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.

Next Stop: Craic

Craic (pronounced 'crack'): meaning 'fun or enjoyment'

Today Mary and I walked around Howth to do some exploring. It's not that cold here, I only wore a down vest and was kind of hot after walking for a while. There were a lot of people out down by the water, and a surprising amount of tourists. That made me feel less awkward seeing as I was carrying around a giant camera taking pictures at every turn. It gets dark here pretty early and our schedules are still rather messed up so we weren't out for that long. Probably an hour and a half. We talked with one of the workers at the off license just down the street and so far, everyone has been rather friendly, which is comforting. I can't really wait until we get a chance to explore the towns around here too.

I think in the next few days we're going to go into Dublin, and I'm excited to finally get back there. I was there once last time, and it was only for 3 days, which was definitely not enough time. I may also take the bus out to the west coast soonish to meet up with Gwen and Joe for a fun reunion of sorts in the Burren. As of right now though, I think we're about to watch a movie and hit the hay. To hold you over, here's some photos from today's romp around the city.

The front door of our house

The Cock Tavern

St. Mary's church, the ruins down the way

The Irish Sea

Some of the shops up the street

Oh and Happy New Year! Or Hippo Gnu Deer if you're my brother.