Back in Dublin

Hi everyone!  Once again I apologize for another blogging absence.  My goal has been to make a post once a week but some weeks there just isn't too much to share!  The past two weeks have been pretty uneventful.  My days have been filled with cleaning, playing with Pippa, helping the girls with homework and running.  Yep that's right I said running!  I try to go at least four times a week once I'm off work but that's been getting harder he past few weeks.  The Irish weather has taken a turn for winter here!  Its usually in the high 40s during the day and the rain is becoming more and more common.  Another change is what time the sun sets.  When I got here, the sun would start to set at maybe nine meaning it would be at least 11 before it became completely dark.  Now its dark by 7:30 and I've been told that this is just the beginning!  In the middle of winter its pitch black by 4:30 pm.  Now THAT is going to take some getting used to.

This weekend I spent time in Dublin for the first time in what felt like years!  I've been in Dublin the past month or two but only long enough to get on a train or bus to travel somewhere else.  It was nice to be back in the city centre.  Saturday I went in to do some shopping!  I haven't bought a single item of clothing (other than an Ireland sweatshirt) in the four months I've been here. I don't think I've gone that long without buying clothes since I had my first job when I was 16!  I went to Pennys which is a super cheap department store in Ireland.  If you're ever over here you've got to go!  Of course, the clothes aren't the best quality but at their prices you could buy two of everything! 

New Favorite Store!

I also went to H & M and TK Maxx.  Yep, its TJ Maxx but they thought the K made it sound more European than the J.  Who knew?  I also bought a few things to bring home when I visit which is happening in eight days! I can't wait to be back in America, and more importantly the South, for a little while!  I also met up with Hailey and we had lunch at Eddie Rockets.  It was so nice to have a cheeseburger, fries, and a milkshake with an American friend.  It was almost like home!

Yesterday I went back in to Dublin to see an Irish film with a few other au pair friends.  It's called What Richard Did and it was really good!  I don't have much experience with small, independent films but I really enjoyed this one.  The film is based on a fictional book which strongly resembles events that occurred in Dublin about 12 years ago so that made it even more interesting. The director and actors are all Irish and the filming took place in Ireland as well.  Its nice to learn more about Dublin's history and culture while I'm here.

If you ever stumble across an Irish film festival in America, go see this!

Other than that, I can't think of too many things to update y'all on.  I'll be spending the week doing laundry and packing for my trip home!  And yes it takes almost a week to do laundry here, well more like 3 to 4 days.  Dryers in Ireland are super small and expensive to use.  Most families only use them for socks and underwear (if at all).  The most common way to dry clothes is still outside on a clothesline!  Lucky for me, Ciara has clothes driers we set up in the house so I don't have to constantly worry about if its going to rain when I'm trying to dry my clothes.

Next time I write it will be update you on my trip home!

A Tour of Kerry

Hey y'all! Sorry for my blog absence in the past two weeks but I haven't had too much to blog about until now.  This past weekend I went to the Ring of Kerry with Natalia.  The Ring of Kerry isn't actually a ring or an island or anything you would think of when you think of "ring".  Kerry is a county in the southwest of Ireland.  Its one of the few places in the country where you can find mountains and the seaside views are absolutely beautiful!  The Ring of Kerry refers to the 112 mile route traveled around the Iveragh Peninsula through all of the coastal towns in County Kerry.  We stayed in Dublin on Saturday night and woke up bright and early at 5 am Sunday morning to join our tour group and we were off to Kerry!

Four hours later we started the tour in Killarney.  We made our way through a lot of small villages and stopped at many different photo ops on our trek around the Ring of Kerry.  My favorite stops were the village of Waterville and Killarney National Park.  Waterville is definitely what you would call a village.  The whole town was about the size of King Street.  Any place that makes Boone look like a booming metropolis is village material!  Charlie Chaplin used to stay here with his family in one of the hotels.  He came so much that the town put up a statue in his honor and hosts the Charlie Chaplin Comedy Festival every year!

This man let people take pictures with his animals.  He also pulled a small puppy out of the donkey's basket.  Oh tourist attractions.

Dingle Peninsula

Waterville Beach

Downtown Waterville

Charlie Chaplin!  Apparently he used to spend his holidays in Waterville.  Who kne?

Ballinskelligs Bay- America is straight ahead!

