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September 24, 2006
September 23, 2006
Naragansett Part II
Eric, Shane and I set out on Saturday to try to catch some waves in Rho
de Island that were good for surfing due to Hurricane Helene out to east over the Atlantic. We ended up favoring one of the surf shops Warm Winds, this being our second experience with both in the town. The website has a live cam, and a daily surf report, which is really helpful especially when headed out from two hours away. The shop has good rentals and decent sales if you're looking to buy anything. There's another shop in the area called Gansett...take my word for it, and don't even bother with them. The boys were successful, I ended up not going in the water (long story!) but I had a great time walking along the beach observing and photographing the boys as they fell into the--I mean, surfed the waves.
September 21, 2006
Dublin, not Liverpool
Well, unfortunately our plans of taking the ferry over to Liverpool were scratched, due to the last minute decision to keep the ferries out of the rough Irish Sea that day. We were dissapointed, but managed to have a good day. Sean got a "European" haircut at a place called Trinity Barber Shop. That was awfully cute. We did some moooore shopping around the Grafton Street area, and seredipitiously found the greatest modern interior design treasure of my trip! It was this little lounge, called 40 AKA which we went in at an early hour. 
It was fun though, cause they have Love Sac's everywhere, where Sean and I literally layed around for hours eating good food, good beer, and watching MTV
with are shoes off and feet up. The lighting effects were my favorite, they really put a lot of consideration into that, which I can always appreciate-- I think lighting can make or break a space, and this place proved that. The ceiling heights were really playful too, a very effective way to change things up that is usually overlooked. Exciting!
After that, we finally grabbed a hotel in Temple Bar, after lazily putting that task off all day, since we checked out of our other hotel (thinking we'd be in Liverpool for the night) and pretty much just passed out there (after Seans triple trek to find the car, haha suckkkaaa), knowing that our trip back was going to be an exhausting one the next day. The location was totally central to everything, which made slumber a challenge, considering the music really never stopped til morning, the glass smashing drunks persevered through the night, and the street sweeping that ensued by sunrise. If we weren't so tired, we clearly would've been glass smashing drunks, too.
Ah well, the breakfast was a delight in the morning, and so was our little flight to our stop over in
London. We spent three hours in the airport there (ok, so it's not the best way to see the city, but we can still say we've been there, shut uppp) and really had a laugh when we ate dinner at TGI Fridays...which was very offensively "American" themed; including giant graphics on the wall of tractor trailor trucks and circus tents; Clearly the best way to portray the USA! The menu was gross too, with all sorts of wannabe American slang terms, including an apostrophe after everythin' like we all speak like we're from rural Alabama. I blame our last three presidents for that skewed interpretation of our accents. We also felt like savages when we ate our bacon (which appearantly means HAM!) cheeseburgers with our hands...every other Brit in there was eating those and their french fries with a fork and knife. And I thought that they wanted to (with a Texas twang)... eat like an real American?!
After that we bought shotglasses to prove we've "traveled to London" and endured a long, but decent flight back to the States. Our fabulous trip was complete, with over a thousand photos in hand! I reccomend traveling to Ireland to anyone who like to be around happy people, beautiful scenery, ugly women (hah just kiddinggg) and interesting history. Awesooome place!
September 19, 2006
Grafton Street
After our crazy adventures on the west coast, we took it easy on Tuesday, wasting excessive euros on Grafton Street, Dublin's main shopping street is the pedestrianised path lined with stores like Brown Thomas, River Island, and Chanel. Good stuff! Had the best tortellini of my LIFE at an outdoor Italian bistro. There was a lot of 
interesting shops, cafes, galleries, used book shops, and vintage record stores that were so much fun to browse through. I enjoyed a Premiere McChicken at McDonalds, and honestly, it wasn't that bad. It has "herbs" which is typically unheard of at our McDonalds. Plus, they had relatively nice wood paneling on the walls, and flat panel TVs inset into the paneling with music videos continuously looping. That's kinda cool. Much better than our infant vomit infested indoor playscapes here in America. Ah well...
