Green Eyes

Vermont Weekend

Heather and I enjoyed a very luxurious weekend up in VT... but it didn't start luxurious by any means. On the way up, the snow was coming down pretty good. We tried to get to the top of a mountain where the house was at, and since we were headed up long before the plows, the good ol' Escort just couldn't make it. In fact, it started to slide back down the mountain. I cut the wheel, pulled the e-brake, and ordered Heather to jump out just in case, but it stopped sliding; after the panic attack I inflicted upon Heather. So, having no one near, no lights visible, and no batteries in either of my flashlights, we had to abandon the vehicle and find the house using only the pathetic illumination of our cell phones (and some digital camera flashes). Those of you that know us both well, especially as a pair of blonde fools, I'm sure you can imagine that this was quite the humorous scene.

To our surprise, we didn't run into any bad guys or evil moose (What's the plural of moose, btw? Meese?), and we made it up to the Kimball's home; a beautiful timber-framed house, designed and constructed by John himself. Fully equipped with gorgeous woodwork, heated tiles (to eliminate all tracked-in snow), enough beds to sleep hundreds, extra sharp cheddar from the VT Country Store, the coziest fireplace ever, mimosas every morning, and most especially, the Kimballs!! The weekend was awesome.

Irish Accents in NYC

This past week, I've been meeting up with my two friends, Richie & Tom, whom I met in Ireland this fall. They came to the states for a week, and were in CT for a few days, stayed at my place, then ventured off to NYC and beyond. The weekend was fun with them, we went out drinking in New Haven, and then to O-Bar in Fairfield Sunday night. Wednesday was definately the most fun, when we met up for dinner and legendary dessert at Serendipity on E 60th between 2nd and 3rd. Dinner was a blast, and I think I'm still sore from the intrusive laughter we created. There was a gridlock warning in the city, but it surprisingly was easy to get around by car once we were in Manhattan. After dinner, we gallivanted around midtown and Central Park West, showed the boys Lennon's memorial in Strawberry fields, and finally said our fairwells from Chelsea.

Not only are they really nice, handsome, and fun as hell, but those Irish accents are to die for. I wish Ireland wasn't so far away; can't wait til next time!

Bryant in the Wintertime

Bryant Park is by far my most favorite park in the city, but especially in the winter. They opened up a free ice skating pond last winter and it's up again this year. I don't reccomend leaving without a cup of hot apple cider...

Scott, Patti, Sean and I started the trek with some intense I95 dance-offs, went ice skating, enjoyed some Patsy's Pizza (which I claim the E60th restaurant has THE best pizza ever) and frolicked around Chelsea for what seemed like years, looking for our car.

Convertibles & Dinosaurs

Saturday was quite the adventure. Shane, Sean and I hopped in my car, Manhattan bound, early in the morn. I made a little stop in Darien to talk to my salesman friend Fabrizio, who works at the MINI dealership there. Within a matter of minutes, the boys and I were cruising with the top down along Holly Pond on the Darien/Stamford line. I've been considering a new car, and through adequate research I'm pretty sure the MINI Cooper Convertible is everything I want right now. The handling is amaaaazing on it, and there's so much fun beaming from the thing I swear you can even smell it. So maybe that'll be my spring treasure...

So after being a little creeped out by Fabrizio's eloping offer, we hopped back in my car and I drove into the city. We took a little detour and skipped out on a couple tolls over the Triboro (I need a damn ez-pass alreadyyy!!!) but I found a parking spot right by the Natural History Museum, and caught a classic NY deli-style lunch and ate in Theodore Rooselvelt park; it was such a nice day out. Oh, and on the way, I introduced the guys to Design Within Reach's fine collection and got a couple color samples for some ideas I had.

Anyhow, we proceeded to the museum, where we got to see a show in the planetarium; for free, cause we're superior to all other museum visitors, and headed up to the dino exhibit. I love dinos. There was so much information, so many things that have changed since my last ambitious quest for Jurassic knowledge back in the early ninties.

It was a fun day...always is with Shane & Sean.

Future Ideas...

I just wanted to remind, or break the news to everyone, that Dave Addona will be gracing the east coast with his presence next week, and I believe myself to be the fortunate one to house him for most of his stay. Therefore, I'd like to get as many people as I can down here to see him and maybe go out to celebrate the Godfather's visit. I'll keep everyone updated!!

Now that my Ireland travels have been satisfied, I'm conjuring up my latest schemes and ideas for travel. As crazy as it sounds I'm thinking something as random as Peru or some eastern European countries. I would like to spend a lot of time on the eastern coast of Australia in the near future, hopefully in 2007, and of course satisfy my failed plans to travel on the Mediterranean, too. Any other interesting ideas or recomendations?

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!

   

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!

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.

   

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.

 

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.