Leaving for Amsterdam today!

Johnny and Edwin are here visiting. We had an exciting, tourist-filled weekend, now we're heading off to Amsterdam for 2 days then another 2 days in London! Can't wait! I'll write more about our weekend in Dublin and our 2 trips when I return. Slán!

Apache Pizza!

These are a chain of pizza shops around the city of Dublin, similar to Domino's. The only reason I'm writing about this pizza shop is because Google struck a deal with them that anytime you walk in and show your Google badge, you get 50% off your entire order! 50%!! This isn't one of those wimpy perks where you spend $40 and get an extra 10% off, this is a serious, bona fide deal! You walk in, show your badge, BOOM! 50% off! This can get dangerous. I've eaten here twice for dirt cheap already, but I'll have to save this place for after a night of drinking ;)

Malahide Castle

Malahide Castle. Lot's of green grass we could finally walk on!

Inside Malahide Castle. Is that a ghost!? or a blurry shot from my camera as I quickly pulled it out to take a picture as we were moving to the next room!? I don't know!?

From the dining room. The lady guiding the tour said this was the spot where "Puck" killed himself because he fell asleep at his post and the castle was attacked. Unfortunately, the website tells a different story about "Puck" so I am confused.

So I wasted away Saturday. My day didn't start until 4pm. I hit up the gym and made my way downtown to do some shopping. I got the movie Beerfest so I can watch it with my German coworker who I will be going to Munich with (still need to book tickets). I wanted to show her America's perception of Germans, hahaha! Yeeow martini!!!

Sunday I decided to go see Malahide Castle. Lucy came along too. She made us miss the train, so we had to wait 40 minutes for the next one (told you I would blog that Lucy)! No problem, we just played table tennis at the office to kill time. Hot tea and table tennis don't go together, fyi.

I was sorta excited about visiting this place since I wanted to visit it the first time I was in Ireland but couldn't find the time. Before I left for the castle, I did some research and found out there were several ghosts who haunted the castle! Yay, ghosts! After about a 40 minute DART ride, we arrived in Malahide. The castle was a mile or two away, which was a nice walk. Saw a cricket game in progress. We stopped and took a picture. Watched for a minute. Had no idea what they were doing. Then moved on.

The castle was pretty big with lots of green fields around it. We bought our tickets inside (I purchased a "student" pass thanks to my handy Berkeley student card which I will never let go of!), then we waited for the tour. We weren't allowed to take pictures in any part of the castle, buuuut... we did anyway! What can I say, I wanted to see a ghost! The tour was an audio tour and took about 30 minutes. 3 rooms downstairs, a flight of stairs, some bedrooms aaaand we're done! I was sorta let down. It reminded me of the Carrick-a-Rede bridge, "Is that it?" hahaha. Oh well, still nice to see!

We walked around downtown Malahide for an hour or so after that, then headed back. It was a pleasant day and I had a good time.

Brian's going away & my birthday!

See you in July Brian!

All lined up.

Good man, Ed!

Samichlaus. 14% alcohol. Gross.

Me at Bull and Castle. Not enjoying my Samichlaus.

So this past weekend was Brian's going away lunch and my birthday! Woohooo! Most of the office were on the European ski trip in the Austrian Alps which I couldn't go on since I didn't sign up in time. Booo! No matter, Friday we had champagne with our Google lunch to celebrate Brian's departure to Mountain View, oh and my birthday as well! My coworkers surprised me with a small cake that morning! All 7 of them, which included billing and payments, sang me happy birthday soon after I put my things down. It was really nice and unexpected!

I rounded up as many people as I could for Friday night. Luckily Google still had happy hour, with all 3 coolers stocked with beer for about 40 people, hahaha. Yvonne and David had a few with me then David and I went back to my place for a few more rounds of Guiness. Lucy, the Bejing ambassador, met up with us too and we headed out to a pub called Bull and Castle. They are known for having a large variety of beer from all over the world. I chose wisely with my first one, though I don't remember what it was called. Ed was there with a few lads, then finally Catherine showed up! She ordered me a Samichlaus, the world's strongest beer! It contained 14% alcohol, similar to drinking 4 bud lights! It was disgusting, but I knew I had to drink it! hahaha. I think I only finished half, but by that time things were getting hazy, pictures were getting blurry and voices were getting louder!

