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September 20 Western Ireland - Dingle & Slea Head DriveThis was my favorite part of the trip - the Dingle area of County Kerry is absolutely amazing! I felt like I was in "real Ireland" when we arrived at our gorgeous B&B the "Pax House". It was a perfect location just atop a hill overlooking Dingle and the Kerry Penninsula. Our host couldn't have been friendlier and their adorable dog Rio was excited for us to arrive and start playing a game of fetch. :) The views on the website are exactly how it looks!
The town of Dingle is just quintessential adorable Irish village with multi-colored houses nestled against rolling hills and set in a gorgeous harbor. Their is supposedly a very large dolphin that lives in the harbor year round named Funghi but due to the weather we weren't interested in going out on a boat.
After a nice dinner our with some live music and a fair number of pints and whiskey's for my sister's boyfriend we headed back to the B&B for a good night's sleep - it was so quiet and the beds were very comfortable.
The next day we spent a full day taking our time around the Slea Head Drive - the gorgeous drive around the Dingle Penninsula and I would definitely recommend it. The driving is not that bad, a few windy roads along cliffs but the other drivers were quite polite and as compared to other drives I've done it wasn't the worst. The views were definitely worth it. Turquoise waters that looked like Hawaii were everywhere! PHOTOS: View from the B&B  Western View from the B&B
 Donkey's at the Irish Famine Cottages and animal park
 View along the Slea head drive
 Amazing beach - my favorite spot on the whole trip! Daigun I think it was called.
    Western Ireland Trip - Aran Islands (Inish Mor)After a peaceful night in Doolin with views of cow pastures from our window and a lovely breakfast we headed out on a blustery morning to catch the ferry to Inish Mor. The parking at the ferry dock was FREE (nice!) and the trip cost us €50 round-trip for 2 people - a bit pricy IMO. We waited in the rain which looking back should have been a forshadowing of the events to come. The boat arrived and we loaded aboard what seemed like a small fishing boat.
WARNING - Unless you've got major sea legs DO NOT take the ferry from Doolin to the Aran Islands. It's an hour+ trip to Inish Mor (it's the furthest island) and we later found out that taking the boat from Doolin is known as the bumpiest ride as you hit the Atlantic going against the tide in essentially unprotected waters. I grew up around boats and water but this was the worst ride I've ever had. In our party of 4 3/4 of us were sick - 1 of us lost their breakfast - and the others spent the journey holding off seasickness.
Was it worth it? For sure - Inish mor is absolutely gorgeous and it feels like you are stepping back in time with ancient rock walls all over the island and the very cool prehistoric fort Dun Angus.
We stayed at the Pier House guest house which was okay - more like a hotel than a B&B but the location was ideal...just a few steps from the harbor.
I would recommend renting bikes for sure!! the ride is pretty easy and there is very low car traffic on the island. My sister and her boyfriend did the biking and we took a horse and buggy ride which was fantastic but pricey.
PHOTOS:
The B&B
         Western Ireland Trip - Dublin & DoolinMy sister and her boyfriend Greg recently visited Ireland - They were our first visitors and we couldn't have been happier to show them around this beautiful country.
We started out the visit in Dublin with pints of Guinness, a tour around town, and the very popular "burger joint" (I think it was the Gourmet Burger Company) of which there are many versions in Dublin.
The next day we headed off for Western Ireland hitting the Burren and the Cliffs of Moore and getting very lucky with weather. A tip about Ireland - if the weather is nice go for it and do those things you want to do outside!!
Around 6 PM we arrived in Doolin in County Clare where we stayed for the night. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and pints at the asolutely packed O'Connors pub. After dinner, we found traditional Irish music that would make our Dad proud (he plays traditional Irish music at home).
Monolithic Tomb in the Burren
Cliffs of Moore
Doolin!
Mussels at O'Connors
August 16 Ireland, update...8 months 23 days in!My goodness, even on a rainly island the summer goes by quickly! I can't believe the the last entry on my blog was in APRIL! That is really shocking, so of course an update is in order, even just for my own personal records of life in Ireland.
After 8 months 23 days here in the Republic, how do I feel about things? I think the people in Ireland are lovely and it's very beautiful here, but sometime the day to day life can still be a challenge in terms of finding amenaties food stuffs, missing friends and family and just simply coping with living abroad. On he positive side, the travel opportunities are outstanding and I love what I do at Microsoft and the people I work with are supportive, smart, challenging in a good way, and just a really wonderful team in general. I've also made some good girlfriends, who, in addition to my positive thinking husband, really help me make through the weeks - I am lucky!
