Dominic and Michelle Bending Elbows in Dublin, Etc.

Text from Dominic, this morning around 8:30 a.m. our time, 3:30 p.m. Dublin time.

Ireland Flag Phone Case
(May be on someone's
wish list this Christmas...)

Hey sorry... Our data must not be working because we can't send pictures :but we have been doing awesomely!!  Went to St. Kevin's Church, or what's left of it, St. Patrick's Cathedral, that one viking era museum, and went to see the book of Kells and Trinity College.  AWESOME!!!  Except the cathedral ...  kinda sad.  They literally had a store IN the church and it was just all commercialized!  :/  We got a reservation to a pub crawl tonight, though!  Temple Bar!!  WOOP WOOP!!  Oh, and we have been shopping today and I bought myself a hat and some stuff for the kids... We were wondering if you could see how much money we have left?  Oh, and could you look for a place to stay in Wexford?  Oh, and the locals say that western Ireland is way prettier than eastern so we were wondering if we could end up over there eventually somehow...?

Then a couple of minutes later:

Hey, it's Michelle.  Dominic is asleep, but I'm just watching a show about eating rabbit and didn't think he'd mind if I sent you a picture! :)  This is us at Mardigan's drinking Guinness!!  Boo Yaaa!! ;)

(I guess Michelle figured out how to send pictures? And, boy, she's random... Silly Shell.)

(Photo by Dominic)

 I texted back, asking if Dominic was feeling OK, and did they want me to make a reservation for them further west, and were they sure Wexford was where they wanted to head?  I also asked how Michelle thought Ireland compared to Austria.

 Dominic answered:

I feel great!  and -- ya, Wexford sounds good.  Aaaand... do you know how much we put down for the hostel tomorrow?? Cuz we were thinking that we might stay out of Dublin tomorrow?  The locals say that "Dooblin is a tu dey city."  heehee.  And Michelle says, "Uuuuuh (HUGE smile) Alooooot better.  No language barrier is nice."

Haha!  I imagine it is! 

But, now I had my work cut out for me, doing more research and planning.  It took me the whole afternoon to figure out whether it was possible for our Irish Twins to tour western Ireland, given their limited time and money.  And, yep.  You guessed it: they really need to stay closer to Dublin to preserve both.  A little disappointing....  But, after doing some research and getting some input from my friend, Mary, who's done the Ireland tour, I came to the conclusion that they could stay as close as two hours away from Dublin near Wicklow, and still get the rural beauty -- the feel of Western Ireland -- with lots to do and see.  And spend less money.  To make their commuting easy, I found a good, inexpensive hotel right on the bus line for them, and after making reservations, tried texting them, but my phone service was acting up, giving me a heckuva time getting them the information...

St. Kevin's, near Wicklow.
(Photo "stolen" from a Wicklow tourism site.  I didn't think they'd mind...)

Until Dominic got through to me at about 3:00 our time, midnight Dublin time, asking me to give him a call, as he was back at the hotel and had good phone service.  So, I called (standing practically out in the cornfield to get reception), and got all the enthusing and exclamation points you see here in their texts, in the wound-up, excited sound of their voices.  By all accounts the "pub crawl" was a tremendous hi-light. They met some really nice people, tried some brews, and sang, and sang, and sang.  Please don't be mistaken -- we don't promote drunkenness or irresponsible drinking of any kind, no matter what the age of the drinker, but a pint here and there -- and especially there in Dublin! -- is a beautiful thing,  and if you know these kids, you know that just the singing made for about the best time possible!  

Wicklow (near Glendalough) is called the "Garden of Ireland."
(Photo also stolen...)

So, I had a good -- probably too-long-of-a talk --  with Dominic (considering it was costing a buck a minute), but it was worth it!  He got cut off right before we said goodbye, but it was almost mealtime, so I needed to literally get cooking, anyway.  A little while later, after we'd had our Dublin Dinner for Thursday, I found this text waiting for me on my phone:

Hehe... ok, because I couldn't say bye...  BYE!!  LOVE YOU!  This is us in our room, Michelle with her new Dublin (AWESOOOOME!) sweater, and my salt and pepper "flat-cap."  Oh, and by the way, we got asked directions from a foreigner who thought we were drop dead locals!!   : D AWESOME!!!!!!  Keep in touch!!  How many picture do you want?  And have you ever heard about the movie "The World According to Garp?"

(Photo by Dominic.)

So, the hilight of the trip now, really,  is that Dominic and Michelle were mistaken for Dubliners.  Gotta love that.  They do look Irish, though, don't they?  Especially with those Guinness Grins.

And I guess I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to find out why they wanted to know about The World According to Garp...

Here's the Recipe for our Thursday Night Dublin Dinner:

Baked Pork with Cabbage and Cream

("Pig in the Pantry")

Ingredients

1 small cabbage (or half a large one, about 1.5 lbs)

1/2 cups heavy cream

salt

freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp caraway seeds

4 good thick slices cooked pork (pretty much any leftover pork will do)

Method

Preheat oven to 350.  Shred the cabbage, discarding the core.  Boil in several quarts salted water for app. five minutes.  Drain.  Bring the cream to a boil; add the well-drained cabbage, the caraway seeds and paprika, and salt and pepper to taste.  Distribute half the cream and cabbage mixture to the bottom of a baking dish (in which your cuts of pork will fit).  Season to taste and add any drippings left over from cooking the pork; cover with the rest of the cabbage, and add the shredded cheese.  Bake for 40 minutes.

* This feeds four.  We doubled it. Naturally.

Not super pretty to look at.
But uncommonly good to eat.
With what seems, in our estimation,
to be a real "Irish tasting" meal.

For dessert, we had baked apples and fresh whipped cream.  Yum!  (So much for the diet.  These British Islanders' traditional cuisine -- it is not low fat!)