We headed off to Sine after that, which was a club with a big bar up top and a nice downstairs dance floor. We spent the rest of the night here until about 3am then got some nice Indian food to top everything off. I thought it was the best chicken tiki masala I've ever had. I no longer think that, but it was really good then! hahaha. 430am, crashed. It was a proper night!

Traveling coming up!

I have sooo much to see while I am here! Here's what I have planned:

Amsterdam: Chips with mayonnaise and space cakes! Mmmmm
London: Tea and crumpets and double decker buses
Stockholm: Heard it's a blast. The only thing I know about this city is from what I saw in "Getaway in Stockholm"
Munich: Meine Angelausruestung ist in der Kueche. Translation: My fishing equipment is in the kitchen. I plan to learn that line in every language!
Edinburgh: "I like scotch... scotch scotch scotch"
Barcelona: Que bueno! Es muy caro para un billete de avion, pero no es un problema!

I've seen a lot of Dublin and Ireland, including Galway and Belfast. Maybe I'll check out Cork if I stay in Ireland for a weekend, but it's not on the to-do list.

Viewing my pictures

I'll post my pics in my Picasa web album. You can click here or this link http://picasaweb.google.com/lanejason

Belfast

Royal Ave. with lots of shopping I didn't do.

Police cars in Belfast are covered in armor. Behind are the political murals which line the walls on Falls Road.

Sinn Fein building. HQ for the old Republican political wing of the provisional IRA, who are longer an active terrorist organization.

Ghan and I at the peace wall. Good Friday, 1998 was when the peace treaty was signed. Only a decade ago!

Last weekend I went to Belfast with Ghan who is another Mountain View ambassador visiting Dublin this quarter. It was a short trip, leaving Saturday afternoon (was supposed to be Saturday morning, but Friday turned out to be a big night for the two of us) and returning Sunday evening. I have to admit though, it was the most planned, unplanned trip I have ever done!

We left the Bus Eireann station at 1pm and arrived 3 hours later in Belfast. Belfast is in north Ireland and is considered to be part of the UK. We learned that quickly since our Euro's were useless and had to find an ATM machine to get pound sterling. We arrived with no place booked to spend the night, but we had our eyes set on the International Youth hostel on the lower end of the city. When we got there, there were no vacancies. We asked for other hostels close by, but the guy at the counter said if they didn't have vacancies, none of the hostels would have vacancies! Things sounded grim, since we didn't want to throw down a lot of money on a hotel, but we grabbed a city guide book and started calling all the hostels in the city. One by one they were all booked. Finally we had one hostel left to call and they had 2 beds available in a 20 bed room! Success! We took it, but the hostel was at the other end of the city. No matter, we walked the 30 minutes to get there (taking some shady streets along the way) and walked into the Linen House hostel. I liked this place. Clean rooms and plenty of showers and bathrooms, though the lighting was pretty bad. The guy at the front desk was super nice and informative. We booked our rooms for only £6.50! Then he set up a black cab tour of the city for us and we also arranged for a pick up there for a tour of the Giant's Causeway, Bushmills distillery and the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bride which we purchased earlier at the International Youth hostel.

I was excited we had everything booked now! We had an hour to kill before our cab tour so we walked to grab a pint and found out we were only a block away from Royal Ave. which had all the shopping and the quickest route to the bars! It was great. We returned from the city tour which turned out to be more interesting than I expected it to be. A lot of history behind the Republicans and Loyalists. There are murals scattered around the city recognizing both sides, plaques to remember those who died and a peace wall which still divides the two sides. Everyone recommended this tour and now I know why. I probably wouldn't have ventured off to these parts of the city without our tour guide, Bobby. My coworkers also thought I was crazy taking pictures of some of the places which I did, including the Sinn Fein building!

Nonetheless, our tour ended with our driver dropping us off at the city's oldest bars called The Crown. We ate dinner here. The food was hearty. I tried to get as much vegetables as possible, but that wasn't happening. I ordered the chicken with chips, assuming it would be the healthiest meal (fish and chips, beef stew, Irish beef were my other options), but it turned out to be covered in cheese with a slab of bacon underneath it. Also my chips were drowning in garlic butter. Peas and carrots were there too and I made sure I ate them all, though I don't know how many more meals I can eat like this!