Some of our travels recently have included Italy, Prague, Berlin, Trim Castle in county Meath, Belfast & the Northern Coast Line, and the Wicklow Mountains.
Prague
 On the walk to the Giant's Causeway
 Giants Causeway - Northern Ireland
We did buy a car here and that has helped a great deal with getting around so I might be inching towards making life better. Of course, though, the car has some problems which is just a pain. The dealership is going to fix everything for free but the car gets horrible gas mileage which I did not know and I think it's worse due to some problems with the transmission.
My sister is coming in less than 2 weeks and we are both counting the days. We are going to take a trip over to Western Ireland to Doolin, Dingle area, and the Aran Islands and we'll get to show her and her boyfriend "our Dublin". That gives me a lot to be happy about!
April 10 Oh the dreaded IMMERSION!Do you know what the immersion means in Ireland? Well I certainly didn't...and unfortunately we learned our lesson the hard way. What is the immersion? Well it's the way the Irish heat their water because guess what? They don't have the luxury of just having hot water ready to go all the time and you have to pay a premium to heat it up, so homes have what's called an "immersion" with a switch that gets turned on when you want to have really hot water. Of course we did not know this and only discovered it after we received a 400 Euro electrical bill!!!! Upon calling the electricity company they asked if lI eft on the immersion and through logical deduction we figured out that was where we had gone wrong...the girl on the phone said with a warning in her voice "well now that would be it then, that's the most expensive thing ya know". When I told my coworkers they all started laughing as it's a thing here from their childhoods of always being told to turn off the immersion or being accused of leaving it on too long. I guess I really a spoiled brat coming from the land of hot water on demand!! Here's a video of an Irish American who decided to move to Ireland and learn Irish while finding his roots and his comedy routine around the "Immersion" is hilarious!
Talking about YouTube - Des Bishop's Immersion Routine March 07 Getting a drivers license in Ireland!One of the reasons I felt I had to update my blog was to share out some information about getting your drivers license in Ireland. I have started to realize that not having a car here is very frustrating and I would at least like to have the option next year. To do this however I would need to take a written test which in Ireland is divided into various categories. The license for driving a regular car is in the same category as guess what?? Tractors and Work Vehicles...that's real normal! I consider myself quite decent at taking tests, especially when you can order a CD ROM (yeah it's old school) of all the test questions and essentially memorize them. However, it's the next step that is more disturbing as this is what happens once I get my Learners license:
So - am I supposed to bribe friends here to go driving with me so I actually practice driving in Ireland? I mean I suppose the way to do it is to rent a car as often as possible when I can still drive on my US license (which I can only do for 12 months) and then hope that I get to take the driving test really soon after that so driving on the WRONG side of the road (in my brain) will be easier.
Oh and I forgot to mention - The wait time can be 10 months before you can actually take your driving test and this is after you've had your learners permit for 6 months!!!
I've neglected this blog...So apparently since the trip to Paris I have been really neglecting this blog. I've decided to just use this blog to focus on key information people might need/want if they are moving from the States to Ireland. So, it might it end being a bit on the dry side for friends and family but I promised myself I would create this blog to make sure other people considering moving to Ireland or moving here would have a place to find information from someone who has made the move!
January 14 Weekend Trip to Paris One of the many reasons Ireland was so appealing as a destination was our ability to galavant around Europe but who would have thought we'd have the chance to do it less than 2 months after arriving in Dublin! This last weekend, J and I had our first "European Vacation" to Paris.
The pictures:
The Story:
The trip & first evening
Leaving at around 4PM on Thursday evening via bus that goes directly to the airport (well with many stops within the city) from right outside my office we took off from Dublin Aiport at 6:15 and were in Paris by 8:45 and that's with an hour time difference so flight time was only an hour and twenty minutes. Is that crazy or what? It took us a bit of time to find our way around the RER train system and get to our hotel, Hotel Argenson in the 8e. After we were greeted by warm and welcoming primarily french speaking staff and tossed the bags (all carry on!) we headed off to find food at 10:30 at night, actually harder than you would think in a fairly non-touristy part of town. Something I love about Paris, even this fairly mediocre eatiery offered an amuse-bouche, amazing bread, and a wine chiller attached to the table. The rest of the meal wasn't fantastic but it was food and only hours before we had been at home. I kept feeling like I was missing something - that feeling of utter exhaustion that I have always felt in Paris or other European cities, but this time I was only a wee bit tired from a day at the office. I suddenly had this realization that running of to Paris just for dinner wasn't something out of our reach...
