Welcome to the Homeland!!

Ahh, Dublin! The homeland, the motherland, the land where Guinness flows like wine and Irish lovers flock like the salmon of Capistrano....

On a whim, Allyson and I decided to head up north to Dublin, Ireland, home to our ancestors. We left on a Thursday night (we had a three day weekend) out of Malpensa on my favorite airline, SleezyJet. Unfortunately, we were disappointed when we got to the airport to find out our plane was ritardo--late.

We managed to make it to our hotel in Dublin by 10:30. We stayed at a very cute B & B/hostel. For some reason the rooms were named. You can see ours below. I think we got that room because we are saintly girls :).

Determined not to waste any of our precious time in Dublin, we managed to make it out to our first pub that evening. We got brief directions from the hotel concierge to the Temple Bar, basically the party/tourist area in Dublin. As we made our way to Temple Bar, we began noticing several men in kilts. Now Ally and I aren't from Ireland, but we knew they didn't traditionally wear kilts, so we were a bit curious.

We wandered around Temple Bar for a little while deciding on our first place of entry into the Irish culture. We settled on an apparently famous pub, Oliver St. John Gogarty's. Walking in, we noticed even more kilts. It wasn't long before we learned the reason. Turns out we happened to be in Dublin on one of the biggest party weekends of the year, Scotland versus Ireland rugby weekend. The game was being help in Dublin, so all the Scots had migrated to the city for a weekend of dabauchery.

We learned all of this amazing information from the many Scots and Irishmen who happened to be interested in talking to American girls. We found out from one of them that American girls are known to be easy, although not quite as easy as the Australians. Don't worry Mom, we didn't fall into the stereotype :).

At Gogarty's, we met some interesting men, as I said. One of the most fascinating was Fat Bastard--yes, the Austin Power's Fat Bastard--a red-haired, enormous Scotsman. We originally admired Fat Bastard from afar. He was hard to miss. Soon I realized that he and I would have a much closer relationship.

I have not yet mentioned that Gogarty's had awesome music most of the time. One song they did play that didn't exactly fit into that catagory was "That's Amore!" Well, Fat Bastard loved this song and before I knew it he had pulled me from the bar (mind you, I wasn't even looking in his direction--I think I was the closest girl to him) and began dancing with me. I went along with it for a verse or two, but I had had enough, so I pulled away. Turns out Fat Bastard didn't like that at all and before I realized what was happening, he was lifting me off the ground by my upper arm and pulling me to his group of friends. Now, I have to say that was pretty freaking scary. I mean, it's just not everyday that a girl gets picked up by Fat Bastard. Apparently the bartenders and a few New Yorkers noticed the horror in my eyes and pulled Fat Bastard off of me. As you might have guessed Fat Bastard was three sheets to the wind and I'm pretty sure he had no idea what he did. After a few minutes of recovery, Ally and I began laughing and soon it turned out to be one of the best stories we have from this trip. Below is a picture of us enjoying our first pint of the weekend.

Another interesting tid-bit about that fateful evening at Gogarty's was that we met a group of Irishmen. Now, I can't tell you their names, but they were something like Patty, Sean, and some other perfectly typical Irish names. These guys particularly liked Allyson. Below is a picture of one of them (to the left of Ally). He was the old guy in the group and loved Allyson. The other guy is some Scotsman who talked way too close. We didn't hang out with him for long.


Moving on to the next day--Allyson and I decided to take in other parts of the Irish culture on Friday. We re-traced our steps back to Temple Bar and through the rest of the city. Below is a street sign (the street we stayed on). On top is Gaelic and below (obviously) is English. Every sign in the city has both English and Gaelic.

On our walk through the city we had to cross the River Liffey. Aren't the buildings awesome?!

Here is a picture of me in front of the river. As you can see it was a windy (but not horribly chilly) day.

This is the entrance to Temple Bar. You can't really tell from the picture, but it is a very narrow passageway.

Because we saw everything in the dark, we decided to wander back to Gogarty's and see what the place actually looked like.

All throughout the city are these beautiful churches. Here is one below that we saw as we headed toward Grafton Street, the main shopping drag in the city.

After a bit of window shopping, we made our way to St. Stephen's Green, a park in the middle of the city. We were there late enough in the year that the flowers were blooming. The grass was soo green--just like I pictured it.


Of course Ireland is known for several famous authors, poets, and play writes, the most famous being James Joyce. This is just a small statue in tribute to him in the green. We learned a lot more about James Joyce that evening, but more on that later.


After meandering around the green, we made our way to Trinity College and the Book of Kells. here is yet another beautiful church.

Here is Trinity College, home to the Book of Kells--a famous and ancient illuminated text.

After our tour of Trinity, we had to go to one of the most famous spots in Ireland, St. James Gate, better known as the Guinness factory. On our long walk there, we walked by this bar, which made me think of my future in laws.

And another beautiful church we passed on our walk

Finally, we made it to St. James Gate. We couldn't pass up this great picture opportunity.

We entered the Guinness factory and bought tickets for the self-guided tour. Before we entered we had to get pictures in front of this famous advertising piece.

