Dublin

i arrived in dublin and already had a good feeling about the place.  for being the capital of ireland, this city is quite small.  i appreciated it because it was very walkable!  i arrived early saturday morning and met up with grace at her apartment which is south of the river liffey.  the liffey river divides dublin into north and south.  the south side of the river is more posh and safer.  the socioeconomic status is a bit higher there than in the north.  just walking between the two you could see a very clear difference.

the river liffey

little did i know that i picked a very important weekend (easter) to visit.  it was the anniversary of their easter rising that happened in 1916.  essentially it was the catalyst that helped the irish eventually gain independence from great britain's rule.  

outside a bbq restaurant.  cheeky.

grace and i headed into town and meandered around since things were not really going yet and it was already 11am!  we headed to the temple bar area which is pretty touristy. took a few pictures and walked through their small market that was going on.  everything looked so good!  i wanted to buy a snack from every stall but i refrained.  coffee was more important after my extremely early morning.

temple bar

i regret not buying any of these to taste!

that afternoon we met up with grace's belgian friend lieseke who drove us to the glasnevin cemetery.  it is the first non-denominational cemetery which is really important because as i learned, stillborn babies couldn't be buried because they weren't baptized.  that is just one extreme example.  there are more people buried there than currently alive today in dublin!  the reason why glasnevin is really famous is because there are revolutionaries buried there--many that were executed as a result of the easter rising.  

 there is a crypt under that tall tower!

glasnevin was HUGE.  i believe they said that there are 122 acres currently so they should be able to accommodate for the next 40 years.  we went on this guided tour and i really enjoyed it.  the girl was very knowledgeable and it was fascinating to learn about the leaders who were there.  i learned that body snatchers used to go steal corpses there! at the time, there was a need for cadavres for medical research and you could go several months of pay for one body so people would sneak into the cemetary, dig an angled tunnel to the coffin, break through it, then use a hook or rope to pull up the deceased by their necks!!  how awful is that!  it happened for a long time till they finally put up a watch tower.  apparently there is currently a body snatcher in austria who has been stealing teeth of famous composers.  he has johannes brahams and johan strauss's so far. what's sad is that since this isn't a common occurrence today (or so we think), there really aren't laws around this SO this homie might get away with this.  he is apparently planning on opening a museum in a few years with all of the stuff he's stolen.  so wrong.

this is the stillborn area w/ the watch tower

after glasnevin, we headed to kavanagh's aka gravedigger's pub which was right next to the cemetery.  it is as it sounds--the gravediggers hung out there.  that was my first proper pub experience.  no music, friendly irish folk and most importantly, my first pint of guinness!

my first pint!

for dinner that night, i met up with my friend graeme (pronounced graham) whom cat and i met in krakow when we were traveling back in september.  we went to a pub and had some traditional irish food and caught up.  i had some beef and guinness stew--nothing to really write home about but i had to try it!  afterwards, we met back up with grace and had drinks at a speakeasy in temple bar called the vintage cocktail club.

din din

graeme, myself and grace at vcc

the next day, i headed off to kilmainham gaol (jail) as it is also famous because the revolutionaries were held there prior to being executed.  because it was easter sunday, and with the uprising, the president of ireland was in town and drove by in his motorcade when i was on the bus!  that was neat.

the prez

kilmainham was a very modern prison when it opened at the time.  it was a reform prison because they wanted the prisoners to actually be better citizens when they left.  the guided tour was good, but not as good as glasnevin.  they had plaques over the cells where the revolutionaries were held.  women were also held there too.  there is this story of joseph and grace plunkett.  they were engaged to be married when joseph was sentenced to death for his involvement in the easter rising.  grace was insistent that they get married so the night before his execution, they were married in the prison chapel and spent 8 minutes together before the guards took him away.  grace plunkett was also held at kilmainham for her involvement in the rising but was later released. 