Day 1 Our hotel was a bit noisy as we later figured out that we were directly over a bakery kitchen but we slept in a bit on Friday and started out the day by making our way towards the Arc de Triomphe. Walking in Paris even in the cold is just great fun and I had forgotten the scale of things there - the endless seeming stretch that is the Champs Elysees and then the Arc capping it all off at the grand roundabout. There were still some tourists around but almost all of them were European or, amazingly enough, French. We even stumbled upon the Peugeot store and where we both drooled over the concept cars and we bought a pretty, pretty red pepper mill for half the price it would be anywhere else. At the end of the Champs after the underground tunnel walk, J got his first glimpse of the sprawl of Paris and the Eiffel tower on the top of the Arc. As far as I can remember this is the first time I went up as well.
We continued our tour "a pied" and made our way down to the Seine tracking the Eiffel Tower as we quickly made our way across the river. We ended up finding a bite to eat in a nice little Brasserie that if it were one floor up would have an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower. Bellies full of smoked salmon salad with avocado, oranges, and grapfruit (me) and traditional steack frites as well as a pichet of Rose we walked on a few more blocks to come across the glorious tower. It looked so amazingly beautiful with the crisp blue backdrop of the Paris sky, an almost fake looking dusting of snow, and the lack of tourists made it seem more real. Our wait in line to go up was only about 20 minutes and we took advantage of the time with snapshots (waiting in line = -great opportunity to just take pictures of yourself!). The weather put a slight kink in our plans as we couldn't go all the way to the top because of ice. It was smack you in the face cold even on the 2nd level but the views were incredible. We topped off the day with a wonderful meal at Les Cocottes, one of Christian Constant's 4 Paris restaurants, this one being the less expensive and more rustic style where everything is served in a cast iron pot of some sort. Day two:
I seriously think we walked 5 miles on our first day in Paris so Saturday morning we started the day out on a Metro trip (not to mention that this is something that I had on J's must see list) and headed to Montmartre. Again, not too many tourists and I had forgotten, or just didn't know as I was there as a high school student and probably could have cared less, that the area is spattered with adorable little shops (where things are, yes believe it, cheaper than Dublin due to the high tax here) so of course we did a bit of shopping. Montmartre was what I remember: picturesque painters, cobblestone winding streets atop a hill in Paris, and of course the white glory of Sacre Coeur. Photoshoots, lunch including a croque monsieur (without the ham), piano bar, and the buying of a warmer hat for me is the quick summary of our Paris mountaintop excursion.
Next up was another must see of Paris - Notre Dame. Along the way we meanedered through Le Marais (even though I'm not sure we ever got to the heart of it) and I got the crepe I had been craving the whole day. Notre Dame was still dressed up for Christmas with roasted chestnuts available nearby and of course a bird lady. Saturday night we returned to our favorite Les Cocottes so J could get what he had originally intended to get the first night...see photos for the scoop. January 06 Irish Breakfast...at the office!
I couldn't resist posting a quick note here about how awesome it is to have breakfast at work! Back in the States I always ate breakfast at home, usually over my inbox to prepare for the day. But, with the outstanding canteen (that's cafeteria here in Ireland) offerings at the office how can I resist but to check my mail in the Atrium while enjoying freshly cooked poached eggs, brown bread, and sautéed mushrooms? All for the low, low price of 2 Euro! Add to that the fact that doing so allows me to leave no dishes at home or sweat over the stove in the dark morning preparing my own breakfast. For those that enjoy pastry there is a huge selection and another favourite of mine is the hearty, warming, perfectly cooked porridge or, I almost forget, the yogurt bar stocked full of fresh fruit and nuts to sprinkle atop your creamy Irish yogurt. December 29 First Christmas in IrelandFirst of all - I have to say thank goodness for Marks & Spencers. We had a lovely meal that we ordered from them and it was delicious with minimal work and clean up...perfect for our first Christmas here and honestly a tradition I think we'll keep up! there was enough food for at least 4 dinners and trimmings left to use for New Year's eve.
