Portugal and Pastries

It was a very early morning wake-up call, but we were able to drag ourselves out of bed and made it to the Dublin airport with plenty of time. The flight to Lisbon was less than 2 hours. It still amazes me that you can be in a different country in less time than it takes to drive from LA to San Diego! I guess I never explained why we went to Portugal. Marco had to attend some meetings there, so I decided to tag along since I always wanted to visit Portugal.

The Lisbon airport was quite modern and gave us a good first impression of Portugal. We needed to take a train to the north to Porto, so we stopped at the visitor information office to find out the best way to get to the main train station. The guy there very confidently said to just go outside and take the #44 bus and we would be at the Oriente Station in about 10 minutes. So, we waited about 10 minutes and hopped on the #44 bus. After about 10 minutes, Marco decided to ask the bus driver just to be sure. He shook his head and said we should have been on the #44 that goes the other direction! Our first tiny misadventure. :) We got off at the next stop and crossed the street to wait for the other bus. As soon as it rolled up, Marco saw a sign that said they didn't allow luggage on that particular bus! Well, what in the world?? By this time we were so frustrated that we decided just to take a taxi. So, we crossed the road again and found a taxi. It amazed me that Marco, with his Spanish, was able to communicate fairly well with the Portuguese speakers. Although they were clearly speaking different languages there are enough similarities to understand each other. Luckily, taxis are MUCH cheaper in Portugal than in Ireland. We would later find out that everything was much cheaper than in Ireland. Anyway, our taxi driver was very nice, as were most of the people we met during our visit. Coincidentally, he was born in Mozambique, which is where my dad has been working for about the last 9 months! We made it the the station and bought tickets for the train. We found a little shop, where we bought fresh baked baguettes and some cheese for lunch.



The train ride was about 3 hours through the countryside, so it was nice to see something outside of the big cities. We arrived at the Campanha station in Porto and decided to take a taxi right from the start since we were a bit tired. Our hotel was right next to the university, where Marco's meetings would be. Luckily, there was a metro station just outside, so that was extremely convenient. The public transport system in Portugal was great and made us wish we had a metro in Galway! I can't believe I haven't mentioned the weather yet.....it was amazing!!!! Blue skies and about 70 degrees every day. It was such a treat for residents of Ireland, where that would equal the best day of summer. So, while Marco checked in with the team at the university, I headed down to the grocery store just to see what things cost. I know, I'm so silly, but that kind of thing is actually fun for me. I quickly discovered that everything is about half the price compared to Ireland. The biggest surprise was that wine costs almost nothing! Seriously, I saw a bottle of wine for about 1 euro, which is just a little more than $1. Even the good brands that I recognized were about 4 or 5 euros!!! Now that's my kind of country. :)

The next day, Marco headed out for a whole day of meetings and I set out to explore the city. Porto is situated right on the Douro River, which creates a beautiful setting. You can see in some of the pictures that the old part of the city sort of crawls up the hill above the river. It was really fun exploring that part of town and getting a bit lost on some tiny little streets that weren't on the map! The place is full of steep hills, so my legs were just burning after about an hour. It was fantastic exercise, but very tiring. I walked past most of the big sights and then decided to take one of the "hop on-hop off" tour buses. It's a great way to see a wider range of sights and parts you might not reach on foot. It was quite beautiful, especially this long stretch along the coast that was pretty spectacular. I stopped for a light lunch at a cafe on the river and then found my way to one of the may wonderful pastry shops!!! Then it was back to the hotel for the night. When Marco came home he told me a funny experience he had during the day. He went to the bathroom and noticed that there were 2 stalls. He entered one of the empty stalls to pee, but didn't lock the door behind him.....I guess it's a guy thing. After he came out, he quickly realized that it was a unisex bathroom.....one stall was for women and one for men!!!!! The funny part is that when he came out he realized that he had used the wrong one. :)

Our second day in Porto Marco had more meetings. I ventured out on my own again to try and find some of the places I didn't see the first day. Luckily, Marco's meetings didn't last all day, so we met up later so that he could see a bit of the city. Later that night he took me out to a really romantic dinner at a place right on the river. We ordered a steak dinner that was supposed to be for 2, but I swear it could have fed 4!!! We were just stuffed, but it was absolutely delicious. We walked quite a while after dinner to try and digest the feast before heading back to the hotel.

Friday morning we packed up and took the metro back to the Campanha train station. We made the trip back to Lisbon and navigated the metro to our hotel. We quickly discovered that Lisbon had some hills just like Porto and our hotel was at the top of one! So we pulled our suitcases (on wheels!) up the hill and checked in. It was a decent hotel and within 10 minutes walking to the main part of town. One funny thing was how small the elevator was. It's really only big enough for 2 or 3 people to stand close to each other. It was also quite loud, which unfortunately we discovered after we went to bed. :( But we were so tired that once we fell asleep we didn't notice a thing. But since we arrived early afternoon, we had plenty of time to get out and explore Lisbon. We found our way to the main square and chose a cute sidewalk cafe for lunch. The food was not great, but the setting was perfect, complete with street musicians to entertain us. After lunch we decided to do the bus tour thing just to see the main sights and help us decide what we wanted to visit the next day. Near the end of the tour, we decided to get off to get a closer look at the Tower of Belem. It was built in the early 16th century and is one of the more famous sights in Lisbon. We got there to discover that the tower was closed to the public as the employees were on strike! Luckily it was just before sunset, so the views were pretty spectacular. We had a drink at a small cafe and watch the sun go down over the ocean. We then waited for the next bus and made our way back to the hotel. Since we didn't have much time to recover from our trip to the US, we were pretty tired every day. We settled in for a nap to recover some energy. Once we woke up, we wandered around our neighborhood to find something for dinner. We found a little local restaurant where we grabbed a sandwich and decided we were more than ready for sleep!

Our last full day in Lisbon we decided to do more exploring on foot. On a side note.....during the trip I can't remember how many pastries we had, but it was a lot and they were all delicious!! Back to the plan.....we discovered lots of neat neighborhoods and, of course, plenty of hills! We visited the Castle of Sao Jorge, which was built on the highest hill of the historic city center. This meant lots of spectacular views of the city of Lisbon. After that we found our way to the Se Cathedral, which is the oldest church in the city. It had beautiful architecture, but the most interesting thing was an archaeological dig they have undertaken in the rear of the church. They have discovered remains from as early as the 4th century B.C.!! After we left the cathedral we were pretty hungry. We wandered around and found a little restaurant that was full of locals except for us. We both enjoy that much more than the tourist type restaurants. The owner was really nice and the food was much better than what we had the previous day. One thing we learned is that in Portugal you get charged for bread, butter and anything else they put on the table to eat. They bring the bread and butter and sometimes other appetizers and if you eat it you pay. If you don't eat it, you don't pay! Interesting. We went back to the hotel for a little rest as we were planning to go out for a nice evening. We learned about this area called "The Docks", which used to be sort of industrial, but has been revamped into a row of restaurants and clubs. It was a really cool place with lots of restaurants to choose from. We ended up in a little Italian place and had another romantic dinner overlooking the water. We didn't have enough energy to stay up for a wild night of dancing (we are getting old!) so it was back to the hotel to turn in.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed back to the Lisbon airport. We had a fairly uneventful trip back to Dublin and eventually home to Galway. It was really nice to be home!!! We could finally begin to unpack all of our suitcases from the US and settle back into life. But before long we'll be packing to leave again. We are heading to South Africa to visit my parents for the holidays for about a month. We are really excited to see them and to have some warm, sunny weather for Christmas! It will be summer there, and we could certainly use an escape from the cold, damp weather that is Galway!!

Back to the Emerald Isle

Our trip to the US was great, but after 4 weeks away we were ready to go "home". So we headed to O'Hare airport with our 4 overweight suitcases and all of our carry-ons. The flight was scheduled to depart on a Saturday at 6:30 pm. Like good little travelers, we arrived 2 hours ahead of time. As we were waiting in the Aer Lingus line, we heard someone say that the flight had been delayed. When we finally got to the desk we were informed that the flight was delayed 7 hours due to technical issues and we would be leaving at 1:30am! Ugggh! We accepted the inevitable. Then Marco realized we had booked the tickets using American Express and he had enrolled in a travel delay protection program. You pay $10 each time you book a ticket and that turned out to be worth every penny! We called Am Ex and they told us that we could go to a hotel, eat, buy any incidental things we needed during the delay and it would all be covered. Luckily there was a hotel at the airport so we checked in, ordered room service and watched a movie. We also snuck in a little nap and a shower before heading back to the airport at midnight. This was a million times better than sitting in the airport for 7 hours! The flight to Dublin was uneventful, and we were scheduled to fly on to Shannon after a 45 minute stop. Shannon is less than half the distance to Galway than Dublin, so it's much more convenient. Well, when we arrived in Dublin they announced that the flight to Shannon had been canceled. Unbelievable. They wanted to put us all on a bus to Shannon, which would have taken several hours. Then we would have to take another bus to Galway for about an hour and a half. This did not sound fun. So we decided to take a train directly from Dublin to Galway, which was a whole adventure by itself. We took a bus for 45 minutes to the train station, lugging our bags all the way! Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived home. We got home around 7pm, dumped our bags, ate some cereal and went to bed. We both had to work the next day, so we pushed through the jetlag. The crazy part is that we went straight from work back to the train station and headed back to Dublin. The next morning we had a 7am flight to Portugal!

