Teeling DistilleryTour

In a rare confluence of events, Hubby and I both had free time, energy, felt good, wanted to go out, AND had a sunny, dry day.  We could not pass up this opportunity to go out and do something fun.  We haven't been out exploring Dublin much, not like when we first moved here, so we decided to go check something off of our to-visit list.  Hubby has been drinking Teeling whiskey for a while, but we didn't know about this new local distiller until we saw a TV show about it.  The owners wanted to bring a distillery back to Dublin, there hasn't been one here in over 100 years.  Unlike the other tours we have done of the Guinness Brewhouse and Jameson Distillery, this is actually a working distillery.  The other two were at one point a working distillery, but are now just a glorified museum.  This one did have a little museum like section at the very beginning, where you waited for your tour to begin. While we were waiting there I noticed that something was off with the photos they had hanging, two of them seemed to be swapped.  So you know I went and said something about it, then helped the guy swap them around.  So I come to go on a tour, and first thing I do is re-arrange their gallery!

We learned that the three copper stills are each for a different stage of distilling, not for doing three batches at once.

The first thing I noticed was the smell.  At the Jameson distillery, they just made it smell like malted barley, which is a nice smell.  Because they were actually doing the work here, we smelled the fruits of their labor, which is a lot of fermenting grains, which doesn't smell so nice.  It wasn't too bad though, hubby thought it just smelled like whiskey.  This distillery works at least 6 days a week, and was supposed to be working on the day we came, but the distiller called in sick!  Oh well, it was probably easier to hear the tour guide this way anyway.  Some of the info we already knew from the Jameson tour, but this guy talked a LOT about the "tax man."  He said one of the reasons those stills are so wide is because they are taxed on how high the stills are, but not on how wide.    The glass and bronze box pictured below with the three bowls in it is also for the tax man's benefit.  Even the guys with the fun jobs have to worry about boring bureaucratic lame stuff too.

To finish up the tour, we got to taste some of the whiskey.  This place is unique in that it has different tickets available; they are all for the same tour, but get you different tastings at the end.  We had just the basic ticket, which got us one shot of whiskey and one whiskey cocktail.  I didn't like the cocktail but hubby did, and we both loved the plain whiskey.  I'd had it at home, but appreciated it much more after the description he gave us and tasting it in the manner he described (not just throwing it in your mouth).   That being said, I was totally jealous after I saw all the glasses the other people had and wished we had sprung for the pricier tickets.  Next time....

I also loved the bar area, it was modern but still warm and cozy, and I thought it would make a great place for a party.

This bar was very quirky, it just looked like a bunch of planks of wood thrown down with a slab of stone on top!  Somehow it works, though.

We were surprised to run into these bottle yourself stations in the small gift shop.  I've seen bottle your own olive oil or vinegar places, but never bottle your own booze!

We also enjoyed seeing all the things they made out of old whiskey barrels that had reached the end of their life.  They had tables and bottle holders, which I've seen before, but they also made lots of Christmas decorations, including a few full trees.

The tour was a bit quicker than we expected, so we weren't ready to head home just yet, and decided to try out another place hubby had heard of a month ago, but we never managed to get to.  

This is the next place we went to, do you see the bar here?

He read about a pop-up bar that was Christmas themed, even playing Christmas music the whole time.  Since Christmas is only a few days away it was now or never, so we headed over even though we knew it wasn't quite time to open yet.  He explained to me that the trick with these pop-up bars is that they they are only temporary,  and they don't have signage when they are not open for business, and don't advertise or even make it easy to find, I guess it makes it cooler.  We only had an idea where it was because of what he had read earlier, and the guy standing around out front that seemed to be a security guy.  Still, we stood a few doors down and just kept peeking over, it wasn't like a normal place you could line up at, we weren't even positive we had the right spot.  Did you find it in the picture above?  Here, let me show you:

Can you blame us for thinking we may not have the right spot?  When they were finally ready to open we heard some music, they removed the red gate, and light was pouring out of the door.  That was it, it wasn't even worth taking a picture of.  The inside was picture worthy though!  The bar was actually downstairs, this door just opened onto a staircase that led down, but they had a "Santa's Grotto" sign handing there, and some impressive Santa and elves paintings on the stairway wall.