 Even though J & I were both sick we managed to get each other some really nice gifts coming in within budget. We are also treating ourselves to a trip to Paris for christmas the 8th-11th of January - YIPPEE!!
We also had a great time on Christmas day talking to family and friends in the states with our web cam and Skype! Having that technology really makes it so much easier to stay in touch with folks. This is not an easy time to relocate to a new country so having ways for us to stay connected really makes life better. December 25 Christmas Eve on Grafton Street!Well, I didn't get mulled wine but I did get myself a nice hot whiskey which everyone had been telling me to have so I feel I've done something at least someone traditionally Irish here in Dublin. Even though J was coughing up a lung with the flu he had one more gift to get so we decided to enjoy a bit of Grafton street together and grabbed the luas into town which was packed with families going to Christmas lunch, women on their way to meet friends, and people with their gifts in hand, it was very cool. The streets of downtown Dublin were packed as most people either didn't ha work or skipped out of work early like me. We got ourselves a little Christmas gift - a much needed stereo which would allow us to play all the music we have on our laptop and it was even sale at the Philips store! We stopped off at a pub for a bite to eat and my "hot Christmas drink" and got lucky to even find a table. On the way back to Grafton people were standing in the streets having a drink outside of many pubs and cafes as the places were that packed. It was very cool to see everyone in the Christmas spirit.
Here are a couple photos: 
December 24 Ready for the holidays!Well, it's extremely quiet here in Building 3. I've come into work today essentially for a half day so that I could return our rental car and I have to admit I'm sad to see it go. After the initial fear of driving on the wrong side of the road (based on everything I knew about driving) I actually got quite used to it and have been thinking more and more: I WANT A CAR. But, my husband keep setting me straight and reminding me that we didn't want a car so that we could a) get more exercise b) save money c)not have to get an Irish drivers license which I hear takes like a year and d) live a more carefree carfree life. Those are all well and good but I still want a car which is pathetic as we live right on the LUAS line and I barely even have to walk 10 minutes to get the train to work and 2 minutes to the building once I'm at the end of the line so NO I will not be getting a car anytime soon.
With strong encouragement from my manager I took off early yesterday from the office and headed straight to Grafton street for shopping. I was so pleased to actually find some wonderful gifts for J especially since he's the only person I'm buying gifts for this year and I hadn't found much until last evening. I also met up with a really sweet girl who I met at the American's in Dublin Meet-up group and had a lovely chat over a bottle of rose and french goat cheese salad (my favorite!). At last I felt like it was Christmas time as with being sick over the last week and in a new country I wasn't really feelin' the Christmas vibe. But, once those gifts were in hand I definitely got the little holiday buzz going.
I'm not sure what we'll do today but I'm dead set on finding myself some mulled wine and Christmas cheer somewhere around Dublin...the Irish sure to love Christmas time and I'm lucky to be living in the heart of the city!
December 19 Views from the new apartmentOur new place has a wonderful balcony *not that we get to be out there much now in the wind and rain * but since we're on the top floor we have some nice views from the big windows!
  Look - there's a water view! (haha - zoomed in!)
 We got the apartment in Milltown...sorry late entry!I realized that this blog is a bit out of date so I should put the news up that we did land the apartment in Milltown that we wanted in Mount Saint Anne's. I am so happy with this apartment as it has old world character and charm but modern design and furniture inside. It's a lovely 2 bedroom place on the top floor so we fell like we're in a tree house. There's even a neighbor cat that comes to visit which is wonderful.
We are still digging out of the huge volumes of stuff we had shipped from the US. For goodness sake - I shipped 15 towels and 10 additional beach towels, I mean come on, what was I thinking I would be doing here - sunbathing? I'm really not sure what was going through my mind but at this point I'm just trying to figure out where to put them all. If we didn't have 2 bedrooms I'd be out of luck in terms of storing my cloths (or actually my husband would) and we would be drowning in towels. Not to mention that our apartment came with bedding and we brought our own so we'll never have a cold night with the amount of blankets we have. November 30 Successful driving in Ireland!After fretting over driving for the last week and thinking I wouldn't be able to handle it, I drove from Dublin to Kildare today! My original plan of just practicing around the block went with the wind due to my need to get out of the city. After plotting out a trip to Kildare as it was supposed to be "in the country" we figured out our way to the M50 and headed out of town. The round-a-bouts turned out to be not as scary as anticipated and we made our way to Kildare. Because it was a Sunday we got lucky and traffic was nonexistant. Kildare was a sweet little town and very picturesque but it was very quiet due to the day. There was a nice visitor center - closed. We walked around a bit bundled up in the bitter cold (temperature = freezing) and found most cafes and pubs closed so we decided to head out to find another village to grab a bite in.
