Well here it is, the highly anticipated, long awaited Oktoberfest blog. I guess that's probably not true, but I hope I can at least come close to describe what an amazing experience it was. It sounds odd to say, but I really think it was one of the funnest days I've ever had. Everything about it was amazing. Where to start...
Don't laugh at me too hard: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/Oktoberfest#
And a bonus...2 Videos! Pleeeaasseeee don't laugh at me: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=r01zbf4kgM8 and http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9eVEKicvovU
I guess the best place to start is when we woke up around 8am. We had been told by numerous people that in order to get a seat in a tent, you had to get there early. Without a seat, you won't get served. So we got up, got dressed in our festive German garb, and arrived at Oktoberfest by train at around 9am. The festival grounds itself was huge and we were struck with our first big decision...what beer tent to choose. The fairgrounds has over a dozen tents. When I say tents, I don't mean actual tents. These are huge buildings that hold thousands of people each. We ended up just going inside the first one we came to, which was sponsored by Paulaner (beer), and easily found a seat amongst hundreds of people that were already there. To our surprise, the beer and pretzel ladies were already walking around taking orders! So we each ordered a beer and a pretzel and got started.
The tent itself was green and white and had a raised stage in the middle for a band. All tents serve huge steins for beer that hold over 1 liter of the golden liquid, along with a huge array of traditional German food. The tent was filled with tables and benches, most of which were reserved for large parties that reserved them months and months in advance.
Within an hour or so, the place was pretty much packed. By this time we were joined by Gerald, a fellow American currently serving with the National Guard in Afghanistan. He was on a two week holiday and decided to come to Oktoberfest for part of his break. We talked for quite a while about what it's like in Afghanistan and also American politics. Not having any alcohol for the last few months, he was completely passed out on the table within a couple hours and left the tent in the very early afternoon. Our table continually cycled through people, but the 3 of us stayed put for the most part of the day. We met a couple Serbians, a group of 3 Americans on a business trip, and countless other people celebrating at the largest party in the world.
Throughout the day, Hayley and I took bathroom breaks where we would go use the toilet and then leave the tent and explore. We briefly visited a couple other tents, just long enough to see what they were like. The weather on Sunday was beautiful and sunny yet we barely saw any of it sitting in the tent all day.
Around midday, a number of marching bands marched through the tent playing music and dancing along the way. A few of them even had reserved some tables in the tent and one of the bands sat in a set of tables directly next to ours. Around this time, the tent's band also showed up and began playing traditional German music that went on all day. Many of the songs played would cause everyone to suddenly stand on the benches and tables to dance and sing along. I did learn (or at least pretend to learn) the words to one song, which was pretty much played in between every song all day long. It was stuck in my head for days after the festival.
As the day wore on and evening approached, the tent was getting louder and louder. People were constantly dancing and singing along with the music and everyone was making friends with everyone around them. The atmosphere was incredible and I don't know that I've ever experience anything like it. It was also amazing how nice, orderly and safe everything was. I never felt like I had to be careful about anything and our packs were left unattended often. Eventually, Hayley and I started chatting with members of the band on the next table and the next thing we knew, we were playing their instruments, wearing their hats and talking to the entire band. They were all high school age, but since the drinking age is 16 everyone was having a great time.
As the night continued, Hayley and I soon realized that Fran was missing! We had noticed that we hadn't seen her for a while, but we figured she was at a nearby table making friends as she had been all day. At one point I put her wallet that was sitting on our table in my pocket so it wouldn't get left behind, but her cell phone and camera were still on the table and we knew she wouldn't leave them. A while later, after there was no sign of her, the tent was slowly starting to clear out and Hayley and I knew it was time for us to leave. We grabbed our backpacks, walked around the tent a couple times to make sure Fran was no where to be seen, and finally left. Neither of us really knew what to do about her, nor were we in any state to really do anything responsible, but we did know that we could trust her to sort herself out if we got separated. After all, she did grow up in Germany!
Hayley and I decided to go to another tent since others still seemed to be open. Upon entering, we were stopped and asked to open our bags. We both slightly panicked because we had taken a beer stein from the prior tent, something that everyone tries to do but few people get away with. However, once I got my pack off and started to open it, the man waved us through! So in we went. The atmosphere at this tent was much different. The music was more mainstream and everyone was standing up dancing and singing along like crazy. And I mean everyone. Young, old, it didn't matter. We orderd another beer and joined right in, singing along with everyone else around.
Eventually we either decided to leave or the tent started to close, we're not really sure which. On our way out of the fairgrounds we ordered some bratwurst and I got some ice cream. We then managed to make our way to the train station, got on the correct train, then on the right bus, and back to the campground. Fran was still no where to be seen, and not knowing what to do about that we immediatley passed out for the night. Everthing ended up being OK with Fran. She ended up leaving the tent by accident, got a little lost and scared, and talked to a policewoman. They took care of her from there and they ended up giving her a ride to her friend's house for the night. What a mess!
Overall, the day was obviously a success. We're not really sure how many beers we had, but my best guess is around 7-8. So that's 7-8 liters of beer. That's a lot without drinking anything else, even water. We came away with 2 steins and 1 with a broken handle. I had 2 giant pretzels, a giant piece of pork with potatoes, a bratwurst, and some ice cream during the day. I also had a tired voice the next day from all the singing, and a ton of fun looking at pics which worked as entertainment and a way to put my memory back together.
I want to go back. Every year. It was just a complete blast!
9.27.2008
9.25.2008
Munich, Part 1
Hey there! So I've decided to split up my recent trip to Germany into 2 posts. The first will be about my general experiences in and around Munich. The 2nd will be all about Oktoberfest. Now obviously, Oktoberfest's primary lure is the beer, so if you don't want to hear about me drinking then you can simply skip the next post. As a side note, I know that on many occasions I have mentioned that I have enjoyed a few spirits. Despite concerns from a few of you, I really don't drink that often. It's just that usually a few pints are involved around the activities that are fun, and therefore the activities that I write about. Most of my nights involve me getting off work, going to the gym for a couple hours and making dinner at home. Do you really want to hear about that all the time?