A Month in the US

It's been a long time since I have written anything because we have been on the road in the US. We've been here almost a month and it's hard to believe how fast time flies! We have had some great times visiting friends and family, eating all of our favorite foods and shopping up a storm. But all good things must come to an end. We leave for Ireland in 2 days and I'm starting to get nervous about overweight luggage. :(

It was super fun for us to be here during the most historic election in memorable history! We were glued to all of the news coverage and were celebrating the fact that the nation spoke loudly about wanting change. It is such a great country and now we have hope that rebuilding is possible.

We will arrive back in Galway on Sunday morning. The funny thing is that we will leave early Tuesday morning for a trip to Portugal! I know, crazy, huh? That means that we'll go to work on Monday, then take the train to Dublin in the evening so we can fly at 7am Tuesday! We won't even be back on Irish time, so I'm sure we'll both be a bit tired. Marco has some meetings to attend in Porto, which is in the North, and I couldn't resist tagging along. Portugal is one of the places on my "list", so I'm really excited. We're flying into Lisbon and taking the train to Porto. After the meetings, we'll head back to Lisbon and spend the weekend exploring. We've heard lots of great things about the city, so it should be fun.

Then we will come back to Galway and 3 weeks later I head to South Africa for the holidays. Marco will come a week after I go and we'll stay through the first week of January. We're both looking forward to the trip and I'm really excited to introduce Marco to Africa!

Going "Home"

It's been 6 months since we moved to Ireland and we are still so happy that we made the decision to come here. We love the city we live in and have made some good friends. Being able to travel has been amazing! Aside from the rain, we have a great life here.

As we were getting ready to leave the US earlier this year, honestly, I couldn't wait to go. But, I have to admit (and Marco said this would happen to me!).....I miss the US more than I thought I would! It's not that I want to move back any time soon (heaven forbid), but it's some of the little things that I really miss. Target, Trader Joe's, Mexican food, good/cheap restaurants in general, and the list goes on and on.

Friday we are headed to Chicago!!!!! We both have family in the area, so we are lucky enough to have a place to stay. Marco will be working with a professor at Northwestern most of the time. I am really excited to visit with family and do some shopping! It may sound silly, but we are each taking an extra empty suitcase just to be able to bring stuff back. Our shopping list includes lots of simple things like Colgate toothpaste, Dove soap, Ziploc bags and other "grooming" products that cost about twice as much over here. And I think we will probably gain about 5 pounds because we have so many plans to eat our favorite foods.

So, it's back to doing laundry and making my packing list because Friday is coming!

Viva USA and the Irish Postal Service!!

In October Marco and I are going back to the US for a few weeks to take care of some things. While we are there, Marco is going to be working with a professor at Northwestern University in Chicago. This professor was visiting the university in Galway over the summer and it worked out perfectly since they do work in the same area! Even though we are married, Marco still requires a visa to enter the US at this point. So, we made an appointment at the US embassy in Dublin and headed off on another "visa adventure". When we arrived at the embassy, we were both very impressed with the efficiency and order. Everyone from the security guards to the visa officer were extremely courteous and professional. Just watching how the staff interacted with people of all nationalities made us both realize that the US is a very open-minded and tolerant culture in general. Although we have been treated very well here in Ireland and by most of the embassies we have visited, we have seen that not everyone is treated the same way.

After we checked in, we joined the dozens of other people waiting to be called to the window for service. We heard lots of names being called, mostly of Irish people planning to visit the US. Then, all of a sudden, we heard "Marco Antonio Zuniga Zamalloa......numero uno, por favor." We certainly weren't expecting to hear Spanish at this point! We approached the window and the visa officer (who happened to be Irish) greeted us in Spanish and proceeded to ask Marco questions in Spanish! I told the guy that Marco speaks English, but he laughed and said he wanted to practice. :) He then asked why Marco had a Peruvian passport instead of one from Arequipa. Any Peruvians will understand this. Marco was born in a city named Arequipa and apparently people there feel like people from Texas.....they are their own country! Anyway, it was super funny that this guy knew anything about that. It turns out his wife had lived in Peru for several years and speaks fluent Spanish, so he had been there a few times himself. The best part about the experience was that they granted a 10 year visa to Marco!!!! Now, that was so nice to hear after all of the drama we have had with European embassies only granting short-term visas after requiring a ton of documentation. Anyway, viva USA!!!!

So, each time you apply for a visa you have to leave your passport with them, along with all of the documentation, and then you wait for them to process it and mail you the passport. Well, we were at the embassy on a Monday morning...yesterday. We must have left there around 10:30am to catch the bus back to Dublin. They still had to do whatever it is they do to process the visa paperwork. This morning (Tuesday) at about 8:30am our doorbell rang. It was the postman with the passport in hand! Unbelievable.... viva Irish mail!!!!!

This simple experience reminded Marco why he loves the USA and it also made me proud to be an American. :o)

Volunteering is Fun!!!

So, I think I wrote a while back about the volunteering activities that I have gotten involved with here in Galway. I thought I would just give a little update on how things are going.

Over the summer while the kids were on vacation I went to the school garden twice a week just to do watering and some weeding. It was really fun for me, except on those really rainy Irish days!! Anyway, the kids are back now and they really helped get things back in shape like the grass and weeds that grew like wildfire from all the rain. It's looking beautiful now, which is a good thing. Just last week we found out that the garden had been nominated for a some sort of biodiversity award and a judge came by to look and take pictures. I think there's a good chance we will get something, but we won't know for several weeks. I need to take some pictures to post so you can all see what I'm talking about.

I also still go to the "Friendship Club" every Wednesday afternoon. This is the place for refugee women and children to come for a couple of hours of social time and activities. With the kids back in school, one of the main activities is homework time. Somehow, I got nominated to be the main homework helper so I spend my time assisting the kids with math (or as they call it here "maths"), reading, spelling, etc. It's actually really fun to feel like you are helping kids to learn! It is also very challenging to get them to pay attention and focus, so I have a much greater respect for all of the teachers of the world! After homework time there is usually some sort of craft or activity for the kids. This week they made sock puppets and actually put on a show for us. I finally took some pictures of the kids, so below you can see a little slide show.



Tomorrow morning Marco and I will head off to Dublin. We have an appointment at the US embassy early Monday morning to get his visa for our visit to the US next month. We figured we would go a day early and try and have a good meal in the big city. Based on recent experiences with the French embassy, we are really hoping things are a bit easier this time!

We Love Irish Taxi Drivers

Ok, so I just have to give some major appreciation to Irish taxi drivers. Well, I'm not sure if it's the same all over Ireland, but most certainly for Galway taxi drivers. They have to be some of the nicest of anywhere in the world! Seriously, since we moved to Galway, we haven't yet met even one who wasn't extremely friendly and helpful. I guess taxi drivers around the world don't necessarily have the best reputation, so this says a lot. But it's even more than that. Each week I walk about 20 minutes to our grocery store to do the shopping and have to take a taxi home with all of the bags. Every single time, the taxi driver helps me load all of the bags. When we arrive to the apartment, they always get out and carry all of the bags to my front door! And as if that weren't enough.....when they calculate the fare, they actually round down!!! So, say the fare comes out to 8.20 euros, they will say "Just give me 8." Amazing!

Arand Islands and a B-Day Surprise

Ever since we moved to Ireland we have heard people talking about how amazing the Aran Islands are. We kept saying we would wait for someone to visit us and then we would go. So when the family arrived, we knew it was time! On a beautiful Sunday morning we loaded the kids in the car and drove about 45 minutes up the coast to the small town where the ferry is located. The ferry took about 45 minutes as well, and then we arrived to the largest of the islands, Inishmore. People have told us that it's best to rent bikes and explore the island, but with kids we decided to hire a taxi van for the day. This was a wise decision, as we were able to hit most of the major sites without too much difficulty and we got some interesting stories from our driver along the way. Inishmore has a population of about 800 people, so everyone knows everyone. There is 1 doctor, 1 nurse and 1 police officer.