The remains of a potato famine village

Downtown Sneem

Kelly's Bakey in Sneem!

 Everything we saw in Killarney National park was breath taking.  I especially loved Ladies View.  When Queen Victoria visited Kerry the lord at the time (I forget his name!) told her she MUST go see the lake of Killarney from this special spot in the park.  Queen Victoria told him she was far too busy to go see these lakes so she sent her ladies-in-waiting.  When they returned and the queen asked how it was her ladies told her it was a view fit for any lady to see.  And it was beautiful!

Ladies View, Killarney National Park

Ladies View

Torc Waterfall, Killarney National Park

We finished the tour and made our way back into Dublin and finally got home to Stamullen at midnight Sunday!  I've been tired this week but it was worth the lack of sleep to see all the great places on the Ring of Kerry.  Pippa is officially walking!  She still crawls the majority of the time but she loves walking to people and even walks around on her own without any encouragement until she falls.  The girls are both doing well in school but we're all going a little stir crazy since it has rained nonstop the past two days.

Natalia leaves tomorrow- a fact which I'm still trying to wrap my head around!  Her family's new au pair arrived today so I'll meet her tomorrow when I tell Natalia goodbye.  And three weeks from today I'll be landing in Raleigh to be home for an entire week!  Hopefully I'll have some more updates for everyone before then!

The Weekend That (Almost Never) Was

Hi everyone!  Its been a busy week for me.  My 3 month Irish anniversary was on Tuesday.  It was a bitter sweet day with it also being the anniversary of September 11th.  It was really weird not to hear anyone talking about it on the news or the radio.  I can definitely say that some days my heart is in America and this was one of those days.  Mercè also came back this week to visit!  Its been so great seeing her.  She is staying with Natàlia and their host family.  Pippa took her first steps this week!  I don't think I've ever been so proud of another person in my life!  I can't upload a video with my current internet connection (those of you I've talked to on the phone know how it is!) but I'm working on it so everyone can see!

Last weekend I went to Cork with Natàlia and Hailey.  We had a bumpy start but once we got on the road we had a great trip!  Natàlia and I met Hailey on Saturday in Dublin at the train station for the 8 am train to Cork.  To be in Dublin in time for the train, Natàlia and I needed to get the 6:25 am bus out of Stamullen.  The two of us were supposed to meet up bright and early at 6 am to walk to the bus station.  I packed up my bag Friday night and went to bed ready to wake up early....

Next thing I know I woke up to my phone ringing.  It was Natàlia... calling me at 6:10!  Needless to say I jumped out of bed, freaked out for 30 seconds, grabbed all my stuff and ran out the door still in my pajamas.  It usually takes 15-20 minutes to walk to the bus and we only had 10 minutes to get there.  We ran all the way to the bus stop and by sheer force of will (and probably some divine intervention) made it just in time for the bus to pull up!  I was able to change out of my pajamas on the train, which isn't the easiest thing to do, and we were off to Cork!

The train to Cork is about a 3 hour ride.  We arrived at 11 am and headed to a Centra to get picnic supplies before we made our way to Fitzgerald Park.  We had a wonderful picnic and even fed some very chatty ducks!

The pond we had lunch next to.

After lunch we hit up the major sights of Cork: we walked around University College Cork's campus and unintentionally stalked a wedding, took in the art work at Crawford Art gallery, and perused the food selection at the famous English Market.  Unfortunately, this is all Cork really had to offer.  Although its Ireland's second largest city, it is WAY smaller than Dublin.  Just when we were about to give up, we decided to visit St. Anne's Church.  My expectations weren't too high because once you've seen one church in Ireland you've kind of seen them all, but this church was AWESOME!  Why you ask?

We got to play the bells!

Playing the wedding march!

Thats right.  I got to play church bells and it was everything I hoped it would be!  We also got to climb the bell tower and the view from the top was pretty spectacular!

The sweet earphones we got to wear so we didn't go deaf when we were standing next to the bells.

The view of Cork City.

 After our tour of the city, we checked into our hostel and took a much needed nap.  Later, we went out for dinner and a pint and then went straight to bed!

