Croatian Island Adventures - Part 1

We needed a respite from the heat and so I thought I would pop in and give a little update on our adventures. It has been FABULOUS although very hot (98F-37C). Dubrovnik is a wonderful city and is so gorgeous it looks fake. The whole old town has MARBLE floors and walk ways. It is so picturesque that it makes you kind of feel like you are in Disney World, since everything is so picture perfect.

We are now in Mljet and have spent the past 3 days here being gloriously lazy...just reading books and getting up for the occasional swim in the salty lakes.

We had plans to go to Kročula early this morning, but we found out the hard way there is no ferry from Mljet to Kročula on Wednesdays! We are going to be stowaways in this small random boat later this evening and should be in Kročula tonight...Hopefully they are not pirates(fingers crossed!)

Our Ferry!

Hello Sunshine!

I'm off to Croatia and could not be more excited! I won't be back until August 4th, but I promise to update with lots of pictures and stories when I get back!

Benefits of Crazy Irish Weather...

Scenes like this coming home from work.

Sunglasses, where are you?

After a miserably rainy start this morning (I still don't have an umbrella), I looked up the 5 day weather forecast for Croatia in preparation for our trip on Friday. Sunny! EVERY DAY!!!! Woot woot!

Really TopShop?

Gold, Lame Scrunchies?!?!?! For €5.60 /£5.00/$8.00!!! This whole 80/90's trend thing has gone too far.

A Model Night Out

Friday night my pal Joanne invited me to an event that her friend was hosting at the nightclub Krystle. I'm more of a pub girl then a club girl and this is one of those shi-shi clubs in Dublin where people go to be seen - so not me. But I thought it might be fun for a change of scenery. I had a blast!

There were free martinis (gotta love that) and the best part... A Fashion Show! I felt like I was at an America's Next Top Model final show walk off!

One of the models from last night



Since we were surrounded by models for the evening, after rounds of drinks and shots, we obviously thought we WERE models.

What do you think? Would Tyra be proud? Look at the angles. So editorial!

World's Best Cities

Travel and Leisure have ranked the top best cities to visit and this year it's Udaipur, India. We booked our flights to India BEFORE this award list came out so I am going to say I'm very hip and in the know....riiiiiiiight...

Anyways, we haven't confirmed our route in India for 100% yet. We just know that we are spending New Year's Eve at the Taj Mahal (fancy!), and have to be in Chennai for a friend's wedding by January 2nd.

We were debating between going to Jaipur or Udaipur, but with these new survey results, it might sway us towards Udaipur. Either way, I'm definitely getting a sari!

Boston Girls Club

Monthly, I host a "meeting" with some of my gal pals from the Boston office to obviously discuss business initiatives that affect NA and EMEA... and of course gossip about everyone's weekends, how the shopping has been, their weekly antics, etc

This is what our meeting looks like.


Ah... the wonders of video conferencing! I love being able to see their little faces and hear their voices. It reminds me so much of home and the friends I have back there! I always leave these "meetings" smiling.

Saint Swithun

I'm not a religious or superstitious person, but this old wives tale better not be true!

Legend says that if it rains on St. Swithun's day (July 15th which is today), it will rain for the next 40 days straight. Apparently, he loved rain tons and wanted to be buried outside which he was. Peeps wanted to move him inside. Apparently, he was p@#$ about being moved inside and made it rain for 40 days so that it delayed the moving of his shrine.

Rain is pounding against the window right now :( I guess I better go replace my lost umbrella. Sigh.



P.S. Shout out to my friend Kate who informed me about this depressing legend. Way to cheer up the day KATE.

Go Reds!

I signed up last night to be an official member of the Liverpool Football Club!!!

My family has always been a fan of soccer. We stopped going to church because it conflicted with our family's soccer schedule. I love watching the game, and the HOT footballers aren't hard on the eyes either...

I could NOT be more thrilled last year when moving here that soccer was on ALL the time during the weekend. The BF and I had a great weekend schedule of heading to the local pub, grabbing some lunch and staying all afternoon to watch the different games. We even managed to go see a game in February (Liverpool v West Ham), but tickets were impossible to get.

Steven Gerrard's corner kick from our Feb. Game



Last season, in order to see our team we had to join the West Ham football club to get tickets. Random, no? We got tickets in their fan section and couldn't cheer when Liverpool won or we would have been attacked by the West Ham fans.

We're hoping to go to at least two games this year. The season starts on August 15th. Just over a month away!

