American Gothic

Getting home late from Dublin means we are behind schedule on our Christmas chores. First on the list - getting the lights up outside the house. Second, a Christmas drag show: Mrs. Grinchley's Christmas Carol! Nothing says 'holiday' like men in festive drag. http://www.facebook.com/golddustorphans

Just looking at this photo may be a federal offense

We made it back to Boston today without incident. That is until I snapped this photo at the baggage terminal and was reprimanded in front of the entire flight by a Federal Official that it was unlawful to take photos before we were outside the customs area. Shortly after that one of their drug dogs was checking out my luggage. I was worried that it might be a Cuban cigar sniffing beagle but he didn't detect Bill's import. We are home, unpacked, doing laundry, and just about ready for bed all before 8:00 pm. Our first day without a beer in a long time.

Guinness is good for you

Today's big event on our last full day in Dublin was the Guinness plant. We saw how beer was made. We didn't pay attention because we couldn't remember what the hops did. Jen's favorite fun fact was that the Guinness family was the same one that produced the Guinness book of World Records. It was created so that publicans could settle disputes about things like what is the fastest bird (which I guess was a question that used to come up a lot in pubs).

Jen auditioning for the next Guinness girl.
We are pretty wiped out at this time.... tired from a fun week. It shows. We're wearing the same clothes, have bags under our eyes and always look like we have a beer or two in us (because we do).
That said, look at how we can muster up enough energy to look cute for the camera.

The Irish Know How to Enjoy Life

So for all my snarky comments about how the Irish are paralyzed by the snow I must admit that they do know how to enjoy it! On our way home from the pub last night we saw so many people outside making snowmen and having snow ball fights. 10:00 at night and families are out in the yard rolling giant balls of it. (We also saw people trying to clean a foot of snow off their cars using a dish towel and an old crisp bag. I'm telling you - if we imported car snow brushes we could make a fortune!!!)

This was a giant snow ball that we saw being made on our way to the pub. It must have gotten too big for them to manage so they just left it in the street. We came back after with a camera (and monkeys).

Bill's hat is just the finishing touch this gentleman needs to complete the look - those are real coal eyes and a carrot nose.

Looks like yesterday's endless snowfall added at least another 6-8 inches to the overall accumulation. Looks beautiful at night, doesn't it?

Nonstop Snow!

When I first woke up this morning I actually heard birds singing and saw a sliver of blue sky. Shortly after that it started to snow. Here is the view out of our bedroom window.

Walking into the city center it was still snowing. (Although if you are wondering why the snowflakes are so large, I was throwing it up into the air for this particular photo. Its not snowing mutant flakes)

There is a big craft show going on near our B&B and one of the crafters is staying here with us. We had a good chat over breakfast so he gave us tickets to get in. I found a brown hand knit cable sweater knit by the nice woman who sold it to me. Every time I wear it I can think of Kathleen Meehan. Did I mention that it was still snowing? I tried going to the castle while Bill went to smoke his cigar but it was closed!!! As if a little snow is going to damage a 400 year old castle. So we went back to one of our favorite places for tea and a read.

When we left the cafe it was still snowing. But Grafton Street looks pretty with all the Christmas lights. Don't let the look of the ground fool you - its completely covered in grey slush. Literally NO ONE in this country owns a shovel so after a day of pedestrians there is just ankle deep mush.

As usual, we are posting between our tea time and our pub time. This is also the time of day that we put the hair dryer in Bill's shoes to get them ready for our walk to dinner. We are settling into quite the routine. We are practically Dubliners!

Souvenirs of the Stranded

Cheap undies, toothpaste, candy bar, popcorn and the latest Hello mag. Everything we need to spend a few more days in Dublin.

Why does this look familiar?

Our day started out one way and ended in the same way as the day before.

Below, Jen is wide eyed on the bus to the airport. Whenever we are heading home after a vacation we always say the same things. We loved our trip but now we wish we could snap our fingers and be home.

That didn't happen.

Below is Jen after it was announced (while we where sitting in the plane) that this flight wasn't going anywhere.

Ireland has been hit with one of those every ten year storms. Lighting, thunder, hail, snow. No one on this island has a snow shovel. The place is crippled.