Me - we made it Funny statement Kildare Visitors Center
What did we find instead? An OUTLET MALL of all things right there in the Irish countryside with views of old stone walls and sheep in the distance. We had a nice lunch at the only restaurant there (Italian food) and the best coffee I've had since we've been here. Although tempted by a very reasonably priced Le Crueset fire red teapot, we made it out of there without any bags in hand. They even had parking attendents who helped you pull into and out of your parking spot by blocking traffic....a nice touch.
November 29 Apartment Hunting in Dublin - Milltown, Ranelagh, DundrumYesterday we had an exhausting day of apartment hunting - but I was so happy to have that finally be our agenda for the day after litteraly fantastizing about apartments for MONTHS. All the places we had seen on Daft.ie were at last at our fingertips. We saw a number of places and fell in love with one and in "like" with another.
The one we're in love with is in the Mount Saint Anne's development which has a private LUAS station, is close to a few shops, and only a 15 minute walk to Ranelagh or 3 minutes on the LUAS. This particular building is an old school house that has been refurbished and we're hoping to get the penthouse (1 of only 2) which is the top floor with a wrap around deck, floor to ceiling windows in the living room/kitchen that has an open floor plan. It's an absolutely amazing place that feels warm and inviting with view of Dublin & the hillsides. The deal is that this place would normally cost 2000 Euro but due to the market we are hoping to get it for 1600 just above our original price range. Fingers crossed we'll hear something today.
We ended the day with a pint!
November 27 One week in!So, I'm one week into life here in Dublin and things are moving along quite smoothly. After applying for my PPS # last week it arrived in the mail today, which is a nice turn around. I also got thing set up for direct deposit so that I can be on the December 5th payroll here, just in time to fork out a lot of doh-ray-me for an apartment I'm sure. We are set to view a load of apartments tomorrow afternoon and I cannot WAIT. I am desperate to settle in and have a place to call 'my own'. Even my office is temporary right now so I don't exactly feel settled. But, on the positive side everyone is so helpful and welcoming and my Microsoft badge started working today so I can get around the buildings without an escort.
Today is Thanksgiving in the US so it feels a bit funny to be here. Later today I'm going to watch my sister via Skype prepare the turkey at home and say hi to the family. November 22 PPS, Immigration Bureau & BankWe spent today taking care of administrative errands such as PPS, Immigration, and Bank accounts. I learned a few things:
1) Be prepared to wait to get your resident card - the students get let in at 9:00 so be sure to get there first. Today, they stopped giving out tickets by 11AM and we were there for 4 hours total. This card is your ID card for Ireland and also allows a spouse to be here legally on their spouses Greencard. It costs 150 Euro each and has to be renewed once a year.
2) It is very difficult to get a Credit Card in Ireland - it's not a usual "credit history" check but is all based on your history with the bank in Ireland. So, they said they would "try" but I shouldn't count on it. Pretty frustrating.
3) PPS = Social Security Number in the US. Note: If you don't work for Microsoft you will need your PPS # before you can get a bank account, Bank of Ireland makes special arrangements for MS employees. It takes about a week to get your PPS # so do that immediately after arriving so that you can get your bank account. We made it!Since accepting this job in July - my hubby and I have FINALLY made it to Dublin. It's so hard to believe that we finally made it that honestly it doesn't feel real yet. I think it will sink in when we're still here in 3 weeks and we aren't going home. Right now it just feels like a vacation. We had outstanding flight over in British Air "World Traveller Plus" that has extra leg room and wider seats, all of our luggage made it here (and we weren't charged overweight charges...not sure why) and we have a great temporary apartment litterally 1 block from Microsoft.
Obviously, since I'm writing this at 2AM I am still experiencing some jet lag which I thought I had kicked by being able to sleep last night, but reality is telling me differently. November 18 Ready to pack!The long awaited packing is finally here! I am so thrilled to finally be packing and leaving TOMORROW for Ireland. These past few weeks have been amazing spending extra time with family and friends and sinking my teeth into my new job in Ireland...although remotely. I am looking forward to the trip and to finding a new home in Dublin. |
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