After a fun day of engaging in my favorite sport, we showered and stuff back at the hotel and headed out to the city center again. This time, we shared a bus ride and a cab with an old Libyan man, who has travelled the world. He shared many opinions, stories, and reccomendations, which was incredibly interesting. He said he has a house in Ireland because its simply beautiful, and the people are among the nicest in the world. When we told him we live in a suburb of New York City, he told us he didn't like the city because he didn't feel safe, and he didn't like "the black people running around at night with all the drugs." Incredibly warped vision of what I consider to be an awesome city! I'll just assume he's a racist who visited Times Square in the early 90's. Good conversation though! Can't deny that...
After that episode, we went to our favorite pub again, Quays, where a guitarist was doing his thing upstairs. We sang along to his traditonal Irish tunes, and his modern covers with our Guinness glasses waving in the air. He really captured the local crowd, and declared he'd have one more song for the night. Like teenage girls from 1964, Sean and I whispered to eachother, "Beatles! Beatles! Do Beatles!"...The man yells in his fabulous little Irish accent, "It's a little tune from the Beatles!" This time like drunken Giants fans from New Jersey, we shoot our fists in the air and grunt out manly, "Yeeeaaaa's"! The guy plays "All My Loving" and gets the crowd really going. He knows his time is up, the the crowd is chanting for an encore. The bartenders shut off his audio, but he gives in and sends a signal to them to turn it back on. The bartenders say no, and refuse to turn it back on, despite the roudiness of the whole pub. Finally, the guy says fuck it, rips the amp cord out of his acoustic, and starts playing "Hey Jude" anyways! The entire pub is singing along, loudly, and the climax came during the "na, na, na, na na na naaaaaaa" parts, where the glasses were being pounded on the tables, and the feet stomping on the floor, and the lyrics being screamed at the top of a pub full of lungs. It was surreal! We all got so into it!! They ended the music, but we happily finished the night with some Franz Ferdinand blasting from the downstairs section. Fuckin awesome night!
September 18, 2006
Limerick City
Sean, Richie and I woke up to enjoy an amazing Irish breakfast, home cooked by his mom, which included fried cherry tomatoes--I loved em!! We continued on with fascinating conversation through what was left of the morning, and headed out for some exploration of Limerick.
We first checked out King John's Castle and really learned alot there. Then we walked up the street to St. Mary's Cathedral which was founded in 1168, and the design has strong indications of both Romanesque and gothic styles of 
architecture with Romanesque arches and doorways and gothic windows. The cathedral is not pure in any one style really, and it has undergone "victorian restorations" and has been renovated and extended over the years. It was the first medieval cathedral I've been in, and I definately explored and took enough photos to prove that! From here, we took a quick visit to the campus of UL, and sadly parted ways with Richie.
Afterwards, Sean and I shopped around Limerick, and then headed back to our hotel, all the way back on the east coast. We stopped along the N7 for some Sheppards Pie, then called it a night once we got back.
September 17, 2006
Cross Country Road Trip
Sunday was an insaaane day for us. We started the day off by offically adjusting to the time zone difference, and waking up at 6am and starting off for a cross country road trip...which only took 3 hours, hah! We started off by buying a Irish breakfast which is basically meats and potatoes (what 
could be better!?) and grabbing snacks for the road including; Cadbury chocolates, Carpe Diem water, and cheese & onion chips (the only variety they really sell out there). Along the N7, which is the route from Dublin to Limerick, we saw random castles, beautiful old villages, and cows; alot of cows. It was here that I first drove on the left side of the road--strange, but not by any means difficult...even the rotaries.
Our first destination was the scenic drive through the karst landscape in Northwest County Clare 
called The Burren. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, especially the sea cliffs. We saw the ancient portal tomb called Poulnabrone Dolmen and the Cliffs of Moher, which many of you probably know as the "Cliffs of Insanity" from the 1987 film The Princess Bride! We frolicked around random, beautiful scenic places, especially by the ocean, and even an old abandoned church and cemetary in the middle of nowhere. The craziest 
thing I think I saw (call me an architecture nerd, I don't care) was the thatching! Old and new houses alike both examplified the craft of covering a roof with vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge, rushes and heather. It's probably the oldest roofing material and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates throughout the world, yet it's something I've never authentically found before in the US. I got excited, sorry!