Once we got downstairs we found the small bar that was very cozy, had scented candles burning, Christmas decorations everywhere, and even Christmas Crackers on all the tables.  If you don't know what Christmas Crackers are, look at last year's post.  We were the only people in there, having rushed the doors as soon as they opened, and first thing the barman gave us some Crackers to pull, this was hubby's first one! He didn't even know that there were things to dig out of the tube, he though that the bit that fell out was all there was, but I knew there was a crown and a joke in there.  I made him wear his paper crown for a while, but it didn't last the whole time.  At least he was a good sport for a while :)  

At this point in the year, the barman said they were so tired of the normal Christmas songs, so were looking for all kinds of alternative versions.  I was a little disappointed in that, but hubby was excited to tell them about the Bad Religion Christmas album, and they played the whole thing through for us. We were, after all, the only customers for a little while, and we were having a lot of fun with the guys as they continued to get set up.  One of those things was making the mulled wine, which took them FOREVER and started to become quite a joke.  Once it was finally done the first glass he served had the spice bag still in it! Once we finally got some mulled wine we headed out, having enjoyed our first Dublin Fun Day in quite a while.

Summer Solstice

Happy Summer Solstice!  

I didn’t realize how much further north Dublin is from Washington D.C. until we were here for a bit and got closer to the Winter Solstice.  Now that we are on day of the Summer Solstice, it is very evident, as the further from the equator you get, the bigger the swings in daylight length become through the year.

On the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice (in this example, the times were pulled from December 21, 2014), this is how the day lengths compare:

     Washington DC:                                   Dublin:

Sunrise:                07:23                                                     08:38

Sunset:                 16:49                                                     16:08

Day length:          9 hours 26 minutes                                7 hours 30 min

Days sure felt short in winter when we lived in DC, but now it’s even worse, less than 1/3 of the day is daylight!

On the longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice, (in this example, the times were pulled from June 21, 2015), this is how the day lengths compare:

     Washington DC:                                   Dublin:

Sunrise:                05:53                                                     04:57

Sunset:                 20:37                                                     21:57

Day length:          14 hours 54 minutes                             17 hours even (only 7 hours of night!)

If you aren’t good at reading military time, that’s sunset at almost 10pm here!  That being said, we were out late last night, and still saw some light in the sky at almost midnight.  Just because these are the official sunrise and sunset times, doesn’t mean it’s completely dark before or after those times.  Just ask Molly Dog, who likes to stick her head between the curtains at around 4:30am and let a super bright ray of light come in to wake hubby and I up.

I love the long sunny days in the summer, but it sure does mess with our sleep schedule.  Sometimes we have to drag ourselves to bed when the sky hasn’t even started turning pink with sunset yet, it feels unnatural!  Even though our curtains are pretty good, I would be really hurting right now if I didn’t have an eye mask to sleep in.  Also, I want to go to sleep at 7pm in the winter.

While we didn’t notice the change in daylight as much in the fall, it seemed really drastic in the spring.  The difference between the longest and shortest day of the year in Washington DC is 5 hours and 28 minutes, but in Dublin it’s 11 hours and 30 minutes!!!!!!!!!!    That’s more than double the difference, no wonder it felt so drastic.  

I know this sounds like complaining, but really I just think it's interesting.  Now I'm going to go enjoy my nice long day :)

First trip back to U.S.

