The Grass is Always Greener in the Country

After a very late night, the girls were groggy this morning and trying to gather excitement for their coastal bus trip outside of the city. We were booked on a 4 and 1/2 hour bus tour heading south of Dublin along the coast of Dublin Bay to Powerscourt Estate.

All weekend I kept seeing a sign for Tim Horton's at the corner store called SPAR. So just before we boarded the bus, I ran to SPAR to buy a Tim Horton's tea and a muffin. Tim Horton's donuts are also available at the grocery store around the corner from our apartment. It's very strange to see Tim Horton's outside of Canada, especially in Ireland, where I expected they would have their own tea/coffee shops. The donuts are large and the muffins are shaped differently compared to home.

We sat up on the double-decker part of the bus, but after a while both PM and PMW went to the lower level because they were frozen. The upper level provides great views of the river, the cottages surrounding the dockyards, the Bay, which looked freezing and of the small towns we travelled through. Finally, we arrived at Powerscourt Estate and did a little shopping then explored the landscape. V and C spent more time outside and saw the Pet Cemetary. The Estate is enormous with a great staircase to Triton Lake and anchored by the Winged Horses. It must beautiful there in the summer time with all the flowers in bloom in the Japanese Gardens, Italian Garden, ad the Walled Garden. The Powerscourt Estate has been featured in films such as Braveheart and Henry V.

The central perron:

The Spitting Men:

Triton Lake behind the Winged Horses:

Powerscourt Estate:

Statue of Victory:

Statue of Diana:

Statue of Apollo Belvedere:

Once back in Dublin, we started packing our bags and went out to do some last minute shopping. It was a whirlwind weekend just as I expected, but the sight-seeing, shopping, and nights out in the pubs were wonderful. I couldn't have asked for anything more. Dublin is a great place to start/finish a trip to Ireland. One day I would like to return and see more of Ireland.

Happy 40th Birthday V!

Today is V's big day - the big 4-0! We went to the Tourist office and booked a day trip for the following day. From here we continued down O'Connell St, stopping along the way to check out shoe sales, heading to the other side of the Liffey River to Grafton Street.

The Spire:

Clery's one of the World's first department store - built in 1853:


The Luas train:

One of many double-decker buses:


Molly Bloom, selling her cockles and mussles "She's Ireland's national treasure chest."

PMW and I went to Trinity College and to the Old Library and hopes to see the Book of Kells, while the other girls continued onwards to Grafton street for a little shopping. Cameras were not allowed in the Old Library ... sorry no images, but it's very grand with its arch ceilings, wood-work, long corridor and its many tall skinny windows. We didn't get to see the Book of Kells because it wasn't available ... on tour or something. The Book of Kells was written around 800 AD and is an illuminated manuscript containing the four gospels.

Images of Trinity College:

PMW and I stopped at Bewley's for tea and a bite to eat. We each ordered a bagel and it was one of the largest bagels I have ever seen. We easily could have shared one.


Grafton Street:


The five of us meet up and head to The Duke for an afternoon pint and a bite to eat.

C and PMW went off to George St Arcade for shopping and to admire the James McAvoy look-a-like who worked at the cupcake place. PM went off shopping, while V and I went off on her secret mission. What was the secret mission? V decided before the trip to get a tattoo in honour of 40th birthday. The tattoo is on her wrist decorated with purple cherry blossoms. It's very pretty.

After the big tattoo event, we went out for supper. We had reservations at the Clarence Hotel, which is owned by Bono and The Edge from U2. The restaurant was understaffed and as a result, the service was slow, however, the food was delicious. I finally got the chance to have traditional Irish stew. The sauce was lighter than I expected but still yummy. After supper we decided to stop at one of the pubs in Temple Bar - Farrington's, for a drink and then go to Stevenson square to hang out with Irish locals. We spent the night drinking at Farrington's and hung out with some lovely Irish guys. They were quite charming. We also continued collecting 40 birthday kisses for V. It was a great evening!

Where are the Irish?

After a late night of drinking and having fun, we were off to a late start on our second day. While C and PMW were off wandering around, V, PM, and I spent the first part of the day looking into day trips outside of the city and looked for a nice restaurant for V's 40th birthday supper.

Today we did something very Irish, we went to the Guinness Storehouse to see how Guinness was made. On our way there, V, PM, and I took a little detour crossed the Ha'Penny Bridge to look at a couple of shops, then we back to the other side of the Liffey River.

