Thursday, July 29, 2010

Different places, new faces

It seems like this week has flown by- can't believe its Thursday already!

Hubs and I decided to take a trip to Dublin this week- we were looking at train tickets Sunday just for the craic (Irish for fun, or having a laugh....its pronounced like crack so I can say it definitely has caused me some confusion when I first heard it haha) and decided what the hell, we have no responsibilities right now and some extra cash, lets just go!

It was amazing, I didn't realize how badly I needed to get out of Limerick, even for just a day. It's been really cloudy and rainy the last couple of weeks and its been affecting my moods. I've been more lethargic and frustrated than I think I've ever really been. It was beautiful and warm and sunny in Dublin, despite a forecast for rain. A much needed respite!



This is the Spire on O'Connell Street- pretty much the main part of Dublin. O'Connell Street is the main street in pretty much every city in Ireland. The spire is cool to look at, a weird memorial in my opinion though! (and hard to get a good picture of!)
This is the River Liffey, the river that goes right through the center of Dublin, out to the ocean. I think it really is beautiful and most of the bridges that go over it are nice as well. Our hotel was river front and right on O'Connell street- a steal at 17 euros apiece! (well our room looked like it was an eastern european motif, but that's beside the point!)


This is Temple Bar- a very touristy district full of interesting little shops and tons of bars. It gets pretty crazy here at night, so I'm told, I have yet to go drinking there at night because I'm sure its an arm and a leg. They love to jack up prices of drink in Dublin. But Temple Bar is very pretty with cobblestone streets and flowers on every window.
This is one of the entrances to St. Stephens Green- a large park in the middle of Dublin. Its gorgeous in there, real Disney stuff. It's hard to believe your in the middle of a busy city, its so quiet and green, beautiful lake, nice walkways, its great. Especially beautiful on Tuesday with all the sunshine! (Ive really missed sunshine haha).

Needless to say Dublin was a great idea. We did a little shopping (I went to Ikea, the only one in Ireland, it was fantastic and overdue!) had some good fish and chips, and walked way too much! we ended the evening after a long day with some beer while watching a movie in our hotel- perfect to me! We grabbed an early train back to Limerick on Wednesday and it felt great to be back in our little apartment, even though we were only gone for a day. Just enough time to re-appreciate what i have!

On another note, a good friend of James and I, Linda, had a baby last night! A beautiful little boy named Cian (Irish name, not pronounced as it is spelled, like most Irish names. seriously its ridiculous, that's for another post). He is adorable and Linda looked great, especially for not having any drugs at all!



He is precious and nice too be around but it definitely makes me want to wait for a long time to start having any of these myself!!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Breaking in the Blog

Hello all!

Ive decided now that I've moved to the other side of the Atlantic that I would start chronicling my experiences living as an offical ex-pat. I guess I should start with why I am where I am.




This is me and James, my husband- who is an Irish national. We got married after a 4 year friendship and year relationship. It wasn't a hard decision to make knowing that we wanted to be together, but making the decision to move...not as easy!

I've been living in Ireland, Limerick more specifically for a little over two months now- and while its new and exciting and I feel like I'm learning new things every day, its definately a challenge. Being so far away from home and everything I know, and completely out of any normal routine that I had back in the states has been the biggest challenge. I guess thats part of the growing process and trust me I've got plenty of growing to do!

I'm new to this blog writing process and I hope that you all can bear with me while i work my kinks out and hopefully I will find other things to do here than complain about cold weather and rain!