Dublin

We took a train across the country to Dublin. It was a really nice way to travel for several hours. We could just nap and watch the countryside, cows, and sheep go by.

When we pulled into the station the first thing we saw was the St. James brewery where they produce Guinness. There is a tour of the old brewery facility. It's great! They show you pretty much how they make Guinness from the ingredients, to the processing, brewing, packaging, and marketing. There is no guide, it's all media as you go up and up into the building. At the very end there is a bar where they pour a pint of "perfect" Guinness. Eoghan thinks it should have had more love in the pour, but it was pretty tasty and you can see his glass is empty. The view was amazing. The bar was set up with the Guinness in the center, and a 360 degree view of the Dublin. It was a beautiful circular room entirely walled by windows.



We left, found the U.S. embassy where Eoghan would have to go renew his Visa early the next morning (it's a really tacky building that looks like a beach-side motel 8, circa 1972), dropped our stuff at the B&B, and found Lizzie. The B&B had a nice view of the colored doors we saw all over the city, as well as the Palm Trees. Did you know Ireland was a tropical island?

Lizzie was a lot of fun! She showed us some nice pubs in the area, and she mostly told stories and her and Eoghan caught up.

The next morning, after a meat-fast downstairs, Eoghan went to the embassy to do his thing and I walked off to Grafton St. I past St. Stephen's Green on my way. We had a chance to see the lights on Grafton the previous night, and they were beautiful! Thousands of tiny white and blue lights spell out holiday wishes in Irish, with a strob-ish light mixed in ever so often. Grafton St. has great shopping and is completely pedestrian.








After some shopping we moved on to see Trinity College, founded in 1592. Eoghan studied there after high school, and it's a beautiful campus.






After Trinity, we did some more exploring and got some lunch before heading back to the west side of the country. Some fish and chips, then back to the train!

Back from Dublin but off again..

Dublin was great! We met up with Eoghan's old college friend, Lizzie and she was a lot of fun. She has some great stories that you could only describe as "lester -like". Pictures up soon!

No time to update more now. We're headed out on Surprise trip to Scotland! Next post from GLASGOW. :)

Lahinch Beach

I thought by going to bed early last night, I would wake up at a reasonable time. 1:30 pm is hardly what I expected. Anyway, we were up soon enough to have have some homemade brown scones and head out to watch the sunset on the beach.

The waves were large by my Lake Michigan standards. We saw some surfers.



These are more pictures from the walk:
Picasa Web Album - Meaghan's Ireland trip

Just me:


Just Eoghan:













Dublin tomorrow!

Birthday Pub Crawl

One of the saddest parts of leaving is that Henry can't come to Ireland. We were both a little depressed when he was helping me pack.

Technically though, he can come. However, he would have to get a "Pet Passport" and that has 14 pages of requirements. Seriously, 14 pages. It is easier to get a people passport. Additionally, because he would be in the cargo part, it can't be less then 45 degrees outside at departure - not realistic in Chicago in December. While you might be surprised to know he would be a eligible for riding in the cabin, weight wise, pets aren't allowed on transatlantic flights. Babies are though. I promise, he's quieter and better behaved then the babies. We briefly contemplated putting him in my suitcase, but ultimately decided against it.

I know he's having a great time at Heidi's though. Running, playing, squeaking. He could hardly contain his joy when they picked him up!

After our nap yesterday, we had a quick dinner and headed out to celebrate Eoghan's sister, Aoibhean's birthday.

There were several girls in the party - about 11-12. We bounced around to different places. The cider was excellent and I also tried a Swedish pear cider that was very good. At one of the bars I sat with Aoibheann and some of her friends while Eoghan found some "lads". The boys were sitting in front of a PRINGLES machine. I was amazed. It was this large gumball type machine with tubes of different Pringle flavors. Obviously, I needed to try it out. The sign said 2 Euro Coin. I got two euro coins and broke the machine. I tried two 1 euro coins. You're supposed to use 1 two euro coin. I can't figure out why you would have change worth that much... but I didn't design the monetary system.

The last place we ended up was sort of a club/disco that revels in it's own awfulness. For example, they played Christmas music and people still danced. After that we walked back to Eoghan's house - which is over a mile and all up hill. It was nice weather, so it was alright although a little scary. It's pitch black outside without any ambient light at all. Also, the roads are really narrow, so if a car came up fast you could die.

After I'd had a steady stream of cider, and Eoghan had Guinness and shots with the guys (it was a really nice shot of something I can't remember the name of, like liquorish and very sweat) we were pretty much gone. Eoghan's mom, Theresa met us at the door and I promptly fell over a suitcase and landed on the floor. Eoghan was too busy laughing at me to really see what I fell over, and fell over the same suitcase. HA. Then he fixed us a nice breakfast of sausages and toast, we took some Advil, and slept until 3pm.

This evening we went out for dinner at The Black Oak http://www.blackoakclare.com/ Honestly, one of the best restaurants I've ever been to. If you're checking out the menu (Heidi...:P ) I had the Crab Tart, French Onion Soup, Cod with Crab, and the Creme Brulee. The wine was Sancere. It's a French white wine that is very crisp and went really well with everything we were eating. Oh my god, it all tasted so good! I think my favorites are the Crab Tart and the desert. The deserts are all made on site by a pastry chef!

Well, after that big meal and more wine I'm pretty tired. I've come back here to the house and put on some flannel pjs. Eoghan still had energy left, so he's headed down to hang out with an old friend. I'm not sure what we're doing tomorrow, but Monday and Tuesday we'll be in Dublin! I'll take more pictures tomorrow, and post some non-Henry photos. :)

We're here!

We're in! We've had a bit of a nap... well several hours to compensate for the fact we were basically up all night. Now, we've had some wine and some great steak and we're headed out for a night in Lahinch! More tomorrow - with pictures!