nonsense a la mode

Monday, June 21, 2010

The Council of Dads

A great TED talk. When Bruce Feiler found out he had cancer he asked male friends in his life to be there for his twin daughters in case he should die. He took the advice they gave him for his daughters and compiled it into a book, The Council of Dads. Read the article he wrote, A Father's 10 Lessons's for His Daughters. Definitely worth reading.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Dublin...starts with an AWE and ends with a SOME

We got into Ireland yesterday around noon straight from Malta. It is so cold in Ireland! We got off the plane and immediately realized we would be needing our coats. I lost my shoes somewhere in Greece and all I have are my sandals so my toes have freezing since we landed; and no, mom, I'm not going to wear socks with them. Ireland is such a complete change from all the Mediterranean countries we've been in so far. It's so green!

From the airport we hopped a bus to Dublin city and got off at the city center to walk to our hostel. You can tell a lot about a city by how friendly people are when you stop and ask for directions and Dublin is very friendly! We stayed at the Four Courts Hostel which is right on the River Liffey and right down from the Temple Bar district. This was the first time we've stayed in a hostel where we didn't have a room to ourselves. Our 12-bed dorm was packed out. The best part was meeting a few girls from Wales who were getting ready to go on a pub-crawl. Everything they said was funny to us because of their accents. They had the cutest clothes and the shortest skirts and they said they didn't care how cold the weather was. We wanted to go on the pub-crawl with them but we had been out late our last night in Malta and were completely pooped.

We found out food in Dublin is pretty expensive, 10 euro and up for dinner. So while everywhere else we've tried to eat authentic, we decided to go cheap in Dublin. Jeanne and Stephanie went to subway and I got a kebab. Then, even though we felt incredibly lame we went back to the hostel and went to bed! We're hoping that we're going to be getting a little more rest in Ireland than we've been getting so far.

Four Courts hostel is a great place to stay. Its really in central location , the staff is really friendly and the beds seem clean. When we checked in the staff-guy said, "Noow say what all Americans say that starts with an Aw and ends with a Some". The best part about Four Courts is there is free international calling. The connection isn't the greatest but for ten minutes you can talk and not worry about how much it's costing.

Now we're off to Galway city and hoping to see the Aran islands and Cliffs of Moher. We'll be back in Dublin in a few days. The bus system is pretty cheap in Ireland if you use Go-bus or CityLink. Iit was only 8 euro for about a 3 hour bus ride to Galway with free wi-fi included.