Our first stop was for lunch, and we found a little thatched roof cottage restaurant where everything on the menu was made from scratch. We had some delicious soup and sandwiches, as well as some mouth watering dessert! Next up, we hiked about 10 minutes up a path to Dun Aengus, a historic 17th century stone fort that overlooks some of the most spectacular cliffs I have seen. Luckily, we had a great weather day, so we could see from one side of the island to the other. Our taxi driver picked us up at the bottom of the hill and we drove to a few other beautiful sites around the island. When we made it back to town where the ferry docked, we still had some time to wait and were a bit hungry. We stopped in to a local place for fish and chips that was so fresh and delicious! We then caught the ferry back and found our way home to Galway....thanks to GPS. :) Marco and I can't wait to go back and explore the island on bikes!!!

So, Carol, Christian and the kids left for a couple of days exploring Ireland and we really missed them! When they returned, Carol and I had planned a sort of surprise birthday celebration for Marco. His birthday is actually September 3rd, but we wanted to celebrate while we were together. We prepared some delicious Peruvian food (well, Carol cooked and I chopped!) that we knew Marco would love. Chicha morada, which is a drink made from boiling purple corn, pineapple rind and cinnamon. Papa a la huancaina, which is a potato dish with a cheesy/spicy sauce. Lomo saltado, which is a delicious beef dish with onions and tomatoes. And finally, crema volteada, Marco's favorite dessert, which is sort of like a flan. We decorated with balloons and the kids made a precious, homemade card for Uncle Marco. Marco had no idea we were planning something, so that was fun.

The family stayed until Saturday, when they took the train to Dublin in order to fly back to Zurich. Having the kids around was so much fun and the house was so quiet and lonely after they left. And it is always so nice to be with family....we appreciate those experiences very much. We can't wait until the next time.

We Have Visitors!!!

Last Wednesday Marco and I hopped on the bus to Dublin to meet his sister, Carol, and her family (Christian, Sedrik & Naira) at the Dublin airport. They came to visit us from Zurich less than 2 weeks after we visited them! They had never been to Ireland, so it was fun to be showing people our new "home". We had been telling them all along how much it rains in Ireland, so they came fully prepared with rubber boots, umbrellas, etc. Lo and behold, the first 2 days they were here we had spectacular weather and they began to think we were liars. :) Thursday we just sort of had a lazy day, but did walk to the city center of Galway and had some time at the play area with the kids.



Friday morning, we took at taxi to the Galway airport, where we picked up a rental car for the rest of their time in Ireland. Unfortunately, Uncle Marco had to work, but I was free and so I was happy to join them on an adventure to the Cliffs of Moher. Christian was driving, and this was his first time driving on the other side of the road! We decided to take the scenic, ocean route to take full advantage of the beautiful day. The roads are really narrow here and have a lot of potholes. Can you see where this is going? About 45 minutes into our fabulous day, we had a close encounter with a pretty good sized pothole and blew out both of the tires on the left side of the car! Christian handled it like a pro and pulled the car off the road at a safe location. We got out to inspect the damage only to discover that not only were the tires flat, but the actual wheels were bent......ugggh! Here we were, in the middle of the scenic route, not close to any gas station or garage. Luckily, there was plenty of sunshine, so at least we didn't have to deal with rain. Carol set up camp so she could feed the kids some lunch. I called the rental company, who gave me the emergency assistance number and they patched me through to the closest garage. Christian hiked up the road to try and see the hole and search for our missing hub caps. He found one hubcap and brought it back to our spot. I was having thoughts of spending the night in the car or the closest little town while we waited for the car to be repaired. To our amazement, in about 30 minutes we saw a large tow truck round the corner and stop in front of us. Out jumps the driver, who comes over to inspect the damage. He quickly noticed the hubcap lying on the ground that said "Ford". He took one look at our car and asked us what make it was. We all said "Opel", looked at the hubcap and then started cracking up! Christian had picked up some other poor souls hubcap, which means that we were not the first people to hit that pothole! We never did find our hubcaps. Anyway, the driver effortlessly loaded our car onto the truck and we all hopped in the cab for the 40 minute ride to Kilfenora. His family ran a repair shop in the tiny little town. We headed off to have some lunch while we waited, but he instructed me to call in about 45 minutes. I thought we would just be getting an estimate of the repair at that point, but was shocked to find out the that the wheels were repaired and we were ready to hit the road. Our luck continued as the sunshine stayed with us and we were able to make it to see the Cliffs of Moher. We spent about an hour there and then headed back home for the evening. We were all thankful that the trip home was less eventful than the trip we had earlier in the day!

I Am Legal

I forgot to mention that shortly before our recent trip I received a wonderful gift in the mail....my Ireland Work Visa!!! I know, I know, it came about 2 months after I started working. But what's a couple of months in the grand scheme of things? :) I'm just happy to say that I am now legally working in Ireland. The part-time schedule has been amazing as I'm able to work and travel since the arrangement is really flexible. Marco's been very busy at work, but is still enjoying his job and the people he works with.

Anyway, it doesn't look like it's going to rain for the next few minutes, so I think I'll take advantage of the break and try to go for a run. The last time I tried it started raining half way through and I got totally soaked. Pretty amusing!!

Adventures in Zurich & Prague

Well, it's been a while since my last entry, but I think this one will make up for lost time. After our trip to Paris, things were pretty quiet for a while. Then, one Sunday afternoon my friend Sonia from Barcelona showed up in Galway to surprise me! Sonia lived with me in Pasadena for a couple of months about 2 years ago and we became fast friends. She stayed with us for about 5 days and we had a blast catching up and wandering around Galway. The following Friday, she took a 3am taxi to go to the airport and our taxi came about 5:30 am!

We were off to visit Marco's sister, Carol, and her family (her husband Christian, son Sedrik and daughter Naira) Marco and I flew out of Dublin, which meant a 3 1/2 hour bus ride from Galway just to get to the airport. The flight to Zurich took about half as long...less than 2 hours. When we arrived we had a funny experience at immigration. The officer looked at Marco's passport and asked if I had ever been to Arequipa. This is the city in Peru where Marco was born, but I haven't had the pleasure of visiting yet. Anyway, he had been there 5 times and said it's one of his favorite cities in the world! What a small world it is. We were met by Christian and Sedrik (who was VERY excited to see his uncle!!), and drove about 20 minutes to get to their apartment. We happened to arrive on a Swiss national holiday, so we had a delicious bbq for dinner and had a great view of fireworks from the apartment that night. At this point I will tell you that the weather in Zurich was 100% better than Ireland. We did get a bit of rain, but nothing compared to Galway. Most of the time there was glorious sunshine, blue skies and I would guess about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. That alone did wonders for our spirits! We could actually wear flip flops and tank tops and got a bit of color. :o)

The next day we did a bit of grocery shopping, and discovered that prices are less than Ireland in general. Not much of a surprise to us as Ireland tends to be one of the most expensive places to live in Europe. Anyway, that night for dinner Christian prepared Raclette. Actually, we all prepared Raclette because you sort of cook your own. There is a special table-top oven and each person has a personal sized pan that slides inside. They sell the cheese cut to the exact size of the pans, so it's perfect. You place a piece of cheese on the pan, then you can add anything you like, such as ham, onions, tomatoes, peppers, spices, etc. Everything melts together and then you eat it over boiled potatoes. It was absolutely delicious and a fun experience!!

***Click on the picture below to access the photo album from the entire trip. As this was a family vacation, you'll have to indulge me as there are lots of pictures of family. :)


The next day we hopped on the tram to visit the city center. I have to make a few observations about Zurich at this point. It is a really nice city! The Swiss reputation holds true in that everything is extremley clean, organized, on time, etc. That day there was a big international roller blading competition, so streets were shut down and it was fun to watch the athletes speed by. Marco, Sedrik and Carol took a ride on the Ferris wheel and then we hung out by the river to watch the swans and the teenagers diving off the bridge. It was really warm, so that afternoon when we got back we went to the river, which is literally across the street from their apartment. We parked our stuff on a grassy area and then walked up river so we could ride the current down. Sedrik and Naira particularly enjoyed the water, but the grown ups had fun as well! Then it was back home, where Christian prepared pizza from scratch for dinner.

