The Guinness DOES taste different in Ireland...

There is nothing better than visiting a city with a local. Our friend, Tara, brought us home to Dublin and we had a blast. Her mother and brothers were just great and made us feel so at home. Her brothers do not live at home, but we partied with them Irish-style on Saturday night and got back at 4am on Sunday....My toes were killing me. Nothing like 10 hours in pointy, spiked heels!!! On Friday night we had a home-cooked meal prepared at Chez Mandals and just watched some futbol. On Saturday we had a delicious breakfast and visited a few touristy places like Christ's Church, Trinity College, Dublin Castle, a stroll through the Temple bar area and of course...the Guinness factory where you get a free pint...Bri's favorite. Prior to dinner at a nice French restaurant, we went to a local pub that played Irish music and had "special guests". This choir from Denmark sang a few songs for us in acapello. Really cool. After dinner, we went to a few bars and it was insane....People can certainly drink here. On Sunday we visited a nearby village in Enniskerry (where Tara's family was from - 30 min outside of Dublin). Cute shops where I bought more linens that I don't need. We had another great breakfast and dinner, watched the US open and left on Monday. It was so nice to be taken care of by "Mom Mandal". She was so good to us and we had a fabulous time. Next Stop...Cannes, France. Love you all!

Where Did All The Portuguese Come From

This weekend kicked off the first matches of the Euro 2008. Its a soccer tournament for qualifying European "football clubs". Within 5-10 min walking distance of our apartment is a big parking lot area where they normally hold flea markets and carnivals. This year they set up a Fan Zone with 2 HUGE screen TVs and loads of vendors selling food and beer. Its a great place to go and watch the games with some friends so, that's what we did on Saturday. We met up with our friends Mark and Lucie who are avid soccer fans.

Now I knew there were a lot of Portuguese people that lived in Geneva but our neighborhood should be called Little Portugal instead of Acacias. Portugal played against Turkey last night at 8:45 pm but the Portugal fans were out in force around noon. The Switzerland team played against the Czech Republic at 6 pm (Swiss lost) but there were more Portugal flags flying than Swiss ones. I was hoping that Portugal would get knocked out early so the neighborhood wouldn't be crazy for weeks but I don't think I am going to be so lucky. Never the less, we had a great time and are hoping the Swiss play better next game.

Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament

I only wish we had more time to spend there. We flew in on Friday night and out on Sunday night and it was a whirlwind tour. We saw more in one weekend than a lot of people who have lived in London a long time. The weather turned out to be better than expected. Clear skies on Saturday so it was perfect for taking a ride on the London Eye. The London Eye is a huge observation wheel with pods that fit about 10-12 people. It rotates very slowly like a big ferris wheel and on a clear day you can see pretty far across the city. We had some great views and took some nice pictures of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. I was very excited to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace so we headed there about an hour before hand and waited. There were thousands of people there and we did our best to get a good spot. The time finally came and wayyyyy off in the distance we saw 3 normal looking guards march across the front of the palace, do a lot of high kicks and swing some guns around and then 3 other guards marched off. THE END I looked over at Dena and said, "that was lame." I guess I was expecting something more involved like the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. But I should have known that no one does it quite as well as the US Marines. Semper Fi ! We went to the London Bridge and the Tower of London which is more like a castle than a tower. This is where the crown jewels are stored and they are very impressive in person. We took the underground a lot because things are pretty spread out and there is just so much to see. We also rode a double decker bus on the top deck just for 1 stop so we could say that we did. haha We met up with some friends on Sat. night for a nice dinner and then went to a pub afterwards and it was a lot of fun. Sunday we went to the national art museum and the portrait gallery and both were amazing. We also took a trip through Winston Churchill's war bunker. This was really cool to see and learn about what took place there. I think we spent more time there than Dena wanted to, but I was fascinated. Churchill had a phone line that connected him directly with President Roosevelt. The interesting thing about the bunker is that if a bomb was dropped on it, the bunker was not protected enough to keep it from collapsing. Luckily enough for Churchill, Hitler was never able to find out its location. Needless to say by the time we left London our feet and backs hurt and we were wiped out. We need to go back sometime to see the things we missed because there is so much to see you just can't get it all in a weekend. We had a blast and could definitely see ourselves living there. Next stop Ireland!!