We came upon Dvblinia and Christ Church Cathedral and stopped to take some pictures.
Dvblinia:

Christ Church Cathedral:

After we headed over to Guinness. We discovered one of the key ingredients of Guinness, the fifth ingredient is Arthur Guinness because without him there would be no Guinness beer. Your ticket includes a taste of Guinness at the tasting station and a pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar, which provides a 360 view of the city.

After the Guinness Storehouse, V and PMW took off on a secret mission. PM, C, and I went back to the apartment, then PM and I went shopping on Parnell St and bought some goodies such as Butler's chocolates. We went back to the apartment and where PMW cooked a delicious supper. We are starting to wonder if there are any Irish folk in Dublin as we seem to be surrounded by foreigners wherever we go. Our taxi driver told us to go to Stevenson Square as that's where the Dubliners hang out.

Top of the Mornin' in Dublin

The last weeked of January 2009 will be spent in Dublin, Ireland to celebrate friendships, good-times, and V's 40th birthday.

There was a snowstorm the day of our flight to Ireland and all day at work, people would come up to me and ask if my flight was cancelled or what will I do, some even looked scared to approach me in fear of me biting their heads off. However, after delays, de-icing we were finally in the air to Newark, then to Dublin.

I must say, I liked Dublin as soon as we hopped in to a taxi that could fit all five of us. Ottawa needs more cabs like this. Our taxi ride provided us with sights of the city on our way to our apartment that we rented for the weekend. It has two bedrooms, a pull-out bed, kitchen, and two washrooms.

We spent our first day orienting ourselves in the city by walking down O'Connell Street and through Temple Bar.

We stopped at Oliver St John Gogarty's pub in Temple Bar for our first official drink of the weekend.

After V's curry dish and baguette (the grocery store around the corner has fabulous baguettes) for supper, we went out for a drink or two or .... First, we went to a pub called Madigan's or as C puts it, "the big pub of no fun!" because no one was there. We decided to head back to Temple Bar and ended up at The Auld Dubliner. As it turns out, Dublin's Temple Bar TradFest was on the same weekend and Irish music was played by musicians in pubs and on the streets.

Pictures from Temple Bar.

Trixie heads West ...

to Kanata? Last year, V bought us tickets to see the 2008 Homesense Skate Canada International held October 30 - November 2, 2008 in Ottawa. Under the International Skating Union (ISU), a Grand Prix series is held every Fall. There are six events in different countries, one of them being Canada, and skaters can compete in two of the six events. At the end of the six events, the top skaters go on to skate in the Grand Prixe Finale. The Grand Prix series provides skaters an opportunity to showcase their routines and allows them to work out and tweak their routines throughout the season prior to their nationals, Worlds, and Olympics.

Well it's come and gone and they were four great days of watching athletes practice and compete. It was also fabulous to see former skaters who are now coaches or commentators. I found it fascinating observing how the atheletes interact with with one another during the practice sessions. Some skaters are friendly and joke with one another and other skaters are uptight and indifferent. One of my highlights was seeing Alexei Urmanov in person, the coach of Russia's Sergei Voronov. Alexei Urmanov, Olympic champion in 1994, was one of my favourite skaters back then and he continues to look good and I'm sure he can pass on a wealth of information to his current and future students. Another highlight was seeing Alexander Zhulin, former Dance medallist, who has been linked to Maia Usova, Oksana Grishuk and others. The skating world is another version of the soaps or Hollywood, where everyone is someone linked to someone else and there's always a story about some current or former athlete. Over the course of the we heard some good stories about some of the skaters from other fans.

Canadians did great at this Grand Prix, see the top three results below.

Men:
Patrick Chan - CAN
Ryan Bradley - USA
Evan Lysacek - USA

Ladies:
Joannie Rochette - CAN
Fumie Suguri - JPN
Alissa Czisny = USA

Pairs:
Yuko Kawaguchi / Alexander Smirnov - RUS
Jessica Dube / Bryce Davison - CAN
Keauna McLaughlin / Rockne Brubaker - USA

Ice Dance:
Meryl Davis / Charlie White - USA
Vanessa Crone / Paul Poirier - CAN
Nathalie Pechalat / Fabian Bourzat - FRA

See you next year in Kitchener.