...And We're Home!

After an adventurous 4 weeks of frollicking around Egypt, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland, along with a final stop in Dublin, we're back home and relearning driving on the right side of the road and how to use your strange currency. We took over 1,000 photos on our trip, so I spent some grueling hours narrowing them down and putting up some captions so you're not totally confused with where we are and what we're doing. Here's the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/skynyrd13/Backpacking2008

Now we're in the process of finding an apartment, me finding a job, Melissa getting ready for the new school year where she'll teach Kindergarten (!!), and us both getting ready for another semester towards our Masters at Montclair State. Was Dublin really a dream? Ask us again in a month and a half!

I'm not really sure what else we'll have to post here, but I guess saying this is the final post would make our trip pretty much over, which we don't want to do! So, until next time....

And We're Off!

We're busy right now packing away the last year of our lives from here in Dublin. Before we run out of time I wanted to upload some of the newer pics we had from the last month or so. Enjoy! I know most of these pics are hard to follow unless we have captions for them, but time is short! Here's a quick rundown: Melissa's going away party given by her coworkers at Scoil Assaim, our trip with Keith to the Aran Islands (Inishmore) and Galway and Riverstown and Birr (Fennell's and Keogh's inquire within - this is where it all started. This should get a post in itself), Melissa's school trip to Manchester, then her school night out before the last day of school, then finally our dinner party from just last night.

http://picasaweb.google.com/skynyrd13/June2008

Tomorrow we head to the airport for our flight to Cairo to start our 3+ weeks of travelling, beginning with the 8 day adventure tour of Egypt. We're really looking forward to it and we'll try and check in once we have some free moments and find an internet cafe. It may not be until we get to Athens, but in the meantime send us an email and let us know how you all are! Cheers! Happy 4th of July!

The Last Days of Brilissa in Dublin

I had real good intentions of posting a bunch of new pictures tonight, but I just realized that Melissa has the camera and she's currently on a school trip to Manchester, England until tomorrow night. I guess I can only say that we're sadly nearing the end of our time in the penthouse suite of 17 Harrington Street. It's crazy how fast this year has gone by, and even though we're really excited to travel to Egypt, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland, we know that once we leave our apartment next Friday we'll only be coming back to Dublin for a few days at the end of July before we head back home for good. Irish time apparently only happens when you need something to get done because it didn't slow this year down any!

In other news: Keith left a few days ago to wrap up our visitors for the year, my tattoo has healed nicely, our last days of work are this Friday, the Mets are still mediocre, and Dublin summers are only summer by name. But at least it stays light out until after 11pm!

Donegal Pics

I uploaded a lot of Donegal pics. I only left out some of them because we had such great weather that most of the pics came out pretty good. Enjoy!

(Apparently there is something wrong with Picasa Web Albums and you may not be able to access the pictures right now. Hopefully it will be working soon!)
http://picasaweb.google.com/skynyrd13/Donegal

Funny story from Donegal: We were driving around one day through a little town and I pulled over to the side of the road for a second just so we could take a look at the map. Lo and behold the left front tire ended up going down into this little narrow ditch that you couldn't see and we were stuck. We couldn't do anything on our own to get it out but the citizens of Glencolumbkille came to our rescue. A car pulled up and a guy gets out and asks if we need any help. Sure do, so he went to go to the people's house that lived right there because he said they have a tractor. Then a truck pulls up, and he stops to help, and another truck stops with some rope and another person stops and within a few minutes we have a whole cavalry assembled. We pulled it out a few minutes later and everybody just hopped right back into their vehicles and moved along. This had to have been record response time in Ireland. And I'm sure we made for a good story at the pub that night, or maybe a few minutes later.

Inked!

I said I was going to get a tattoo while here in Ireland, so here it is! I think it came out really well, but I'm sure my parents will be the ultimate judge of that.

We're a little behind getting those Donegal pics up, but they should be up before the weekend is over.

Here's my Celtic shamrock:

Off to Donegal!

Another weekend, another adventure in Irish car rentals as tomorrow we are off to the very Northwest of Ireland to take advantage of the bank holiday on Monday. They say the roads in County Donegal are among the worst in Ireland, so it's sure to be a good time zipping down the one-lane roads.

I must be a good Mets fan - I stayed up until 4am last night watching the game because it went 12 innings and I couldn't pull myself away to go to sleep. Tough life this Dublin.

We'll let you know how the trip went when we get back and we'll put up a few pics (only if it doesn't rain the whole time).

New Pictures

We put off putting up new pics since we've been taking pictures constantly (or at least it sounds like a solid excuse) but I just put up some for your enjoyment. It starts off with my parents trip to Dublin, which my mom thinks I didn't write enough about. I figured I was doing my parents a solid favor, instead of recounting night after night of carrying them out of bars and their 3 am kebab binging habits. In all seriousness, we had a great time and they brought terrific weather with them. And then they even got a chance to visit England and Scotland!

