An Irish Road Trip

Belive it or not, listening to traditional Irish Music while on a road trip makes it SO much more Irish. and its exactly what we did. Bec and I went on road trip for a week, starting up in Donegal and ending in Kilkenny. We also went over to the Aran Islands, to the Island of Inishmore, did the ring of kerry, spent a fun night in cork, and slept in a very scary hostel in Kinsale.

We saw the google street view car pass us as I had to squat on the side of the road, ate Mcdonalds 3 times in one day (we aren't very good influences on each other), had our car sourrounded by sheep, and were led to a couple of car ferry crossings by the gps that really didn't save us anytime whatsoever, as we always missed the boat, and munched on some breakfast rolls from spa....whoever hasn't had them, they sure can cure a hangover.

We saw a good bit or Ireland and as the irish would say, had great craic!

St Paddy's day

St Pat's Day was abit of a downer last year, as work got in the way...but this year, nothing stopped us. We got into the swing of things with a big irish breaky, then got dressed in our gear and headed into town. After grabbing some face paint at Carrolls (the touristy irish store) we went and scored a great spot to watch the parade. Our friend bec met up with us, and after the parade we of coarse.....went for drinks. As you can see by the photos, we had alot of fun, and got up to some mischief.

Let it snow

Sorry, this blog is a tad bit out of order. Right before we went to New york, it bucketed down with snow. Not just the inch of that came the year before, it got up to 12 inches at one stage, which for Dublin, is huge. I got to build a snowman, which got abit drunk during the night, and decided to stagger over (as you can see in the photo) and it was all very pretty!

I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps.

Looking up. Tall Buildings. Hot dogs. Yellow Taxis. Winter hats. Magnolia Bakery. Statue of Liberty. Christmas decorations. Home made Baileys. Snow. Blizzard. Subway. Boots. Staten Island Ferry. Ben and Jerry's. Creaming Soda. Christmas Trees. Rockafeller Centre. Empire State. Tiffanys. Central Park. Walking. Art Museums. Busy. Traffic. Horns. New York Yankees. Presents. Relatives. Smiles. Hugs. Drinks. Shake Shack. Peanut Butter. Scarves. Gloves. Thermals. China Town. Friend Rice. Noodles. Dim Sum. Mac and Cheese. History Museum. Buskers. Dogs with boots on. Running in Central Park. Fire works. New Years Eve. Antropologie. Wall St. Twin Towers. Soho. Noho. Flatiron Building. Shop Windows. The "world renowned Plaza Hotel". Home alone: Lost in New york. Christmas Carols. Christmas Breakfast. 54th Street. 5th Avenue. Upper West side. 85th Street. Brooklyn Bridge. Pizza. Icecream. 10 days. Best city trip. New york.

bye bye becc

The first person I met in Ireland was a girl called Becc. She trained me for my first job, and made me feel just that little bit more comfortable in a foreign Country. She listened to me bawl my eyes out 1 week after I met her, and has continued to listen to all of my "nanny disaster" stories.

We have gone out on a good few drinking nights, and its always a pleasure to see her constant happy face, and to listen to her familiar Aussie accent.

She and her boyfriend, Jay, are moving to France to work in a Chalet, and I will miss them. Thanks becc for showing me a little bit of Dublin, and for being a good friend!

norway

We took a short weekend trip to Norway, and thought it was a quaint little city filled with awesome brownies and upgrades to 5 star rooms. Though for anyone who has not been to norway......they LOVE to take your money in every way they can. Now, I am not a scrooge, but having to pay 15 euro for your sheets in a 5 star hotel, and then another 20 euro to have cutlery in your FULLY SELF CATERED APARTMENT is just a little to steep for my liking. We solved the cutlery problem by going next door to the 7 11 and getting free cutlery.

The city of oslo is a very interesting little city full of art gallerys, little cars, snow, and moose. We went along to The munch art Gallery, and saw the painting "The scream". I have fond memories of this painting, my dear, hippie, art teacher, Miss rackham gave us so many essays on this painting.

We went to some markets on Sunday, a very ary crafty market that was in an interesting part of town, and we also had the best brownie in europe....it was amazing. Better than the cheesecake that Kierans sister, siobhan makes, and Better than the chocolate slice that my mum makes, and even better than the muffins Kierans Next door neighbours , Karen Makes. Thats right, it beat you all hands down.

The people are nice, the city is clean, it was bloody freezing, but it was a good weekend trip. Here are some photos.

The sculpture park in Oslo

real snowflakes!

a product called "Bog"

do we look cold?

The Scream painting

Wicklow way for a birthday party

Kierans Birthday suddenly crept up on us, and we managed to book a little cottage down in county Wicklow..... somewhere down there, we had no idea. We jumped in the car on the Friday night before his bday, ( powerkite and board in tow, the new toy) and set off in the dark to find our cottage. Thankgod for our american talking sat nav, (after 18 months of travelling we still haven't named it), it got us there in one peice, with alot of tiny bumpy roads inbetween.

Wicklow is a beautiful county, we did a tiny bit of sightseeing, and Kieran got to have a go on his powerkite at the beach.

Here are some snaps

.