Dressing up in Dublin

Crazy nights always start with crazy pictures! This is Steve the Pimp and me the Gold Digger. Notice the bling on Steve's fingers! So hot! This was just the first stop of the evening, at a pub. Then it was across the road for a yummy dinner of Japanese, some Karaoke in the basement, and then off to a bar for a little dancing!








How coordinated is Cliona! The Dirty Nun wearing her black and white and drinking her black stuff with white foam...she is a true style icon!








This is Cliona's Boyfriend Connor, or Father Connor as he was referred to all night. The costume is a real Priest's outfit, borrowed from a retired great uncle or something. It was really freaky to see him in the costume because he really did look like a priest, and yet he was drinking and smoking. So many people were really freaked out by his costume and were coming up to him all night asking for forgiveness and anything else a Priest can do for you....not Catholic, just pretended to be one for 5 years of High School.





This great night was all thanks to Roz, who organized it all for her birthday, with the help of Steve. Roz is dressed up as Dorothy in the cuttest dress, and Steve was the pimp.





Vampire Rossa, Dirty Nun Cliona, and Gold-digging me! Enjoying a few drinks after a really yummy Japanese dinner. Doesn't Cliona totally look like a nun?!?!






Rossa's teeth were ticking him off so he took them out and put them on his glass. I just thought they were SO funny! What Rossa thought was funny was to walk around with two red markers and put 'bite' marks on everyones necks. By the end of the night he also thought it was really amusing to write all over my arms and legs...it was...until I couldn't get if off!



This is the rabid looking Toto that Roz got off Ebay to go with her Dorothy costume. The thing was hystarical looking in my opinion and I couldn't stop laughing at it every time I looked at it! SO CREEPY!





There were two cakes for the birthday girl hence all the smoke. Both were chocolate and very yummy...but we weren't allowed to eat any until the next day...it was enough to almost make me cry!







Stephen showing off all his earnings from the evening...just kidding of course! But seriously check out that ring! Its not real but I think he ended up fooling a few gullible gals...and no I wasn't one of them!








Father Connor serenadaing his people. The best part of the picture is that he looks exactly like a Priest AND is holding a beer. Too much to handle! In between songs he had us all singing 'He's Got the Whole World in His Hands'.








Singing our hearts out to the Karaoke. That's Rachel cut off a bit on the left, with Sister Cliona, Father Connor, and Pimp-daddy Steve. I'm sure they were singing to ABBA.







Rossa, the Red-headed Dracula, and vacationing father Connor enjoying some drinks after a very yummy meal.









The next two pictures really do show how brutal I am when I can't use the screen on my camera to see if the picture worked out! The gold thing is the end of my 'shovel', not a gold penis. This is Rossa showing off his vampireness!





I'm not sure if Connor is doing the YMCA or just calling all his children to gather around him. No matter what he is doing its friggin hystarical!

Its Party Time!

The following pictures are from the last two birthdays that I have celebrated with friends. The first couple are from Cliona's and then the rest are from Orla's last weekend.


Happy Birthday to you! She looks GREAT for someone that is 7 years old!







Cliona and Connor happy to be out celebrating with a few pints!








Sinead and I out for drinks to celebrate Orla's birthday. We started with dinner at the house (yummy food from Lemmon Grass) and then headed to Buskers for some drinks.






Sinead and the Birthday Girl, who is looking HOTT in a bright top...and SO not showing enough skin!







After drinks 4 of us went out for some dancing at the Living Room bar. This is Orla wearing her birthday hat courtesy of Grandma Lib at home. Such a hot look!







Feeling the rhythm of the music...swaying to the music











Emer the 'Dancing Queen' She gave the steps a great dancing workout with her multi-level routines!







Shane might need a little help keeping his balance but at least he looks fabulous in those beads!

Mum's European Wrap-up!

Mum put together one last list of all the fun stuff that we encountered while they were visiting so check it out and enjoy!

• 14 cities
• 10 airports
• 7 airlines
• 9 buses
• 12 trains
• 40 Pints of Guinness
• 4 bottles of wine
• 100 cups of coffee and tea
• 5 Starbucks
• 3 rental cars
• 3 hop on/hop off tours
• 3 tour guides
• Different Keyboards in each country
• European Politeness
• No facecloths or kleenex in B&Bs
• No ice buckets
• Excellent train and subway systems
• Amanda - Tour guide extraordinaire - I can be hired for future tours!

So sad its over but it was definetly an experience of a lifetime!

Mum's Scotland Top 10 List

1. Haggis, Neeps, & Tatties - Mum's favourite meal, she ate it all 3 nights we were in Edinburgh....surprisingly Haggis is quite yummy!
2. B&B's with kettles for tea - Mum found this SO refined and way classier than we are!
3. Gretna Green & Mum and Dad's wedding blessing
4. Amanda being with them for their Blessing
5. Edinburgh Castle - HUGE and so beautiful!
6. Great Shopping - for TONES of Scottish stuff!
7. Eating in Scottish Pubs
8. The National Scottish Gallery - Mum and Dad actually got excited about art!
9. The Boarders - the area we drove through to get to Gretna Green from Edinburgh

Scotland Pictures!

Edinburgh Castle from the bus window on our way into town. For some reason it rained two days in a row at 5pm! So weird!






To celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, Mom and Dad decided to go to Gretna Green in Scotland and renew their wedding vows with an Anvil Blessing. We all really got into it and work tartans and mom wore a veil. So amazing.





Mom and Dad outside the Old Blacksmiths Shop where the blessing took place.









Dad thought he'd test out a new profession as a bus driver. Unfortunately (or fortunately whichever way you look at it) his practice came from sitting on the top floor of a double decker bus...but he had the wave down!