Pics here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/Munich#
My trip to Germany was accompanied by two co-workers, Hayley and Fran. We caught the first tube to Heathrow Saturday morning to catch our flight to Munich. We ended up getting to the airport about 1 hour before our flight, which apparently isn't enough time. After getting seriously scalded by an unpleasant British Airways employee, we were escorted to the "Fast Track" security line and then literally ran to catch our flight. Once on board, we did enjoy a comfy flight which included free food and drinks! When we landed in Munich, we got on the train and made our way through Munich to the campsite where we had planned to stay. We set up camp, which included our large and luxurious tent complete with a deer head on the front, and got back on the train to central Munich. Fran had made arrangements to meet one of her friends from school who now lives and works in Munich. She showed us around part of the shopping district and we made our way to a German pub and restaurant that sat on a square where a market was taking place.
The first thing I drank in Munich was a great local Weiss beer (Hefeweisen, basically). The first thing I ate in Munich was a pretzel. I was in heaven. The restaurant itself was packed and we ended up being there for around 3 hours. For my meal, I ordered a gigantic platter of cold meats, sausages, cheeses, bread and salad. It was absolutely amazing and I could probably eat it every day for the rest of my life. After lunch, we were on a mission to buy our outfits for Oktoberfest the next day. We went to a number of shops filled with authentic traditional German clothing. I bought a checked shirt, a classic handkerchief, socks, and some slippers that worked as shoes. Lederhosen were just too expensive to justify. My outfit did look pretty good though and the suspenders I already had made it complete! After shopping we sat down at a small cafe, or "Konditerei," and enjoyed some cake and hot chocolate. I have to say that I didn't like the desserts as much as I thought I would. The texture of those that I had were very light like a mousse. Not really what I expected when I ordered a cheesecake. Also, Germans seem to be really big fans of gelatin. Every dessert I tried had some in or on it, and even some of the sausages on my giant platter were held together by gelatin. Those were the only two things I didn't eat. After the cafe, we went to a store and bought some food and snacks and headed back to the campground for some cards and an early night. I also had my first (of many) giant pretzels about the size of my head. Believe it or not, every pic you see with me and a pretzel was actually a different pretzel.
Sunday morning we got up and out early to make it to the Oktoberfest around 9:30am so we could get a seat. As mentioned above, the entire day of Sunday will be a separate post. However, let me take this space to talk about Munich in general. It was definitely bigger than I expected, but it was very nice and very clean. All of central Munich was filled with excellent shopping, restaurants, pubs and historic buildings. Due to the war, most of Munich is actually pretty new and modern. However, you can definitely tell when you see a building that survived the destruction, and they looked really cool. Since I didn't do any research on Munich before I left, I don't really know what any of the buildings are that we saw. Also, none of us were prepared for how cold it was! The tent and sleeping bags were warm enough at night, but it was rather cold all day long every day. The transportation system is also excellent. The trains are very nice and well kept, come on a regular schedule well displayed, and connect all parts of the city. Hopefully I'll have many opportunities to visit other areas of Germany, but I really enjoyed Munich and could definitely even see living there. I think I kinda belong in Germany. All I need to do is learn the language a bit better!
After Sunday, I felt surprisingly OK on Monday morning after some water and a Clif bar. Hayley was a different story. She has been battling a cold for weeks now, and camping and drinking weren't helping at all. She slept in while Fran and I showered and reminisced on the prior day's events. After we were all ready, we finally made our way back to the Oktoberfest fairgrounds so we could actually walk around and see everything. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy, but we didn't let it stop us. Our first stop was the lost and found. At this point, I'll just say that Fran got her mobile phone back but not her camera. Unfortunately my North Face soft shell was no where to be seen. We visited one of the tents to get lunch and I ordered a sparkling apple juice and a half chicken with potatoes. It was excellent! Hayley ordered some kind of dumpling soup that didn't taste much better than it looked. She didn't eat very much of it.
We then walked around the fairgrounds. Basically, it reminded me of a huge state fair. The only addition is beer. There are about 15 huge beer tents that aren't really tents since they have permanent walls and seat thousands of people. I'll explain more about the beer tents in my next post, but they are amazing so make sure you come back to read about them! There were also a lot of rides, some of which were pretty impressive; including a couple roller coasters, one of which had 5 loops! We decided to go in the Haunted House, which highlighted a short (and very old) mummy movie clip in German. It was amazing. Of course I couldn't leave the fairgrounds without another extra large pretzel.
The fairgrounds was within walking or tram distance to the city center, so we slowly made our way there. We passed a number of cool buildings and churches and I snapped plenty of pics along the way. We also stopped at a lovely cafe and had some tea. Fran and Hayley ordered some desserts and I tried theirs. We continued to walk around the city seeing all the sights and taking plenty of pics. I was so surprised to see how bike and pedestrian friendly the city was. Most of the main lanes in the city center are pedestrian-only, which is really amazing when you think about how big of an area it is. It was really cool. We stopped for a quick dinner at a grocery store cafe and then met up with Fran's friend again at a pub to say goodbye. We were pretty tired and made our way back to the campground to hit the sack since we knew we had an early morning on Tuesday.
We all reluctantly got up on Tuesday morning, knowing that we had to clean, pack up, and take down the wet tent. We got it all done by 8am and caught the bus to the train to another train that took us to the airport. We got there with plenty of time to spare, which I used to get some lunch, 2 more pretzels for the road and 3 bags of hard pretzels to last me a couple weeks in London. Once back in London, we all headed straight to the office to put in a half day. Needless to say we were tired, dirty, smelly, and not in the mood to work. Hayley and I have been very busy, however, and we were definitely needed in the office. I think we learned we need to minimize the time that the two of us are both gone at the same time.
Pics here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/Munich#
My trip to Germany was accompanied by two co-workers, Hayley and Fran. We caught the first tube to Heathrow Saturday morning to catch our flight to Munich. We ended up getting to the airport about 1 hour before our flight, which apparently isn't enough time. After getting seriously scalded by an unpleasant British Airways employee, we were escorted to the "Fast Track" security line and then literally ran to catch our flight. Once on board, we did enjoy a comfy flight which included free food and drinks! When we landed in Munich, we got on the train and made our way through Munich to the campsite where we had planned to stay. We set up camp, which included our large and luxurious tent complete with a deer head on the front, and got back on the train to central Munich. Fran had made arrangements to meet one of her friends from school who now lives and works in Munich. She showed us around part of the shopping district and we made our way to a German pub and restaurant that sat on a square where a market was taking place.
