Ain't no Better Zoo Than the Dublin Zoo (Well Maybe)

One day when the sun was bright and the weather in our favor, Meg, Danny, Paul and I decided to go have a quick romp around the Dublin Zoo. It was an incredibly nice day and the spring flowers were blooming like crazy. It was nice just going on a fun little outing and being able to act like a kid. We all had loads of fun. Gosh I love zoos.

Paul, Danny and Meg walking around the zoo.

Meg acting like a Tiger.

Meg and me with flamingos in the background.

Gorilla hand = 2x Meg's hand.

The broken glass from inside the gorilla enclosure. Scary.

Marmoset there'll be days like this.

Elephants are so cool.

They had TWO baby elephants.

Me and Meg with one of the babies between us.

ELEEFONT!

No Reservations

You know the show 'No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain'? Well there's this one where he comes to Ireland. Mary (one of the other girls from home living with us here) had seen it and said there was a bit about Howth in there. And there is. Apparently this is one of the best places in the world to get seafood. Partially because you get the seafood that has come right off the boat into the restaurant. There's even a bar connected to the 'Waterside' (a pub we've been going to to watch the football matches) called the 'Fisherman's Bar'. It's called that because it opens at half 7 for the fisherman to come in and drink. So it's filled with a bunch of old, smelly irishmen, and I'm not even over exaggerating. Anyways, to recap, Howth is good for seafood, there's a fresh fish market in the mornings which I plan to go to now knowing that it's really that great, and Anthony Bourdain agrees. Here's some of the show that features my new favorite irish town.





The part about Howth gets chopped up into two pieces, so watch them both.

Dublin?

Nothing all that exciting has been happening as of late. We still have to get to our orientation, then register with the garda, and only then can we start looking for work. Well, we've been looking, just couldn't do anything about it yet. We've been into Dublin a few times over the past couple of days, which has been fun. Mostly we've been going to do business, but yesterday after breakfast, Mary and I walked around St. Stephen's Green, which is right off Grafton Street and then went to the National Gallery. That tuckered us out rather quickly so we headed back to Howth just in time to catch the last of the daylight on the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Train, or something like that). Anywho, obviously I'll get on with something when it gets exciting around here, but for now, here's some more photos...

A building on Grafton Street

A view from St. Stephen's Green

A shamrocky street lamp

Grafton Street at night

O'Connell Street at night

The Christmas Tree of balls on O'Connell Street

S'all for now.

The Bloody Stream? Abrakebabra?

They have places here like 'The Bloody Stream' and 'Abrakebabra'. Here's a little history lesson for all you wondering why the f*ck it's called 'The Bloody Stream'

10th August 1177, during the 2nd Norman Invasion of Ireland, Sir John de Courcy's expedition arrived off Howth. Unable to leave his ship, the command was taken over by Sir Almeric Tristram, said to be a descendant of Sir Tristram, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. A great battle ensued against the Danes, who were then in occupation on Evora Bridge, over a stream; afterwards known as the Bloody Stream. During the construction of this public house, we found that the Bloody Stream runs directly under these premises. Having fought a constant battle with the stream flooding the bar, we decided to make peace with it, hence the name, The Bloody Stream.


And I even found a Wikipedia page about 'Abrakebabra'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrakebabra


Tonight was the first night that we all went out. A bunch of Danny and Justy's friends (Justy also lives in the house with us) took us to 'The Bloody Stream' for drinks, then we all took a taxi out to Portmarnock for Danny's favorite treat, kebabs from 'Abrakebabra'. Basically it was like a night out back home, but much cooler.

Oh and we went into Dublin for a while today, which was fun as well. Didn't do that much, just some business. I think we might be heading back into the city centre tomorrow though.

Ireland (Part 2)

The countdown begins now. It's less than a month until I leave for Ireland again, and I'm extremely excited. I know it's going to be very different from last time, in more ways than one.

1. I will be working as opposed to going to a small art school.

2. I will be living in Dublin as opposed to a small small village on the west coast of the country.

3. I will have more time to travel.

4. I already know quite a few people that live there so the whole transition will take less time.

5. It's been two years, I've changed, they've changed...I have to keep reminding myself of that.

Also, I feel like I've become a lot closer to many people living in Ann Arbor than I was before so I think it's going to be harder to leave, but easier to come back. And yes, I am coming back. Everyone keeps asking if I'm actually coming back. The answer is yes and there's no real need to worry about it. I love Ann Arbor/Michigan/the USA, it's just that every once in a while I like to get out. The last time I went to Ireland it changed my life. How could I not want to go back to a place like that?

Ok, so here's a visual comparison of what my life in Ireland was like before and what it may be like soon.

This is where I lived before:

This is where I may be living in a month:

This is where I went to school before:

And this may be where I'll be working soon:


There's quite a few things I have to do/find before I go though, like I need to find my old cell phone that I had when I was there before. So much to do, and a surprisingly short amount of time to do it in. But at least I don't have any thing else to do really.

List of things I'm going to miss:
*Snow (good thing there's been quite a lot of it this year so far)
*Family
*Friends
*Movies
*Ann Arbor
*Samdog
*And surprisingly enough, I'm going to miss Telefund...I never in my wildest dreams thought that that would happen.