Sunday we took the bus to Blarney to visit Blarney Castle and kiss the blarney stone!  Blarney is a cute, but very tiny village, about twenty-five minutes from Cork.  The gardens were amazing and the castle itself was beautiful.  Blarney Castle was built in 1446 which is about 46 years BEFORE Columbus even sailed the ocean blue.  I'm still amazed at how far back Irish history goes compared to ours.

Blarney Castle

Our reward for climbing the 127 steps to the top

Kissing the stone!

For kissing the stone, you receive the gift of gab!  Supposedly, Queen Elizabeth I repeatedly asked the lord of  Blarney Castle, MacCarthy, to swear an oath of loyalty.  MacCarthy always responded with long eloquent speeches, but refused to comply.  The queen was said to grow so frustrated that she responded it was all a lot of blarney and boom! A new word was born into the English language.  The gardens of Blarney also had a lot of magical ties.  From poison gardens to wishing steps to witches' kitchens it was all there for us to explore!

The fern garden.  I've never seen a fern like this!

Leaving the witch a penny.

We had a great weekend and this week has been flying by!  I don't have any big plans for this weekend but Natàlia and I are thinking about going to Killarney and visiting the Ring of Kerry to celebrate her LAST weekend in Ireland.  I can't believe she's already leaving but now I get to visit her and Mercè in Barcelona soon!

A Day in the Life...

This past weekend I relaxed and hung around Stamullen with Natalia and Ioana.  I needed to save up some travel money because..... I'm going to Cork this weekend!!  Hailey and Natalia and I are getting up at the crack of dawn Saturday morning to get into Dublin, get on the 8 am train to Cork and take a 3 hour ride, and finally arrive at our destination around lunch time.  Our plans are to explore Cork on Saturday and then we are going to Blarney Castle on Sunday to kiss the famous Blarney Stone!  Apparently whoever kisses it receives the gift of gab...  Hopefully, I don't receive too much of the gift because I don't think my blog posts can get any longer!

This week the girls started back to school and we've been getting back into the swing of our routine for the rest of the year.  So for the rest of the year, my days generally consist of this:

7:50 am...  My first alarm goes off

8:00 am...  My second alarm goes off and I actually get up

8:20 am...  My commute to work consists of opening my door and taking the 5 steps into the kitchen.  I usually begin the day by cleaning up any dishes from the night before and helping Dave get the girls out the door for school.

8: 36 am.... Dave leaves for work and takes the girls to school.  Yes, they literally leave at 8:36, not 8:35 or 8:40.  And Ruby and Maisy run around the house screaming "Its EIGHT THREE SIX!" before they walk out the door.  Since most of you know I'm not what you'd call a morning person I'm thankful to be left with Pippa for a few hours.  I can't keep up with their energy at that hour.

8:40 am.... Pippa and I have breakfast... yum Cheerios.

The rest of the morning consists of cleaning and playing.  Pippa currently takes a morning and afternoon nap (which I'm not sure she'll do much longer!) so her morning nap makes a nice break time for me.

1:30 pm...  I load Pippa up in her buggy (stroller) and we walk down to the school to get Maisy.  We then hurry back home and Maisy eats a snack very quickly because...

2:30 pm...  The girls and I go back to the school to get Ruby!  Ruby is in 1st class so from this year on she goes to school until 2:30 everyday.  Maisy is only in Senior Infants (think Kindergarten) so she only goes to school until 1:30 pm.  They also wear the cutest uniforms to school.  I haven't made them take a picture yet but I will soon!

3:00 pm... Finally everyone is home and the girls do their homework.  Once I check it they play outside or in the playroom.  Pippa also takes her 2nd nap around this time and I get another mini-break.

4:30 pm... I start cooking dinner for the girls.

5:30 pm...  Its time to clean-up from dinner and usually Dave is home by this time so I'm off!

And if Dave and Ciara are late getting home Pippa usually ends up as the center of a photo shoot:

Pippa's baba

Whatcha doin?

Is this something I can eat?

Make sure you get my good side!

After work I spend my time going for walks, buying biscuits (or cookies) at the shop, making phone calls back home, and generally spending time in child-free zones.

And there you have it, the life of an au pair!  Its not as glamorous as you'd think but at least I do it in Ireland!  Make sure to check back next week for my adventures of kissing the Blarney Stone.  Apparently you have to lean over a wall backwards so it should be interesting...

A Visit to Another Country!