So our next adventure was meeting up for dinner at Bunratty Castle with Sean's 
old friend from Limerick, Richie. They met through Scouts, years back and have kept in touch. We caught a beer real quick before the dinner, and I proved then that my drinking skills were up to par with my Irish genes. Richie was awesome, and he actually works in the castle, which made it easier and fun for us to explore and enjoy the dinner & show. They served traditional Irish stew, jugs of wine, and 
mead. The servers taught us Irish songs, traditions, stories, played music, and even taught some of the audience members (aka: Sean) how do step dance on stage. I even got a slap on the ass from a 90+ year old Irish woman in the bathroom for no reason, just for fun. What the hell? I love it!
Richie gave us a personal tour of the castle, which was AWESOME, I think my jaw was dropped the 
whole entire time. From here, we drove to Richie's friend's apartment in Limerick, where we pre-gamed with a group of fabulous students from the University of Limerick, mostly Irish, and a couple international students from Poland. These people, plus a lot of booze, created for a very interesting series of 
events and conversation. We all eventually walked to a club, where the dancing was very light-hearted and poppy--definately different than a typical dance club in the States. We had a blast here, shared a lot of laughs and shots, even though Sean started to drift into an upright slumber. We decided that was a sign to head back to the Hayes' home and get him to bed.
However, by the time we got back to Richie's house, his mom had been waiting up for us, and she made us tea and cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches...what a doll! We stayed up, despite Seans drunken claims that he was "in bad shape", captivated in a cross cultural conversation for awhile, then finally went to sleep at an insane hour.
September 16, 2006
The Brazen Head
Our third day in Ireland started with a lot of shopping. Glorious, delicious, European city shopping. We ate lunch in a little "cafeteria" and soon found our
first internet cafe (which wasn't an cafe, but that's alright) and caught up with some quick emails. We stopped in a McDonalds to discover they serve twisty fries and an unbreaded fish fillet! Weiiird! After a long day of random urban exploration we rested our asses at the oldest pub in Dublin, called the Brazen Head. It was established in 1198 and maintains the original building and cobblestones. We spent many hours here, first with our Beef & Guinness Stew complete with brown bread and magnificent butter...an Irish 
treasure. While we waited for our meal and downed many a Guinness, we read the walls that were covered in very old ads and flyers, as well as currency bills, mostly from the US, which displayed past visitor's names and locations, and the occasional "Go Insert-
Team-Name-Here!" We realized a lot of locals dominated this mutli-roomed indoor/outdoor bar, and had an interesting night observing and chatting with these locals. After a great night here, we randomly ventured off around the abnormally safe, clean, bright, and lively city center, discovering old castles, cathedrals, and reminants of old city walls. A good time was had for all.
September 15, 2006
Howth & Wicklow Mountains
For our first full day in the Republic, we were recharged and ready to explore this
European capital we had at our fingertips. The weather was abnormally beautiful for gloomy Ireland; we had some of the bluest skies I've ever seen. We started off by traversing around an old fishing village called Howth, which has a population of about 8 thousand. We set out on foot, and mischeifly followed random staircases and whatnot until we found a local treasure; The Big Blue cafe. This outdoor 
restaurant had a beautiful view from a hilltop, overlooking the harbor and stone remains from an old church. The other customers were clearly local residents, waiting for their children to walk home from school, and greeting nearly everyone who walked down the street by their first name. This is when I began to realize how friendly and happy Irish people are...
