Ireland, Dublin Part 2!

While at the cathedral I stumbled upon an very, very old copy of Handel's Messiah from 1798. Having been a music geek all my life and having sung this in many a concert I was a bit excited :)

After my cousin's fabulous concert we had a bit of time to kill before meeting our friends Colleen and Erin, who just happen to all be in Dublin :).  As we walked through the streets of Dublin what do we stumble upon?.... The Leprechaun Museum! !!!!!!!! Okay so it sounds cool but overall I would give it a 5 out of 10 rating. The coolest part was the furniture room in which they had oversized furniture, to give you the feeling that you were a leprechaun.  

 Giant table!

We also very much enjoyed the picture place at the end of the tour haha.

From there, we met up with our Massachusetts friends ( Erin and Colleen) at The Auld Dubliner. It had such a great atmosphere. And fun live music. If the video had come out better I would share. But for now just imagine that guy with the Irish brogue strumming his guitar and his buddy playing the drums, singing Galway girl and you get the idea ;).
The crazy thing about Ireland at this time of year is how late it stays light. We had dinner reservation @ 9 and it was still very light out, so it only felt like it was 7. We had dinner at this fun place called Mongolian BBQ . We all loved it! Very much like Fire + Ice back in the States. You build your own plate of raw veggies and meat, then add whatever spices and sauce you want on it. Hand it to the chef and they grill it right in front of you. Soooo tasty!
While we were there, there happen to also be a a Rugby team from France, joining in on the feast. Most of them spoke very little English but decided that us American's must how to work this whole Mongolian BBQ thing. So a couple asked us what we put into our concoctions and we pointed to what we used. While others felt we needed their input and decided to start throwing random food into our bowls. In the end it all came out delicious.
Realizing we had about an hour and a half drive to our hotel and it was almost 11, Jon and I thought it best to head to the car. We said our goodbyes and heading toward the garage.
Funny thing was.....we couldn't remember where we parked the car! We are always so good about remembering landmarks and such but this time I think we were so hungry for breakfast that we totally forget to look when leaving. While wandering up and down the streets (30 minutes later) a large group of people come screaming and shouting out of a pub into the street and then this happened:

After listening for about 15 minutes, we sadly had to continue our search for the car. Finally after about 45 minutes we found our car!! We hopped in and heading to Virginia!

Ireland, Dublin Part 1

I've decided the best way to write about Ireland is to break it up. It being my "homeland" I feel the need to say many a thing about how awesome it is :)
*Before I start I wanted to share two thoughts if you are considering going to Ireland. One, you will need more than 4 days. I felt like we had just barely scratched the surfice. And two, Drive! Especially if you have a GPS. We decided not to take toll roads and saw so many beautiful little Irish towns.*

So we begin out Journey with Ryanair. Ryanair is great because it gives you the chance to fly to so0o many places for a small amount of money. Jon and I were about to get roundtrip tickets to Ireland for under 80 pounds total ( that's about $120) And at times they offer even cheaper flights.
What is the catch you ask?.. Well Ryanair charges quite a bit for a checked bag so just having a carryon is your best option. The catch with the carryon, Ryanair requires that your carryon be smaller then what most other airlines require See here . If it's too big they immediately make you check it.. and that it at least 50 pounds or $75. The other way they get you is with your boarding pass.  They will charge you to print it at the airport, so make sure to print it ahead of time!

So now that you know a little bit about Ryanair I will continue with  our story. We decided to take the early flight so that we would have some time in Dublin. Left the house around 5am, got the the airport just in time. Got in the boarding line only to find out I couldn't take my purse with me. Apparently their one bag limit included purses. So we then empty my huge purse into our two bags and were on our way!
We arrived in Dublin before nine which was great because that meant breakfast! We parked the car in a garage and went in search of food because we were starving! we found a cute place called Bewley's and it was pretty tasty.  One of the things I love about being over here is the street performers. They are almost always crazy talented artists who do it to share their love for art not to make money. And it just so happened that right outside of Bewleys was a very talented violinist :) .
So we enjoyed his music while we ate :).
After lunch is was time to find St. Patrick's Cathedral . Why you ask? Well my super talented cousin Erin and the fabulous Rhode Island College Chamber Choir were performing there! So as much as I wanted to go to Ireland, Erin was one of the main reasons we went when we did.

  

RIC did such a wonderful job. Here is a little snippet of my cousin performing in a quartet with the group :) she's the one all the way to the left.

Oh heck one more

What can I say? i have a very talented family and I like to brag about it :)  Great Job RIC.

Next up; Part 2- Leprechaun Museum ( I kid you not), delicious dinner and French Rugby men, lost car, and brass band flash mob ! 

The "Great" Malton Food Festival

So the Malton Food Festival was...not bad haha. Unfortunately it was far colder then we had planned, so I was freezing and that I think put a slight damper on things. There were many venders with treats but most of them has so many people around them you couldn't really get close enough to taste.  And if I am going to a food festival, I want to eat. They did have a few guest speakers and chefs but overall I think the best part of the day was lunch.... even if we did have to wait in line for 30 minutes to get it . 

 Hog roast with stuffing and applesauce. Yummy!!

 On the drive home we passed several fields growing rapeseed. It's just fields and fields of yellow. So pretty!

Jon enjoying lunch ;)
















All in all we had a nice time and saw what all it was about but I don't think we will be going back.