The next morning we headed back to the airport to meet Carlo (Marco's brother) and his girlfriend, Katie. They came from Illinois, which was part of the reason we planned our trip when we did. That afternoon we all went around the city just to get a sense of the place. We walked through the old part of Zurich, which had little streets of cobblestone and lots of cute shops and restaurants. We went home for lunch and, by Carlo's request, we had a big barbecue of cervelat, which is a Swiss type of sausage. I'm not sure how many he ate, but I know we all ate a lot and it was delicious.

The following morning, Marco, Carlo, Katie and I got up at the crack of dawn (4:30am!) to catch the train to the airport on our way to visit Prague in the Czech Republic. You should have seen the 4 of us running down the street with backpacks. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the last time we were running to catch a train, but we made every single one of them. We took some yogurt and fruit for breakfast, and Carlo didn't realize that there was one more yogurt in his backpack as we passed through security. Well, of course they caught it. Now, Carlo likes Swiss yogurt so much that he went back out to eat it and passed through the security line a second time! We flew Swiss Air to Prague, and I have to say it may be my favorite airline now. During the flight they pass through the cabin with a huge basket of Swiss chocolates for passengers.....yummy! The flight was about an hour and a half and we arrived in Prague late morning. We navigated a bus and train route to get to the city center, where our hostel was located. It was right off the Old Town Square, so it was a great location. The four of us shared a dorm style room, so we got a great deal and it felt like we were at camp.

That first day, we walked a bit around the city center, along the river and stopped to watch the Astronomical clock, which does a tiny "show" each hour. Hundreds of people gather round the clock waiting for something spectacular, but most seem disappointed when not much happens. I guess it's just one of those things you have to do in Prague. We were looking for a good place to change money, as the Czech Republic has not adopted the euro yet. Ironically, the guy at our hostel directed us to a local Irish pub, where the bartender changes money for the best rates in town. Not sure if it was legal, but it was a great deal! We then decided to visit Prague Castle, which is right in the city. We crossed the river over the Charles Bridge, which was followed by a serious hike up a steep road and stairs. At this point, Marco was starting to get really sick with a cold and was sneezing every 5 minutes. He was a real trooper considering he felt so bad. There was a really pretty cathedral and some interesting displays of medieval torture instruments. I don't think that's a period of history that would have been much fun based on what we saw. After touring the castle for a couple of hours, we were starving and headed off to find lunch. We had found a listing in a travel book for a good hole in the wall near Wenceslaus Square where we were hoping to try some local specialties for cheap....it advertised meat, meat and more meat. We searched and searched and never found the place, so we settled for some sandwiches. We did try a local pastry that vendors were selling from carts that looked very interesting. They were like coils of pastry that were hollow in the middle. I think you can see an example in one of the pictures. Then it was back the hostel for our first night in Prague.

Unfortunately, that first night ended up being a loud one, with what seemed to be a group of people enjoying some drinks and some fun outside our window. Anyway, we awoke to another beautiful sunny day and headed out to see more of the sites. We decided to do a day trip outside of the city, but stopped at the local street market first for some fresh fruit before we headed for the train. We rode about an hour to the town of Kutna Hora, where we visited one of the most unusual sites I have ever seen called The Bone Church. Apparently there was a big plague hundreds of years ago that killed tens of thousands of people. They were buried in a mass grave, and later the grave was opened. Some brilliant person decided to use the bones to decorate the inside of a small church....hence the name. There was a chandelier made of skulls and femurs, a couple of large pyramid-like structures, pillars and things decorating the walls. I'm not sure if the pictures do it justice, but it was quite bizarre and macabre. After that, amazingly, we did have appetites, so we found the local grocery store and picked up some baguettes, ham and cheese for a quick lunch. We found a lovely little park with benches in the shade, so we settled in for a relaxing lunch and break. After lunch, we walked about 10 minutes to find our way to St. Barbara's cathedral. This one was pretty spectacular from the outside, with a mix of what looked like modern and Gothic architecture. Afterwards, we stopped into a small bar to taste some local Czech beer before heading back to the train. I should mention at this point that Marco is a master navigator when it comes to reading maps. It's so nice to travel with him because he has an incredible sense of direction and some of these towns can be very confusing. Once we were back in the city, we took a walk through the Jewish Quarter, but unfortunately the museum there was already closed. I guess that's a good reason to go back some day. We all agreed that we should try some traditional Czech food for dinner, so we found a local place that we heard was good. Luckily the menu was bilingual, so we had a good idea of what we were ordering. We decided to get different things and share just so we could taste more of the local cuisine. Of course we had to order goulash, but it was nothing like the idea we had of goulash. It was really delicious pieces of beef in some sort of sauce. We also ordered sparrow, which was not any sort of bird, but rather pork! Anyway, it was also delicious. We had another beef dish and some potato soup and everything was better than we expected. Then it was back to the hostel for our 2nd and last night in Prague.

The next day we decided to do another day trip out of the city and took a train to the town of Karlstejn. The big draw here was a beautiful castle that was located on the hill above a quaint little village. It required a very serious hike up a path to get to the castle, but it was well worth it. There were spectacular views and the tour we took inside was quite interesting. We learned that at one point this was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire, so it holds an important place in history. They also had on display the skull of a crocodile that was pulled from the river ages ago. The legend is that people didn't know what it was, but believed it might be a dragon that was slayed by St. George! On the way down the hill, we stopped to get some fresh crepes from a vendor. Now, the only problem was that there were about a million bees in this little town and they liked sweet stuff. Marco got one with Nutella, so naturally they were swarming all around him. It was pretty funny when he started to run in circles and eat the crepe at the same time just to eat in peace. We caught the train back to the city and decided to visit the Museum of Communism. This turned out to be one of the most interesting things we did in Prague. It really taught us a lot about the history of the Czech Republic before, during and after Communism. It was so fascinating to learn about the Velvet Revolution, when they came out of Communism, as it just happened in 1989. There were so many stories of protests, activism and people that gave their lives for freedom. Then we left the museum and decided we couldn't leave Prague without having a good sausage!! We found one of the many sausage vendors on the street and each ordered one. There were several different types, but all were delicious....and gigantic!!! They were so good that we ordered a few more just to try and get rid of all our Czech money. :0) Then it was back to the airport and "home" to Zurich.

The next day Carlo and Marco took Sedrik to a park and played soccer for a couple of hours. When they came back, we had another barbecue of cervelat (sausage), because we just hadn't had enough sausage yet on the trip. :) That evening we had "poker night" at home. There were a lot of laughs as none of really knew the rules and kept making silly mistakes. It was pretty funny.

We woke up the next morning and headed out to a big soccer field to play with the kids. We said it was for the kids, but the grown ups actually had a ton of fun. We had a rubber ball, so we ended up having a very competitive round of "hot potato". That afternoon we went to the city center to experience the Street Parade. The Street Parade happens to be the largest techno/electronic music event in the world, and we put ourselves smack dab in the middle of it. Now, we're not fans of this type of music, but we figured it was a cultural experience that we didn't want to miss. Hundreds of thousands of people come from all over Europe for this event and they shut down all the streets in the center of the city. People come out in costumes, some interesting and some quite bizarre. We saw quite a few drag queens and even an entire family (small children included) dressed as ladybugs. It was quite a sight. They have these large trucks, called "Love Mobiles" that carry a DJ and lots of scantily clad people dancing to the music. There were some with foam machines spraying foam everywhere and just masses of people. One interesting thing to note is that there are stations around the city where you can pick up free earplugs. We didn't realize how much they would be needed until we got close to the parade!!! Seriously, the music shook your bones. The other thing that was so funny to me is that they have "safe drug" testing tents around the city during the parade. Now, drugs are not exactly legal, but these are places you can go to have your drugs tested to make sure they are of good quality. Ironic, I know. You would think there might be police officers lined up waiting to arrest people, but not so. These places were actually official sponsored tents with trained professionals! Anyway, there were also several huge stages located around the city, so it really felt like the whole city was partying. Of course there was a lot of drinking going on, and in general it seemed that people were really enjoying themselves. We decided after a couple of hours of people watching that we had had enough and headed for home and a much quieter environment.

The next day was our last day in Zurich, but we still had a few hours left together. We took the tram back into the city and walked around ETHZ, which is a very prestigious university. One thing that amazed us as we rode through the city that it was completely clean the morning after the parade! Apparently they have a huge team of volunteers that sweep through the city and they have it all cleaned up just hours after it ends. Talk about efficiency! Then we had to say our goodbyes and Marco and I headed back by train to the Zurich airport. When we arrived in Dublin, we had a bit of a nasty experience with the immigration officer. As it turns out, Marco didn't have the right visa stamp in his passport. He was supposed to get a multiple entry visa for Ireland, but only had the single entry visa from when we first arrived. The odd thing is that nobody informed us of this and he had already travelled out of the country twice and returned with no problem. Anyway, the guy was a bit of a jerk, but I guess you find that in many places around the world. Even with the delay he caused us, we were lucky to make it to the bus to head back to Galway. Unfortunately, there had been some huge sports event in Dublin and our bus got caught in the middle of that traffic. It took us nearly 4 hours to get home, but we were happy to be there.