A month ago I came home from my first trip back to the U.S.  I was worried I wouldn't want to come back to Dublin afterward, but instead it was just the boost and recharge I needed :)

Before we moved, hubby had booked us on the Flogging Molly Salty Dog Cruise, which admittedly was pretty cool, even though I hadn't listened to much Flogging Molly, or any of the other bands that were playing.  It was a 3 night, 4 day (actually more like slightly less than 3 days) floating punk music festival over St. Patrick's Day weekend aboard the Norwegian Sky, which left Miami with two stops in the Bahamas: one in Nassau and one on a private island.  It was not like a normal cruise, it was more like a bunch of punk rockers hijacked a cruise ship!  But seriously, this one had more of a sense of community and acceptance than I think you find on most random cruises, which made it amazing, and of course all the entertainment was by these fabulous artists:

Flogging Molly
Gogol Bordello
Frank Turner
Mariachi El Bronx
Hepcat
Morgan Heritage
Aggrolites
The Tossers
The Real McKenzies
The Drowning Men
The Bunny Gang
Punk Rock Karaoke
Sean and Zander

The bonus of having a concert on a cruise ship is that even the biggest theater on board is still pretty "intimate."  They had to cover the seats with plastic because we were too rowdy, spilling stuff, stepping on seats, etc.

You also had lots of opportunities to actually talk to the band, since you were kind of trapped in a small space ;)  I actually talked with some of the Bunny Gang guys one morning shouting from balcony to balcony as we leaned over the side of the ship looking for sharks in the water, which they claimed to have just seen.  It was fun :)  Plus, I got hubby out in the sun and on the beach, VOLUNTARILY, which I though I'd never see.

I know we look all sunburned here, but we are sitting under a red umbrella, so it just made us look red-tinted.  It was a nice spot, we were on the deck by the bar, so easy access to drinks, no sand in our stuff, and umbrellas were hard to come by!

The first morning we were up early enough to see the sunrise.  This is the Atlantis resort, we went to the water park and it was a blast!

Hubby didn't want to take too much time off work, so he just came in the night before the cruise and headed home the day we disembarked.  Unfortunately he couldn't fly in the morning of and leave anytime near the disembarkation time, so he had to stay the night before the cruise in the airport hotel, and spent most of the day in the airport on the way home.  My experience was much more enjoyable because I planned visits around the cruise.

First I went to Virginia, the place my heart calls home.  Not only did I get to catch up with lots of friends, but I also got to go to my Goddaughter's baptism!

She was clapping as we were taking post-baptism pictures, but let's pretend she was praying.

As happy as I was that I was able to be there for the baptism, the best part of the trip was just how much better I felt afterward!  By the time I was ready to leave for this trip, I was feeling really down and useless, and this persisted for the first day or two I was in VA.  But slowly, as I started to see more and more people, spend some quality time with my BFF and her wonderful babies, and get more and more reassurance that 6 months isn't really long enough to feel completely settled, I started to feel much better....much more like my old self.   Plus, as one friend said, I didn't realize how much I missed everyone until I saw them!  Of course, it wasn't long enough, I don't think these kinds of trips ever feel like long enough.  But I'm sure I'll be back soon!

After the cruise I headed to California to see some family, especially my mom (who joined me in CA), my big brother, and my new niece!  This was like baby-palooza for me. She was born shortly after we moved, making me a first time Auntie, and this was my first time to see her in person.

She is a very active little girl, she loved going for walks!

It seems all the pics I have of her are with a hat on, but she's got some pretty red hair under there, just like her daddy!

Years ago, like over a decade, my little brother moved to Greece to go to culinary school.  He wasn't there long before he decided he was going to stay in Greece.  Then he came back for my wedding (my first one).  Although I am sure there was a lot more to the decision, the way my Mom tells the story is that he came home, realized how much he missed America, and decided to move back.  I was so worried the same thing would happen to me.  I do miss shopping in the US stores (which I did quite a bit of while I was there), and being able to get delicious ranch dressing on my salads when I go out to eat, and being able to maneuver around an area I know so well and feel at home in.  But other than that, what I really miss is the people.  You can never replace the people.  But I can make occasional trips back to visit and catch up (after this trip I realize how very important that is to me), and Skype, and Facebook, and email, and blog.  And as I pointed out to BFF, while I lived there I only saw her like once a month!  When you are going about your normal life, you get busy and it's not like when you come back and visit and you are seeing people for lunch and dinner every single day.  So yes, I miss everyone, but I don't feel like it's insurmountable, and I don't feel like it would be TOO much better if I was still in VA, still living across the country from my entire family.  And you know what?  When I got on the airplane and started hearing the Irish accent again, and when I walked out of the airport in Dublin my first day back, into the sunshine (not like the day I moved to Dublin) and the fresh air, it felt good.  It felt like home.  And that made me happy.

