Furniture

Wrapping up furniture entirely in bubble wrap takes more energy than you would think. We definitely deserved some sweet tea and contemplative thoughts after that adventure. What say you?

Birthday Wishes

This is almost 2 months after the fact, but some of you might enjoy looking at pictures from the anniversary of my 24th year. That is what the French call it, an anniversary - or anniversaire. Seems very appropriate to me.  I invited Jess and our friend Caroline to make the long 3-hour train trek to Rochefort. I lured them out to the boonies with promises of cake and champagne. I also threw in some macaroons for good measure.

Now these macaroons are not your grandmother's macaroons. Well maybe... but only if your grandmother is a Parisian pastry chef. These little pillows of almond flour cradle flavored creams of lemon, raspberry, pistachio, chocolate, and coffee. So many different flavors of loveliness! Sometimes I just want to eat macaroons everyday for the rest of my life. But I digress...

The real pièce de résistance was my chocolate mousse cake. Imagine, if you will — chocolate mousse with chocolate shavings and a marzipan plaque. Everyone in France spells my name with an accent, which doesn't bother me. At least they always say my name right the first time.

Just looking at this cake makes me want to eat it all over again. Lastly, but definitely not least was the bottle of champagne (pronounced "sham-pahn-ya") that we drank. The most surprising thing about champagne is how heavy the bottle is, even with it is empty. Apparently, the bottle is made in three pieces: the two sides and the top ring, so that French swordsmen can slice off the top piece of glass and open the bottle in one fell swoop. We did not have a sword to open the bottle, but luckily champagne corks practically open themselves.


Jess also brought along France's idea of a birthday candle, also known as the sparkler. I have to give the French props for their choice of candle in this case. A giant tower of sparkling madness is one hell of a way to hail in a new year in your life.

Ireland Extravaganza

Came back from Ireland two weeks ago and the only thing I can say about Ireland is that it is amazing. Amazingly cold in February, unfortunately, but still amazing.

This trip to Ireland was the first longer vacation that I have taken where I could only take a backpack along. And thanks to super-strict baggage policies, it was really only a small backpack. My trip was only two weeks long, however a longer trip would not have really necessitated bringing more stuff along. The only thing that I wish I had left behind were my running shoes, since I was more busy bike riding than running. I also wish that I had brought more underwear along, because washing and drying underwear took up more of my time than I would have liked.

Jess and I started out our trip in Galway.

 

We climbed on the rocks, but it was sooooo foggy that even right next to the beach, we couldn't see the water.

Then we visited the aquarium, which had the second-best touch tanks that I have ever seen. Jess was very entranced with the giant sting ray.

We then traveled out to Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands, where we rented bikes.

We visited Dun Aonghus (pronounced like Angus), which is a prehistoric fort. See the explanation in Irish!

 

The fort has these weird square stones that looked fake.

Dun Aonghus was right next to the ocean and you could walk right up to the edge of the cliff. A wee bit scary!

There were also very pretty beaches, but it was too cold to even consider going swimming.

We also saw horses!

We also headed south to Killarney and the man that we rented bikes from insisted on taking our picture.

He also told us to bike up this hill, and halfway through we both wanted to die, but the view from the top was totally worth the pain!

We biked around part of the lake, but didn't have enough time to make it all the way around.

We also visited the Jameson distillery in Dublin.