Ally and I happy as clams to be in the factory

The tour, like I said, was self guided. It walked you through the steps on how Guinness is made, the history of its inventor (below), the many advertising campaigns, and of course, the Gravity Bar--the best pint of Guinness and the best view of Dublin all in one.

Allyson with her first ever pint of Guinness--go Ally!!

Definitely not my first pint, and surely not my last :)


Ally and I at the Gravity Bar, the final stop on the tour. You get a free pint of Guinness up here with your entrance fee. You can see the city (kinda) behind us. It's really not a gorgeous city, but the amazing people make up for what it lacks in beauty.

We managed to find seats in the very crowded Gravity Bar. Here we met another group of Scotsmen in kilts. This time they were much older and just friendly. They answered a lot of our questions about Dublin and the whole rugby bit. We found out from them that the big game was going to be on Saturday night. We had our plans for the next evening! BUT, before we get there, let's finish Friday.

In our wonderful Lonely Planet Dublin (thanks Baby!) we found out there there was a literary pub crawl each night beginning at the very famous Duke Pub. We again wanted to take in as much Irish culture as possible, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and learn about Ireland's literary geniuses and enjoy a pub crawl. Here is a picture of The Duke.

The pub crawl was led by two knowledgeable Irish actors. They began the evening with one of the famous scenes from "Waiting for Godot." Thanks to Brother Aquinas I actually had knowledge of this famous play.

Throughout the evening we would walk around the city, stopping at famous spots. The actors would do some sort of skit and then tell us about the author/poet/play write. Here they are performing another skit.

Ally and me enjoying a pint on the pub crawl at The Old Stand


Our final stop was the famous Davy Burns, a pub made famous by James Joyce's Ulysses.

The pub crawl ended about 11, leaving ample time for us to continue enjoying the Irish pub culture. We found another bar, The Hairy Lemon, and met a nice group of Irish boys. After the pub closed, we made our way to find something to eat. We couldn't pass up the opportunity of enjoying a kebab at this chain restaurant. Don't you just love the name?!

The next day, Saturday, was sadly our last full day in Dublin. Knowing we had to leave at 5am the next morning to catch our flight home, we decided to make the most of the day. We wandered around the city again and actually found The Hairy Lemon. Looks like a classy joint, huh :).

After a bit of shopping (not just through the windows this time) on Grafton Street, we found Gallagher's, a restaurant/pub and enjoyed some traditional Irish food. We decided to go home and nap, then head out again in time to watch the rugby match that everyone came into town to see. We decided to go back to a place that would surely be fun, Gogarty's.

Here are me and Ally and I at Gogarty's

While watching the match, we met Martin, a.k.a. Bob. Bob was an English guy living in the South of France, captaining yachts for the rich and famous. Bob took a great liking to Allyson and decided to join us (and then pay for our) dinner.

After dinner at a random Malaysian restaurant, we headed back into Temple Bar to the Temple Bar, the pub the area of the city is named for. Believe it or not, we ran into the infamous Fat Bastard. Take a look!

We had another wonderful evening and made it back to our hotel. We had ordered a taxi to take us to the airport before heading out for the evening, which turned out to be a great choice. The concierge ended up waking us because I had knocked the phone off the hook in my sleep, so we didn't get our wake-up call. It was a little crazy for that first 15 minutes, but we promptly fell back asleep in the cab, at the airport, on the plane, and then for the rest of the day once we made it back to Lugano. It was a fantastic trip that I know Ally and I will never forget.

LONG LIVE DUBLIN!!

A Night at the Grotto

Okay, so I am finally updating my blog...it has only been two months :). Anyway, I thought I would start with a few pictures from an evening out a while ago. While you can't see much background in the pictures, we're at our most frequented grotto, Fingini. A grotto is a relaxed, hearty restaurant. They are typical of the Ticino region and serve lots of meats and polenta. They also have this dangerous concotion of cheap red wine and gassosa, a sprite-like drink. You add a little to the wine and it goes down very easily. It is a bit of an acquired taste, but acquire we have! Here are a few pictures before too much wine and gassosa.

Me and Lizzie

From the left--Liz, Sam, Allyson, and Emily

Carla and her Matteo decided to grace us with their presents. You can see the liter bottles of wine and the gassosa bottles here :).

Emily and Sam

Lizzie as a fish...I don't know, it made sense at the time. She was a goat later on in the evening (which is what we happend to be eating--hey, don't knock it 'til you try it)

Carnivale

Carnivale...definitely something I will never forget. It all began with our train ride. There were seven of us (me, John, Courtney, Carla, Allie, Sam, and Kim). We were peacefully sitting in the train playing a game of rummy, when all of a sudden a guitar wielding bum came after us. Yes, this is a true story.




So, here's what happened. This guy, who obviously had about twenty too many drinks, slides in next to Allie. He begins the conversation by growling at her. This wouldn't have been too bad, except for the fact that he had a bloody cut on his head. Needless to say Allie, Kim, and Courtney quickly vacated their seats. This made the bum laugh because he was able to scare the stupid Americans, something he so fondly called us. The bum walked away, well, he was escorted away by the train guy, and the girls returned to their seats. Fortunately, the manly men we brought with us did not defend our honor. No worries though, we are big girls and can take care of ourselves...or so we thought.