Frustrated

I recently returned from a very restorative trip the U.S..  When I came home I was determined to, among other things, take more pride in my housewife duties.  Plus, spring has sprung, so it's a bit of spring cleaning, and I finally ordered my new doTERRA OnGuard cleaner and couldn't wait to give it a test run, so I've been systematically cleaning the entire place.

Today my mission is to clean the cat bathroom, like really clean it.  I thought maybe that it always smelled because of reside left in the stall, since there were some butt smudges and whatnot in there.  Plus I am just kind of spring cleaning in general.  After cleaning the shower stall where the litter box resides, I dumped all the remaining litter out of the box and washed the litter box inside and out, and refilled with fresh litter.  I poured the litter straight into the trashcan, which was only about half full at the time, but the litter made it pretty heavy.  So I take the trash to the dumpster, ensuring not to let the heavy bag touch the ground and tear.  I was only about halfway to the dumpster when I felt sand going into my shoe, I looked down and there was a steady stream coming out of the trash bag.  Apparently the weight of the bag was enough to push some corner of something through the bag and make a little hole.  I moved the hole over the grass and hustled the best I could to the dumpster.  On the walk back I followed the trail, which lead all the way back to the edge of the building but not to the door, thank goodness the trail didn't start at our front door.  It's super crazy windy today and is supposed to rain later, I hoped the weather would take care of it, since I don't even think we have a broom here.  How embarrassing.

To thank me for my efforts, or as part of some curse I am under, where the house is not to smell cat poop free for even 5 minutes, there was a fresh, uncovered turd waiting for me by the time I got back from the dumpster.  Boddington also kindly re-covered all the surfaces I cleaned yesterday with fresh tear-stain drops.  That's doubly disappointing because he was doing so well with his eyes for a while on the other food, the one that made Paris sick.  I guess there isn't a food that will please both cats at once.
After coming in and sulking for a bit, I remembered that the landlord did leave us a broom, and I went back to take responsibility for my mess and try to clean it up.  I also remembered that the unit next door to us is having an open house today, and I didn't want to dissuade potential buyers by making the neighborhood look dirty.  Unfortunately that was just enough time for most of the litter to start to do it's litter thing on the patches of moisture on the ground from the morning's off and on sprinkles.  When I tried to sweep those spots, it mostly just smeared, doing more harm than good.  

I eventually managed to scrub event he smeared spots, and left it looking alright, but not quite as good as new.  The whole thing left me feeling a bit defeated.  Especially as I vacuumed really well on Tuesday, after brushing the cats, and then did some spot-cleaning vacuuming yesterday, but when I opened the patio door today (Saturday) and the wind came in, like 5 tumblefurs blew across the living room floor.  Tumblefurs is hubby's cute name for the clumps of cat and dog fur that gather around the edges of the room and blow like tumbleweeds across the floor at the slightest provocation.  It makes me wonder why I bother cleaning at all!  This blog was meant to help keep my spirits up through the transition period, and I try to post mostly positive things, but sometimes I just need to vent!  And it worked, now I can laugh at it a bit, but now time to get back to cleaning.  :)

Volunteering

I am not a great housewife, never claimed to be, but here I am anyway.  Although I do not miss having an office job (although I did at first), I do miss being with other people, doing something useful, being with other people, feeling valued for my contribution, and being with other people.  I get quite a lot of enjoyment out of social events, particularly with the American Women's Club of Dublin, but that's not everyday and it's not the same.  Since I can't work now due to my residency status, and really I don't want to at this point, hubby suggested I try some volunteering.  Not only will it help fill that void, but I can do it as little as I want, and it will look good on a  resume to show how I filled this time if and when I need to go back into the workforce.  Hopefully that won't be until after I have kids and they are back in school (I have baby fever right now).  I found a website that listed all sorts of volunteer opportunities, and decided that the one at Imaginosity, a children's museum that is on my bus route, looked like the best fit for now, due to the easy transportation and baby fever and all.