cells from the west wing 

the victorian east wing 

grace plunkett's cell

the inside of grace plunkett's cell

after kilmainham, i headed to the guinness storehouse!  i had to make the most of my day :)  that place is huge!  i wandered through the floors learning about the ingredients, arthur guinness then finally ended at the gravity bar where i got my complimentary pint while enjoying a 360 view of dublin.  it was a clear day so i could see for miles!  you could spend hours in that place doing things like learning how to pour a proper pint and there was a tasting room, but i didn't have enough time.

gravity bar 

finally i headed quickly to the chester beatty library where i met back up with grace.  to be fair, it's more of a museum than library, but i digress.  from what i gathered, sir alfred chester beatty really liked collecting things so he did and then donated his collection to dublin and great britain.  he collected ancient oriental books and artwork in addition to ancient greek papyrus which was really cool to see.  since it wasn't in perfect pages, you could see the fibers and how they were woven.

after two very filled days of touring and sightseeing, grace and i grabbed some dinner at a very tasty italian restaurant before spending the rest of the night at the exchequer, a very cool cocktail bar.  i had a baby guinness (patron xo cafe with bailey's to top it) shot in addition to a few well crafted drinks.  

baby guinness and hesitation on my part :)

key lime pie!

i woke up very early this morning then headed back to london.  i didn't know what to expect when i booked this flight a few weeks ago but i had such a wonderful time!  grace was an amazing host and the people were so friendly.  i had cab drivers that were genuinely concerned with my experience was like in dublin!  i will definitely be back to explore more of the country.

(let me just note that this is probably the most on top of it i will ever be blogging about a place i went...)

clapham common fun fair & london marathon

last weekend was quite active after having moved into my new home!  after having a slow saturday (thanks to the birthday fun on friday), we headed to the clapham common fun fair that was taking place with the roomies and some friends.

clapham is in south london and has a huge common, basically a huge field that takes you around 20ish minutes to run around the perimeter.  yes, that is speaking from experience.  it's big.

so in one part of it, they were having a fair where you paid for a wristband for unlimited rides. besides, it was only £9.  turns out my stomach isn't quite what it used to be and i can't handle these spinning rides anymore--not to mention the slight hangover i was still feeling.  hangover + spinning rides = no bueno.  i went on two rides then proceeded to watch everyone else go.  this thing below is the first one i went on.  it was awful.  the chairs spun in addition to that arm spinning.  i had my eyes closed about 75% of the time as i screamed my head off :)

the death of me

after that we headed to a really cool pub called the windmill.  it is a really large pub with tons of sitting rooms and tables.  i couldn't resist and ordered some fish and chips!  unlike the states, they do one big fillet here instead of multiple pieces.  it was pretty tasty though the mushy peas didn't leave much to be desired.  the brits also LOVE mayo.  i don't get it.  it weirds me out.  

fish and chips!

sunday was the london marathon which is a pretty big deal around here.  it's not easy to get into the marathon!  you don't just register.  you have to raise money for a charity to get a spot.  everyone that ran sported a jersey for one charity or another.  pete, zoë and i rented some cityshare type bikes (only £2/day!) and biked into central london to catch zoë's friend who was running over by westminster.  let me just tell you how uncomfortable i was biking on the OTHER side of the road SANS helmet on streets that had no bike lanes.  there may have been a few times i had to bike around double decker buses that were starting to pull out from their stops...that was not fun.  thankfully we all returned our bikes unharmed.  

tons of these stations around the city

marathoners

harrods!

after the marathon, we biked over to green park which is by buckingham palace and hung out there for a few hours basking in the sun.  people here love parks.  there are a lot of them, and on a nice day, everyone is out picnicking.  the mentality here is very much like the PNW in that as soon as the sun's out, and it's semi-warm, there is pressure to be outside!

i'm getting ready to head to dublin tomorrow!  today is a bank holiday so we had the day off, and then we get monday off for easter even though it's on sunday...yea.  anyway, i figure it's time to take advantage of the time off so i booked this last minute.  i fly out very early tomorrow morning and fly back early monday morning so i'll have two full days to explore.  supposedly guinness tastes better there.  i'll be the judge of that :)

week two!

