in schweden

Here's what I've been up to the last couple of days.

Had some eggs I needed to get rid of before I left so invited Josef and Ruth over for pancake dinner. Think I ate about six pancakes, have no idea how that happened?

Had to get up at 4am on Thursday to catch my flight to Sweden. Grandma and grandpa picked me up at the train station in Uppsala and bought me lunch at the local.

Grandpa.

Was pretty tired after a long day of travelling, had no Swedish phone or numbers and it was raining outside so spent the rest of the day on the couch, watching bad reruns.

Ran some errands (ok, bought alcohol) today then met up with brother to help the grandparents put out their outdoor furniture for some dinner. It was sunny and warm so had a drink outside.

You always gets crisps before dinner at the grandparents. Served in a wooden bowl that makes the crisps taste a bit funny, but it's supposed to be like that or else it's not right.

Grandma's idea of a 'simple dinner' includes pre-drink, starter, main course, dessert and coffee with cookies.

 Literally rolled home after all that food.

 How I've missed riding a bike!

Came home, fed the cat, prepared a pie for tomorrow and now I'm hanging out on the couch, watching Billy Elliot, one of my favourites!

Tomorrow, lunch with my old crew from high school, half of them who I haven't seen since so really looking forward to it! We are just as pretty now as when we were 18...

holidays!

I'm tired, it's cold, gray and rainy and I have the worst hair day ever but I'm in an insanely good mood, almost scaring myself. PLUS it's mushroom stroganoff for lunch today, wow! Just hoping for the storm not to get worse so there will actually be a flight tomorrow. Have checked the weather for Sweden as well and can confirm there seems to be no snow on the way but instead getting up to 19 degrees, me like!

The original idea was to go to Sweden next weekend for the big party in Vemdalen but it felt stupid to come home two days after the years biggest party in Uppsala so changed my mind. Last day of April is called "Valborg" in Sweden and I think it's originally to celebrate spring but (especially) in the student cities it's become yet another reason to throw a kick ass party. Just watch the video below from my hometown last year. From my reliable source Facebook I can tell it'll start at 8am with waffles and champagne (ok, bubble wine) at Anton's place. Considering I started at 11am on Paddy's Day and lasted till about 9pm we'll see how this goes...

Have to go now, getting a lift with my colleague as it's raining sideways outside. Ciao!

weekend with o&l

My only plan for last weekend was to watch El Clasico and it's pretty much the only thing I didn't do... Only have a few crappy pics from my phone as Ruth borrowed my camera for her Malta trip but I think you'll survive (felt really handicapped without it!).

Started the weekend by gatecrashing a Dell leaving party in Ranelagh with Olle, Nicola, Julian and the other people from Dell. Love Friday AW's! Stayed there for a while, then a pit stop at Olle's place and finished up at the Market Bar.

On Saturday I went for breakfast with Olle and Larissa at Fallon & Byrnes, really nice sandwiches!

After walking around in the sun (and some rain) the whole day I went home to get ready for dinner and football. For some reason we thought the football was on late, had some wine and home made salmon soup at Westgate (Olle, Larissa and Josef's place) and went to Bleeding Horse just in time for the game to finish. Well, Barcelona lost anyway and the soup was amazing so didn't really miss anything! Ended up at a Spanish pre-party after that and then Buck Whaleys where I mostly went around looking for people. But nice Saturday anyway!

Woke up pretty early on Sunday, not hungover at all so went to the cinema to see Cabin in the Woods. Such a random movie! It's hard to describe it, but it was pretty funny, don't think I'll see it again tho. After the cinema my tiredness kicked in and went home to do nothing. But when I got a text from Olle saying I was welcome over for home made chocolate chip cookies I couldn't say no, and I didn't regret it either!

Only 1,5 days left at work now, then Sweden on Thursday! Looking forward to seeing everyone, Valborg and Vemdalen and crossing my fingers for better weather.

Last weekend started off with some aw pints with Josef at the No Name Bar.

Smithwicks with lemon, takes me back to when I was putting lemon in every beer I drank when I was about 18. Still works, it's not only for Corona!

Sema, Olle, Julian and Lam at Fitzsimons. Promised myself to take loads of pics and ended up with two. Anyway, it was a fun night. After the aw Josef, Michael and I went to my place for some drinks, met up with the other guys who'd been to various places and finally ended up in Turk's Head where it was Brazilian night with Spanish music...

On Saturday I met up with this lovely lady (Lorraine) and Mar for some Mojitos at Sweeney's.

Laughed a lot at the Snoop Dogg card Mar got for her flatmate.

The picture doesn't make it justice, it was a frikkin' salad bowl with potatoes, tomato sauce and garlic yogurt! And it was cheap. Defo going back there for food.

Later Ruth's new flatmate Valerie had a house warming. I was über tired and missed my bed but it was still a lot of fun so ended up staying until 2.30.

Very pretty picture of Jonas and LG.

From Sunday I got 0 pics as I had a lazy day and didn't go further than to Tesco across the streets. You're allowed to have those days sometimes I think. Finished the first season of Game of Thrones although I've been saying I wasn't gonna start watching it until second season was finished. But since everyone's been talking about it so much I couldn't stay away and now I'm in that situation where I have to wait for a new episode every week ('cause of course I'm hooked now and can't wait for the second season to finish!). Like back in the days.

That's that. This weekend my partners in crime Josef and Ruth are going to Malta so maybe it'll be a quiet one for once...

random pics from this week

 

Ruth and I went to IKEA on Easter Monday. I was only gonna get new duvet covers but ended up spending waaay too much. But wine glasses and frying pans are important stuff! (Damn you IKEA and your 'low' prices!)