So, this week it was back to normal life, with lots of good memories of a great vacation! The good news is that Carol, Christian and the kids are coming to visit us now. They will arrive in Dublin Wednesday afternoon, so we plan to make the trip to meet them and help them get to Galway. They will be with us for about 10 days, so it should be a lot of fun. We're just praying for better weather, as we have had nothing but rain, rain and more rain since we got home. Welcome to Ireland!!

Paris.....C'est Magnifique!!!!!

We just returned last night from a 5 day trip to Paris and I have to say that it was an amazing time! Last Thursday we set off early in the morning with our backpacks and took a bus from Galway to the Shannon airport. It's about 1 hour and 45 minutes, so not too bad. From there we caught a flight on Ryanair, Europe's low cost airline, which is similar to Southwest Airlines in the US. Anyway, after a less than 2 hour flight, we landed at Paris-Beauvais airport, which is a small airport outside of the city. We then took another bus, which took us to the center of Paris in about an hour. From there we located the nearest Metro station, where we bought a 5 day pass, which was a very wise investment. We used the Metro every day, several times a day. I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to navigate around such a big city using the metro system and it made everything feel really close.

By the way, I tried to get a bit more high tech this time with the blog. If you click on this picture, it should take you to a web album so you can see all of the pictures from the trip. If it doesn't work, please let me know!!

Paris July 08

One of Marco's good friends from Peru, Arturo, and his wife Flavie live in Paris. (Flavie is French.) Unfortunately, they were in Peru for a month of vacation, but they graciously offered us their apartment for our trip. So with Arturo's great directions, we arrived at the metro station which was literally about 50 yards from their place! They live in the 11th Arrondissement, which means they are pretty close to all of the major attractions in the city. They had left the keys with neighbors, these two old French ladies that lived downstairs and spoke very little English. Marco bravely called them when we arrived and communicated well enough for them to let us in. The building is one of those old (maybe 18th century) typically French structures. You pass through a huge wooden door from the main street onto this lovely little courtyard. Up about 4 flights of stairs, we rang the doorbell and met the two "Madames". They spoke to us only in French and I did my best to recall a few words from all of the years of studying in school. Eventually we got into the apartment and it was just what you would imagine. They are remodeling everything, but it is a lovely place with all of the charm and character that you would expect of a Parisian apartment. We felt so lucky and thankful to be able to stay there.

So, we dropped our backpacks and headed out to enjoy our first afternoon in Paris. Although Marco had been there once before, it was my first time and I was pretty excited. We hopped back on the Metro and ended up getting off at Place de la Concorde. It's a big "square" between a few of the monuments and from there I got my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. We walked around a bit just to take it all in. We were getting pretty hungry as we hadn't eaten much all day, so we ventured off to find a restaurant. We ended up in a middle eastern restaurant, where the food was just average, but we still had a nice experience. Unfortunately, it did rain a bit, but it was nothing like Ireland. :o) It was much warmer and I guess for some reason we didn't mind the rain so much being on vacation. After dinner we strolled down the Champs Elysees and I got to see the Arc de Triomphe! We then headed back to the apartment to try and get some rest for the busy days ahead.

Friday morning we woke up and went for breakfast at a local cafe. We had the traditional croissants and coffee (hot chocolate for Marco!) and it was absolutely delicious. At this point I guess I should go ahead and admit that we ate our way across Paris. We had so many croissants, pastries, baguettes and crepes that it is hard to even describe. There were crepe stands all over the city where you could get a fresh crepe to order and I lost track of how many we had with Nutella (chocolate) and bananas! Luckily, we did SO much walking that we didn't put on too much weight. Seriously, by the end of each day our legs were so tired that we would just fall into bed. Anyway, after breakfast we took a train to Versailles, which is a massive palace on the outskirts of Paris. It was originally built by some rich Italian guy, then one of the King Louis' bought it as a vacation home. it was actually the seat of government at one time, but that was never permanent. Over the centuries they added on to the main building, built new buildings and put in a huge garden that is immaculately manicured. It's actually more like a park than a garden. There are fountains, pools, mazes.....just beautiful. And the weather was gorgeous.....I actually got a pretty good sunburn on my shoulders, but I was just happy to have sunshine! We bought ham & cheese baguettes for lunch and sat out in the gardens to enjoy the weather. We then took a guided tour in the afternoon which was great. It was so fun to hear stories about the history of the place and the people who lived there. One of the kings at one time had a thing for clocks. This pair of scientists built a very special clock for him back in the 1700's and they designed it so that it would keep time until the year 9,999! It still works and is accurate.....just amazing. There are just too many interesting facts to share in this blog, but it's a must see if you ever get to Paris.

So, we headed back to the train station to go back to the city. About 5 minutes into the trip, the train stopped. The conductor made an announcement in French that we couldn't understand, but we picked up that there had been some sort of accident on the line involving a person. They said it would be a few minutes delay, but about 30 minutes later and with a train full of sweaty passengers they announced that we should all get off the train. Like a herd of cows we all followed the crowd, not really knowing what to do. We were not close to any other stations. They instructed us to walk to a bus that was several blocks away and from there who knew what would happen. We packed into the bus like sardines.....seriously, it was such a funny site! About 10 minutes later, we arrived at another train station, where we were able to find our way back to the city. As we exited the metro station near the apartment, there was a group of people asking us to sign a petition. We waved our hands to indicate we don't speak French and one guy looked at Marco and said "Hablas espanol?" Turns out he was from Argentina, so they had a nice conversation in Spanish. Apparently there is a big thing happening in the EU right now where they are trying to deport a lot of immigrants, so the petition was to protect the rights of those people. He said since we lived in Europe we could sign, so we added our names to the list to help the cause. This guy also told us that there was a good "latin" club somewhere in the city where the food and dancing was supposed to be good the next night, so we made a plan to check it out. Then it was back to the apartment for a shower before we headed out to find dinner.

Now, Lebanese food is one of our favorites, so before our trip I had researched all of our options. Restaurants in Ireland are pretty disappointing, so we thought this was our big chance to have some really good food. We found our way to this place that had gotten rave reviews and got a table. And that's when everything went downhill. After this trip we both can say without hesitation that the service in France is terrible. The stereotype of French people being rude holds true. (The nicest people we met were immigrants from other countries) Once we got a look at the menus, we were surprised at the high prices, but decided it was worth it for a good meal. I ordered a chicken kebob meal and Marco ordered a beef dish. When mine arrived, it had the wrong side orders, so I had to send it back. Then, one look at Marco's dish and we weren't convinced that it was beef. I tasted it and was pretty sure it was lamb, which he doesn't care for. So, we called the waiter back (who didn't speak any English) and tried to explain the problem. He insisted it was beef and then sent another guy to insist that it was beef. Needless to say, this meal ended up to be a huge disappointment. Oh well, I guess that's all part of the adventure! After dinner we made our way to an area called Chatelet, where there is a pretty good nightlife. Lots of restaurants and clubs and it was really fun just to walk around. Then it was back to the apartment to collapse into bed.

Saturday morning we again went for a typical breakfast at a cafe near the Louvre Museum. We then ventured over to the museum, which is so huge that there's just no way to see it all. So, we made a tiny list of things we wanted to see and set off. Of course we saw the Mona Lisa, which was surprisingly small compared to what I expected. And there was such a huge crowd around it that you couldn't get close or get a decent picture. But at least we saw it. We saw lots of paintings by famous artists and of course the Venus de Milo sculpture. We ventured through an exhibit on Egypt and also Napoleon's apartment. It was a really neat experience to see all of this history, but totally overwhelming. We went up and down so many stairs that I felt like we were back at Machu Picchu! Which brings up an interesting point......now we know how the French stay so skinny! They walk everywhere and there are stairs everywhere.

After the Louvre, we headed off to find lunch. We ended up having wood-fired pizza at a sidewalk cafe that was decent. We then decided to take the metro to Sacre Coeur, which is a big church at the top of a hill. Once we reached the neighborhood, we saw that you could take a shuttle or a funicular. We thought we would be troopers and take the stairs. I don't know how many there were, but my legs were like jello about halfway up. I just kept convincing myself that I would totally deserve another crepe after that. :o) Once we reached the top, we found that the church was absolutely beautiful and the view was spectacular. They say it's the best view in Paris because you can see the whole city from there.