The first thing I drank in Munich was a great local Weiss beer (Hefeweisen, basically). The first thing I ate in Munich was a pretzel. I was in heaven. The restaurant itself was packed and we ended up being there for around 3 hours. For my meal, I ordered a gigantic platter of cold meats, sausages, cheeses, bread and salad. It was absolutely amazing and I could probably eat it every day for the rest of my life. After lunch, we were on a mission to buy our outfits for Oktoberfest the next day. We went to a number of shops filled with authentic traditional German clothing. I bought a checked shirt, a classic handkerchief, socks, and some slippers that worked as shoes. Lederhosen were just too expensive to justify. My outfit did look pretty good though and the suspenders I already had made it complete! After shopping we sat down at a small cafe, or "Konditerei," and enjoyed some cake and hot chocolate. I have to say that I didn't like the desserts as much as I thought I would. The texture of those that I had were very light like a mousse. Not really what I expected when I ordered a cheesecake. Also, Germans seem to be really big fans of gelatin. Every dessert I tried had some in or on it, and even some of the sausages on my giant platter were held together by gelatin. Those were the only two things I didn't eat. After the cafe, we went to a store and bought some food and snacks and headed back to the campground for some cards and an early night. I also had my first (of many) giant pretzels about the size of my head. Believe it or not, every pic you see with me and a pretzel was actually a different pretzel.
Sunday morning we got up and out early to make it to the Oktoberfest around 9:30am so we could get a seat. As mentioned above, the entire day of Sunday will be a separate post. However, let me take this space to talk about Munich in general. It was definitely bigger than I expected, but it was very nice and very clean. All of central Munich was filled with excellent shopping, restaurants, pubs and historic buildings. Due to the war, most of Munich is actually pretty new and modern. However, you can definitely tell when you see a building that survived the destruction, and they looked really cool. Since I didn't do any research on Munich before I left, I don't really know what any of the buildings are that we saw. Also, none of us were prepared for how cold it was! The tent and sleeping bags were warm enough at night, but it was rather cold all day long every day. The transportation system is also excellent. The trains are very nice and well kept, come on a regular schedule well displayed, and connect all parts of the city. Hopefully I'll have many opportunities to visit other areas of Germany, but I really enjoyed Munich and could definitely even see living there. I think I kinda belong in Germany. All I need to do is learn the language a bit better!
After Sunday, I felt surprisingly OK on Monday morning after some water and a Clif bar. Hayley was a different story. She has been battling a cold for weeks now, and camping and drinking weren't helping at all. She slept in while Fran and I showered and reminisced on the prior day's events. After we were all ready, we finally made our way back to the Oktoberfest fairgrounds so we could actually walk around and see everything. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy, but we didn't let it stop us. Our first stop was the lost and found. At this point, I'll just say that Fran got her mobile phone back but not her camera. Unfortunately my North Face soft shell was no where to be seen. We visited one of the tents to get lunch and I ordered a sparkling apple juice and a half chicken with potatoes. It was excellent! Hayley ordered some kind of dumpling soup that didn't taste much better than it looked. She didn't eat very much of it.
We then walked around the fairgrounds. Basically, it reminded me of a huge state fair. The only addition is beer. There are about 15 huge beer tents that aren't really tents since they have permanent walls and seat thousands of people. I'll explain more about the beer tents in my next post, but they are amazing so make sure you come back to read about them! There were also a lot of rides, some of which were pretty impressive; including a couple roller coasters, one of which had 5 loops! We decided to go in the Haunted House, which highlighted a short (and very old) mummy movie clip in German. It was amazing. Of course I couldn't leave the fairgrounds without another extra large pretzel.
The fairgrounds was within walking or tram distance to the city center, so we slowly made our way there. We passed a number of cool buildings and churches and I snapped plenty of pics along the way. We also stopped at a lovely cafe and had some tea. Fran and Hayley ordered some desserts and I tried theirs. We continued to walk around the city seeing all the sights and taking plenty of pics. I was so surprised to see how bike and pedestrian friendly the city was. Most of the main lanes in the city center are pedestrian-only, which is really amazing when you think about how big of an area it is. It was really cool. We stopped for a quick dinner at a grocery store cafe and then met up with Fran's friend again at a pub to say goodbye. We were pretty tired and made our way back to the campground to hit the sack since we knew we had an early morning on Tuesday.
We all reluctantly got up on Tuesday morning, knowing that we had to clean, pack up, and take down the wet tent. We got it all done by 8am and caught the bus to the train to another train that took us to the airport. We got there with plenty of time to spare, which I used to get some lunch, 2 more pretzels for the road and 3 bags of hard pretzels to last me a couple weeks in London. Once back in London, we all headed straight to the office to put in a half day. Needless to say we were tired, dirty, smelly, and not in the mood to work. Hayley and I have been very busy, however, and we were definitely needed in the office. I think we learned we need to minimize the time that the two of us are both gone at the same time.
9.24.2008
I heart Germany
So I just got back from Germany and I loved it. Everything about it. Especially the food. Here are a couple pics to show you what's to come in my massive Oktoberfest blog coming soon!! PS - There are also new pics posted in the Camden post below!
9.17.2008
There is no College Football in London
This past weekend was absolutely beautiful in London. Crisp autumn air filled the mornings and evenings, and there were cloudless skies all day. It really reminded me of college football season and made me a little sad that I had no games to watch or anyone to watch them with. But I did get out a little and enjoyed a great London weekend!
Pics here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/Camden#
I ended up going out with a couple co-workers on Friday night. It had been a long week and we needed a good time. Unfortunately the night went a bit late and I didn't feel too motivated to do very much on Saturday. I did get a lot of stuff done around the flat that I've been putting off for weeks, and I also made it to the gym in the afternoon. Then I went over to Hayley's for a movie and some movie snacks. It was a nice, chill day. When I got home that night, I checked out the Oregon score on ESPN and saw that they were in overtime! They ended up winning in double overtime...GO DUCKS!
On Sunday I went for a great run in the morning and then met up with a co-worker, Fran. We had tickets to see The Dark Knight at the London IMAX Sunday night so we thought we'd make a day out of it. We went to the Camden Markets which were really cool. Sunday is definitely the day to go and the streets, alleyways and buildings are filled with endless booths of market goods. Lots of clothing, jewelry, sunglasses, food, etc. Camden is also a really neat area and known for it's cultural atmosphere and fun nightlife. It made for some really good (and interesting) people watching!
I ended up buying a pretty sweet hat that you can see a pic of in this post. I also found a mexican food stand that served giant burritos! Mexican food here is really just brown people pretending to serve food similar to what Mexicans eat, but it was good nonetheless. However, it was nothing like Qdoba. I feel like I could open a real Mexican food restaurant here and it would be amazing!
