apartments, houses, and day trips

I really should update more often than every two weeks. So much has happened, I hardly know where to begin! I suppose it makes sense to start with the big news - we found an apartment! The relocation service provided by Jason's work was incredibly helpful. On Monday of last week, the relocation specialist took us on an "orientation" trip. We basically drove around a bunch of neighborhoods in the Dublin area to give us an idea of what they're like. This was even more helpful than it might sound: County Dublin, including the suburban areas, is basically a collection of lots of small towns and villages, and each one of them has a distinct "feel." Jason and I had been to several different places on previous trips - Dalkey, Killiney, Shankill, Dun Laoghaire, Bray, Saggart, Clontarf, Howth, Balgriffin, the Docklands... - but there are just so many! On this orientation trip, we added to that list: Castleknock, Sandymount, Booterstown, Monkstown, Carrickmines, Sandyford, Dundrum, Milltown, and Ranelagh. All in one day, too!

On Wednesday of last week, we looked at apartments. Our options were somewhat limited by having a pet, and several apartments put on our itinerary on Tuesday were already let by Wednesday (I told you the market moved quickly!!), but we did view four pretty nice places. The first one was in Castleknock (on the far side of Phoenix Park), and was really quite nice. We then viewed apartments in Clontarf and Dun Laoghaire - neither were bad, but they were both a bit dated and on the upper end of our price range. The final place we viewed was a one bedroom apartment on Fitzwilliam Square right in the city centre - and we're signing the lease tomorrow! The apartment is very close to Jason's work, and being in the city centre, it's convenient for me to get to campus by bus. It's also convenient to basically everything else! :) The apartment is the top floor of an office building, so we shouldn't have any noise problems. Also, this is the first time the rooms have been let as an apartment - they had previously been offices, as well, so it's just been renovated and all the kitchen appliances are brand new. It's a quirky place, but so I think it will suit us nicely. :) The end of this building (the first column of windows on the right side of the building in this picture, stretching all the way back) is the office building, and the top row of tiny windows all across the top is our apartment:

We don't have any pictures of the inside yet, but we'll fix that in the next few days!! We can't wait to move in!

Also, Jason and I have been cooking lots of great things. As you might guess, we've had a lot of potatoes. :) We've also figured out how to make good baked potato chips (crisps? lol, still sounds weird): we slice the potatoes as thin as we can, sprinkle with a bit of salt, and bake at 180C on a wire rack for 25 minutes. So easy, and you don't even need to use any oil! We also got great lamb burgers from a butcher on the north side of town. It's bizarre: chicken is sometimes hard to find and expensive when you do, but lamb is everywhere. No complaints here!

Speaking of which, we've also had lots of great food with Jason's parents, who are visiting this week! First, we took them to some of the places we've found: Gallagher's Boxty House (a place in Temple Bar that serves lots of different potato dishes; Jason and I first went on our school trip with Dr. Madden!), Paulie's Pizza, Neon (Asian street food), and of course, the Queen of Tarts. :) I also got this mug:

The new places we've been: Jo'Burger, which is a quirky burger place out in Rathmines, and Viva, a great tapas place. We're planning on trying a sushi place tonight... it's dangerous, finding all these great restaurants within walking distance! Jason and I clearly like food a little too much. :P

We have done lots of other things besides eating, I swear. One of the reasons Jason's parents came to visit was to go looking at houses with us. On Saturday, we all went up to Portmarnock for an open house viewing.  This was the house we looked at:

The house was lovely and well laid out, but we weren't in love with it, and I'm not sure that Portmarnock is the area for us - it's quite, quite small, but unlike some other areas, the houses are still cramped together. (This is something we're probably going to have to get used to, though - detached houses are rare enough, and truly private yards (called gardens here) are almost non-existent.) While in Portmarnock, we ate at the Oasis Bar and Grill, enjoying the quiet and the beautiful views out over the ocean:

Next, we took the bus to Balgriffin to look again at a house we checked out when we came in May. It's a beautiful place, but a bit expensive:

We're still in love with it, to be honest, but we're obviously not going to rush into anything for many reasons, not the least of which being we have a 1-year lease on our apartment. It's overwhelming, though, even trying to imagine making a huge decision like buying a house. :/ I didn't expect to feel this way, but I'm kind of glad we don't have to do that right away.