We then decided to go home and rest because we had grand intentions of going out for a bit of dancing in the evening. We took a pretty good nap and felt the energy return! Marco then took me to the Montparnasse building, which is one of the only tall buildings in Paris. You take the elevator about 59 floors and have a rooftop view of the city. The sun was just going down, so it was a pretty spectacular view! We then ventured over to an area called the "Latin Quarter", which is also known for it's nightlife. This turned out to be our favorite place because of the energy and the relaxed atmosphere. We ended up sitting down for dinner at an outdoor cafe in true European style.....at 11pm! The place was packed and it was really fun just to watch people and enjoy the beautiful evening. Unfortunately, the food was again disappointing, but the experience made up for it. We then set off to try and find the latin dance place that the guy from Argentina told us about. After about 20 minutes of walking we decided we were just too tired and headed in for the evening.

Sunday morning we found a nice bakery and just bought our pastries and baguette to go. We had seen most of the big things on our "list", so we thought we would just take the day a bit slower. We walked around just to see different parts of the city. We did go back to the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe since I hadn't gotten any pictures before. We decided to go to Les Invalides, which was originally built as a "hotel"for injured war veterans. It's more like a palace and is now a museum and he place of Napoleon's tomb. It ended up being a really neat experience that we were both glad we didn't miss. They had a whole section of the museum devoted to World War I and II, which was fascinating. Lots of history and great artifacts that we both enjoyed. At the tomb of Napoleon, they have on display one of the coats and hats that he is normally pictured in. It was surprising how small the coat was! I mean, it seemed like it was made for a child. Such a small, but powerful man. We then made our way back to the neighborhood near the apartment. We found a great little cafe that was packed with people having "happy hour"on a Sunday. We had a drink and a couple of appetizers and a nice time people watching again. We then found a nice little restaurant where we had our last meal. It was an Italian place so we had a pizza and some pasta. One interesting note is that most of the pizzas on the menu had a large fried egg in the middle. We decided to order our pizza without the egg. :) Then it was back to the apartment, with a pit stop for our last crepe on the way back!

Monday morning we got up early to clean the apartment and pack our things. We had to take the metro to get back to the bus station to get back to the airport. We thought we were leaving really early just to be safe and it was a good thing we did! Monday morning rush hour on the metro is a bit crazy! We were again packed in like sardines and it took us longer than we expected. But we made it to the airport for the flight back to Shannon. The bus to Galway got us home around 5pm and it was nice to be back in our fair little town. Our house was pretty stuffy after being closed up for 5 days, but luckily today it has been sunny all day so we let in all the fresh air. I also did about 6 loads of laundry, which took most of the day!

Now it's back to our normal routine for a few weeks. This adventure was so much fun that we just can't wait to go to Switzerland in August!!!!!

Another Tiny Milestone

So, today is officially our 3 month-a-versary! I know, I know, sounds silly, but my philosophy is that you should celebrate anything possible. Today we were lucky enough to get a couple of hours of glorious sunshine, so we took a really long walk down to the beach and then along the Salthill Promenade. Although the sun was amazing, the winds were really strong, but I guess that just added a little bit of resistance to our exercise. :)


Last night a couple of friends had a "latin" party. They invited people over for "fajitas" (as prepared by a Swedish guy and a Spanish girl!), mojitos and games. There were also a few other German friends and the two of us. We had great intentions of doing a little salsa dancing, but ended up being a bit too tired to muster the energy. Next time. A couple of us were asked to bring dessert as our contribution to the meal. I prepared Crema Volteada from Marco's mom's delicious recipe. It's a flan type of dessert which is very easy to make, but looks great and tastes even better. A German couple that we are friends with didn't know what to do, so they went online for ideas. They ended up making chocolate dipped jalapeños! You can see them in the picture here. They were a bit hot after a couple of bites, but a really creative and surprisingly tasty little treat!


Now we are getting ready to watch the final match of the Euro 2008 tournament. It's a huge soccer championship over here with all of the top European teams. It's Germany vs. Spain and should be a pretty exciting match. This will be a "short" week for us since we leave for Paris on Thursday morning. Yippeeeee!!

Just Checking In

Well, there's nothing huge to report right now, so I thought I would just check in and give a general update. Everything is continuing to go well here.

We had a thunder/electrical storm on Saturday that you can definitely classify as a torrential downpour. Marco and I had been out walking earlier in the day, but luckily we got home before the storm hit. There was thunder and lightning and rain like nothing I have ever seen before. The parking lot in front of our apartment literally started to flood as the water rose up above the level of the curb. I read in the paper this morning that there were actually flash floods in other parts of town, so I think what we saw was mild by comparison. Ugghh!!!

We are getting really excited because we have started to plan some of our "European adventures"! We will be travelling to Paris the first weekend in July for about 5 days. Marco has been there, but it will be my first time. Everyone tells me it's beautiful, so I can't wait to go. I just hope the weather is a tiny bit better in France than it is in Galway. :) Next, we will be going to Zurich, Switzerland the first week of August. Marco's sister, Carol, lives there with her husband and 2 kids. Marco's brother and his girlfriend (Carlo and Katie) are coming from Illinois for a visit, so we decided to meet them in Zurich since we wanted to see the whole family. We'll be there for about 9 days, but we are possibly planning a little side trip to Prague in the Czech Republic while we're there. If you don't know, citizens of some countries (including Peru) are required to have travel visas for most of Europe. Many of the EU member countries have joined together and have a common visa called Schengen. Basically, there are no more borders between these countries, so if you get the visa you can visit lots of different countries. France was nice enough to give Marco a 90-day multiple entry visa for our Paris trip, so we feel like we should take advantage of it! We don't know where we'll travel after that, but we have a pretty good list of places that we'd like to see.

Is Summer Already Gone??

Ok, here we are, middle of June and I am starting to worry that summer has come and gone. We had a couple of "nice" weeks here recently that now seem to have been an evil trick from the weather gods. We did enjoy it while it lasted, but the rain has returned and it's cold!! Yesterday afternoon we had one of the craziest and hardest rain storms I've ever witnessed. Today it's more of a misty rain, but it just keeps going and going. The other day I went walking into town with my umbrella as it's not so pleasant to ride in the rain without a raincoat. (I know, I know....you're all thinking I'm mad for moving to Ireland without a raincoat, but I just haven't gotten around to buying one yet.) Anyway, it seemed as if the rain was coming from every direction. By the time I got home my shoulders and head were dry, but everything below was wet. There's just no avoiding it.

Enough about the rain! But there is one more gripe. :o) As it turns out, living close to the university also means living near college students. What a surprise, huh? Well, we live on the 1st floor, and just above us there are a few youngsters that really enjoy throwing a good party on a regular basis. With loud music and wood floors, it doesn't make for a restful night for the old folks downstairs when it happens. It has happened at least 4 or 5 times in the 2 months we've been here and it happened again last night!!!! A Tuesday night for goodness sakes! About 3:30am I decided to call the property management security company. They sent someone out, who issued a warning, but 5 minutes after he left the music was turned back up. So, about 4am we called the Garda (police). Luckily, the party animals decided to respond to their request. I'm sure they are not too fond of us at this point, but how about a little consideration for your neighbors on a work night! Luckily we only have a 6 month lease here, so if this continues we will likely be looking to move later in the year. Maybe we can find a senior community nearby...hahahah!

Well, I have to run off to my Wednesday afternoon at the refugee volunteer club. It's raining, so I'll have to walk to town. The last couple of Wednesdays there have been lots of volunteers but no kids. :( Maybe it's the rain or maybe it's that the end of school is near. Who knows, but I'll keep going!

Back to the Grind

Well, believe it or not, I finally got a job! I will be doing HR part-time for a local tourist hostel called the Sleepzone. (http://www.sleepzone.ie/) And when I say part-time, I mean one day a week to start! Now that's what I call easing back into the job market. :o) I'm hoping that the hours will increase in time, but for now it's a great opportunity to get my foot in the door and get up to speed on Irish employment/HR issues. It's a totally international environment with staffers and guests from all over the world. And the management teams seems really nice, so at this point I think it will be a good place to work. The nice part about it is the flexibility I still have with my schedule. We will be able to travel pretty much whenever we want, I will have a lot of time when people come to visit us and I can still stay involved in my volunteering activities. We are both pretty happy about it. I start this Thursday so let's see how it goes.

Marco had a good trip to Germany. He met some nice people from lots of different places and the meetings went well. He is definitely still enjoying his job, so that makes life a lot better. He's also playing soccer after work some days and even tried rugby once.