We then headed down to Central London and randomly found out that it was the River Thames Festival. The banks of the river were surrounded with more booths, entertainment and even a parade! We walked around quite a bit along the river and views were great. It was a really nice evening and it was so nice to finally have some great weather. We stopped for some coffee before the film and then headed to the IMAX to see the movie.
Fran has this joke that something bad always has to happen when she goes out. Up to this point, everything went really well - other than our excursion in Camden trying to find an ATM. When we finally found one there was a passed out drunk guy pretty laying right beside it. As the movie went on, we realized that it was getting pretty late. Soon we realized that it was getting late enough that we were probably going to miss the last tube home. The movie started at 9pm and the tubes close around 11 or 11:30 so we thought we would have enough time. Once we got out of the movie after 11:30, we ran to the station to find that it was shut down. Neither of us knowing London very well, we had to figure out the bus system to get home, which is always a fun venture. I felt pretty good that I got us to a central area where we then found bus stops with buses that would get each of us home. After making sure Fran was at the right place, I walked over to my stop and got on my bus home. Fran ended up getting freaked out by a homeless guy and getting a taxi. Wimp! :-)
Moving on to a different subject, this week has been pretty exciting at work. As most of you know, I work for a company called RegOnline based in Boulder. However, about 10 months ago we were purchased by a much larger company based in San Diego called Active Network. RegOnline and Active share an office in London and there are also Active offices in France and Australia, among other individuals scattered around the world. This week a number of executives from the States have been here to visit, along with employees from the other international offices. All of the "Active" people left Wednesday for France to hold the rest of their meetings there. The CEO of RegOnline also left on Wednesday to finish the week vacationing in Paris with his wife. Our direct manager from RegOnline will be here all week. It was really great having our CEO (Attila) and our direct manager (Eric) here so they could see what I've been trying to communicate with them over the past few months. It was also a great opportunity for them to discuss and approve these changes with the director of Active International and an Active Senior VP who was here as well. Some of those changes include a different/larger office and better office organization.
With all of that said, it sounds like my stay here could be considerably extended if I'd like it to be. It's still too early to know exactly what will happen, but if all goes well I will be here at least another 6 months and more likely another 1-2 years. We are still researching legal implications of extended my stay, especially tax implications for me and the company. Further, we can't apply for an extension until 3 months before my current permit expires (which will be October) and then I'll have to wait to see if it is accepted. And of course we still need to discuss my specific position and the organization of the office itself. A lot of you have been asking how long I'm staying, so I thought I'd give everyone an update on what is happening. If things go wrong I'll be back in December. If they go really well then I'll be back in 2010...???
It was really nice to talk to Attila and Eric about my position here. It was great to hear that hey wanted me to stay, and it was especially nice to hear Attila say that he completely trusts me and thinks that I'm the perfect person for the job. It's nice to know that I've made a difference here and that they see the benefit of having me stay.
The last few weeks I wasn't sure how I felt about the opportunity of me staying longer. However, now that it's actually a possibility, I feel pretty good about it. I think a lot of my hesitation has to do with the fact that my future here has been unknown. It's really hard to settle somewhere when you feel like it's temporary. It's hard to justify spending time making friendships and things that can tie you to a place. It's also hard to purchase things like a mobile phone due to contracts or more expensive items like a bike. If I knew I was going to be here for a while, then I would be able to make more of a life for myself here which would be really nice. So for now I think I like the option of staying for a while. We'll see if things change between now and November and I'll keep you all updated!
I'm heading to Munich this weekend to celebrate Oktoberfest. I'll be blogging about it when I get back!
Pics here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/Camden#
I ended up going out with a couple co-workers on Friday night. It had been a long week and we needed a good time. Unfortunately the night went a bit late and I didn't feel too motivated to do very much on Saturday. I did get a lot of stuff done around the flat that I've been putting off for weeks, and I also made it to the gym in the afternoon. Then I went over to Hayley's for a movie and some movie snacks. It was a nice, chill day. When I got home that night, I checked out the Oregon score on ESPN and saw that they were in overtime! They ended up winning in double overtime...GO DUCKS!
On Sunday I went for a great run in the morning and then met up with a co-worker, Fran. We had tickets to see The Dark Knight at the London IMAX Sunday night so we thought we'd make a day out of it. We went to the Camden Markets which were really cool. Sunday is definitely the day to go and the streets, alleyways and buildings are filled with endless booths of market goods. Lots of clothing, jewelry, sunglasses, food, etc. Camden is also a really neat area and known for it's cultural atmosphere and fun nightlife. It made for some really good (and interesting) people watching!
I ended up buying a pretty sweet hat that you can see a pic of in this post. I also found a mexican food stand that served giant burritos! Mexican food here is really just brown people pretending to serve food similar to what Mexicans eat, but it was good nonetheless. However, it was nothing like Qdoba. I feel like I could open a real Mexican food restaurant here and it would be amazing!
We then headed down to Central London and randomly found out that it was the River Thames Festival. The banks of the river were surrounded with more booths, entertainment and even a parade! We walked around quite a bit along the river and views were great. It was a really nice evening and it was so nice to finally have some great weather. We stopped for some coffee before the film and then headed to the IMAX to see the movie.
Fran has this joke that something bad always has to happen when she goes out. Up to this point, everything went really well - other than our excursion in Camden trying to find an ATM. When we finally found one there was a passed out drunk guy pretty laying right beside it. As the movie went on, we realized that it was getting pretty late. Soon we realized that it was getting late enough that we were probably going to miss the last tube home. The movie started at 9pm and the tubes close around 11 or 11:30 so we thought we would have enough time. Once we got out of the movie after 11:30, we ran to the station to find that it was shut down. Neither of us knowing London very well, we had to figure out the bus system to get home, which is always a fun venture. I felt pretty good that I got us to a central area where we then found bus stops with buses that would get each of us home. After making sure Fran was at the right place, I walked over to my stop and got on my bus home. Fran ended up getting freaked out by a homeless guy and getting a taxi. Wimp! :-)
Moving on to a different subject, this week has been pretty exciting at work. As most of you know, I work for a company called RegOnline based in Boulder. However, about 10 months ago we were purchased by a much larger company based in San Diego called Active Network. RegOnline and Active share an office in London and there are also Active offices in France and Australia, among other individuals scattered around the world. This week a number of executives from the States have been here to visit, along with employees from the other international offices. All of the "Active" people left Wednesday for France to hold the rest of their meetings there. The CEO of RegOnline also left on Wednesday to finish the week vacationing in Paris with his wife. Our direct manager from RegOnline will be here all week. It was really great having our CEO (Attila) and our direct manager (Eric) here so they could see what I've been trying to communicate with them over the past few months. It was also a great opportunity for them to discuss and approve these changes with the director of Active International and an Active Senior VP who was here as well. Some of those changes include a different/larger office and better office organization.