When in Ireland and you ask for an ice bucket, you literally get a bucket of ice! It was a little extreme when all we needed it for was to keep some yogurt cool!

Mom's London Top 5

As we were only in London for just over 24 hours, Mum felt that it really only warranted a top 5 list. Enjoy!

1. Meeting Susan - Amanda's Amazing friend from Australia!
2. Riding the Underground - because Mum was SO good at navigating it!
3. Riding the Eye
4. Big Ben
5. Meeting with friends for lunch while Amanda and Ron got caught up on some sleep!

London Pictures

How cool is this! This was our ride around London for the day... just kidding but how cool would that be???








Mum on top of the world in the London Eye...it was really amazing to be able to take Dad up...he loved it...except for the heights, but he made it!






This guy was doing a street performance and it was so hystarical! He had these guys doing weird dances and funny faces...my favourite though was his red thong...you might be able to see it if you enlarget he picture.







Mum and Dad in front of the eye...they survived!








The tiniest beer ever! Mum, Dad, and I met with Susan for dinner at this amazing restaurant where they must have had a 100 different beers! Susan and I tried Strawberry beer...yummy...and I tried Cranberry beer...mmmm...for dinner I had mussels (and managed to spill tomatoe sauce on myself), mom had half a roasted chicken, Dad half a roasted duck, and Susan had Bangers & Mash...don't even get me started on the desert!




All of us after we were happy and full! Such a great night!







'Debbie Downer' Use it...spread it...love it!








Mum and Dad outside our hotel in London. It was so pretty on the outside...kind of pretty on the inside. I felt like we were in the movie Nottinghill!

Mom's Germany Top 10 List

The Best of Germany

1. Great Airports - In Munich we were given free papers, free coffee & tea, and the announcements about delays (and there were a lot of them because of the foggy weather) were so polite!
2. DBA airline - So amazing! We got free beverages and snacks, free magazines (including Playboy!), free gum, and free chocolates when we left!
3. Train Systems and the fact that we can get tickets for the regional trains and the metro all in one!
4. The Town of Mittenwald - SO beautiful!
5. Family B&B - it was great for Mom and Dad to meet Tanja and the kids and to stay with them at the B&B. They were so warm and welcoming!
6. Great Decaf Coffee - Mum was on a mission to find the best of the best!
7. Toilet Paper - 4 ply and so soft! My bum was really happy!
8. Starbucks - There are 60 in Berlin alone! But they don't do the Vente size so Mom had to buy two Grandes...just kidding but I was sure she was going to!
9. Push Flushers - no handles, just push a button! So easy!
10. Brewers Walking Tour - Our Tour Guide Preston was amazing and we all learned So much!
    

Austria Top 10

1. Swarovski Crystals
2. Swarovski Crystals
3. Swarovski Crystals
4. Swarovski Crystals
5. Swarovski Crystals
   

Germany Pictures

After Paris we flew to Munich and then went and stayed with Ron & Tanja in Mittenwald, about 100km outside Munich. Because its really central we decided to do a few day trips using Mittenwald as a base.



This is Dad hanging out with an 'Icy Woman' at the current exhibit at the Sworovski Crystal store in Innsbruck. We went down for the day and it was great.






Dad taking a nap on a ginormous chair that was also a part of the Winter Wonderland exhibit.










The second day we were in Mittenwald we took the train back to Munich and toured aroudn for the day. Our first order of business was doing the Hop on/Hop off tour. It was great because we had a live woman doing the tour, not a recorded audio. The sculpture on the left is the Memorial that Munich put up in rememberance of the Holocaust.



No, you don't need to adjust your computer screens or get your eyes checked. That is infact a surf board on the streets of Munich. Apparently the bridge creates a huge wave that surfers ride. I just thought it was hystarical that a land-locked city had surfing!




Feast your eyes on these ladies and gentleman! To me, this is the best reason to head to Munich for Octoberfest.... almost all the German men wear their leiderhosen and damn does it hug their wonderfully shaped bums! I swear you would think the leiderhosen has a push-up bum built in, but look at those legs and you can tell that they are just that in shape! MMmmmmm... anyone interested in a trip to Munich next September?






And then, like the gates to paradise, we were at Octoberfest!






Unfortunately the pig isn't real and they weren't really roasting it, but how yummy that would be! This is just one of the beer tents that are put up just for 3 weeks at the end of September for Octoberfest!






How cute are these horses with their little doily ear covers!








Mmmmmm...me and my Octoberfest beer...so big! And women are running around handing out up to 10 of these suckers at a time! So amazing!






These are the mountains that are right outside our door in Mittenwald...so beautiful!






When I was booking our tickets around Europe, we were originally going to fly from Munich to London but I figured out that we could actually fly to Berlin for a night and it was cheaper than going direct. It worked out perfectly because I was able to take Mum & Dad on the Brewers Walking tour that I did last year. Once again it was amazing...I would recommend this one to anyone that is heading to Berlin in the future. I took this picture because it was just so weird to see Huskies hooked up to their sled gear in the middle of Berlin in October!



Mum & Dad being Ghetto...Eastside and Westside styles!










Unfortunately our flight was really delayed when leaving Berlin. After sitting in Departures for an extra half hour, we stood in line at customs for 45 minutes where the guy gave me SUCH a hard time! After making it to our gate we had to wait a further 40 minutes. Brutal!





This is my sad face because I have been stuck in the Berlin airport for so long! The most hystarical thing about the whole situation was that as soon as the plane was ready, instead of letting us out in an orderly fashion, they literally opened the doors and people stampeeded out to the plane! Gotta love Ryanair!