Sing a-longs and Leprechauns

It took me an entire week (apparently) to recover enough from my trip to Ireland to post about my St Paddy's weekend. And what a weekend it was...

Friday night, I took a roundabout route down to London thanks to a jumper who disrupted the entire rail system during rush hour...yikes. I met up with Angela in King's Cross Station (really wanted/expected to see Harry Potter, no lie) to head to Kensington to watch Matt Andersen play a gig at a small club. Matt is an amazingly talented musician whose family lives about 15 minutes away from mine back in Canada. When there is such a taste of home so far away, I definitely have to indulge. Matt's set was awesome, and it was great to hear his voice.

At godawful early o'clock the next morning, Angela, Heather & I were on our way to Gatwick to catch our flight to Ireland! 3/4 of the way there, Angela realizes she forgot her passport. Oh dear. Heather & I caught our flight while Angela rebooked for a later flight and went home for her passport.

Land, bus ride into the city, walk through the already massive crowds and get some breakfast before checking into our hotel. Heather & I watched some of the parade, went back to the hotel and watched the rest from there to get out of the light rain. We got ready to head out while we waited for Angela, and when she showed up we were ready to take on Dublin.

Found our way to Murray's, a pub around the corner, to watch some rugby, enjoy some drinks and see how the Irish did Paddy's day. (Funny enough, it was mostly tourists that we met throughout the night..)

(PS, how cute am I, all ready to celebrate??)


Vodka, cider, Guinness, rugby, Irish kisses, German kisses and really persistent Italians, Russians and French guys. That sums up how Dublin does Paddy's day. Rather than give an entire run-down of the day, I figure that list pretty much sums it up. We met up with Heather's friends from New Zealand and we all went out for dinner before wandering toward Temple Bar. The streets were so crowded, we couldn't even walk down them, let alone get into a bar. So, we figured it was best to head back toward Murray's, which was playing live music. Angela fell asleep at the table so after she went off to bed, the rest of us wandered back across the river to see what was going on over there--a lot of drunks and more grabbing than I care to remember.

Rounding off the night with some deliciously unhealthy food, Heather & I decided it'd be a good idea to get a couple hours of sleep before flying back to England the next day. When I woke up the next morning, I decided that I shouldn't have bothered with the sleep and should've kept drinking...probably would've felt about the same.

Planes, trains and hangovers later, I was back in England and just in time for another week of work. How lucky I am.

Definite bonus to this week...Mary, Hannah & I booked our Easter holiday! We're taking over Tenerife for a week before I head to Norway for the second part of the break. Only 5 more teaching days to get through until then. Not that I'm counting down or anything.

Go For the Ruins, Stay for the Tear Gas

That pretty much sums up my vacation in Greece. This update is long over-due and so won't rattle off every single detail but will instead just be a summary of the most eventful trip I've taken so far.

We arrived in Athens around 2:30 Sunday morning and headed to bed. Sunday, we wandered around in the rain, exploring Athens and scoping out places we'd like to visit throughout the week. We went to a restaurant where a man (who I'd love to be my grandfather) loved our accents so he kept giving us free food, free wine and telling us to enjoy our stay. After lunch, we started noticing huge crowds of people walking all down some streets toward the same general area. I figured there was a football match or something on...that was until I noticed the riot police. Turns out, there was a huge protest planned that evening against the government and we had front row seats to the action. The police told us to return to our hotel and it would be best if we stayed there for the night. We got supper and started walking back to the hotel. By this time, the protest had started and tear gas had been fired into the crowd to disperse the protesters. So not only were we walking back through mobs of angry Greeks toward our hotel, we then had the tear gas to deal with.

For the rest of the evening, we started hearing the protesters get closer and closer. We went downstairs and were told that no guests were allowed to leave the hotel for security purposes and we were told to go back to our room and it would all blow over in a few hours. Angela, Heather & I spent most of the evening on the balcony, watching the fires be set in the street, looters break into stores, buildings being set on fire and the general chaos in the streets.

The next day, we walked around to look at the damage done during the riots and it was so surreal. We had watched the footage on TV, viewed it from the balcony, and it was still strange to see the damage first-hand. While I completely understand the frustration of the people, it was still heartbreaking to see a little old man cleaning up the smashed glass and rubble from his shop that had been broken into and completely torn apart by people who stole nothing but just wanted to wreak havoc. It was completely senseless in that respect.

Throughout the rest of the trip, we visited the most popular tourist spots in Athens...Acropolis, Parthenon, Temple of Zeus, museums, more ruins, historical sites, and exploring the city in general. The food was absolutely amazing, definitely overindulged in that respect on holiday.

Greece was a really fun holiday...it was sad to see all of the graffiti and destruction going on around the city, but I really enjoyed my time there (tear gas aside) and would like to go back to see some of the Greek islands and other cities. Other things about Greece that I wasn't really expecting...there are so many stray cats and dogs. Literally, they were everywhere. I started naming the cats, really original stuff too...Acropolis Kitty, Athens Kitty, Won't Leave Me Alone At A Restaurant Kitty...so nice. Also, in tourist shops, there is a huge penis fixation. I really don't understand it. There are penis bottle openers, mini statues of men with giant penis', calendars, Greek sex guides, you name it and there is a penis on it. Talk about your family-friendly vacation.

Work has been going well, keeping me incredibly busy. Only two weeks until I go to Ireland for Paddy's day, can't wait! East break is coming up in just a few short weeks, definitely need to figure out a place to go. Hopefully will be going to Norway for a few days to visit with Sarah & Kristian. Let's start another countdown...