On Sunday, we spent the day walking around Merrion Square and St. Stephens Green. The weather was unbelievable, and "early" in the morning (probably around 9am?), the parks were practically empty. Here are some shots from Merrion Square park:

And of course we visited my good friend Oscar Wilde:

Monday, while poor Jason was at work, Tom and Daisy and I went on a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher! The last time I went, on the school trip where Jason and I met, it was pouring rain when we went to the cliffs, so I was especially excited that the forecast showed only a small chance of rain - and we were not disappointed. The weather for the entire day was fantastic: warm and sunny. We left Dublin early in the morning - 7am. The first place we stopped was Bunratty Castle. We were only there for about 20 minutes (it was essentially a rest stop on our way west), but it seems like a great place for a future day trip: the 15th century castle is fitted with 15th and 16th century furniture and decorations; they do dinner and shows in the castle in the evenings; and there is also a walled garden and a folk park, which is "a living reconstruction of the homes and environment of 19th century Ireland." Sounds fun, right? Here's the castle:

And here's some pretty place in the countryside on our drive west (around Moneygall, I think?):

Next we went to the Cliffs of Moher, and to say it was windy would be a gross understatement. I would not have been too surprised if the wind lifted a couple people and blew them over the cliffs (thankfully, there were lots of stone walls to prevent this from happening, though I saw one or two foolhardy individuals running along the tiny ledge outside the walls...?). It was stunning, though, and we had an hour and a half to walk around and enjoy these views:

Next we ate lunch at a place called Fitzpatrick's Bar in Doolin, which had really good seafood chowder. We went to the Burren, and stopped by Corcomroe Abbey for a few pictures. Here are some shots of the Burren:

I look closer to the edge than I really am. Seriously. I was terrified. :P

Tom climbed up, but I was already too tired by that point to follow, so I took pictures from down by the bus, lol.

And here's Corcomroe Abbey:

 Finally, some pretty shots from the bus on our drive back to Dublin:

This one is Dunguaire Castle, which also does dinner and Medieval shows. It might be corny, but I'm sure it beats Medieval Times and I'm not ashamed to admit that I really enjoyed that, lol.

So, what else has been going on... oh, Jason and I finally joined the modern world and got smart phones! All of these pictures come to you via my new HTC One. Also, I started my Research Methods course at UCD. Basically, I have to take two classes (called modules) while I'm at UCD, but they're essentially professional development type things. This one is basic research skills (today was how to use Special Collections, and, as I expected, it's the same process as in the States, except UCD has FANTASTIC Joyce and Yeats collections, among other Irish authors!), and the other one I'll probably end up taking next year is "Tutorial Training," which looks like a less intensive version of the teaching training I got at UK. So those requirements are a bit... tedious? But at least they shouldn't be difficult. The difficult part was in scheduling this stupid class and figuring out where and when it meets. I'm fairly certain (but still not 100%, somehow) that I missed the first class - the administration in the English department never answers my emails, and doesn't have much information when I go talk to them in person, either. The organizer of the class wasn't there today - a librarian gave the presentation on Special Collections - so I'll try to figure out who the organizer actually is (part of the information shortage), and email said person. I would have done that sooner, but the admin said she would do that for me, but of course all is silent on the email front. O.o In any case, if I did miss the first class, then I have now missed the first class meeting for each of my three degrees: for my undergrad at USC, the class location was changed at the last minute, and I didn't have my computer on campus to find the new location in time to get to class; for my master's at UK, I asked for special permission to join a class that was already full, but I didn't KNOW I had actually received said special permission until the class had already met once (once again, email delay - I could have used a smart phone a LONG time ago); and now, this. So I keep telling myself that I'm well used to this sort of thing, and it's always turned out fine. 

I THINK that gets you up to date. I took hundreds more pictures than the ones I posted here, but our internet usage is limited in this temporary housing, so I can't upload too many. Once we get the internet hooked up in our new apartment, I can upload pictures to Facebook and you can see more pictures of the Irish countryside than you probably ever wanted to look at - it sounds ridiculous even as I type it, but I really did go a bit overboard.