We got off the plane and an episode of The Amazing Race began. Those who had cell phone immediately began calling their travel agents, admins at work, loved ones .... anyone who could help them. Some of us got online and tried to rebook our flight using the Aer Lingus directions (they suck at directions). The folks I feel bad for are the technology challenged. They wandered around asking questions to anyone who would listen. It made us a bit sad to watch.

But fear not. We are in Ireland. In Ireland people are friendly. People ask you if you need help without you asking them for help.

In the U.S. they would have been run over like a chipmunk under an 18 wheeler.

So we are "forced" to stay on vacation.... another couple days in Ireland.

It's a sacrifice, but we'll do our best to hold it together.

(One more thing; when we got back to the B&B after over 8 hours of nothing in the airport, we went to the pub. Trevor, a friendly Irish fellow, bought us drinks and gave Jennie a kiss goodnight.)

First, a picture from last night. This is me dressed as Velma ready to go out for a Scooby snack. Maybe there will be a crime for me to solve on the way and some old local will say, "Those meddlesome kids!"

This morning we walked through pea-sized hail to get down town but at the end of our street was the IBM building! I was tempted to go in and answer a few emails but managed to hold myself back. Big Blue is everywhere.

I'm sure you can all guess my first stop...a book store!! Hodges & Figgis is the local independent (directly across the street from Waterstones) so of course I had to give them my business. So glad I did - they were awesome. First they noticed that one of my books might be marked down in the basement and sent someone to check, then they said that they had a signed copy of another book I chose so they sent someone off to get that. When I mentioned having to get my bounty home they offered to ship them for me. I took the chance hoping that they will be more successful than I was shipping from Edinburgh. Plus I bought enough to get a 10 Euro frequent shopper discount. AND we got a great lunch recommendation. Seriously, the man at H&F did us well.

Then it was off to lunch at a great spot with beautiful stained glass windows, full of Christmas decorations and carols. An Irish woman came over to ask if we needed a shot of the two of us together so we wound up having a whole modeling shoot from different angles. She was more patient then we deserved. As she was leaving with her parents (the cutest old couple in Dublin) they all wanted to know where we were from and what we had seen. When the mother asked if we went to St Patricks and we said no she shrieked "How could you miss it?!?" Then told us about the deal on tea for the restaurant's 83rd anniversary. I hope I'm that cute when I get old (which isn't too far off, is it?)

Bill bought himself some whiskey but there are no pictures of that. We just got back from our last pub meal. We watched most of a West Ham vs ManU game but West Ham was up 3-0 so it wasn't much of a match. Travel day tomorrow - where did the vacation go??

On the road again

A snowy commute to Dublin. We are in the dining room of the Dublin B&B in Ballsbridge (that bit of detail is for you, Diane) - both of us typing away on our laptops after the long drive. Bill is on Trip Advisor looking for a nearby restaurant. (Fun fact - Trip Advisor was started by the co-founder of CenterLine Software where Bill and I met.) Hoping for dry weather tomorrow as we have a lot to pack into one full day in Dublin.

We watched a big football match in Keily's pub in Dublin. Real Madrid, led by the lecherous Renaldo, took a shallacking from Barcelona, 5 - 0. For a Monday night the bar was full of young fans. It was billed as Renaldo vs. Messi. Messi was involved in almost everything going on. All Renaldo did was to shove the other coach. A strict no-no. We hate pretty boy Renaldo.

Jen and I were interested in the game, but when a picture on the wall of guy in a powdered wig started to move we were mesmerized. It was a digital photo and every twenty minutes or so the guy would, a la Harry Potter, do some weird thing. He'd start to smoke a cigar then realize he has to go back to posing so he didn't light it. Then he listened to his iPod before going back to being a picture in a frame. We're easily amused and distracted.

Dingle Peninsula

Dingle Peninsula seems to be the most western point in Ireland. So after lunch we decided to drive Slea Head which is the loop drive of the outermost point....WOW!

Here is a shot of the drive and the landscape with all the little stone walls dividing up the land. Most of the little plots have sheep grazing. The road doesn't look wide enough for two cars, does it?

Of course the real spectacular view is over the water.

This is a shot looking back at the road which I think was the farthest point west. Its a little hard to tell where the road is vs the stone walls but it's just below those white houses.


The sunset was gorgeous but then it gets dark quickly and Bill and I started to get nervous that we took a wrong turn since all the signs were in Gaelic. We are the only people who can get lost on a loop road! We made it back to Dingle town without incident and rushed in to blog for our readership.