Relaxing weekend

The BF was in Germany for work this week so I hadn't seen him for five days. Our first night back, we did the most romantic thing you could do after not seeing each other for a small period of time...Grocery shopping! On a Friday night! Woot! Woot! Who says my life isn't exciting?

Saturday, his parents and sisters were coming up for a brief overnight stay so there was a lot of cleaning to be done. This was the first time they have been to our apartment (no pressure!) so every nook and crannie was wiped down and cleaned throughly.

And today, the weather was being rather tempermental. It was sunny when we woke up so we headed into town to grab some brunch at Gruel (meh...I probs wouldn't go there again) with our friends from New Zealand. We then had plans to go sit and read out in the park afterwards. We put out our blanket, un-wrapped the newspaper and then saw storm clouds so we decided to head home. Of course, once we got home, the sun was back out. Tricky mother nature!

2 weeks and counting

Only two more weeks until our next trip to Croatia. We were glamorous with our previous trip to Morocco- staying in amazing riads with sea views and living the high life, but this trip is going to be completely different.

We're traveling backpacker style... ekkks!!!! Since we're going island-hopping, we'll need to be very mobile and so the BF has restricted my packing to just whatever I can carry (ie. one small backpack), and we're going for ten days! AHHHHHH... think of all the shoes I'll have to leave behind.

I'm also a huge planner, but we're leaving the hotel/hostel choices up in the air. This may drive me mad. I've never traveled by the seat of my pants and stayed in sketchy hostels for long periods of time (except that one time in New Zealand when the hostel cost $7.00 a night, but I was only 20). The BF just recently went backpacking for a year so I assume he's got it all sorted.

Regardless of the potential eek factor, I'm looking forward to the sand and sun!

Disappointment

Jade didn't win Britain's Next Top Model. I nearly kicked the TV when she got eliminated leaving the two most annoying girls to fight amongst themselves. So ANNOYING!

Final America Post

I swear this is the final post about July 4th. Yesterday, I went shopping in Dundrum shopping centre and they had an America Day celebration which included:

- "American" Cheerleaders
- BBQ ribs cookout
- Basketball contest
- Country music band singing about Jesus

Is this all we're known for? If so, then God Bless the USA.

Stars, Strips and Celebrities (Kind of)

With promises to wear green, white and orange for the next St. Patty's day, my Irish pals and I headed out to celebrate July 4th in style.

First stop: Captain AMERICA! The name says it all. We wouldn't think about celebrating America's birth anywhere else but here. Burgers and pitchers of cocktails? Check. Red, white and blue flags? Check. Big statue of Lady Liberty? Check.

Here she is:


And here comes the celebrity part. The picture above was taken by none other then "Susan" from Fair city, a long running Irish soap. Who you ask? I had the same question. No clue.... But, apparently all my Irish pals knew her. She was there with 3 other gals from the show. This would be on the same level as meeting say...Vanessa Minnillo. Who you say? My point exactly!

After the celebrity sighting excitement, we headed to the Bleeding Horse for a couple of drinks before the big event of the night. Smash Hits! They are a brilliant 90's cover band. Think- Vanilla Ice, Gangsta's Paradise and my personal fave, Ace of Base.


Check out everyone's outfits- Red, white and blue!

Happy Birthday America!

No BBQs, fireworks or Boston pops on the Esplanade, but I'll definitely be celebrating this evening. USA! USA!

Back into the Swing of Things

After a two week hiatus, I'm back to my pole dancing classes. Woot! Woot!

Don't judge. A girl needs back up plans in this economic climate.

My very first ....

Irish Thunderstorm!!! Yeah. It's officially summer!!!!

Although apparently storms like this don't happen often. People this morning were freaking out about the storm. Dublin was flooded, trains weren't running, parts of the M50 were closed. It's chaos over here.

Updated: Was just chatting with my friend and mentioned that it was the first Irish thunderstorm. I failed to mention for me and she thought it was the first thunderstorm in Irish history...Lord, the people I hang out with...

Britain's Next Top Model

It's almost the end of the season, and I'm enjoying it as much as I enjoy the American version. Although, Lisa Snowden (George Clooney's ex-girlfriend) isn't as FIERCE (or annoying) as Ms. Tyra. And one of the judges is "famous" for being a Bespoke Milliner. Um...what?

Anyways, it seems that the girls do about 5 challenges a week (much more than in America). There's more product placement, and these UK girls are teary. At least one, if not two, breaks down sobbing during elimination.

There are only three left, and I'm routing for Jade. The other two are annoying and not cute. I'll keep you all updated as the show progresses. I'm sure you can't sleep at nights without knowing.