St. Patty’s in Ireland

Thank you St. Patrick for doing whatever you did (I think bring Christianity to the Irish?) because we had a fabulous celebration in your honor on Saturday and the day off today!
After a some beer at the pub here on Friday, Rich and I got up early (uargh) and went to the city centre to secure a halfway decent spot for watching the parade. We found a really good one because we were able to look at a really hot guarda (police man) the entire time. Rrrrr! 😀 The costumes in the parade were really spectacular and the weather stayed dry for the most parts (of course not the entire parade but this is Ireland afterall).
After all that standing around we were kind of hungry and wanted to sit for a while so we searched for some not über-crowded restaurant and landed at this Italian place. Food was good and we had a good time even though the waitress kept pushing me in the back to get through the chairs. Hmpf! When we were about to leave, I ran into my co-worker Andreina, which was totally funny. A quick chat with her and her husband and then we were off to the pub.
The atmosphere was awesome, as Ireland had just won a rugby match against Italy and the blokes were fun and I got loads of kisses from Irish guys as it’s supposed to be on St. Patty’s. Only on the cheeks of course! 🙂 Met some weird American guys and since they gave me such a weird gut feeling we soon left and went to the pub next door where we met up with my other co-worker Anna. She was there with a crowd of people and we hung out there for a while, while enjoying some more Irish beer.
From there we walked arond the city for a while – in the rain of course. Then had some McDonalds (I’ve eaten sooo much McDonald’s these past two weeks, it’s not even funny anymore). Walked to yet another pub for yet another glass of Guinness and then took the bus home. Long day! But oh so much fun!
I have to say, Dublin really grew on me this past weekend. The pub culture is so nice and people are super approachable and easy going – sooo totally not German.

In other news…
some funny coincidences from this week:
– I was emailing with someone at another affiliate and she passed my email on to someone called Charlotte Mecklenburgh. Are you kidding me?! #1
– I was flipping through the program of the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day parade and something cought my eye. On second glance it turned out that the marching band of Charlotte Catholic High (from Charlotte, NC) played in the parade here in Dublin. Are you kidding me?! #2
– I received an email from my ex in Charlotte this weekend, which in itself is super rare. Later that same day, we enter a restaurant and the first waiter we see is called – you guessed it – Massimo. Are you kidding me?! #3

That phone interview the other day aparently wasn’t as bad as I had thought it was and they wanted me to fly out to Germany for a real interview next week. Well, thankfully after they realized how much the flights are ~700€ since it’s such short notice they’re just gonna invite me to the assessment center next month. Very happy about that as it would have been super stressful with flying out at 6am and getting back at 11pm and having my family over the next day. So yay lucky me! Though it would have been 4000 frequent flyer miles and a chance to stock up on cheap groceries ;-).

Your favorite travel bug has also booked some cheap tickets to fly to London, England in May. I’m so excited! Gotta love Ryan Air’s deals. I’m paying 25€ for the tickets plus 5€ for paying with credit card and then 12€ for checking in a bag. And that’s to Gatwick and not some far away airport! Weheeee! Now I just have to book a hostel bed (oh yeah I’m still young for another 3 months so I might as well behave like it!). Have never been in the city, just at its airports so I’m really excited to see it! Woohooo! 🙂

My friend Rich left this morning and I did today was relaxing, reading, watching Sex and the City and more relaxing and just enjoying some privacy and space. Had meant to get going on these loads of laundry and cleaning everything up here but oh well. Tomorrow’s another day. Plus I was too gready to pay the 3€ for washing and then 3€ for drying. Eh! This country is so ridiculously expensive!

Oh yeah, yesterday we had meant to go to the shore but it started to snow storm and so we didn’t really feel like doing that anymore. Went to town instead and wanted to walk around some museum (cause it’s what you do when you’re a tourist and it’s raining) but after seaking refuge from the snow storm at Burger King (I refused to go to McDonalds again) and a book store it was too late. Instead we found a great Asian store and I was able to pick up some cool things that can go into my lunch box. Ha! Yay! Good dinner at home then and then just some chatting and Rich packed his suitcase.

Hope you all have a great week!