This is my colleague Therese. She was gonna show me how to best mix the nuts I had in a plastic container, as all the boring ones were on top. Well, at least they're mixed now, including some hair, dust and other things I don't wanna know about that can be found on the floor.

Lunch at Junior's today. I skipped the mozzarella sandwich this time and had a tomato/pepper soup with salad instead, yum! Wish they had a Junior's in cc.

Now, some shopping and aw, whoop!



easter pt. 2

Our Howth plan didn't really work out on Sunday as they had maintenance on the tracks that way so we bought day tickets to the Dart and jumped off in Dun Laoghaire instead.

It was freezing!

Looking for dolphins in Killiney. We saw one from the train, plus a naked man who apparently thought it was perfect weather for a nude swim.

Stones. And my feet.

Killiney beach.

Next, and last, stop - Dalkey. It was a cosy little village.

Inspecting Dalkey.

Back in Dublin, everyone wanted pics of/with Molly Malone. Then we went to the pub for a last pint and on Monday morning they all went home. Thanks for a great weekend!

easter pt.1

So, another visit weekend. Was really confused on Friday as dad said they were landing at 11 and Aer Lingus website said 14. But when Anki posted on Facebook at 11 "Getting on the plane now". I assumed the website was right and went to the cinema, a bit annoyed that no one had called me to say they weren't coming until later. So was pretty surprised when I got a text from an unknown number at 13 saying "We're at the Spire". Went there and found Birthe and Ragge waiting as a surprise! :D

We went for lunch and then Butlers for coffee.

Dad and Anki came after a while, here they are taking photos of the locks on Ha'Penny bridge. Tourists...

Had to aswell.

Got Easter eggs, Påskmust and taco spices, all you need!

On Saturday we went to the Guinness Storehouse, third time for me and I think it was the last.

What?? Guinness is not made of the Liffey water??

Guinness at the Gravity Bar.

You could almost see my apartment, next to the church.

Decided to be über touristy and took a horse carriage back to cc.

Lunch at the Church.

More coffee at Butlers.

Cutest kid who were dancing to the musicians on Grafton Street.

More touristing in Stephen's Green.

Met up with Olle, Larissa and Ruth for a pint at O'Neills.

Later, Irish music at Cobblestone in Smithfield. Can't believe I lived there for a year (and in Dublin for several) but never went there.

That was Friday and Saturday, rest of the weekend to come!

good friday

Set my alarm to 8am in case I'd feel like going to the gym before dad and Anki arrives. Who's surprised I'm still in bed? (Damn you, Pinterest!) Ruth and I went to spinning class yesterday, I hated it as much as I remembered but still thinking about going next week again. I've heard it takes a couple of times before you start liking it so might give it a shot. After the spinning we went to Acapulco for some Mexican food, the waiter thought it was nice to meet some fellow vegetarians, as if we were the first ones he'd ever met, haha (although Ruth is not). Tried a couple of other restaurants first but they were all crowded, guess everyone went out yesterday as no one's working today and all the pubs are closed. The only day of the year they are not allowed to sell alcohol in Ireland and they call it 'Good Friday', bah.

Time to get up and see if my legs are still working, then meeting dad and Anki at the Spire in about an hour. My apartment is freezing so guess it's the same outside, but at least the sun seems to be out (it snowed here on Monday, snowed!).

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

We're working hard today, Therese and I.

cat ads

Cats are such sell outs these days.

quiet weekend

Or at least that was the plan. I totally blame Olle for this as he had his cousin and friend over and of course I had to go out and show them what Dublin has to offer! Ehm.

So, Friday started with some leaving pints for Mike who had his last day at work. After that I went home, got ready and waited for Ruth.

She came over and we had some wine.

 

Then to Lost Society to meet up with Joel, Olle, Anders...

 ...Larissa and some other random Swedes/Brazilians (except for Josef, he's not random. And Rut came with me. Sorted?).

She's got the moves.

Ruth, Anders, Olle and Josef.

Apparently I had a lot of teeth that night.

Thumbs up for Friday night!

Saturday started with the cinema, Pirates: In an adventure with scientists. It was really good and funny, but going in the middle of the day on a Saturday was a pretty bad idea. We realized this when we saw how many kids there were there but the most annoying was a mum who clearly had no idea how to whisper.

After the cinema we stopped by Ruth to get my camera that she had for some reason, then walked up to Rathmines for the world's best pizza. Had a pit stop at Bernard Shaw and looked all their random graffiti.

The pizza elected the best pizza in the world, and the other one in Dublin.

Mine wasn't the world's best, but it was great anyway.

Later we had a short pub crawl on Camden Street after not getting in to the VIP at Krystal.

After Farrington's Olle thought it'd be a good idea to jump up on my back unannounced. It wasn't. I literally dived straight onto the pavement and scratched my chin and lip. A proper faceplant! After that adventure we went to Bleeding Horse and then back all the way to Café En Seine. I have no idea why though, as you can barely get in there sober in the middle of the day and we always end up fighting with the incredible rude doormen who work there (not me this time, I actually got in despite looking as I'd been in a recent bar fight). And so we went home. 

On Sunday Josef and I went to the cinema again and saw We bought a zoo. Maybe a bit too cliché sometimes, but it was a nice feel-good movie, perfect for a Sunday! Were desperate after a burrito after that but our two favorite places were closed so ended up at an Asian place called Neon instead. The food was good but the best thing was that you got free ice cream after eating, how amazing is that??

I've clearly lost my ice cream making skills since summer '05 when I made about 100 of these a day.

Phew, that was a long weekend. On Friday my dad and his wife Anki are coming so I'm guessing less faceplants and more Temple Bar. I'm not complaining.