work today and I felt very blissful looking at my beautiful surroundings.  The weather has been getting colder and the days get dark at 5 pm now.  The weather is around 30 - 45 degrees F, which is quite a change to what I was used to in Florida.  I had been watching people around me on my way to work to see if they were wearing mittens  and finally just gave in because my hands were always freezing.  I have also started collecting scarves and I really enjoy wearing them, something I didn't get to do much in Florida! I'm starting to think I like colder weather as opposed to hot weather.  My tune might change as I get further into winter though - my Irish colleagues are always telling me to wait until winter every time I say the weather isn't too bad.  I have learned that you just agree whenever the Irish complain about the weather.

Our apartment has storage heaters in the living room and hallway, below is a picture of a storage heater that looks like ours.  We had quite a time trying to figure out how to use it.  The dials are missing in one of them so it was definitely a guessing game as to where we were setting the dials.  We finally got them to work but not quite to the level we need, so its still trial and error.  Supposedly its a cost effective way of heating your house.  Thankfully we do have double pane windows so it could be a lot colder in here.



















Work is getting busier and I'm surprised that it has already been 3 months.  I do feel like I am starting to know more people at work and it is less lonely. I definitely needed to give it time.  I made friends with another American in my company, her husband and her are doing something similar to Michael and I.  Its been refreshing to find someone else who understands and who I can vent to.

I wonder if I will start saying Irish phrases by the time I go back to the US.  I feel like it is inevitable.  I have started to sign my emails with "Kind Regards" since everyone over here signs it that way.  My "Thank you" at the end didn't seem as nice as Kind Regards.  Haha.
Other phrases that are popular are:
"I suppose"- usually in front of a sentence
"your man" - in regards to anyone that you know, might be related to, know about, ie. "Your man
                      Obama was in Nevada the other day."
"craic" - I don't think I could ever really pull this one off without smirking.  Irish like to ask "Any
               craic?" or say some place, even was "Good craic" when talking about good atmosphere or
              fun times
"Thanks a million" - they say that a lot
"Grand" - they will usually say that when you ask them how they are or to say, That's fine or that's great.

I've noticed I say "Is that OK?" after I ask someone to do something or give them instructions, people say that a lot too or they will ask "Are you happy with that?"  I always think, what would happen if I said, No, I'm not.  I haven't been brave enough for that.

New words I have learned from Connor's creche:

"Ladybird" - ladybug
"Mini beasts" - insects (how cute!!!!)

OK, well, enough of the language lessons.

I wonder who our next President will be. The absentee voting was very painless.  My Irish colleagues are so well informed of the President election that it puts me to shame.  They definitely keep up with American politics and news more than I think the regular American does.

Until next time!

Venice

I am writing this post from our hotel room in Venice Italy. We flew from Dublin to Milan early yesterday morning and took a train directly to Venice. There was a bus we took from the Milan airport to the train station for €5. The train ride took around 3 hours. Unfortunately it was a grey rainy day when we arrived and continued even as we arrived in Venice.

When we came out of the train station we were right in front of a canal. You can definitely tell you are in Venice. We walked from the train station to our hotel which was a 10 minute walk. While the canals and numerous bridges are pretty romantic, they are not the most convenient if you are travelling with a stroller.
Our hotel is in the Jewish ghetto. It was very affordable so we weren't quite sure what it would be like but it did get great reviews on trip advisor. We were not disappointed, we got a free upgrade and the room was like a palace. There is an entryway and then a door that leads into the bedroom and sitting area. The bathroom is huge and modern with a jacuzzi bathtub and separate rain shower. We also have the canal view with numerous windows. Obviously you can tell I could go on and on about our hotel. It's really awesome.

Our first night we just walked around and saw St Marco Square at night. It rained pretty hard so we ducked into a somewhat overpriced restaurant for an ok meal. I'm not sure if it was the rain, the numerous tourist stores or the shabby service at the restaurant but I didnt really feel the magic of Venice. It felt commercialised and a tiny bit sleazy.

This morning we woke up and saw that the canal was flooding some parts of the street in front of our windows. As we got dressed and went to breakfast (included) we noticed the water flooding the entire street. The hotel owner told us that 10am was the high tide. So the high tide coupled with the hard rain made the water flood the entire pedestrian street.
Since the water wouldn't go down until a few hours we hung out in our hotel room looking out at the people walking in the water on the street and the boats going by. It was quite fun. People had wellies on, trash bags on, thigh high fishing pants on, or rolled up their pants and went barefoot!
We finally went out after the water went down and took the water bus to San Marco Square. It was still rainy today but not as hard as yesterday. It is a beautiful area with the square, basilica and palazzo. We toured the palazzo and that took us a few hours. The palazzo is very ornate and definitely worth a look.
We had a meal and gelato in the square and then took some pictures of the basilica. We let Connor loose in the square and he went crazy chasing all the pigeons. The square was definitely his favourite part.
We walked around Venice after that and had dinner al fresco in a little square which was very pleasant. We walked back to the hotel and the streets were deserted and the many bridges and rivers were definitely romantic. Even if you are carrying a 1 1/2 year old on your hip.
Tomorrow we are having an early start and taking the train to Florence! We have been there before but always wanted to go back.
Here are some pictures from Venice:

Quick update

I've been really bad about updating my blog in the past few weeks - maybe the past month - so I'll write a short post.  It has definitely been a busy past few weeks and work has definitely been picking up. I thought it was going to be less work here than in the US but I was unfortunately very wrong.  I still need to write a post about our trip to Budapest, Hungary.  It was a lot of fun and great weather.  I also had a work management meeting in Limerick on a Friday and stayed overnight for the dinner and party.  The party went on until the wee hours of the morning which I have been told is a proper Irish party.  I got to know some of my Irish co-workers so that was a plus.  Darcy, one of my best friends, also visited me these past two weeks.  She wrote a guest blog post about her trip to Dublin.

The weather here has been getting colder and the days are now getting shorter.  I can't believe it is already mid October.  Time is passing by quickly.  We are staying in town this weekend, but next weekend we are going to Italy for the bank holiday.  It is the last bank holiday until next year.  We will fly into Milan and then take the train to Venice, stay there for a few days, and then take the train to Florence.  I can't wait!

We took Darcy on her weekend here to Powerscourt - the estate and waterfall.  We took the Dart train to Bray and then took a bus from Bray directly to Powerscourt.  The entrance fee is a little expensive but we were pretty impressed with the estate.  We took a taxi to the waterfall as it would have been a long walk and the roads are not meant for pedestrians.

Here are some pictures of Powerscourt:

In front of Powerscourt Estate & Darcy's finger

Darcy & I on a low hanging branch

Pepperpot Tower - modelled after the owner's pepper pot on his dining table - if only I had that much money

Killing Hollow??? That wasn't in the brochure!

In the Japanese Gardens

From across the pond

At the Powerscourt Waterfall

Connor & Michael

Connor at Bray Beach