Have you ever volunteered anywhere before?  My experience has mostly been like this:  Place:  Please volunteer, anybody, we are desperate!  Me:  I'll do it.  Place: Great, we don't know you or what you can do but we are desperate so start now please!  That is now how it went here at all.  First I had to submit my name for consideration through he volunteer site, who then passed it on to the place.  Then the place had to review my basic info, like my age and hours of availability, and decide if they wanted to deal with me at all. Then the place sent me an email saying here is what we expect out of you, if you are okay with that then submit us this other application AND A RESUME, which I did.  Really, are resume???  The description of the position was help set up for craft time.  I don't have a resume for that.  I dug up my last version of my professional resume and added a few lines at the top about how I had volunteered for church before, then put in the cover letter an explanation of  how I was a professional before but moved, blah blah blah.  Then I had to wait to hear back from them and go for an in person interview, at which the lady said they are really informal there.  This process is not what I consider informal, but at least the interview was, and we agreed I would start after my vacation (or Holiday as they call it, which I think is more fun) and come for a few hours every Wednesday for at least a month, then take it from there.  But first I had to fill our a form to get vetted by the Garda (police background check), on which I had to list every place I have lived, and when I lived there, since I was born.  That seems like overkill, since I only had to list the last 10 years when I got my security clearance working for the U.S. Government, but at least they are being thorough with the people who will be working with little kids.

Today was my first day.  I think they forgot I was coming, and weren't really sure what to do with me.  They weren't that busy so I only stayed for 2 hours, which included getting me oriented a bit.  The next two weeks are going to be some special camp stuff while the kids are on school break, so they expect to be really busy and have some more structured stuff to do, and I think they will need me more.  The reason I started this week was so they would have a chance to show me what's up before the craziness hits. I had to wear one of their volunteer t-shirts while I was there. They have a bucket of shirts they rotate, I think even the staff has to do that, you just wear it for the day then leave it behind and pick up a new one the next day.  Unfortunately, they only had one size that said volunteer on it, and it was a little snug :(  So I wandered around for about 15 minutes and found out that this place is actually really rad.  They had a ton of interactive exhibits along with the activities, like the ones I helped with.  I am jealous I didn't have this when I was a kid!  We did have the Exploratorium, which I loved, but I think this is targeted at younger kids and have lots more stuff to climb and play on.  They even had this section that was a green screen where you stand on it and play a virtual video game and see yourself on TV.  They flashed a screen of high scores and it was all pictures of adults :) 

After wandering around I "helped" with Nursery Rhyme Time, which meant I laid out some yoga mats, then did the hand motions along with the songs while I sat in the corner in case any kids (toddlers) looked my way.  Then after a few songs they brought out a bucket of random instruments for the kids to just play with.  I actually did help a bit there, ushered some new kids into the room, helped some figure out what to do with their instruments, and just encouraged the kids to play and make a racket!

Then, after music room cleanup, it was Toddler Art Workshop time, where I helped set out supplies, did a tiny bit of helping with glue sticks, and then, after the kids left, I helped cut out more shapes for tomorrow's craft.  They keep mentioning I can lead my own craft class, so I might bring in a bunch of flower or star or whatnot cutouts that I make with my crafting supplies and have them glue them to a piece of paper to make a picture of a garden or something.  After seeing the kids today, I need to keep it easy and simple.  Or maybe I will come in the afternoon when (I think) it's geared more towards older kids.  It's kind of cool that they want me to be more active when I come next time, but I also have only spent like 2 hours total there, so that seems like it's jumping the gun a little!  I did tell the coordinator that I would make a project at home and bring it in next time to see if that is the kind of thing they are looking for.  Maybe I will be leading it soon, time to hit pinterest and look up toddler friendly crafts!

So far the people seem nice and I had some fun, so looking forward to going back next week.

