On Being Grown-Up-Ish
This article ranks the 10 most expensive cities in the world to live in and Dublin is unsurprisingly No. 8. So glad my company pays my rent!
1. London
2. New York
3. Oslo
4. Tokio
5. Zurich
6. Copenhagen
7. Geneva
8. Dublin
9. Chicago
10. Los Angeles
Seriously, I saw some parts of Ireland this weekend that made me doubt that I was on this island. Furthermore, it did not rain in about 5 days. That along deserves to be mentioned. 😉
After having shown Michaellyn the highlights of Dublin on Thursday, we picked up our rental car from the airport and then headed southwest on Friday morning. No traffic at all considering it was Easter weekend.
We stopped at the Rock of Cashel and walked around there. The weather was gorgeous and there were some benches where we had some picknick. Yum!
Then we headed to the Blarney Castle as Michaellyn had always wanted to kiss the Blarney Stone. Apparently it gives you eloquence. Well, we did it, and I even did it twice due to some photo probs. But fear not, there’s photographic evidence that I did kiss it! 😉 Kissing the Blarney Stone is kind of scary with you dangling head over the castle wall and only some old mate holding you while your hands desperately grasp some iron bars. Don’t think I’ll do that again.
After Blarney we checked into our hotel in Cork – a very nice city by the way – and then walked around a bit and had dinner. Unfortunately it was Good Friday so the pubs were all closed but oh well…
Saturday morning we drove to Killarney to drive on the Ring of Kerry – a route that goes round a peninsula. After a stroll in the Killarney National Park, the road got super winding and narrow and it took us an hour for a fifth of the whole route. We were thinking of just going back then because it was already 2pm then but some bikers told us that that had been the worst and it’d get much better afterwards. Thankfully it did and the views were so worth it! We also found a beach and climbed down to it only to discover a road that led down once we were down. 🙂 But we used the road to go back up to our car so yay!
Another stop in Waterville where Charlie Chaplin’s daughter has a house and then we drove to Killarney to have dinner before heading back to Cork.
Easter Sunday we checked out of our hotel and got the car out of the carpark (and it had a new scratch thankyouverymuch) and went to Cobh (say “Cove”). Originally we had only planned to take a look around for an hour or so and then move on but the town and the weather were so nice that we spent the whole day there. Had some yummy brunch at the Lazy Bean Cafe (eggs, bagel), enjoyed the sun, looked at the cathedral, searched for the Titanic memorial, looked at the Queenstown Story museum, had ice-cream. Lovely day!
Last night I went to a party for my company’s sponsorship of a British TV soap here in Dublin. The location was a snazzy hotel by the river and there were about 200 people plus some local celebraties from the show. Too bad I don’t have a TV so I had no idea how anybody from the cast looked like. I had a fun time with my co-workers though, hunting for canapes and drinking Corona. My roommate was really psyched about my going to the party for the show so I promised her to take some pictures. I found out who the famous ones were and thanks to the beers I wasn’t shy to ask for photos. I met her, him, him, and him though he’s not part of Hollyoaks but is the lead singer of The Blizzards. I guess they all have to be somewhat big if they’re all on wikipedia, hmm!?
Anyways, after that party was over around 9 we headed to the bar for 2 cocktails – yay Caipi! Were able to grab some food, too, chatted a bit with Nick Pickard and then headed to some other bar/club place. By that time I was seriously drunk so I stopped drinking but the others seemed fine and had even more. Oh-kay! The place was deserted really – well it was a Tuesday night – so around 1am we left. Gosh I was soooo tired this morning not to talk about the tiny hang-over… Should have known though, no one was in work until 9:30 and even later. Of course I was there at 9:08 almost on time!
Well peeps, I’ll upload the photos later or next week as Michaellyn is comming tonight and is staying the Easter weekend. Weeheeee!
Sometimes I really miss living with people who have regular 9-5 jobs (or on my own – PERIOD). I was in bed around 11:30pm last night seeing that I get up around 7:30am. Just as I was trying to fall asleep, my roomie who lives in the room next to mine came home and she was on the phone for a looong time. I had never really noticed how thin these walls are but I could hear her chatting and laughing and obviously could not sleep until she was done there.
So then this morning night, my flight attendant roomie had to work early and I guess she was sharing a taxi with her friend or so, as he was knocking on our flat door. Nothing bad with that but she didn’t hear it (I woke up from it!) and so after the 10th knock or so, when he was banging louder I let him in. Well the harm was done, I was pretty awake and kind of hungry so I couldn’t go back to sleep for about an hour. Yikes! Needless to say I was super tired when my alarm went off at 7:30 (but I snoozed it for 30 minutes… oy… that was one speedy breakfast).
Oh and while I’m bitching about them, she hasn’t bought an electricity card yet even though we have none left and are supposed to always have spare cards. She’d better buy one today, as I think she’s going home to Spain tomorrow. Argh! Well, half way done with them anyways…
Toodles and have a great, short week!