in dublin's fair city...

the ring around the head is for the 2 centuries
of glass making. the spikes on the head are a crown,
and the tail holds a shamrock!

Woke up in Waterford and thankfully tony was able to drive to our hotel because the madness of the ships hadn’t commenced yet. As if last night was bad enough. There were multiple concerts outside our hotel, and FYI irish fireworks last nearly 45 minutes… and are just as loud as American fireworks. Once tony picked us up we headed to the Waterford glass factory. I was so excited to see my 2^nd glass blowing factory within one week…not. However, at tony’s suggestion we decided to take the tour, which would last 50 minutes. At this point I was searching for shards of glass to gouge my eyes out. We were fortunate enough to be in a tiny tour group, just us and an older couple. The tour started with an audio visual presentation, this was the closest any presentation I’ve ever seen had come to being a rave. It was in a dark room with techno on and fireworks in between the photos. Mom of course chose this time to dance. I can only imagine what the guide and two other tour members thought as she harassed me.  Once inside the furnace room I was pleasantly surprised. Their technique was actually different than the venitian glass blowers. And they were very close to us so they chatted nicely. One man had on headphones and danced and sang around his workplace. Another man was very friendly and admitted that they do drop pieces and no one gets fired over it. As we progressed to the cutting room we got to watch really closely as they carved the glass. One champagne flute was being marked (they memorize the patterns…100+ of them…but the felt tip pens make a pattern recognizable) and the man on our tour tried to pick it up off the platform and dropped it. So special. I saw the NBA trophy! Go mavs! The workers were so friendly and let us hold pieces and everything. Once in the showroom I discovered the black crystal, which became my immediate favorite. It’s a Japanese artist, John Rocha. Mom got me two votive candle holders from it :) we made a few more purchases then hit the road with jack…I mean tony.

john rocha collection

a baby of the 60 million euro stud.

We were heading for Dublin. On the way was the irish national stud. Obviously since im obsessed with essentially all animals and more specifically horses I was elated. Foals were all over the country side so I was hoping desperately that the stud kept mares and foals on site… and they did!! One of the stallions is worth 60 million euro, so essentially close to 100 million buckaroos. Invincible spirit is his name and he is shockingly ordinary looking.  The foals were adorable and the few mares that were interested were just as sweet. I managed to get creosote all over my coat & partially on my sweater. For you non barn people creosote is pretty much a tar based black paint for fences/chimneys/railroad ties. It doesn’t come out. According to google the acid in coke will help but im hesitant to pour coke on my coat or sweater but we shall see. After that we got back in the car. May I add that it is significantly colder in the car today that most days. Yes tony keeps it an icebox in general but today I lost feeling in my extremities. I believe the temperature in the car is directly correlated to the size of tony’s pupils. The tinier pinprick they are, the more arctic the AC is. We arrived in Dublin only to discover our hotel is outside the city in a suburb. Thanks travel agent, you’re actually a raving moron. Attention family members (and anyone else unfortunate enough to know her) carin chang is a moron, never speak to her again. 

miss you already tony

Our last time with tony was spent driving around Dublin. He gave us a mini tour and searched for an artist district for mom (to no avail). He delivered us to our hotel, which was actually very nice, just far away. I almost cried when I told that adorable man goodbye. A wedding was at the hotel, along with 3 tour busses.  We got settled, and I got sweaty. We soon discovered that our AC in our room was broken so we were moved to a suite, not a bad deal at all.  Then we headed to dinner.  It was an Italian restaurant… and empty. I was fortunate enough to be seated facing a girl who literally cheered when she finally got a glass of wine. She also was made up like someone who was thrown up on by crayola… ORANGE lipstick, literally UT vol orange, and teal, key west water teal, eye shadow. So special. She and her pal only discussed men and weddings at dinner. Only men and weddings & yea sure im all for a girls night, but do you really not even want to comment on the weather? Once in our room we had a great view of the courtyard…where they were setting up for the reception. Kill me now another night of bumpin tunes outside my bedroom window… unacceptable so I threw a homemade bomb out the window. But not really, I took a sleep aid and drifted off to the sounds of the fast & the furious (I believe it was one of the first films, however I’m not a connoisseur) one thing about those movies that never ceases to amaze me is that the drivers never get gas. When we woke up we headed down to breakfast. Once again so entertaining, a girl ate in her pajamas, and mom befriended an older lady who wore a corsage to breakfast. There was a 10 year old boy who still needed his food cut for him. He sadly seemed to be suffering from the plague, and was considerate enough to cough on us, im sure I’ll be dead by morning.  We headed up to claim our bags and checked out.  A new driver picked us up for our trip to the airport. HE WAS A GINGER! He was no tony but I loved him almost as much. Once we got to the airport 20 minutes later (we were told it was an hour away so we were EXTRA early) we were again charged an exorbitant amount of money for our excessive baggage. But they were nicer about it and the tubby little man was kind.  Heading toward security an uptight pinch faced skank in a green uniform told me I needed to make sure that my carry on bag would fit in the small metal cage.  Ignoring the fact that I flew their craptastic airline 4 days earlier and it fit in the overhead bin with no problem, she forced me to shove it in the box. It went in about 1/3 of the way and I told her it would fit on the plane no problem. She said please insert it fully… I promptly shoved my bag into the cage… it took a great amount of force and my camera (a rather expensive item) and my venitian glass horses (which are literally priceless since they’re one of a kind gifts) were in there. As soon as I got through security I checked on everything & lucky for that stupid girl the items were protected enough that no damage occurred. Let me just say that if anything had gone wrong I would I ripped her that ugly green skirt off of her and wrapped it around her pasty white neck.  Flight from Dublin to Edinburgh was quick! And now we’re in Scotland! I’m continually fascinated how I keep entering countries without anyone looking at my passport… its also slightly upsetting because my passport isn’t getting stamps.  Our taxi driver from the airport to our hotel was the Scottish equivalent of a former nascar driver.  Our room was the size of a matchbox & had no AC, not that it was broken, it didn’t exist. So we have now moved to a suite, lucky us again! I’ll update on Scotland later!