i can't believe it's already been over two weeks since i've been here!

my first week of work was...frustrating.  even though i have been with the company the longest out of everyone here, i was still (and still am) the new kid that is ramping up.  ramping up on how digital works over here, and how adap.tv uk does things in general.  ramping up is simply the worst, but everything will seem normal in a matter of time...i hope.

working in san mateo made it tough for there to be much of a social scene after work because almost everyone drove.  it's a different story here!  the office is located conveniently next to pubs and the ever so exclusive no. 5 cavendish.  on fridays, no. 5 cavendish has a 2 for 1 drink special and is located right next to our building (i work at 4 cavendish).  at about 10pm it becomes this nightclub that people wait in line for to get in.  we just so happened to stay long enough that they stamped our hands so we could come and go as we please!  i called it at night at 12:30.

i'm still trying to decide where to live so i headed up to north london on saturday to walk around and get a feel for the neighborhoods up there.  i took the tube up to finsbury park then walked south.  i passed by the arsenal football team stadium and eventually ended up at the islington area.  north london is a place i could definitely live in because the commute to work would be amazing!  the housing in north london is what i think of when i think 'london.'  very cute, quaint, and clean.  after that i headed over to east london to check out the hackney area.  hackney has this reputation of being hipster, but it didn't seem that way to me at all!  perhaps it's because i'm used to all hipsters in sf!  i could definitely live there.  they had the broadway market going on, on saturday which had tons of food stands. everything looked so good!  it is also located by this park that reminds me of delores.  the perfect place to picnic on a sunny day.

flower stand at the broadway market 

saturday night i went to a rave.  i know...right?   tish (my coworker) had an extra ticket so i said, why not!?  it was a bunch of djs playing deep house music in two rooms followed by some standing-in-place dancing.  it was fun, and i'm glad i went, but it's not something that i'll be doing often.  i was the lame grandma who called it at night at 1:30am while the others left at 5:30!  i don't know how they do it!

entrance to the rave

sunday i bid farewell to my airbnb and moved into an empty room in james's flat.  james is one of my coworkers who happened to have a housemate move out before their lease ended so i'll be staying here for the next two months before moving into something permanent.  it felt really nice to finally unpack my suitcases even if it's short term.  i finally feel semi-settled and it sure feels much homier than where i was staying before.  james also has two other housemates (zoë and miles).  they are all great!  i really lucked out.  they have been wonderful.  we went out for a steak dinner on thursday night then went to the pub and had a few drinks before heading home to surprise cupcakes they got me for my birthday which was on friday!  zoë played stevie wonder's happy birthday song and serenaded us with the karaoke set :)

zoë singing her heart out

then i turned 28 on friday!  i was a little sad to be away from all my friends and family but i felt the birthday love from everyone around here and online!  tish had everyone sign a birthday card for me at work and gave me a some play jewelry as a gift.  adam surprised me with a package of chinese condiments to make me feel more at home, a dinner reservation at restaurant gordon ramsey when he comes to visit (three michelin stars!!!!!!!) and then the most beautiful bouquet of flowers showed up for me at work.  he spoiled me big time.  after work, tish organized a drinks for my birthday so we headed out to a bar in oxford circus and stayed there for several hours.  finally james and i called it a night and bussed home at 2am.  i was truly touched by how thoughtful everyone was.  having all these great people surround me is certainly helping me adjust to life here.

the flowers that adam sent 

phil and i at happy hour

some of the adap.tv crew after several hours of drinks.  (no, my face didn't have ish on it, it's the camera's fault!)

london town

i'm finally here!

big ben & westminster

what a process it was to get over here. 4 months late, but here i am.  i'll be here soaking up london and adap.tv uk for the next year before i return back to my lovely rent controlled apartment in SF that adam is willingly paying full rent for (you're the best, babe!).