With all of that said, it sounds like my stay here could be considerably extended if I'd like it to be. It's still too early to know exactly what will happen, but if all goes well I will be here at least another 6 months and more likely another 1-2 years. We are still researching legal implications of extended my stay, especially tax implications for me and the company. Further, we can't apply for an extension until 3 months before my current permit expires (which will be October) and then I'll have to wait to see if it is accepted. And of course we still need to discuss my specific position and the organization of the office itself. A lot of you have been asking how long I'm staying, so I thought I'd give everyone an update on what is happening. If things go wrong I'll be back in December. If they go really well then I'll be back in 2010...???
It was really nice to talk to Attila and Eric about my position here. It was great to hear that hey wanted me to stay, and it was especially nice to hear Attila say that he completely trusts me and thinks that I'm the perfect person for the job. It's nice to know that I've made a difference here and that they see the benefit of having me stay.
The last few weeks I wasn't sure how I felt about the opportunity of me staying longer. However, now that it's actually a possibility, I feel pretty good about it. I think a lot of my hesitation has to do with the fact that my future here has been unknown. It's really hard to settle somewhere when you feel like it's temporary. It's hard to justify spending time making friendships and things that can tie you to a place. It's also hard to purchase things like a mobile phone due to contracts or more expensive items like a bike. If I knew I was going to be here for a while, then I would be able to make more of a life for myself here which would be really nice. So for now I think I like the option of staying for a while. We'll see if things change between now and November and I'll keep you all updated!
I'm heading to Munich this weekend to celebrate Oktoberfest. I'll be blogging about it when I get back!
9.11.2008
The Adventures of Brian, Ryan and Brianne Continue...
...in London!! That's right, just a few short days after our departure from Dublin, the two American's arrived in London and stayed with me for a couple nights before they went back to the States.
To see pics related to this post, check them out here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/LondonWithBrianneAndRyan#
Again, you can also read Brianne and Ryan's account of their time on their blog here: www.ryanandbrianne.com.
Ryan and Brianne's train was supposed to arrive around 5:30pm, so I decided on a meeting place at a bar in the nearest tube station to my office. Hayley and I left work early and headed over shortly after 5:00 to find them already there! They were able to get on an earlier train but had no way to contact me since the phone numbers over her are really confusing. After another appetizer and a few happy hour drinks at El Metro (our favorite local happy hour spot), we dropped their packs off at my office and headed to the river for dinner. We ended up at The Old Ship, a pub that apparently has been around for a long time. It sits right on the River Thames and had really good food. I had veggie skewers with rice over green curry and it was amazing! After dinner, we walked down the river and enjoyed three more pubs along the way. The pubs along the river in Hammersmith are really nice, as is the path and area that stretches along the river. Of course our walk home wasn't complete without a stop at the Kebab shop. Ryan and I enjoyed a rather tasty chicken kebab (basically a gyro for those of you not familiar with the glory of a UK kebab).
I got up on Thursday and headed to work, but left my keys and mobile phone with R & B so they could come and go as needed and give me a call when they were on their way to my office. Hayley and I took a half day, so they came to our office to meet us for lunch and then explore the wonders of London Town. We had a nice lunch at a local pub near the office and then caught the tube down to central London. We started at Green Park, which borders Buckingham Palace. We then walking through St. James park which connects Buckingham Palace the city. Snapping pictures the entire way, we walked to Big Ben and then along the river to the London Eye.
The London Eye is the largest ferris wheel of it's type in the world. It is 135 meters tall and is the 4th tallest structure in London. It provides the best views you'll get of the city as you can see by the pictures. It's amazing how loud and busy things are on the ground, yet how miniature and quite things were during the ride. The eye itself moves very slowly and it takes about 45 minutes to make it all the way around. It was a really cool experience and I'm glad we did it!
From the London eye, we headed toward the most popular area of central London which includes Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Soho. We started at Covent Garden and stopped at an Australian bar for a couple drinks. Ryan and I had the great pleasure of trying a special cider they had on tap. Unfortunately it tasted like vinegar and pee and it took all that we had to drink it all. The jelly bellies leftover from our snack on the London Eye definitely helped decrease it's impact.
Our dinner choice for the evening is probably the most eventful part of the entire trip! I did some research online to find the best Indian curry house in London, just for Ryan who was wanting to experience so excellent, traditional curry. After researching many list, I found a great prospect in East London which meant taking the tube a few stops away from downtown. However, we thought that it was probably worth it to get some excellent food. After getting all the way there (rather quickly since certain female members of our party had to use the toilet), we found out that the restaurant was actually closed for the entire month for Ramadan. What this actually meant was that they did not provide table service from their menu, but they did set up a line where you could still order food that they had already prepared. If you wanted to eat it in the restaurant, you could certainly do so and they would plate the food and serve it to you. So although we didn't get to choose from a full menu selection, we definitely had an excellent meal that was quite tasty. I would definitely go back to the popular and crowded restaurant (even though it was "closed") another time to experience all it has to offer. After dinner we went back downtown and finished exploring Leicester Square, the Circus, and Soho and ended our evening with a nice helping of some gelato on an outdoor patio.
Friday morning I headed off to work again which Ryan and Brianne had the day to explore on their own. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good and their planned day at Hyde Park got cut short. They were very kind enough to stop at Whole Foods on their way home to pick up groceries for an amazing dinner we prepared that evening at my flat. I grabbed some Spanish red wine and a few beers on the way home and then we began making our meal of steak, pasta, broccoli, salad and bread. It was absolutely delicious and thank you guys again for getting everything! After dinner we went down to the local pub across the street. It was the first time I have been!! The pub is much nicer than you'd think from the outside and was a great place to enjoy a pint. Since the weather seemed to have stopped a lot of people from coming out, they were closing early so we walked down a block to the other local pub near my flat. Unfortunately we were all out of cash and found out that they did not accept credit cards. One of the locals heard our predicament and said they he would buy us a round! The following hour consisted of us accepting a couple rounds from the locals in the pub and chatting about everything from TV sitcoms to US politics. I have a feeling that the same 8 people sit on the stools of that pub almost nightly. I'll have to stop by again soon to see if that's true and re-pay John for his kindness. In reality, John was probably far to drunk to remember me at all.
