January 20th Weekend (North Coast Dublin)

Before I start the blog...... That first photo, of the girl jumping.... it was on a poster on the DART to Howth. Luke saw it and thinks it looks like my face. I kinda have to agree... creepy, eh?

Luke and I had a good week. The regular stuff. I trained the new receptionist/P.A., which went well. She's a great girl so we got along well and she learned alot. The boss was away for most of the week and was away when she was originally hired so she didn't meet him until Friday. I was a little nervous about that as he can be pretty overbearing but she did come back this week so it couldn't have gone that badly.

Last weekend Luke went to his first jam/rehearsal with the band. He had a great time. Apparently the guys are grand and they all get along very well. I think Luke found it a little daunting as these guys are serious. When they get together to practice they aren't there to fuck around, they're there to work. I'm not sure Luke is used to that..... But after they worked hard they chatted for hours over wine and got to know eachother outside the world of music. All in all I think it was a great experience. He's heading out there again this coming weekend.

Anyway, so Luke went to Gorey to meet with the band on Friday after work and I met Tom and Sarah to celebrate Tom's birthday. We met at the Molly Malone statue and went from there. We started with dinner at Pacino's (An Italian restaurant off of Grafton Street) where we all had a great dinner accompanied by a bottle of Italian beer. After dinner we went to a few pubs. Bit of a pub crawl. All in all we had good craic and were home quite late.

I slept in until noon on Saturday as I knew that Luke wouldn't be getting home until mid afternoon (That's right, he spends the night in Gorey on Friday nights). I woke up, realized I had slept quite late and dashed around cleaning up the gaf as Luke and I had left it messy and I had made it even worse since he had left (surprise, surprise). I tidied and sat around in my pj's while I waited for him to come home. I know I could have done something productive but, hell, I just didn't feel like it.

Luke arrived home at about 4pm. We continued the laziness, chatting about his jam, chatting about my night, and watching t.v. Later in the evening we decided to go to Pearse Pub for a few pints but agreed that Luke wanted to be back at the flat for midnight as NASN was playing a Sens game. By the time midnight rolled around Luke and I had had a couple of pints and I was in the middle of a bingo game. Luke opted to leave and I opted to stay for the rest of the game. (I didn't win...). I ended up befriending the regulars, playing pool (And winning! I was then nicknamed 'The Dark Horse') and not having to pay for a single drink. Great night all around. (What's also funny is that I've been to the pub a couple of times since last Saturday and people have been referring to me as the girl they heard kicked butt in pool. I guess everyone has told everyone about it for some reason. The other night some guy said to me that he had heard about a Canadian girl that was really good at pool and had surprised everyone on the weekend and I told him it was ME. Hilarious).

Sunday morning Luke and I got up, had brekkie, coffee and relaxed for a little bit and then hopped on the DART for Howth. The weather was absolutely stunning. Sun shining, warm, spring-like weather.

Howth is a port town on the North end of Dublin that we had heard was lovely. The DART ride was lovely.... no real views of the coast or anything like that but it was nice to see what's on the other side of the city as we've taken the DART South numerous times. When we pulled into the train station in Howth we were thrilled. It is a small fishing/harbour town with picture perfect view of the old fishing boats and there is an island off the coast which you will see in the photos. It was spectacular. The atmosphere of the town was lovely.... quaint and quiet yet bustling with people. We started the day by going into the fish market to have a look around. We opted not to buy anything this time but will definitely do so next time we are there as the live lobster is very inexpensive. (We're going to treat ourselves for my birthday). From the fish market we made our way toward the harbour and the fresh fruit/baked goods/craft market where we bought ourselves some olives and sun dried tomatoes as we always do. The smells emanating from the stands was intoxicating! From the market we walked right to the harbour and were thrilled to see seals playing around. There was a group of people huddling along the edge of the harbour and they were all ooing and aaing over the lovely, playful creatures. At first we could only see 2 or three but then, from out of the murky water another 5 or 6 bobbed up in front of us. It was really incredible. We finally tore ourselves away after a while and headed to take a stroll around town. Howth is not a large town. We walked up the hill and found ourselves looking at a beautiful old cemetary that has the ruins of an old church. It was lovely (see photos). From there we walked to an old tower that sits on the top of the hill where we could see out over the town and to the sea. We then spotted a beach and made our way back down to have a look. The beach was great but the water was freezing! (We were only brave enough to put our hands in). After that we were feeling hungry so we headed to a traditional Irish Pub for lunch. We both had some seafood chowder, of course, and another appetizer. The chowder was great (Not NEARLY as good as my Mom's clam chowder though!). After lunch (About 4pm) we headed back to the harbour and made our way to the DART station as we had booked the laundry room for 6-10pm that evening.