i arrived in london last friday around noon and it felt strange.  i already felt homesick and could've gotten on a flight immediately to return, but clearly that didn't happen.  i had arranged for a car service to come take me and my three very heavy suitcases to the air bnb flat that i have been staying.  i've been staying in south london in clapham.  i would equate the area i'm in to noe valley.  one day i walked down the main strip and there were 4 strollers in sight at all times.  i'm by a large common so there are active people everywhere.  for whatever reason, i had this impression that the brits didn't exercise as much but i was clearly very wrong.  

not too bad, right?

i spent the rest of that day feeling like a zombie forcing myself to stay awake so that i'd beat jetlag.  i finally gave up at 9:30pm and slept till 9am.  success!  on saturday i took the train & tube into central london to walk around.  mostly i was trying to get my phone figured out, which ended up being a four day ordeal but i'm all sorted now.  gotta start working on my lingo here.  haven't used cheers at the end of an email yet, but i'm sure that'll come soon :)

i walked down regent street (tons of shopping), stumbled into chinatown (surprisingly clean, uncrowded and calm), and then walked through st. james park to buckingham palace.  before leaving, i decided i would not be crazy and bring a bottle of sriracha because that is obsessive and why wouldn't an intl city like london have it?  turns out i should've listened to my gut.  i walked into a store in chinatown and there was no sign of that familiar green cap.  what's making me even more nervous is that my coworkers said 'what??' when i asked them if they sell sriracha here. sigh.  i even googled 'can you buy sriracha in london' to find that online i can buy a bottle for 4.50 GBP.  you have got to be kidding me.  there is no way in hell that the asian in me would let me pay $7 for that hot sauce!  perhaps i can sweet talk one of my coworkers to bring me back a bottle back after he goes to nyc next week...

the tower bridge

moving on...i'm not living anywhere permanently yet so i've been scoping out neighborhoods slowly to see where i want to live.  apparently my coworkers live all around london so everyone is quite opinionated on where to live, but assure me i can't really go wrong.  haha helpful, right?  london is big with tons of boroughs and most people live outside of zone 1 (central london) because it's more affordable.  public transit is so frequent here, it's really not a huge deal to live further out because you can get to the center of town in no time.  

i started work finally on tuesday which was great!  i was getting restless and lonely by myself and homesickness was really starting to set in since i didn't have a routine going on yet.  i take the tube to work and if everything is going as expected, it takes 35 minutes which includes walking to the station, changing lines and walking to work. people told me that the northern line that i take gets very busy, but i didn't really anticipate what that would mean.  i can handle crowds.  the commuting gods must've taken it easy on me because as soon as i walked down the escalator on my first morning, the car was there, the doors were wide open and it wasn't crowded at all.  i thought to myself, "i can do this...this isn't busy at all...i don't know what they're talking about!"  i changed lines (also uncrowded) and got to work in no time.  no sweat.  then there was the next day.

yesterday i walked down the escalator again anticipating a similar experience and boy was i in for a treat!  there were crowds of people everywhere and every train that came by was packed to the gills.  i watched four trains come and go before i finally said 'fuck it' and forced my way onto a train which is literally smashing your body into the others and hoping that the doors don't close on you.  it's ok...i watched enough people do it before i got the courage.  this morning was much easier (only three went by and i jumped in when two other people forced their way on leaving a little room for moi) and luckily people don't really get upset because it's just how it is.  everyone's just trying to get to work.  luckily this should just be temporary until i move!

as for work--it's been great!  i work in a lovely square right in the middle of everything and our office is on the top floor of a cute brick building.  the team here is small, so it's quite a change from working at the hq in san mateo.  everyone has been extremely welcoming and super helpful since i've been bombarding them with questions.  the environment is pretty relaxed and no one takes themselves too seriously.  i'm going to be working on biz dev for two large clients so that will keep me nice and busy.  i already went and met some clients today, so they are wasting no time!  i'm excited for the challenge because i didn't have the opportunity to work in this capacity back home.

adap.tv uk!

i'm moving out this sunday from my airbnb to an empty room that just opened up in my coworker's flat (see! getting better).  i'll be there for 2 months and then will figure out something permanent.  i'm still living out of the suitcases so it will be nice to finally unpack.  i've already written a novel so until next time!  xoxo