Okay, so Northern Ireland isn't THAT different from the Republic of Ireland BUT I did have to use a different type of money so it counts in my book!  My first big accomplishment for the weekend was packing.  I think you will all be shocked and proud to know I packed for the ENTIRE weekend in my book bag!  I usually take at least two bags on weekends trips.  I also had to pack light enough that I could carry my entire weekend's worth of stuff around town all day on Sunday.  My pack wasn't too heavy Sunday morning when we left the hostel, but by the time we were walking to the train at 6:00 pm that night I felt like all I had packed were bricks!

Friday night, Natalia and I boarded the train at Drogheda (a town about 10 minutes north of Stamullen) at 7:30 pm and we were off!  It took about an hour and a half to get to Belfast and then the fun began.  Our first order of business was to find an ATM so we could get our hands on some sterling in order to pay for our hostel.  Bank of America has a partner bank in the UK, meaning I could use this other bank's ATM and not worry about any international fees.  Awesome right?  Well I'm convinced this bank doesn't exist because Natalia and I searched and never found it.  After walking around Belfast in the middle of the night (in the rain) and being pointed in the right direction to a not so "dodgy" part of town (as they put it) by some nice strangers, we settled on another ATM and just paid the fees.  We then had a 30 minute walk to our hostel but we found it and checked in without any problem!  Our hostel was okay, but nothing great.  The bathrooms weren't the cleanest I've ever seen but being Renee Muse's daughter I had shower shoes packed and ready to use!  We met Hailey close to midnight and we all went to bed shortly after since we had worked a full day before traveling.

Saturday morning we woke up, had a FREE breakfast at the hostel, and headed to our tour departure point.  We only got slightly lost and still arrived early.  We were able to get good seats behind the driver so we had great window views of the coastline the whole way to the Gaint's Causeway.  Our tour guide was great but he had a very heavy Scottish (at least I think it was Scottish) accent so I didn't understand everything he said.  The best part of our tour was that we traveled along the Coastline through the Glens of Antrim and the view was stunning literally the whole way!  We made several quick stops along the way before reaching our main destinations: The Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge and, of course, The Giant's Causeway.

Carrickfergus Castle was built in 1177

Carnalough Harbor

One of the many Glens in County Antrim

The coastline was breathtaking the entire drive to the Causway

Dunluce Castle, built sometime in the 13th century

Bushmills Distillery, the first licensed distillery in the world

The Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge is WAY up north next to the Giant's Causeway.  We had a 1 km walk to the rope bridge and I was actually a little disappointed by how small it was when we got there, but it was still scary!  The views from the tiny island the rope bridge connects to were worth the crossing.  We even saw part of Scotland!

It was a long way down

The bridge

Across the bridge on the island

Scotland in the distance!

Our final stop of the day... The Giant's Causeway!  There is a wonderful folktale about how and why the causeway was created but you'll have to look it up and read it for yourself because I can't do it justice!  I can't even explain how beautiful it was so you'll have to take a look:

After leaving the Causeway, I slept the ENITRE ride home (which was through inland Northern Ireland so I didn't miss many views, mainly some sheep) and we got back into Belfast around 7:30.  We ate dinner at an Irish version of a Salsarita's (thank god for Mexican in Ireland) and went to a pub close to our hostel for a pint before calling it a night.

The next morning we woke up early again and set off to explore Belfast and all it had to offer.  We walked around the city from 10 am until 4 pm when we had tickets to visit the Titanic center.  I think its safe to say we saw EVERYTHING Belfast has to offer.

The Botanic Gardens near Queen's University

City Hall

View of the skyline from Victoria Sq. Shopping Center

Lagan River

The Ring of Thanksgiving

Sampson and Goliath, the Howard and Wolff cranes used in the building of Titanic

Sir Albert Memorial Clock

Belfast's Big Fish

Stained Glass at St. Ann's Cathedral

At 4 pm we made our way to the Titanic Belfast museum.  Its a beautiful building dedicated to the history of the Titanic from its creation in Belfast to its sinking in the Atlantic.  A lot of the information I knew already, but it was interesting to hear how the Titanic was built in Belfast.  I had no idea that it was built in Northern Ireland until I arrived here.

Finally we boarded the train at 7 pm and headed home.  It was an exhausting weekend but I saw so much of Northern Ireland!  I can't wait for my next excursion which will hopefully be soon!