After dinner it was go time. Our night was long, expensive and ridiculous! Ghan is a great travel companion. We found out Bushmills was only £2.60, so we ended up drinking a lot of those either on ice (me) or neat (Ghan).

The Giant's Causeway. Lot's of hexagon shaped rocks.

Me climbing the rocks! Rocks are fun.

Carrick-a-Rede bridge. Used by salmon fisherman to reach a small island fishery. Now it doubles as a tourist trap!

"Is that it?" Wish we spent more time at Bushmills.

Bushmills distillery! MmmmMmmm.

We woke up at 8am the next day and got ready for a 9am pick up for the mini coach tour. We left the city at 9:30am and returned just before 7pm! A 9.5 hour tour! Ugh, it was tiresome, but the Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede bridge and Bushmills were all worth it. I even picked up a bottle of Bushmills 12 year which you can only buy at the distillery. MmmMmmmmm! You can read the links about each site, but to sum it up the Giant's Causeway was a really good hike and had a lot of naturally shaped hexagon rocks to climb. The Carrick-a-Rede bridge was a total tourist trap, but the weather was perfect and had some great views. Finally, Bushmills was awesome! You can smell the whiskey from the parking lot. Too bad we only got a half hour there.

As we got back to city center we had minutes to spare to get to the bus station so we could catch the 7pm bus home (since all the buses leave on the hour). We ran out of the tour bus and towards the station, making the 7pm ride home! Another 3 hours later we were back in Dublin! I don't think it could have worked out any better!

Irish Lingo

I started to pick up some Gaelic from my coworker Ed. Here is what I know so far:

"Pog ma hon" which means "kiss my ass"
"Ta tu go halainn" (pronounced taw two guh haul-inn) which means "you are beautiful"

These two phrases seem to be doing me just fine here, though Ed is now hesitant about teaching me anymore!

Twinkies!

I brought Twinkies to the office. No one on our team has had them before. I brought 2 boxes with 10 in each box. In 2 days only 4 were left. I didn't eat any, but it was great to see my coworkers enjoying them! Gonna have Johnny or Edwin bring some malt liquor as well when they visit. No one has had that here either! Mmmm Colt 45.

My Apt

My bed (which looks directly into the office)

The shower

Finally I arrived in Dublin and I'm super excited to be here! I've been here before so I know where to go, what to say and how to tip. Plus everyone speaks English here, so it's all good. When I landed, I lucked out and got a Mercedes taxi from the aiprort... sweet as! The driver looked back and said he had me in his cab before. I let him think he did. I should really start playing the Nic Cage card more often and see if I can get away with it, like in Argentina!

After I got my keys from security, it was a bit awkward when I first walked into my apartment. I made a loud knock, then I entered. I see shoes on the ground, so I knew someone was there. Then I turned the corner and some dude was passed out on the couch! Hahaha. DUDE ON THE COUCH! I took a look in the rooms and no one was in either room, so I sorta woke the guy up and said, "Hi, I'll be your roommate for th next 3 months!" We chatted briefly then I let him go back to sleeping on the couch. His name was Ryan, that's all I got, but he turned out to be a cool guy. There was also 3 empty pizza boxes in the kitchen. I definitely knew I can get along with this guy!

The apartment itself was immaculate! Maids come every Tuesday to clean and change our sheets. It's a great deal, and it's only a 2 minute walk to work! I don't even have to shower at the gym anymore. I just walk home, shower, then head back to work! Ahhh, most excellent. My shower is a bit awkward though. There is a single piece of glass covering only half the tub. No sliding door to cover th other half so water just sprays onto the ground. An odd European design.

My Arrival

Catherine was aroused by a quiver running from the nape of her neck, down her spine, through her arms and out to her fingertips. Her sleeve was pushed up as she awoke from slumber. Her eyes dismissed her newly painted black fingernails, glimmering in the Dublin April morning. Rather, they were interested in the light brown arm hairs contagiously standing up. She knew, at that moment... Jason had arrived.