The rest of the pics include a visit from our friends Tim and Tom, then Julie and Renessa, then Amanda, and now Susan who will be here until Saturday. We've been quite the weekend warriors, making trips to Cork, Kinsale, Cobh, Clonakilty, and Cashel, and then last weekend out to Galway again where we did the tour of Connemara and saw Kylemore Abbey. Enjoy the pics! I'm off to watch the Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea.

http://picasaweb.google.com/skynyrd13/VisitorsGalore

Global Warming Danger!!!

There must be some sort of catastrophic weather patterns happening because Spring has finally come to Ireland, or Dublin at least. The past week has been absolutely gorgeous, with basically no clouds and even warm enough temperatures that you can go outside without a jacket. It only took about 8 months but we'll take it! My parents got to enjoy the weather (or maybe they brought it with them) and we took some nice day trips to the Botanic Gardens and to Howth, a fishing village on a peninsula north of Dublin (as always, pictures will follow).

We've been real busy with guests these last few weeks, and we have another arriving today, Melissa's friend Amanda. After work today we're heading up to Dublin Airport to pick up a rental car and then making a weekend trip down south to Cork and Kinsale and wherever the windy, single lane roads take us. We'll have a whole batch of pictures to post next week, so be sure to check back.

I received a scare this morning when I got the free local newspaper and the front page headline screamed "END OF AN ERA?", saying there was a significant announcement coming from the company that makes Guinness. The speculation was they were going to close down St. James Gate Brewery in Dublin and open a new factory in the west of the city. Fear not, at least not yet, but Guinness is only closing part of St. James Gate and they are still going to open the new factory. Maybe this is the first step to moving all operations out of St. James Gate, so you all better come out here and visit it while you can!

The Past Month's Celebrations at Brilissa's Hostel

Since Brian just put up a bunch of pictures (believe it or not those 68 are only a VERY small portion of the total), I figured that I would tell you a little about what we've been up to. St. Patrick's Day in Ireland wasn't a disappointment at all (as so many of our Irish friends had told us it would be). It was a gorgeous day and we started out by watching bits of the parade on our way to Croke Park (well, we really just saw the tops of floats and hot air balloons because there were too many people standing in front of us). We watched a great Gaelic football and hurling match at Croke Park with our friends Emma and Niamh, now we finally understand the basic rules of the game- well, Brian more than myself. We met up with some of my other friends from work for some good music, good dancing, and good Guinness.

Next, it was a great 10 day visit from my parents and aunt from Switzerland. Luckily, the Irish education system gives me two weeks off for Easter, so I was able to take a trip to Galway and Killarney with them. We did the standard touring around the cities, Cliffs of Moher, Ring of Kerry tour, in addition to me getting my parents to listen to some good music and drink at the pubs. Brian and I toured Dublin with them, and even saw things here we hadn't yet seen (finally got Brian to the art museum here- haha). We also went to Howth- a small fishing town not too far from the city with pretty views. The principal of my school organized a night out a at a pub (the usual venue for meetings in Ireland) so that all my friends at work could meet my parents.

After that, Brian and I were off to the Dingle Peninsula for the weekend. It was a our first time renting a car in Ireland, and luckily Brian did better with the driving than Tim and Tom. (That's why I didn't try my luck at driving. There probably would have been more than a sideview mirror off after I was behind the wheel!). Dingle was gorgeous depite the terrible weather, and we enjoyed being in a part of Ireland that still has a lot of Irish spoken. We even stayed at a converted farmhouse hostel, which was a lot of fun- hence the picture of Brian with a cat at the hostel.

Other than that- the other random pictures include my birthday, where we had a few friends over and a fun night out; and there's one of some flowers from my birthday (Brian must feel the need to prove his romantic ability through the blog pictures).

As Brian said, we're flooded with visitors the next few weeks. After Tim and Tom leave we'll have Julie and Renessa in to visit the next day. We'll have lots of pictures and blog posts coming soon- we promise!!

Hope you're all enjoying Spring in the US!

The Brilissa Hostel

I'm going to make this short since Melissa wants to do a post tomorrow, but I wanted to get some new pics up for everyone to see. They range from St. Patrick's Day, Melissa's parents visiting, our trip to Dingle, and some other random pics.

http://picasaweb.google.com/skynyrd13/MarchAndApril2008

Our friends Tim and Tom are visiting right now, and yesterday they rented a car and headed off to the west. The first update we heard from them was that they knocked off the passenger side mirror on a telephone pole. God help them.

After Tim and Tom leave we have a steady stream of guests over the next couple of months to keep us busy. Bring us more peanut butter and Hershey's syrup!