We've been making lots of new friends through work and outside of work. That always helps to improve the social life and make you feel more at home in a place. We went to a party on Saturday night where we ended up doing karaoke with Marco's coworker and his girlfriend. The four of us belted out a Journey song and Bon Jovi......let me just say it was not pretty. But the bottom line is we had a good time and lots of laughter and you can't beat that.

We continue to have nice weather here. Locals keep saying that this has been an unusually nice "summer" so far. We're not sure how long it will last, but we are enjoying it for now. We still get showers here and there, but nothing too bad.

Pot of Gold??

So, after a couple of days of spectacular weather, we did get a small rain shower the other day. But this picture proves that it was worth it! I took this from the front window in our apartment and could actually see the whole rainbow, end to end. It was beautiful and I'm not sure the picture captures that. I couldn't help but wonder if there was truly a pot of gold at the end. :) Unfortunately, I woke up this morning to howling wind and lots of rain. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. Marco's on his way back from Germany this morning. He has to fly to Dublin, then take a bus back to Galway, so he won't get here until this evening. I'm just glad he's coming home!

Glorious Sunshine

It's Saturday and this morning we awoke to sparkling blue skies and sunshine like you wouldn't believe! It's really amazing what that can do for your attitude. We have learned from our two months here that when the weather is like that you really have to take advantage of it because it's not likely to last long. So we decided to take the bikes out and enjoy the day. We rode down to Salthill, which is this lovely little community right on the water and there is a boardwalk. Lots of people had the same idea and were enjoying the beach. We ended up exploring an area that we hadn't seen yet and found this small, secluded beach about 15 minutes ride from town. It was absolutely gorgeous and I'm really sad that we didn't take the camera. We stopped for a bit to sit on some rocks in the sunshine and take it all in. Marco actually went down to the water, put his hand in and decided it wasn't too cold. So, he took off his shoes and proceeded to wade in. He got about up to his knees when he turned back. Apparently, the deeper it gets, the colder it gets. :) So, we headed back towards home and about 30 minutes after we arrived, the clouds rolled in. Whew!

One funny thing about living here is that the summer days are really long. Right now it stays light until about 10pm. Even after that the sky doesn't really get totally black. Interesting. The flip side of that is that during winter the days are extremely short. We hear that it will get dark around 4pm. Ugggh! Not looking forward to winter. We'll try to enjoy this season as long as we can.

Woo Hoooo!!!! We Got Bikes! :o)

So, we are truly assimilating to living in Ireland because we got bikes today! It's something so simple, but I can't tell you how excited I am. We found a couple of used bikes at a local bike rental shop and they are in pretty good condition. You can see mine in this picture. Ok, so it's purple, but it works. :) Marco got a much cooler red bike, but he rode it to work so it's not pictured here. Maybe you can see in the picture that I also got a nifty little basket that's attached to the front so now I can do a little shopping and carry things home. (Up until now I have been walking everywhere and taking a taxi home when I have a lot of things to carry.) I went to the store this afternoon and quickly discovered that it's not good to have too much weight in the basket as it throws your balance off. Haha. I didn't fall, but I'm sure I looked like I was riding drunk. So now we get to practice safe riding and learn the rules of the road. It's quite different from being a pedestrian! Lots of people ride here, but some of the streets are narrow and people drive on the left side of the road so it can be confusing. I'm sure we'll get used to it.

Ok, so enough about bikes. Last weekend we had a good bit of social activity. Friday night we went out with some of Marco's friends from work. One of the guys is moving to Switzerland, so it was sort of a going away party. It started as a BBQ at his house and then we ended up going out to a bar at midnight! When that one closed at 1:30am, we migrated to another place that had decent dance music and we stayed there until 3am!!!! I know, we are getting way too old for this. :o) Needless to say, we were a bit tired the rest of the weekend. The fun thing was that we met some new people so our network of friends is growing. I lost count of how many different countries were represented by the people there, but I was the only American and Marco was the only Peruvian. Saturday night, we went to Damon & Lisa's house for Mexican food and margaritas. They are Americans from the Bay Area that are here for a year for Damon's job. We had yummy nachos, quesadillas and margaritas that reminded us a bit of home. I really miss El Cholo (my favorite Mexican restaurant). By the way, Lisa has introduced me to a group of American women who are here because of their husband's jobs as well, and we had coffee the other day. They were all really nice and it was fun to share stories about our experiences here.

Marco leaves Sunday for a trip to Germany. He has to attend a meeting there with another Post-Doc from his research group. That means I'll be on my own until Wednesday night. Watch out, mama's going shopping!!!! hehehe. By the way, I interviewed for two different part-time jobs this week. I'm hoping to know something in the next week or two, so keep your fingers crossed.

Weekend in Dublin

So, I know it's been a while since I've updated the blog, but there wasn't much going on last week until we went to Dublin on Saturday. Marco has to travel to Germany in a couple of weeks for a meeting, so we had to go to Dublin to visit the embassy for a travel visa. We decided just to make a weekend out of it and see the city. So we hopped on the bus from Galway, which is about 3 1/2 hours to Dublin city center. We did a lot of exploring and walking around the city just to see what was there. I have to say that we are getting really good at reading maps and navigating new places. :o) We went almost everywhere on foot, so by the end of the weekend we were pretty tired. The Liffey River runs right through the middle of the city (you can see me standing in front of it in one of the pictures.) We took a walk through Trinity College, which is a beautiful campus, and saw a cricket match in progress. I still don't really understand that sport! On the way to our hotel we passed Montague Street, so I had to take a picture!



We had great intentions of going out for dancing on Saturday night so we set out to explore the Dublin nightlife. We walked and walked and found lots of places to go, but didn't really like the music we were hearing. Electronic/techno music is quite popular here, and neither one of us really enjoys dancing to that kind of music. I'm sure if we had more time we could have found a place to our liking, but we were pretty tired. (Are we getting old or what?) The one thing that really became clear is how much partying and drinking is part of the culture here. The unfortunate part is that for many people drinking is not just to have fun, it's to get completely trashed! There were drunk people everywhere and there was vomit on the streets. Pretty disgusting. We even saw a girl vomit as she walked out the door of a disco. One funny part of Irish nightlife that we have witnessed is Stag and Hen parties. This is the equivalent of bachelor/bachellorette parties in the US. But these guys take it very seriously here. Women go out all dressed the same, or have t-shirts printed for the event. We saw one party of women dressed as bees.....yes, bees. They were in full costumes with wings, like you would see at a good Halloween party. We ended up going to a disco that was on the first floor of our hotel. Yes, the music went until about 3am both Saturday and Sunday night and we could hear it in our room. :( Anyway, we saw a Stag party there that was just hilarious. All of the guys were dressed in full costumes like superheros or movie/cartoon characters. There was Indiana Jones, Rocky, Papa Smurf (with his whole torso and head painted blue) Teen Wolf (with his full body in a hairy suit and a basketball uniform!). But the funniest one for me was definitely Wonder Woman....a real manly man in a wig and full costume, including fishnet stockings! What a night. I wish I would have taken some pictures of that experience. Oh well.

The next day we did some more exploring. We visited a place called Phoenix Park, which is a massive park in the city. We rented bikes for an hour and didn't even make it all the way around the park. It was absolutely beautiful. We saw huge numbers of deer in the park and lots of green areas. An interesting note, the US Ambassador's residence is right in the middle of the park.....I wonder how that happened? We then went to take a tour of the Guinness Storehouse. Now, I'm not a big beer fan, but everyone said we had to go there if we were going to Dublin. Well, during the visit, Marco and I both decided it was our favorite place so far! Seriously. They did an amazing job of setting up an experience that you walk through that tells the history of Guinness and how it is made and how it has become a part of the culture here. I can't even describe how cool it was. At the end of the tour, you go up to the top of this tower and visit the "Gravity Bar". It's way above the city and has walls of glass so you can see all of Dublin! (You can see in one of the pictures where we are holding our pints.) And, with your entrance ticket you also get a pint of Guinness to enjoy (or a soda). So, even if you don't like beer it's still a place that should be visited in Dublin.



The next day we got up and headed for the German embassy. It was fairly easy to get there by train and everything went smoothly. We then hopped back on the bus and headed back to Galway. After being in the big city for a couple of days, we really felt the difference and were glad to be going back "home" to a smaller, quieter place. We realized that we really like Galway and the way of life here.