At the grocery store

The grocery stores here aren't TOO unlike those in the US, but there are some definite differences. The first difference you notice before you even get in the store.

The "trolleys" are chained together, and you have to insert a €1 coin to release one.  The first few times I went to the store I only used the hand basket because I refused to pay €1 to rent a basket for my shopping trip.  Only later did I find out that you are just putting this down as a deposit (not all stores have this handy sign), and you get it back at the end when you clip it back onto the chain on the end of the next cart.  It's actually a very clever way to make sure the carts end up back in the cart storage area, and not all over the parking lot or stolen outright.

Some of the stores are also combination department store and grocery store.  Kind of like a Super Target, but the food selection is larger, and the clothes and food are on separate levels.  So you can go buy some sheets and some new shoes, then take the escalator down to do your grocery shopping.  Some also have a little cafe!

Once you get inside, the stores are mostly like you would expect, just with different brands, and flavors.

These mostly just tasted like BBQ chips but not quite as sweet.  Surprisingly, they actually listed both Roast Beef and Irish Stout (beer) on the ingredients list!  Also, don't call these chips, they are "crisps."  "Chips" are thick french fries.

Some of the candies have names you might recognize, but most of those don't taste quite the same as the US versions.

Some things use the same words but mean something different.  When people here speak of bacon, it usually means rashers, which is more like ham than bacon, and if you want something close to what you are used to, you have to look for "smoked streaky rashers" or "smoked streaky bacon."  Sometimes they just call it "American style bacon."  While we are on the topic of breakfast, pancakes is another funny thing.  "American Style Pancakes" are usually found pre-packaged and don't look very tasty to me.  I have seen a few pancake mixes, but pretty sure they are not the American style.  When they say pancakes here, they mean something more like crepes, which is confusing because they also have crepes.

We had trouble one day finding lemon juice, like in one of those squeezy lemons or a bottle, so I asked one of the store employees.  She didn't know, so she asked another employee, who sought clarification by asking, "You mean like for pancakes?"  I was totally confused by that, but we did finally find our lemon on the baking aisle.  I found out later from a cab driver two interesting things about pancakes here.  First of all, it is what they eat on Fat Tuesday, it's a big thing apparently. Second, the preferred method of eating them is with a  squeeze of lemon and some powdered sugar, like shown on the cookbook cover below.  Now the whole "for pancakes" thing makes more sense.  I still haven't tried these pancakes yet, but some day I will see what this crepe and lemon thing is about.

Some other things I find interesting are the basics: milk, eggs, bread.  I have only in the last month or so seen stores carrying something called "skimmed milk."  Up until then I have only seen "Milk" and "Light Milk," or sometimes "Low Fat Milk," which seems to be like 2% milk.  The eggs are usually stored on a shelf at room temperature (but recommend storing in the fridge after purchase), and there is a huge selection of free range eggs.  I have only seen brown eggs, and the yolk is more orange than yellow.  Some brands of bread offer both a full loaf and a "Half Pan" of bread, which is half a loaf. This works out great for us, because we can't go through a full loaf before it starts to mold.

And finally as you exit the store, I am again fascinated by the carts.  Every cart we have used have all four wheels that turn in a full circle, not just back and forth, meaning you can push the cart sideways. I actually hate that, I have trouble pushing it when it is full, but still interesting :)  Two of the Three stores we frequent have parking on a separate level than the store.  One of them is in the mall, so you see people pushing grocery carts around the mall on their way to the parking garage, which is kind of funny.  Unlike IKEA, you don't have to wait for an elevator to take you down.  They just use inclined moving walkways instead of escalators.  What's really brilliant about this is that the walkways are grooved, as are the cart tires.  The tires sink into the grooves on the walkway, and now the little rubber stopper that goes partway down the wheel is making contact with the walkway and holding the cart in place.  So genius!  They do shopping carts so much better here than we do in the US.

So if you come over for a visit and hit the grocery store, you'll get along okay, but expect adapt a little :)

Happy Year of the Sheep!

