Yesterday we looked at the weather forecast and it seemed sort of like maaayyyybeeee it might not be a horrible day out, so we said what the hell and decided to bike from Stoneybatter to Howth, which is just over 10 miles (16km). Once you get to Fairview, it's a straight shot along the water, and quite pleasant. Arrows indicate our home and destination points.

Well, the ride in was very pleasant indeed (aside from nearly being run over by a car less than a mile into the ride). When we arrived we realized that there was a little food market, and so we eagerly locked up our bikes and strolled over. The baked goods looked divine, and there was falafel, crepes, fruit, olives to die for...but before we could decide, it started to POUR like holy hell on top of our heads. Not having an umbrella, we scrambled to put on our rain jackets, but it was coming down so hard, I felt like all my happiness was being washed away. So I said screw it and decided to throw plastic to the wind and treat us to an indoor lunch where we could dry off and wait for the rain to stop. (A nice lunch, you see, was not in the budget.) But then we couldn't find the place we wanted to go to (the place with the most amazing veggie burgers!), and then I started to really get grumpy. Everything was either too meaty or too expensive. Then, all of a sudden, the rain eased up a little. So we agreed that we weren't SO hungry after all, and we could handle the walk up Howth Head without lunch. But the lovely food items we'd encountered on our arrival were too far to go back to, and I thought of them longingly as we stopped into a Spar to buy some nuts to eat if we got hungry on our walk. Stupid rain! It took us a while to climb up the hill (there is a bus that goes right to the top, but who needs buses when you have perfectly functioning legs), but when we got there, ignoring the large groups of teenagers and families, the views were beautiful!


Realizing that we didn't take the most scenic way up, we took it on the way back down:


Just before we got back to sea level, guess what happened? It started to rain like hell again! Rain jackets back on, moping toward our bikes, dreading the ride home, somehow the place with the veggie burgers JUMPED out at us, and since they were the best veggie burgers I'd ever had in my life, we decided what the hell, you only live once, let's wait out this rain, and we stopped for a bite to eat. And we were not disappointed. It felt like fate that we didn't get all full up on burgers and fries before climbing Howth Head. That would have been gross! But after the walk, it was fantastic to have a little feast.

When we got out, it wasn't raining, and in fact the sun was shining. Then of course about ten minutes into our ride home, guess what happened? It started to pour like holy heck again! We just went with it, and biked home, suffering. But also not suffering because we had a nice day.

And I have to mention, just to prove that if God exists, he hates me, that it was fantastic to get home, shower, change into something dry, and chill out. But then it was time for our Sunday night at the pub with Mark's family, so we headed out. It was (you guessed it) raining, so we decided to walk and use our umbrella. But then, when we got outside, it seemed to magically stop! Yay! So we went back inside, and grabbed our bikes. Then, about halfway there, the sky opened up, and yep, we got absolutely soaked. My pants never did dry until I took them off to go to bed. Ah well. That's life in a wet country.

We had some American friends visiting this weekend! Hayley, Melanie, and Philip are here in Ireland to see the sites, and were kind enough to spend a couple of days with us in Dublin. On Friday, we met up with them and took them to Juice Restaurant, which they were very gracious about because they all eat meat! But luckily they liked all the food, and to be honest it's probably the healthiest meal they will eat during their stay in Ireland. By the time dinner was over, they were bushed, so we said good-bye to them and went off on our own.

Saturday morning, they took a tour of Trinity, and then we met up with them to hop on the DART to Howth, which is sort of like taking someone to Gloucester when they visit Boston. It's a cute little seaside town (not nearly as fancy or large as Gloucester though!). We walked along the water, where all the many sail boats were docked:


We decided to take the "ferry" out to Ireland's Eye, a little tiny island off of Howth. When I think of a Ferry, I think of a double-decker sort of boat bus. This was more like just a small motor boat, but whatever works! Here's the gang in the ferry:

Here's a light house we passed on the way:

A sailboat...


There's this cool fort on the island:


Once we got onto the island, we climbed up to the top of the hill, and hung out there for over an hour. Here's the view from there:

There's a cool abandoned abbey down there. In the background of this photo you can see the Galway Hookers. They are the sailboats with the red sails:


It was a beautiful sunny and warm day, so we really got a chance to enjoy the view:


Then we headed back to Dublin and ate dinner in Temple bar at Gallagher's Boxty House, which the visitors had said they really wanted to do. A boxty is a pancake made with potato cooked on a hot griddle, served with fillings, kind of like a crepe, but with sauce on top. Luckily they had a Vegetable Boxty, which was amazing. We left there full and happy.

We decided to show our guests a nice old Victorian pub, but one that wasn't too far, so we walked over to The Long Haul over on Georges Street:

We had a couple of drinks there, and then our tired friends needed to go rest for their big day of driving through the countryside. A long but very satisfying day!