This week I started volunteering in a community garden at a local school. I pulled weeds for 2 1/2 hours!!!!! But it was really fun and it's a great learning experience for the kids. There were some people there the day I went who have decided to do a documentary on the project and they may show it next year at the Galway Film Festival! I'm making my Irish film debut. :o)

Last night we went out to a bar where they have Salsa on Wednesdays. One of Marco's colleagues plays the keyboard in the band so we thought we would check it out. We met up with some of his friends from work and listened to some good music. We didn't hit the dance floor, but will definitely go back one of these days. There were many more girls than guys, so we were thinking that all of our single male friends who know how to salsa would be very popular here!

I forgot to mention that I also met an American lady who is living here with her husband. His company brought him here for a year, so they've been doing a lot of traveling to make the most of their time. She just got a care package from the US with margarita mix, so we are going to meet them this weekend for "Mexican" night. We're going to attempt to make the closest thing to Mexican food as possible with the things we can get here. Should be fun!

Reality Check

Yesterday was a really interesting day and a bit of a reality check for me. I went for my first volunteer day at a group called the "Friendship Club." All I knew about it going in was that it was a place for women and children to go once a week who are new to Galway and trying to assimilate. Well, it was much more than that. I have learned that there is a pretty large refugee population here and most of them are from different parts of Africa. I met two women - both named Margaret- who were from Uganda and Sudan. The Margaret from Sudan actually lived in Kenya for about 6 or 7 years before she came here. They, along with thousands of others, come from war-torn countries and are hoping to get what they call "status", which is the right to stay in Ireland and work. The Irish government brings them and they are placed in a refugee hostel here in Galway. (I'm sure they go lots of other places as well.) They get assigned a public lawyer who meets with them once. Then they sit and wait until they get an appointment for their interview with immigration. The interview process is pretty intense and they even described it as fairly degrading. Then they go back to the hostel and continue to wait and see if they get approved. If not, they can file an appeal and wait some more. Both Margarets told me they have been waiting about 7 or 8 months, but there are others that have been waiting 7 or 8 years to go through the process. They came to Ireland alone, so they didn't know anyone when they arrived. They are assigned to a room that is shared with 4 other women and they are provided with the basic necessities of food and clothing. I think the biggest issue they are facing right now is boredom and depression. It is a horrible position to be in, even though it has to be better than being in their own countries. Anyway, these type of meetings offer some social interaction for the women and a place to play for the kids. I feel like I'm not doing a good job of describing the situation, but I can't imagine what these people are going through. It made me realize how fortunate we are to have choices and freedom in this life. I began to realize that any inconveniences we are experiencing by moving to Ireland just pale in comparison to what so many others are going through.

Our First "Bank Holiday" Weekend

So, today is a "bank holiday" in Ireland and nobody works. Now I am feeling a bit silly because I didn't realize that Labor Day is celebrated around the world! Oh well, I guess I still have a lot to learn in this life! We have had amazingly beautiful weather this weekend and a glimpse of what summer will be like in Galway. Such good weather makes our running experiences so much more pleasant. I wanted to post some pictures of the path where we have been running because it is just so beautiful. It goes through some grassy areas and then along the Corrib River. At one point we pass this beautiful old castle across the river, which you can see in the pictures here. It's just across the river from me in the last picture and then there's a closeup of the castle above. There are often people kayaking and rowing along the river, too.

Yesterday we did a tour of an area called Connemara, which was absolutely beautiful. Lots of stunning scenery, lakes, mountains, etc. We stopped at a few old churches and then a beautiful place called Kylemore Abbey. It was originally built by a rich Englishman as a home (it's a massive mansion even though it's hard to tell from this picture!) for his family in the 1800's. Now it is a functioning Abbey for benedictine nuns and also hosts an international boarding school for girls. You can see Marco standing in front of the lake where the old mansion sits in the background. There is a national park in Connemara that we plan to go back and explore on a hiking tour. As the bus wound through town on the way back, there was tons of traffic and people just everywhere on the streets and in the pubs. There is so much drinking here! Before coming to Ireland someone told Marco that there are two types of people in Ireland, there are alcoholics and those that used to be alcoholics. It really is surprising how much social activity centers around drinking. You can pass a pub at 10am and see people sitting outside having a pint. And we haven't even had our first pint of Guinness yet!!! Anyway, we hear that the crowds get much worse during the summer as this is one of the most popular vacation spots in Ireland. I'm sure it will get a bit crazy, but that's all part of the adventure!

Reasons to Celebrate

Well, it's official......Marco and I have officially passed our 1 month-iversary!!!! :) I have to say, with everything that has happened, it actually feels more like a year, but in a good way. Things are still going well here and we are learning new things every day. This week I also finally got my PPS number, which is like the Social Security Number in the US. I needed that to be able to start applying for work. So, needless to say, this week I have really started sending out my resume. Let's see what happens. I also started a Spanish class on Monday night. There is a neat little language institute in the city center, sort of like the one I went to in Pasadena. They mostly teach English to foreigners, but also offer other languages. There are 4 other people in the class.....3 Irish and 1 Polish guy. Everyone is extremely nice and it is really great to be back in the learning environment. It has really inspired me and my "professor" at home has even started helping me practice a bit more. This week seems to be passing very quickly for some reason. We had an electrician come Monday to discover that our heater was broken.....I was actually glad to know that it wasn't our lack of ability to use the darn thing! Anyway, we have heat now and that makes life at home a bit more comfortable. This weekend we are planning to do a day trip again...this time to Connemara, which is supposed to be a really beautiful part of western Ireland. Monday is a "bank holiday" here, so we'll have a nice, long weekend together. When I asked a local Irish guy what a bank holiday was, he said it's just that everyone gets a day off work when the banks close. Not sure I really understand that or if he knew what he was talking about, but we'll take it!

Things We Could Learn from the Irish

So, the last few weeks we have been learning lots of new things in Galway. There are some interesting things here that I think we (mostly referring to Americans) could learn from.

First, recycling here is huge! Everyone recycles everything. Seriously. We have 3 "bins" for our trash service: one for organic waste, like food or degradable items; one for recyclable things like tin, plastic, etc. that must be clean and dry; and one for other trash. When we signed up for trash service there were very detailed instructions on what to do. On top of all that, the trash service doesn't collect glass. There are "glass banks" all over the town and people bring all of their glass to them. There are several different bins that require you to even sort the glass by color! I know lots of people recycle in the US, but it is truly a way of life here.

Another thing.....the police here are called Garda. I just read an article yesterday stating that no uniformed Garda carry weapons! Can you imagine??? A police officer not carrying a weapon??? Outrageous, right? Well, it said that since the 1922 the first commissioner stated, "The Garda Síochána will succeed not by force of arms or numbers, but on their moral authority as servants of the people". There are, apparently, other non-uniformed detectives around the country that do carry guns, but clearly this is not a gun culture.

Lastly, and possibly most impressive, is that government services/employees here are just fantastic. Both Marco and I have been blown away by the efficiency and the friendliness of government workers. I mean, it's almost as if they like their jobs. :) Everyone from immigration to the tax office have treated us so well that we almost didn't know what to do. Even when things don't go as expected with the process, you leave feeling happy and respected. Just amazing.

I guess that's all for now. Now it's time to go outside and enjoy the bit of sunshine we have before the rain sets in.

Blazing Trails and Other Things......

Well, we have now been in Galway for 3 weeks, but there is still so much to learn! Marco is really enjoying his job. I think he is a gem on both a personal and professional level and they are lucky to have him. Anyway, Marco's work permit is through a program that Ireland just started in October to make it much easier to bring foreign researchers to the country. They don't have to go through the normal steps for a researcher to come, and it also allows the spouse (that would be me :o)) the right to work. So, I've started looking for jobs and I have been getting all sorts of different advice about the process of actually securing the work permit. I finally called the national employment office in Dublin today to learn that I am a trail blazer! Although there have been many researchers that have come under this new program, I am officially the first spouse to ever try and secure a work permit through the program. Even the guy who was the official point of contact didn't know what to tell me. So it seems that I will be helping the country of Ireland to figure out the process! haha. I know that I can work, it's now just a matter of figuring out the right paperwork and getting the right stamp in my passport. Maybe it will just take a little more time than we planned. Oh well, for now I'm going to try and get involved in some volunteer work. I have an appointment tomorrow with a volunteer organization to see what I can do. And I'm still enjoying sleeping in and walking around the city to find all of the good shopping centers. :) Life is good! So, I thought I would post a few pics of our new apartment. The first pic shows the outside and we are the one on the ground floor. Here you can also see the living room, dining area, kitchen and the master bedroom. We have lots of space (except for the kitchen!) and tons of windows. We also have a spare bedroom that is waiting for its first visitor.