Saturday morning we all got up and enjoyed some breakfast before heading to the airport. Things got a little stressed as we realized that we really didn't allow very much time to get from my flat to the airport, but we made it with time to spare!
I want to thank Ryan and Brianne again for coming to the UK and doing everything you did. It was great having visitors and I really hope you guys had a great time!
To see pics related to this post, check them out here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/LondonWithBrianneAndRyan#
Again, you can also read Brianne and Ryan's account of their time on their blog here: www.ryanandbrianne.com.
Ryan and Brianne's train was supposed to arrive around 5:30pm, so I decided on a meeting place at a bar in the nearest tube station to my office. Hayley and I left work early and headed over shortly after 5:00 to find them already there! They were able to get on an earlier train but had no way to contact me since the phone numbers over her are really confusing. After another appetizer and a few happy hour drinks at El Metro (our favorite local happy hour spot), we dropped their packs off at my office and headed to the river for dinner. We ended up at The Old Ship, a pub that apparently has been around for a long time. It sits right on the River Thames and had really good food. I had veggie skewers with rice over green curry and it was amazing! After dinner, we walked down the river and enjoyed three more pubs along the way. The pubs along the river in Hammersmith are really nice, as is the path and area that stretches along the river. Of course our walk home wasn't complete without a stop at the Kebab shop. Ryan and I enjoyed a rather tasty chicken kebab (basically a gyro for those of you not familiar with the glory of a UK kebab).
I got up on Thursday and headed to work, but left my keys and mobile phone with R & B so they could come and go as needed and give me a call when they were on their way to my office. Hayley and I took a half day, so they came to our office to meet us for lunch and then explore the wonders of London Town. We had a nice lunch at a local pub near the office and then caught the tube down to central London. We started at Green Park, which borders Buckingham Palace. We then walking through St. James park which connects Buckingham Palace the city. Snapping pictures the entire way, we walked to Big Ben and then along the river to the London Eye.
The London Eye is the largest ferris wheel of it's type in the world. It is 135 meters tall and is the 4th tallest structure in London. It provides the best views you'll get of the city as you can see by the pictures. It's amazing how loud and busy things are on the ground, yet how miniature and quite things were during the ride. The eye itself moves very slowly and it takes about 45 minutes to make it all the way around. It was a really cool experience and I'm glad we did it!
From the London eye, we headed toward the most popular area of central London which includes Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Soho. We started at Covent Garden and stopped at an Australian bar for a couple drinks. Ryan and I had the great pleasure of trying a special cider they had on tap. Unfortunately it tasted like vinegar and pee and it took all that we had to drink it all. The jelly bellies leftover from our snack on the London Eye definitely helped decrease it's impact.
Our dinner choice for the evening is probably the most eventful part of the entire trip! I did some research online to find the best Indian curry house in London, just for Ryan who was wanting to experience so excellent, traditional curry. After researching many list, I found a great prospect in East London which meant taking the tube a few stops away from downtown. However, we thought that it was probably worth it to get some excellent food. After getting all the way there (rather quickly since certain female members of our party had to use the toilet), we found out that the restaurant was actually closed for the entire month for Ramadan. What this actually meant was that they did not provide table service from their menu, but they did set up a line where you could still order food that they had already prepared. If you wanted to eat it in the restaurant, you could certainly do so and they would plate the food and serve it to you. So although we didn't get to choose from a full menu selection, we definitely had an excellent meal that was quite tasty. I would definitely go back to the popular and crowded restaurant (even though it was "closed") another time to experience all it has to offer. After dinner we went back downtown and finished exploring Leicester Square, the Circus, and Soho and ended our evening with a nice helping of some gelato on an outdoor patio.
Friday morning I headed off to work again which Ryan and Brianne had the day to explore on their own. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good and their planned day at Hyde Park got cut short. They were very kind enough to stop at Whole Foods on their way home to pick up groceries for an amazing dinner we prepared that evening at my flat. I grabbed some Spanish red wine and a few beers on the way home and then we began making our meal of steak, pasta, broccoli, salad and bread. It was absolutely delicious and thank you guys again for getting everything! After dinner we went down to the local pub across the street. It was the first time I have been!! The pub is much nicer than you'd think from the outside and was a great place to enjoy a pint. Since the weather seemed to have stopped a lot of people from coming out, they were closing early so we walked down a block to the other local pub near my flat. Unfortunately we were all out of cash and found out that they did not accept credit cards. One of the locals heard our predicament and said they he would buy us a round! The following hour consisted of us accepting a couple rounds from the locals in the pub and chatting about everything from TV sitcoms to US politics. I have a feeling that the same 8 people sit on the stools of that pub almost nightly. I'll have to stop by again soon to see if that's true and re-pay John for his kindness. In reality, John was probably far to drunk to remember me at all.
Saturday morning we all got up and enjoyed some breakfast before heading to the airport. Things got a little stressed as we realized that we really didn't allow very much time to get from my flat to the airport, but we made it with time to spare!
I want to thank Ryan and Brianne again for coming to the UK and doing everything you did. It was great having visitors and I really hope you guys had a great time!
9.10.2008
Dublin and the Land of Leprechauns
Hello! Last week I was fortunate enough to have some friends visiting the UK from the States. Ryan and Brianne arrived in Dublin last Thursday, and flew there to spend the weekend with them. After Dublin, they took a few days to make their way to London, where we spent some more time together. This post is about our adventures in Ireland!
To see my pics of this post, click the following link: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/Dublin#
Ryan and Brianne have also posted a much more extensive blog with many many more pics on their website. If you feel like reading a novel, go here: http://www.ryanandbrianne.com/. In all seriousness, I've probably lost my "newbie" touch, so it's pretty interesting to hear their take on everything.
