Ireland - Dublin Second Time

Hello Green Isle!!

Things are great, and always getting better.
 
  We were happy to be back in the "cheerful city".   We love the Irish and their good moods.  Sure, you'll get a sour apple once in a while, but they are a rare breed over here.   We took the bus to our hotel Fitzsimons Hotel Temple Bar and asked if we could get any free upgrades.  Alexandria gave us 3 keys and said go check them out and take your pick.  We definitely liked the 3rd floor corner room looking over the river so we "took" it,

 
got ready, and I headed down to post Interlaken and enjoy a fresh Guinness from the tap.  Live music soon started playing and I listened while enjoying the excellence of fresh Guinness in Ireland.  Remember, from second post on the blog, that over here it's an entirely different animal that the Guinness drinkable in the USA.

  

  I silently thanked the Guinness Brewery a few miles away by grabbing another Guinness and we shortly were heading off to dinner at a place Alexandria recommended - O'Reilly's of Temple Bar.

  Candace had a great risotto with curry vegetable and I had a good beef and vegetable Irish pie.

 

  We noted the "19th centrury" cracks in the wall, more because of the note that they stuck up there than because of the crack itself, which we thought was funny :)



  Also funny was all the Guinness advertising in Ireland.  A picture here of a guy with a Guinness in one hand, lifting a building with the other arm and a phrase on the ad saying "Guinness will make you strong".  Or a smileface in the foam on top of the pint glass and a saying "Have a nice day, have a Guinness".   We thought this one was funny too -



  We were soon off, walking along the cobblestone Temple Bar area passing live music left, right and everywhere.  Sometimes people were just playing guitars on the street singing and we'd join in with whichever small group had also stopped and was drawn in by Wonderwall or some other cool song that was being played.



    You could catch people playing Johnny Cash and some other legends as well. We heard even more music wafting out of the bars that we passed, which is how we repeatedly were drawn into places!  We sometimes happily enjoyed listening to the music, while at others we would end up singing along to some the tunes or silently listening to the upbeat Irish music that alternated through the songs.  I'll tell you though, the Irish didn't silently listen =)  It was fun listening to the girls "Yip" and the guys "heeeYO".



  One place that was particularly cool was a bar on the north side of the road that had multiple levels.  A guy downstairs with a guitar sang some great oldies, classics, and Irish tunes, while a group of three gentleman played great and more traditional Irish music upstairs.

  We soon continued our walk along this party area and came to the Hard Rock Dublin.  You can't resist the great classic rock they play there so we chilled for a few then headed back to the street.  Along the road back we hit up a cool spot with amazing live music which we listened to until they gave up.

  With our Hotel stay, we got free entrance to the club below the hotel so we went on down and checked that out.  It was dead as we had kinda expected because it was still only around midnight so we then proceeded upstairs where some great live music was being played at the bar area near our reception.  They were playing some great old-school alternative songs like some Red Hot Chili Peppers as well as some Irish tunes.  Alas, that too was soon wrapped up around 30 minutes later. 

 

  Off we went to the 80's club that we had went to when we were in Ireland at the beginning of the trip.  We were soon back to the hotel and the club downstairs to close out the night at which point we headed upstairs to crash!

   Sadly, but ready, we headed to the bus in the morning and to the airport, noting some cool stuff along the way.



  Soon we were on the plane and into line for takeoff.



  On the plane ride right now,



  and I just finished organizing a bunch of "Background" pictures for my computer: about 250 shots out of the 4300 pictures taken on the trip.  We visited 11 countries, 22 cities and were gone for 65 days from Arizona.  We strengthened our relationship together, as we always do when spending time together, and we didn't get tired of eachother! haha.  Alhough there might have been a couple arguments, for us it's not about having an argument, then simply taking time to cool off and saying "OK lets move on now".   It's definitely more - OK what was the cause of that? And then figure it out, and now we know so we can make each other happier in the future, rather than have repetition over and over.   The understanding too that happens when spending every day and moment together for two months is just beginning to dawn on us as we go about our every day lives as a couple just a few days after getting back to the US (as I'm reading through this and adding a couple things before posting.)  Communication is great.

  We learned a lot about travel, trains, languages, customs, food, ways of living, and more.  My favorite places were Interlaken, Amsterdam and Cinque Terre with Paris and Barcelona a close fourth and fifth.  I also enjoyed the value of the "Bang for your buck" of the fine dining in Budapest and Prague as well.  Candace loved the scenery of Interlaken and the sites to see of Paris and Barcelona.  Overall we have no regrets (except Maybe I'd like to drive a bazillion hours on the Audubon in Germany) and were glad to have taken the plunge into the Europe scene.  Along the road, we found some more places to go visit like Croatia and another place near the Czech Republic, etc, so more is to be done in the future in the Europe area.  Other trips on the dream list are hiking part of the Great Wall of China, doing Australia and the surrounding area there, taking a 10+day Alaskan Cruise, some parts of Africa, and more.

  Though the initial creation of the Blog was to have a journal for myself and Candace for later viewing, it turned out to be so much more and better than a journal.  With pictures and videos going along with the writing, we organized a bunch of things along the way that might never have gotten done later.  It also helped to make the "pages" come alive more than any written journal could have.  It's also an easy tool to give to someone for ideas about Europe in the future, and a great way to keep friends, family and customers alike informed on what's going on and hopefully entertained a bit along the way.  Thanks so much to everyone who said "it was awesome" or "I felt like I was there", or "it inspired me", or "I loved the history in the posts", etc, all the generous comments.  I don't know if I write that well, but it made me happy that everyone seemed to think so!  If you have been reading, and I haven't heard from you, I hope it was worth the time as well. 

  I actually will most likely post about the "reentrance" to America in about a week, and maybe even the challenge of the completion throughout August of a 100k summer, the ultimate summer goal for a sales rep in Cutco yielding an extra day at the CSP retreat for free, even though I've been gone for most the contest period.  I hope this can inspire others to see what is possible.  Though either way, here ends the info on Europe and begins life back in America.  As a wise man once said to me - "I wish you health, wealth, and abundance in all areas of life", I also wish that to anyone reading this. 

Jason & Candace