Lost in Dublin

Ireland - Day 1
My vacation began with a rocky start. As I groggily walked off the plane at 5:30 AM, I was abruptly brought to my senses by the passport guy barking at me because I hadn't filled out a lodging card on the plane.

Then I got my car. If they had secretly filmed me I could have been a wonderful car commercial. Imagine an Irish accented voice saying, "To prove how durable our vehicles are we gave one to an untraveled, directionally-challenged American girl functioning on only two hours of sleep and let her loose in Dublin to find her hotel. Let's see how the car fared."

First, a bicyclist ran into the door. "No harm done," he said. "Just a bit of rubber from the handlebars on the door."

Second, I clipped a taxi cab with my passenger side mirror. The taxi driver came up. "No harm done. You just hit the mirror," he said flipping the mirror back into place.

Third, I clipped a bus with the same mirror. This time the mirror flipped in and the actual mirror popped out.

Fourth, I couldn't find my hotel thanks to one-way roads, hidden street signs, and my lack of maps. I did however see all of the greater Dublin area at least 4 or 5 times.

Fifth, I couldn't find reverse. Who would have thought that you had to do something other than put it into gear?

After 8 hours of driving around Dublin, I pulled into my hotel, parked my car and began checking out the city. My time was limited due to my keystone cop driving adventures, but I at least had a chance to realize that Dublin isn't such a bad city provided you aren't in a car.

My Adventures in the Emerald Isle

I have a really good excuse for not writing recently. I've been visiting my ancestral home... or ancestral country since I don't know where my ancestors lived. Anyway, I've been touring Ireland for the last week.

I'd like to share this experience with you all, but I don't feel like I could do it justice with just one entry so I'm going to do retroactive entries. Each day for the next week I'll be posting one day of my trip. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading about the silly, fun, mundane, and insightful happenings. And at the end I'll give you my advice on how to and how not to tour Ireland.

Ciao all!!!!

Who Let the Bugs Out?

It is no secret that I tend to dislike any creature that has more than 4 leg. It is also well know that my distress to said animals increases with the number and length of the legs. So just imagine my response to a monster like this one which I found in my bathroom late, late, last night.

If you think it's ugly now, just imagine what it looked like after being repeatedly beaten with a sandal.

I wish I could say that I'd never before seen such a creature in my bathroom, but I cannot.

The first time was after I heard the blood-curtly screams of my roommate coming from the bathroom. She had seen the monster right before it scurried into a crack in the molding.

Since it still had a leg or two poking out, I knew exactly where it was. Grabbing a can of pressurized air, I gave it a little spritz which sent it airborne.

I'm used to bugs immediately dropping to the floor when disengaged from the wall thus facilitating easy squooshing. However, this monster's legs increased the air resistance so it drifted like a feather through the air landing gracefully into the garbage can. After quickly tying off the bag and dropping it outside, I couldn't stop laughing. The little creature had thrown itself away.

Too bad last nights visitor, wasn't quite so kind.

Tiffany's Box Debacle

It is with great humility I must admit that prior to two days ago I did not know what a Tiffany's Box looks like.

I have been informed that as a female I should be able to immediately identify the unmarked greenish/blue box tied with a white ribbon as coming from Tiffany's.

At work I was asked to purchase a Tiffany's Gift card which came wrapped in a box very much like the one in the picture. I was impressed with how lovely it looked and showed it to my coworkers. They in turn were completely dumbfounded that I didn't know that everything from Tiffany's comes in said boxes.

Initially, I thought I couldn't possibly be the only female with a lack of such knowledge. Unfortunately, after showing the box to various women and asking them where they think the present came from, I have not found a single woman who was stumped.

So if any of you out there could not correctly identify a Tiffany's box, here's your chance. Learn from my mistake and memorize the picture above so you can avoid my faux pas. ;o)

The Story of a Car

Once upon a time, in about 1970, Russia introduced the Lada, a snazzy, little vehicle that was economical and environmentally friendly.



It was so good for the environment that after a few years, it no longer needed gas or oil and began to biodegrade.



Sales for the Lada began to slump as Earth-savvy consumers selected transportation that was more reliable.



The Lada company hired the best engineer and designers to give the Lada a makeover for today’s consumer. It has taken almost a decade but the new Lada is about to be driven out of the factory. Behold, the New and Imporoved Lada!

Now it comes in blue and doesn't smell like soup.

pictures curtesy of englishrussia.com/?p=720