Happy Easter!!!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Easter!

Melissa's parents and aunt are visiting right now and having a great time. Melissa is enjoying her 2-week break from school and I'm enjoying my 4-day weekend (Not too shabby!). We'll update soon with some pics from St. Patrick's Day and the summer trip we're planning to Egypt, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland. Also, we're making a trip this coming weekend to the southwest of Ireland to visit Dingle and Tralee. We're renting a car so clear the roads!

Cheers from Dublin!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

We're going to Croke Park today to watch some Hurling and Gaelic Football.

Erin go Bragh!!

Ancestry Research

I spent last Friday doing some ancestry research at the National Archives and the National Library of Ireland here in Dublin. We have information on ancestors that goes back to roughly the 1850's on my mom's side but there are a lot of holes and a lot of what we know is through word of mouth so I knew going in it could be frustrating. But the luck of the Irish prevailed and I was able to get some new information.

Starting at the National Archives I gave the genealogists there the name of Joseph Egan, who is my great-great-great grandfather who was from County Tipperary. They did a search within Griffith's Valuation Database, a property survey done between 1848-1864 that is one of the main tools people have to trace their roots around that time because civil registration of births, deaths, marriages, etc. didn't begin in Ireland until 1864. The search came up with 2 matches of a Joseph Egan in Tipperary during that time. I looked through microfilm and printed off information for both men, still not sure if either was the person I was looking for.

The genealogists said my next step would be to go to the National Library and look up the civil parish records based on what parish Griffith's Valuation said those two men resided within. When I got to the library I was told that I needed permission from the Dicoese of Cashel to view the microfilm for the Joseph Egan of the civil parish of Fennor. By permission they probably meant I would have to pay them. This was later confirmed by someone I was talking to who was also doing ancestry research that day. He said those records are a resource for them and they want to profit off of us. Sneaky Irish!

So, now I had to hope that that Joseph Egan was not the one I was looking for. I started looking through the microfilm for the civil parish of Loughkeen where the other Joseph Egan was from, which is all hand written in that impossible to read 19th century script. It listed baptisms and marriages anywhere from the 1830's to the 1880's. We knew that he and his wife Winifred Clarke had a son, William Charles Egan (who came to America and is the one on the horse, for all you Fennells and Keoghs), around 1850, so I looked there and I was thrilled to see that I found a match! Looking further I was also able to find that Joseph and Winifred were married in 1842.

Through my parents (who have done a lot of research themselves) I've been able to piece together other little bits, and I plan on taking a day off at the end of the month to get some more stuff done. As my mom would say, I have the bug!

Happy St. Patrick's Day (weekend)!

New Pictures!

We just put up some more pics, so check them out! These are from all over, including right after Christmas during a bus tour of Wicklow, New Year's Eve, a party a few weeks back, and when our friend Doreen came to visit.

http://picasaweb.google.com/skynyrd13/RandomPics

We should be all caught up with our pictures now, but we're going to take a bunch during the next month with St. Patrick's Day coming, and also Melissa's parents beginning the onslaught of visitors we'll have through the spring.

Happy Leap Year Day!

Things We Love About Dublin

Still not fully awake from the Super Bowl coma of euphoria, but this blog has been neglected for too long without a post. So, instead of a quick recap of our latest travels along with some pictures, Brilissa In Dublin presents a list of things we love about Dublin. And we're off!

- A lot of teenage boys have this strange type of haircut, which is something of a mix between a mullet, the Flock of Seagulls look, and just plain awfulness. It's always good for a laugh. I bet David Beckham had something to do with it though...

- Naturally, there are pubs everywhere. It's impossible to go out on even the busiest nights of the year and not find at least a handful of pubs that have room to frollick around in. And depending on what type of license the pub has, it could stay open anywhere from 12:30 to 3:00 am or so. Plenty of time to get in trouble

- Feel like you're running late to meet someone or to get to an important meeting? Don't worry, everyone else will get there at least 10 minutes after you do. This one took a while to get used to, but based on how often we update the blog, you start to get the picture on how we've adapted to life in Ireland. And this is supposed to be the crazy hectic city life!

- Ok, now this isn't exactly something we love about Dublin, but it's all part of the experience. Try walking down the street on most Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays (and sometimes the other 4 days of the week) and you'll be hopping over puddles, but they won't be from the rain, just one pint too many.

- The Irish have a reputation as being friendly people, and they really don't let you down. They are always nice enough to give you directions or help out if you look lost or unsure of something. Be prepared to have your ear chewed off by cab drivers (before they rob you on the fare of course!).

- Dublin is ridiculously international. We were always joking about this when we first got here. If we would be walking down the street and heard someone who sounded Irish we would say "Oh my God, they're Irish!" Because Ireland has had a strong economy in recent years, a lot of people have come over from elsewhere within the EU (Poland especially, and a couple of people from New Jersey).