I devoured my Atlantic seafood chowder, and spent a little while walking around the shore. After this we hopped into our car and drove south of Dublin into the Wicklow Mountains. All we really had to go by was a simplistic map of the entire country, which made our journeys a little difficult, but definately more fun and unpredictable. We finally saw the natural landscapes after escaping the city, and with that weather,
was just stunning; photographs do no justice to what we saw. Another thing that pictures and video cannot capture is the awesome smell; the smell of peat, or turf as they call it. Since forests and trees arent really abundant in Ireland (mostly open fields), I realized that was why they burned the turf, and not firewood. Which also explained to me why every dwelling was contructed and detailed mostly in stone or brick, leaving only the doors to be made of wood.
We explored the mountains and hills on windy little backroads and got confused at every crossroad 
which contained a hundred incomprehensible signs. It was great! On the way back out of the mountains, as we were headed towards the village of Enniskerry, Sean spotted 2 hitchkikers and without hesitation picked em up. They turned out to be an Italian couple from Milan who went hiking and misjudged the distance on their map. We exchanged a very interesting conversation and brought them back to the village, where Sean and I went antique shopping before taking off for Dublin again.
It was a long night, we started off by trying "fast food." I learned my lesson--again--not to eat Pizza
outside of the tri-state area! The Irish have a thing for Hawaiian pizza for some reason; which is geographically strange to me, but the pizza is just NOT pizza...lack of herbs, sauce, and quality cheese and dough. Nothing compares to New York and New Haven pizza, sorry. I've hated everything from Vermont, to Florida, to California. Now Ireland. The only new place I've vowed to ever try pizza is in
Italy...maybe. After that mini-disaster, we went back to Quays and drank them dry of Bailey's Irish Cream. There was a local guitarist who had the upstairs jammin, and after that we made our way through the crowded downstairs and 
rocked out to...yes, George Harrison singles. Never in my life do I expect to encounter a DJ who plays the 1987 hit "Got My Mind Set on You" in America. Sean and I, being the big dorky Beatles fans that we are, devoured every note of the song. We took a fun little walk up the river, which at that hour, was surprisingly bright, lively, and full of young kids, and rode the Nitelink back into Reheny and passed out after a glorious day!
September 14, 2006
Arrival in Dublin
So Sean and I finally made it to Ireland! The flight was fine, but our rental car experience was quite the event. After not sleeping for God only knows how many hours, an exhausted Sean agrees to accepting a discounted manual transmission. He says that although he is not used to driving standard, he thinks we'll be alright. We weren't. Ireland traffic drives on the left side of the road, keep in mind. Sean had never drove 
like that...nor had he ever driven manual with the stick being on his left...nor did we understand 
the street signs in this foreign country...nor did we know how to get to our hotel among the rotaries and motorways. To make a long story short, after the laughs, the tears, and the drama (mostly issuing forth by my over-tired/cranky/bitchy attitude) we returned to Enterprise to switch to an automatic. That fixed all of our problems. We crashed in our non-touristy hotel, The Shieling Hotel, in the quiet coastal village of Reheny, North of Dublin, for most of the day, and made an excursion out to Dublin city for the nightlife.
The city itself is very quaint. The pubs all have magnificent outdoor lighting on the buildings, the black signs with the gold letters, and the vine-like flowers that pour from the second story planters, and the beautiful millwork at the bars.
There's definately modern buildings and areas, but it seemed to me like a lot of the architecture was well preserved. One of the the first things I really was intrigued by was the Georgian doors, which seemed to always be 
painted in a vivid bold color with a high gloss finish. Sounds tacky, but against the drab cement, stucco, brick or stone townhouses, the colors and the intricate detailing of the millwork were phenominal. The city itself branches off from the River Liffey, where lit up footpaths and vehicle bridges span the length.
After driving our way downtown, we found ourselves at the Temple Bar area in the city center, south of the River Liffey, which has a preserved medieval street pattern and cobbled streets closed off for pedestrians/drunks. The area is always
loud and full of culture and liveliness, and as a result, we spent almost every night in this area. We proceeded to Quay's Pub for a DELICIOUS traditional Irish stew and the best Guinness ever (something very different about it out there compared to what Ive had in the States), which is brewed right down the street!
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