This past Wednesday I went to a Chinese New Year’s event. Technically I think it was Chinese New Year’s Eve.  The event was not a big deal in itself, but since I was already headed into town that night, I decided to go a bit early and check out the Well Wishing Ribbon Ceremony:

To ring in the Year of the Sheep the Dublin Chinese New Year Festival invites you to join us on the Millennium Bridge on Wednesday 18th of February at 5.30pm to tie ribbons and hang your special wishing cards with your hopes and dreams for the year ahead. Enjoy Dragon dancing and further entertainment on the bridge. All are welcome on this unique special gathering amongst friends and family on Chinese New Year’s Day!

The Millennium Bridge sounds like a big deal, but it’s really just a plain old bridge that is not very big.  It was pretty crowded with everyone there for the event and all the regular folks who were just trying to get across the river.  Somehow that worked in its favor though, making it all seem more exciting and well attended.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, so I just headed to the bridge and thought I would know it when I saw it.  I got to the bridge and heard some music, so I tried to walk toward the sound.  I had trouble getting through the crowd, and didn't realize that the music was moving, and it was moving towards me!  After a bit of trying to fight my way through, someone wearing an event vest ushered us all to the side, and right after him came the folks playing the cymbals and a dragon!  He was inches from me, it was kind of cool :)  The dragon dancers did a great job of dancing around while simultaneously blinking the eyes, flapping the mouth, and twitching the ears.

"Help," the dragon says, "I can't get through!"

Peek-a-boo!

After he passed I was able to find someone with the wish cards, thought of some good wishes for the new year, and tied it on along with the others.

I heard the volunteers talking about candles floating down the river, so I hung out for a bit to see what that would be like.  It was a pretty nice day, but the wind over the bridge was so cold!  They started dropping the candles, which were in a lotus flower shaped holder, into the water before it was dark, but I was glad because I didn't want to hang out in that cold any longer and I had a Girls Night Out wine tasting to get to.  He only dropped them one at a time, so it was not a glorious light show or anything, but I was still glad to be there for it.

It was interesting to see how Dublin handles these festivities.  We all tied our ribbons onto a length of fishing line that was strung right under the railing, for easy cleanup.  They also had two kayakers waiting about 20 yards down from the bridge to scoop up all of the candles, presumably to prevent litter.

It was a small event, but I enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to lots more events as the weather gets warmer!

Rome

Rome was the last stop on the trip.  By this point we were getting overwhelmed by everything we had already seen, and everything we still had yet to see!  Rome has SO MUCH to see, but we only had a day and a half and our legs were tired from all the walking we had been doing, so we focused on just a few things.  First things first, off to the Colosseum! 

On the way there we passed a few ruins and other sights that were just dotted around town.  Some were just neat looking old buildings, some were huge ruins.  It was crazy to see the old mixed in with the new.  One building we passed in the taxi looked like they just built a new building right on top of the old, so that half way up it transitioned from weather-worn marble to stucco with glass windows that looked like apartments.  Craziness, I have never seen a mix of old and new like this anywhere before, usually the ruins are in a completely separate area from the rest of town. 

We also noticed that orange trees line many of the streets in Rome. I have no idea if anyone eats them, but since all the low-hanging fruit was gone, we supposed that they did.  I don't know if there is a story there or not, but it sure was pretty!

Speaking of trees, I couldn't pass up a chance to take a picture with a genuine Italian olive tree, even it it was in a pot outside a restaurant.

When we got to the Colosseum, I was surprised at how it looked.  I am not sure if I can explain how, but it looked a bit different than I had expected based on pictures. First of all, I thought it was whiter than it actually was, and I thought it would be bigger.  Don’t get me wrong, it was BIG, but somehow movies make it look even bigger.  It was also rather difficult to figure out where people would have sat based on what was left.  We had a good look around but didn't stay too long because a very strong, rather cold wind was making us a bit miserable. 

I had planned to go check out the Trastevere neighborhood that night for dinner, but once we made it back to the hotel we were too pooped to leave again.  Something for the next trip!