- Dublin is actually a pretty small city by comparison. That works for us because we're walking distance from nearly everything and we don't have to even attempt driving on the opposite side of the road.

- It's unbelievable how quickly the weather changes here. Back when I was looking for a job, I was leaving our apartment for an interview with the company I'm working for now and looked outside to check the weather. Sunny and blue skies. But I figured since I was in a suit that it would be pretty disastrous to risk not taking an umbrella, so I grabbed one. Good thing I did because as I reached the street where the interview was (about 15 minutes later), the skies clouded over and it started raining. Oh Dublin.

We have a small batch of pictures to put up soon. Check back in a couple of days!

New York Giants - Super Bowl Champions!!!!!!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time to get some sleep.......

Edinburgh and Belfast Pics

Here's the latest batch that we just uploaded, so enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/skynyrd13/EdinburghAndBelfast

We have some from right after Christmas and New Year's that we didn't get to yet, so we'll post those sometime later in the week.

Paul Keogh, at work today I talked to somebody on the phone with the name of Paul Keogh. Somehow I feel that's not such an uncommon thing out here. By the way - I have to start planning out my ink soon. I may need some input.

Let's go Giants!!!!

From Edinburgh to Belfast

We've had a busy past few weekends traveling, so I figured we should update you on our adventures. Two weeks ago we took a long weekend trip to Edinburgh, Scotland where we had a great time. We went to Edinburgh Castle, which was built on an extinct volcano- we enjoyed the views and an interesting talk on swords and weapons of Scotland. Based on the weapons' descriptions we should all be glad we weren't around to fight in Scotland hundreds of years ago! We also took a day trip to the Scottish Highlands where Brian and I finally got to see snow!! The countryside and mountains were gorgeous, even though we got drenched by pouring rain anytime we stepped out of the bus. We also stopped at Loch Ness, but unfortunately Nessie wouldn't come out of the water for Brian and I. Our last day in Edinburgh we walked around the medieval streets and did a hike to "Arthur's Seat", the top of a small mountain right outside of the city center. The best part of the hike for me was the view of Edinburgh from the top of the mountain. I think the best part for Brian was when he made me take an "alternate route" down the mountain, which basically involved me sliding on my butt for the majority of the way down. We enjoyed going out at night in Edinburgh, and of course Brian was happy because we found a bar that showed the Giants game on a big flat screen TV.

Our friend Mike arrived the following week and the three of us went to Belfast last weekend. Saturday we took a bus tour up the northern coast to Giant's Causeway, a beautiful area with cliffs and hiking trails right along the water. Giant's Causeway itself is actually an area of about 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns that were formed by a volcanic eruption- really an amazing sight to see. (Of course once our pictures are posted you'll understand better. I'm leaving the picture posting to Brian!). That tour also took us to an old historic town, Derry, and a famous rope suspension bridge along the coast (the bridge was closed, but seems like it would be cool to cross in better weather!) We also took a "black taxi tour" of Belfast where we saw all the great political murals around the city , and we learned a lot about "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. It was really interesting and hard to believe how most of the city is still divided between the Catholics and Protestants. Nightlife was good (not as good as Dublin though) and we had fun at a few old pubs. The best part of going out was when we kept getting rejected from bars because Brian and Mike were wearing "trainers". No, they weren't wearing diapers, but in Ireland they call sneakers, trainers. Needless to say, we ended up at a few pubs that were a bit less strict about footwear!

We had a lot of fun the rest of the time during Mike's visit (despite me being sick through most of it- sorry Mike!). We even went to the oldest pub in Dublin, the Brazen Head, where we listened to some good traditional Irish music. Well, that's about it. Now we have even more pictures to post, but don't worry, we'll get them up soon!

New Pics Are Posted!

So yeah, we're pretty far behind in uploading pics from the last month or so, but since we have a lot of them we're not going to upload them all at once. Brilissa in Dublin knows the value of making the loyal readers crave for more, so we'll be putting up more pictures very soon from a day tour we did of Wicklow and also some New Year's pics.

Here's the latest: http://picasaweb.google.com/skynyrd13/MelissaSSchoolPlayBrianSBirthdayAndChristmasInDublin

Also, here are two videos that we took during Melissa's school play "Oliver With a Twist". (Thanks Michelle! Your camera is far superior to ours.)

We're looking forward to Friday because we're taking a 3-day weekend trip to Scotland. We're staying in Edinburgh and doing a tour of the countryside one day, and most importantly, looking for a bar that will show the Giants-Cowboys playoff game on Sunday. Now that's being worldly!

Next week we have our friend Mike visiting us for a week. We're going to make a trip up to Belfast and do a trip to Giant's Causeway and all that other good stuff.

Happy New Year!