The trip started on Thursday when I left work a little early and took a shuttle up to Stansted airport. The flight to Dublin was about an hour long. I was able to book my flight on a low-budget airline for £0 plus taxes. So my roundtrip ticket was about £20! I arrived in Dublin and took a bus downtown and arrived at the hotel where Ryan and Brianne had already checked in. They had left a key for me at reception and I went to the room and watched some TV until they arrived. It was the first time I had seen the Simpsons in about 4 months and it was great! I also started eating some of the snacks they brought me from the States. THANK YOU! After catching up for a bit, we walked across the street to an Irish pub named Kingfisher’s. The food was really good and Ryan's fish n' chips looked amazing! Oddly enough, they only had Heineken on tap, but it was still very tasty. Ryan had one pub that we had to visit before we left Dublin, so we decided to check it out the first night. It was called Messrs Maguire and it was a really cool building. Lots of staircases and small random rooms everywhere. I'll let you read Ryan's description on his blog for a better description. After a few rounds there, we hit up another local pub called Grand Central. This place was much less crowded and was a really cool historical building complete with a huge dome in the ceiling. We had another round or two there before heading back to the hotel bar for our last drink of the night. By the time we got back to the room around 2am, we were excited that we only had another hour to wait until Obama's DNC speech was on. Unfortunately we all fell asleep mins before it started.
Our hotel was centrally located in Dublin, which is a smaller city than what I expected. The downtown/central area of Dublin is definitely all walkable, although it was still a lot of walking. The River Liffey runs through the middle of the city, splitting it in half North/South. There are many scenic bridges that cross the water and lots of restaurants and pubs line its banks. On Friday morning, Ryan and Brianne were clearly still adjusting to UK time, so even after sleeping in until after 8am, I decided to explore the area a bit. I drank some water, grabbed my camera and walked around the area surrounding the hotel. The area was filled with malls and shops. There was even an old street market right next door with sketchy old ladies selling cheap produce. I managed to buy a bunch of grapes, 8 bananas and a handful of apples for €1.50. We later found the grapes were quite fuzzy.
Friday was filled with Dublin sightseeing. After the others woke up and we were all ready (around noon) we went to a great crepe cafe that Brianne had picked out. They had a wide variety of both savory and sweet crepes, as well as waffles and sandwiches. From there we walked through town, passing Dublin Castle and a number of other historical and neat buildings, and ended up at Phoenix Park - the largest park in Europe! The park was filled with beautiful gardens and very nice grass, although we only saw a small portion of the entire park. We spent most of our time at a giant monument and even managed to climb up to it's lowest ledge. One thing you won't read about in B and R's blog is the process of getting Brianne off of the ledge. And I made sure there is plenty of documentation!
After leaving Phoenix Park, we headed to the highlight of Dublin, the Guinness Storehouse! All Guinness is made in Dublin and the entire campus is really large. Expecting something similar to the Coors tour, I was surprised to see that it was a self-tour. So after you enter, you follow the route up a number of floors learning about different parts of the Guinness business. At the top, there are 3 bars where you can select where you'd like to enjoy your free pint. Ryan and I decided to get ours from the bar where you actually get to pour the pint yourself! It's a fairly complicated procedure and takes hours of study and dedication. In the end, we received our own certificates. The very top floor, called the Gravity Bar, is a circular room surrounded by windows with excellent views of the city.
Once finished, we continued walking around Dublin and passed through the Temple Bar area. This is the area of town filled with all of the fancy pubs, restaurants and bars and is extremely popular with tourists. It did look really nice, but it was also expensive and we never actually ate or drink in Temple Bar. After some rest in the hotel, we did find an excellent (and pretty fancy) Thai restaurant where I had some amazing Pad Thai. We ended the night with a few drinks at a pub called O'Neill's and a final drink in the hotel bar. The final drink was purchased for us by a member of a stag party (bachelor party). The stag himself was even dressed in a banana costume. Please don't ask me to elaborate.
On Saturday we decided to venture from the city a bit and take public transportation (the DART) north to the coastal towns of Malahide and Howthe. Malahide is the furthest north the DART travels and has a quaint bay, beaches and a castle. After exploring the main village and the coastline a bit, we made our way to the Malahide Castle. For a full description of our journey there, you will need to read B and R's blog. To sum it up, it involves alligators, golfers, a thick forest, grapes, a few "ok, you were right's," and what seemed like 8 and a half days. But in the end we made it! From Malahide, we took the DART down to the smaller coastal village of Howthe. I really liked Howthe. It has a rugged coastline and a jetty that formed a small bay filled with sailboats of all sizes. At the end of the jetty sat a small lighthouse with great views of the coast, the village and a nearby island. Howthe also had an amazing fish n' chips shop that we read about. I managed to inhale mine and then enjoyed some chips that B and R weren't able to finish. Howthe also has amazing ice cream that I also enjoyed. After arriving back in Dublin, we took another rest in the hotel and I then decided to ask a hotel staff for a dinner recommendation. One thing we learned in Dublin is that it's hard to find food late at night, and it was already after 8pm. She pointed us to an area on the map and we took off, excited to get some good local grub. The area on the map ended up being the financial district of Dublin and it was completely deserted with no sign of anything edible in sight. 2 hours later we finally came across an Italian restaurant near Trinity College that was still serving food. Lucky us! We finished the night at Grand Central, where Brianne even followed through on her "threat" to have a shot!
Our final day in Dublin was primarily spent in the Trinity College area. It started on Graffton street, which is a long pedestrian mall filled with shops and restaurants. We had "breakfast" (lunch) at a coffee shop/cafe and we had a great table at the window where we could people watch and observe the street performers. We also walked around St. Stephens Park which was full of statues, fountains and avian specimens. After Ryan and Brianne left to catch their flight, I still had a few hours on my own before my flight left. I decided to check out the Trinity College campus. It was very neat as it is in the middle of the city and completely surrounded by a wall. So once you enter the campus it is very peaceful and calm. I continued to walk around the area surrounding the school and then decided to go for a run through the city before heading to the airport. It was basically an attempt to sweat out all of the food and alcohol that was in my system, and it felt good to get out and see a local neighborhood up close.
Hours later at the airport, I was completely shocked when I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw Ryan! Long story short, they couldn't find their bus stop to the airport, got there late, missed their flight, and were now waiting for the next flight out which was still a couple hours away. So I joined them in an airport cafe for a while and ended up leaving Dublin before them!
To see my pics of this post, click the following link: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/Dublin#
Ryan and Brianne have also posted a much more extensive blog with many many more pics on their website. If you feel like reading a novel, go here: http://www.ryanandbrianne.com/. In all seriousness, I've probably lost my "newbie" touch, so it's pretty interesting to hear their take on everything.