About two minutes later John says that the bum will be back. The words were barely out of his mouth when the guy came sauntering up...well staggering up...and decided to caress Carla's arm. Sam, in a very chivalrous way, told the guy to step back and brushed his hand away. The bum then began cursing Sam in broken English, reminding us how stupid we were. He then begins growling at Carla again and put his skeevie hand on her. At this point we all kind of had it, including John. In fact, he was so annoyed that he jumped up on the table and took a Karate Kid stance to defend us. The bum, slightly upset now, grabbed his guitar and swung it at John. Luckily his aim was a little off. John's was not, however, and he managed to knock the guy over. Well, this really set him off. For the next two, intense, minutes John's foot hung in the air batting the guy's guitar away from mine and Carla's heads.




At this point, Carla had crawled into my lap and I had my hands wrapped around her head. While this may seem humorous, she totally would have gotten hit otherwise. The other girls had moved from their seats and were trying to get Carla and I to move out of our seats. We would have had to go through John's foot and the guitar, so we refrained. After the two intense and adrenaline pumping minutes, the train guy came back. He told the bum to leave the Americans alone, took his guitar, and then escorted him out of our train compartment. At the next stop the guy was arrested. And so began Carnivale.......




After our adventure, we very much needed to relax, but first we had to find good ole' Hotel Henry. We couldn't however pass up the photo op of a picture just outside the train station on the Grand Canal.

We finally made it to Hotel Henry, cleaned up, and then headed out into the night. We made our way to Piazza San Marco after a healthy snack of rice cakes. We were pretty desperate for food at that point.

Eventually we landed at a pizza place. The food was good, the beers were huge, and the wine flowed. It was an excellent way to begin our evening. Here, Sam models with his beer and bottle of wine....not that he drank that much.

Carla and John

Allie and Kim

After dinner we wandered around Venice looking for a watering hole. We stopped to take a few pictures. Here is most of the gang from left to right: John, Allie, Sam, Kim, me, and Carla.

Kim wanted to get a closer view of the water in one of the canals. Unfortunately she went a little too far and stepped right in.

We eventually found a place to hang out for a while. Kim and Courtney got their groove on while the rest of us enjoyed a refreshing beverage after our walk through the city. Here are Carla, Sam, and Allie enjoying their evening.

The walk home was an adventure. I somehow called upon my memory of walking through Venice in college and managed to get everyone home in one piece. Not quite sure how long it took us though. Here are Allie and Carla enjoying the walk.

We arrived home to discover that John, Courtney, and Kim had not arrived (we had spilt up earlier in the night). That meant that their door was locked and Courtney had the key, which also meant that Sam had no way to get in to his room. After waiting around for an hour or so for the others to get back, we finally got too tired and decided to put the beds together in the room I shared with Carla and Allie. Here is our ginormous bed.

All seemed well and we all slept really hard. When we woke up in the morning we discovered that Sam had left. We figured he must have heard the others arrive home, so he went to his bed. A little while later we heard what really happened.

As it turns out, Sam sleep walks. He apparently was looking for the bathroom and found himself downstairs....locked out. At this point the others had come back and figured Sam was with us, so no one knew he was actually missing. He did not sleep quite as well as the rest of us. Check out his bed.

The morning after our late night...John, Kim, and Courtney

The next day we wondered through the city. It was rainy and cold, but we still had a great time just getting lost...for the most part. Here is my quintessential Venice picture. Note the gondolier :).

Me, Carla, and Allie stopped at the top of the Rialto Bridge to take a picture

Another picture along the Grand Canal

In the true spirit of Carnivale we decided to have our faces painted. Here I am...the guinea pig.

How cool does that look?!

Wanting to be just like me, Allie and Carla followed suit.

The Asian tourists were so impressed with Allie's face that they took a picture.

Sam decided to leave his masculinity behind and join the girls in the face painting.

Here we are looking very Carnivale-ish

And then here is John....just John :)

I couldn't pass up taking a picture of this amazing costume. There were people dressed up like this all over the city. Supposedly they rent costumes for several hundred euro just to be looked at during Carnivale.

After walking around for what seemed like forever, we finally managed to find a place that would supply us with libations. As you can see, we are very happy.

As true Americans, we managed to find the Irish Pub in the city. Here I am in my Carnivale mask with Carla.

John, Carla, Allie, and Sam

On Sunday, John, Sam, and Courtney took the early train home, while me, Allie, Carla, and Kim hung around Venice for a few extra hours. It was definitely worth it! We did a bit of shopping, sight-seeing, and then had an amazing lunch next to the Rialto Bridge before heading home. Here are a few pictures from our last day.

Another amazing Carnivale costume

Our little restaurant along the Grand Canal

A view of the Rialto Bridge from our restaurant

Overall, Venice was an amazing trip with lots of adventure. I would highly recommend a visit during Carnivale, or actually any other time of year.