The Colosseum was hubby’s must see, but mine was the Trevi Fountain.  We hit that first thing the next morning, but were surprised at what we found.

Somewhere behind all that scaffolding is the Trevi Fountain.  You think the guy at the hotel would have mentioned this when he was circling all the sites on the map for us.

Going to Italy off season: no overheating, no big crowds, rarely a line, huge sales in stores and with street vendors, but many of the restaurants are closed and the artifacts are being refurbished.  :( They at least had a walkway so we could get close and peek between the scaffolding, but definitely not the same!   Sigh….

Scaffolding or no, I wasn't going to miss my opportunity to get my picture in front of the fountain!

Off to the Spanish Steps where we found MORE refurbishment.  At least this time the steps were uncovered, it was the church at the top that was being worked on.  We honestly couldn't remember why the steps were a big deal, we just remember it was a thing to see and we were close, so had to check it out.

Later that day was our most exhausting, and most satisfying, site so far: a three hour tour of the Vatican.  This was the only guided tour we booked, and we were glad we did as we would have missed so much without it.  Hubby and his parents are Catholic, so I think it was a little more special for them than it was for me, but I still thought it was great.  Much of the tour was discussing the vast amounts of artwork in the papal palace, where the tour guide confirmed the rumor FIL heard that it would take 10 years to study all the art.  Paintings, tapestries, statues, mosaics…you name it hey had it, and it was EVERYWHERE!  One hallway had every square foot covered in paintings, it was a whole museum’s worth on the ceiling alone.  It was quite gaudy, actually, but I guess tastes change with the times.  

Not just paintings on the ceilings, plaster sculptures too!

The guide explained how the artwork in other parts of the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel specifically, were influenced by the sculptures that had already been brought to the Vatican.  She also discussed some paintings that I remember discussing in my Art History class in college, I had no idea they were from here.  The Sistine Chapel is what I think we were all most anxious to see, but it was nothing like we expected.  I had not done my homework at all and thought, somehow, that it was painted under one of the domes in St. Peter's Basilica.  But it was instead a chapel within the Papal Palace and was a long rectangular room, which was also much smaller than you would think.  Michelangelo painted the ceiling, but other artists pained the walls, and the effect was one ginormous canvas, the only thing not painted was the floor, and it had marble designs in it.  It was dizzying.  We couldn't take pics of it so you’ll just have to google it, sorry.  We were all actually a bit disappointed in the Sistine Chapel, but St. Peter's Basilica made up for it.

There is a dome on the Basilica, which you can't see from this view, but I couldn't pass up getting a shot of the sun starting to set and the lights coming on.

Every Cathedral we've seen is amazing, all have their own special touches and elaborations, and many are so over the top they turn out gaudy.  St. Peter's Basilica pushed right up against, but stayed on the classy side of, that line.  It was so impressive that MIL was literally stopped mid-step by the beauty of it as we came in the door.  Again, the enormity and scale of this place is something you just can’t understand without being there, it was amazing.  It also held this piece of art, which was something I was so happy to see in person.  My father’s urn is a bronze casting of this same statue, so it was very special for me. 

We had only seen part of the cathedral when we heard bells and singing.  At the very front of the cathedral, in a small section that was roped off from visitors, they held a small service complete with a choir.  That was pretty amazing to witness.   You can hear a little bit of it in this video hubby took.

As we headed out we passed a huge nativity, even though this was the last day in January (maybe we got to see it on its last day???).  There was lighting that changed from twinkling stars to sunrise to full daylight then back again, and had figures that moved.  We saw another nativity outside next to the huge Christmas tree, but without the special effects and a little less detailed.  Still cool.

I wish I had captured a video of it, but you can see that the lights change and the people in the foreground give you an idea of how big it was.

The outdoor nativity and Christmas tree.

The Vatican tour was exhausting but well worth the visit if you have the chance, even if you are not Catholic or even Christian.

There is much much more to see in Rome, but I guess it will have to wait for next time!

The beautiful sunrise and rainbow from our hotel room window on the last day there was telling us to come back again!