The trip started on Thursday when I left work a little early and took a shuttle up to Stansted airport. The flight to Dublin was about an hour long. I was able to book my flight on a low-budget airline for £0 plus taxes. So my roundtrip ticket was about £20! I arrived in Dublin and took a bus downtown and arrived at the hotel where Ryan and Brianne had already checked in. They had left a key for me at reception and I went to the room and watched some TV until they arrived. It was the first time I had seen the Simpsons in about 4 months and it was great! I also started eating some of the snacks they brought me from the States. THANK YOU! After catching up for a bit, we walked across the street to an Irish pub named Kingfisher’s. The food was really good and Ryan's fish n' chips looked amazing! Oddly enough, they only had Heineken on tap, but it was still very tasty. Ryan had one pub that we had to visit before we left Dublin, so we decided to check it out the first night. It was called Messrs Maguire and it was a really cool building. Lots of staircases and small random rooms everywhere. I'll let you read Ryan's description on his blog for a better description. After a few rounds there, we hit up another local pub called Grand Central. This place was much less crowded and was a really cool historical building complete with a huge dome in the ceiling. We had another round or two there before heading back to the hotel bar for our last drink of the night. By the time we got back to the room around 2am, we were excited that we only had another hour to wait until Obama's DNC speech was on. Unfortunately we all fell asleep mins before it started.
Our hotel was centrally located in Dublin, which is a smaller city than what I expected. The downtown/central area of Dublin is definitely all walkable, although it was still a lot of walking. The River Liffey runs through the middle of the city, splitting it in half North/South. There are many scenic bridges that cross the water and lots of restaurants and pubs line its banks. On Friday morning, Ryan and Brianne were clearly still adjusting to UK time, so even after sleeping in until after 8am, I decided to explore the area a bit. I drank some water, grabbed my camera and walked around the area surrounding the hotel. The area was filled with malls and shops. There was even an old street market right next door with sketchy old ladies selling cheap produce. I managed to buy a bunch of grapes, 8 bananas and a handful of apples for €1.50. We later found the grapes were quite fuzzy.
Friday was filled with Dublin sightseeing. After the others woke up and we were all ready (around noon) we went to a great crepe cafe that Brianne had picked out. They had a wide variety of both savory and sweet crepes, as well as waffles and sandwiches. From there we walked through town, passing Dublin Castle and a number of other historical and neat buildings, and ended up at Phoenix Park - the largest park in Europe! The park was filled with beautiful gardens and very nice grass, although we only saw a small portion of the entire park. We spent most of our time at a giant monument and even managed to climb up to it's lowest ledge. One thing you won't read about in B and R's blog is the process of getting Brianne off of the ledge. And I made sure there is plenty of documentation!
After leaving Phoenix Park, we headed to the highlight of Dublin, the Guinness Storehouse! All Guinness is made in Dublin and the entire campus is really large. Expecting something similar to the Coors tour, I was surprised to see that it was a self-tour. So after you enter, you follow the route up a number of floors learning about different parts of the Guinness business. At the top, there are 3 bars where you can select where you'd like to enjoy your free pint. Ryan and I decided to get ours from the bar where you actually get to pour the pint yourself! It's a fairly complicated procedure and takes hours of study and dedication. In the end, we received our own certificates. The very top floor, called the Gravity Bar, is a circular room surrounded by windows with excellent views of the city.
Once finished, we continued walking around Dublin and passed through the Temple Bar area. This is the area of town filled with all of the fancy pubs, restaurants and bars and is extremely popular with tourists. It did look really nice, but it was also expensive and we never actually ate or drink in Temple Bar. After some rest in the hotel, we did find an excellent (and pretty fancy) Thai restaurant where I had some amazing Pad Thai. We ended the night with a few drinks at a pub called O'Neill's and a final drink in the hotel bar. The final drink was purchased for us by a member of a stag party (bachelor party). The stag himself was even dressed in a banana costume. Please don't ask me to elaborate.
On Saturday we decided to venture from the city a bit and take public transportation (the DART) north to the coastal towns of Malahide and Howthe. Malahide is the furthest north the DART travels and has a quaint bay, beaches and a castle. After exploring the main village and the coastline a bit, we made our way to the Malahide Castle. For a full description of our journey there, you will need to read B and R's blog. To sum it up, it involves alligators, golfers, a thick forest, grapes, a few "ok, you were right's," and what seemed like 8 and a half days. But in the end we made it! From Malahide, we took the DART down to the smaller coastal village of Howthe. I really liked Howthe. It has a rugged coastline and a jetty that formed a small bay filled with sailboats of all sizes. At the end of the jetty sat a small lighthouse with great views of the coast, the village and a nearby island. Howthe also had an amazing fish n' chips shop that we read about. I managed to inhale mine and then enjoyed some chips that B and R weren't able to finish. Howthe also has amazing ice cream that I also enjoyed. After arriving back in Dublin, we took another rest in the hotel and I then decided to ask a hotel staff for a dinner recommendation. One thing we learned in Dublin is that it's hard to find food late at night, and it was already after 8pm. She pointed us to an area on the map and we took off, excited to get some good local grub. The area on the map ended up being the financial district of Dublin and it was completely deserted with no sign of anything edible in sight. 2 hours later we finally came across an Italian restaurant near Trinity College that was still serving food. Lucky us! We finished the night at Grand Central, where Brianne even followed through on her "threat" to have a shot!
Our final day in Dublin was primarily spent in the Trinity College area. It started on Graffton street, which is a long pedestrian mall filled with shops and restaurants. We had "breakfast" (lunch) at a coffee shop/cafe and we had a great table at the window where we could people watch and observe the street performers. We also walked around St. Stephens Park which was full of statues, fountains and avian specimens. After Ryan and Brianne left to catch their flight, I still had a few hours on my own before my flight left. I decided to check out the Trinity College campus. It was very neat as it is in the middle of the city and completely surrounded by a wall. So once you enter the campus it is very peaceful and calm. I continued to walk around the area surrounding the school and then decided to go for a run through the city before heading to the airport. It was basically an attempt to sweat out all of the food and alcohol that was in my system, and it felt good to get out and see a local neighborhood up close.
Hours later at the airport, I was completely shocked when I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw Ryan! Long story short, they couldn't find their bus stop to the airport, got there late, missed their flight, and were now waiting for the next flight out which was still a couple hours away. So I joined them in an airport cafe for a while and ended up leaving Dublin before them!
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