The Heart

I am preparing a lecture for some students at the hospital and while I was looking for pictures I stumbled across this site. It is freaking amazing! They have other animated bio-stuff but this is the coolest. As the cardiac muscle becomes transparent you can see the blood filling the ventricles and being ejected through the great arteries. Also, if you look closely you can see the Tricuspid and Mitral valves.

The human heart ladies and gentleman.

Beating heart with blood flow from Hybrid_Medical_Animation

A Christmas Poem

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the flat
I was all on my lonesome, except for the cat;
Earlier that evening, when I came home from work,
My girlfriend was waiting, just to call me a jerk;
She called me insensitive, she called me a lout,
She called her new boyfriend to help her move out;
Then before she left, just to "even the score,"
She flushed every cigar from my humidor.

With the Cigar Emporium closed and an Arctic wind blowing,
My girlfriend gone and my john overflowing,
I settled on the couch with my old cat Frisky,
With lots of self-pity and lots of Irish whiskey;
Because of the stress, or maybe because of the booze,
It wasn't too long before I started to snooze,

Suddenly, a commotion came out from out on the street,
A crash and a bang broke my snoozy retreat;
I went to the window and lifted the blind,
And seriously thought I was losing my mind;
On the street was a fat Gent all dressed in red,
With some funky looking reindeer pulling his sled.

Whether he was real or not, onward he came,
Whistling to his deer, calling each by his name,
"Now, Cohiba! now, Hoyo! now Monte and R.J.!
On, Bolivar! on, Ramon! on, Upmann and El Rey!
To the top of the stoop! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As if sensing my need for a little more proof,
Santa and his reindeer flew up to my roof.

Santa had noted my humidor was bare
and flew from the North Pole to end my despair,
St. Nick then handed me the most wonderful thing;
A 7-inch Grafton with a 54-ring
And as I watched him and the deer fly into the night,
I thought, "what a great Christmas, now who has a light?"

The Big Cheese

My boss retired at the end of November which has left us with out a head for the last 2 weeks and with the way the health service works here it looked like that would be a position that wouldn't be filled for several months. I was told to try and keep things under control but avoid "acting up" in order to keep the pressure on the hospital and government health executive to fill the post. Yesterday I was presented with a letter from the HR department asking me to fill the position of Acting Chief of Perfusion until the post can be filled. I accepted. I have found out that the surgeons asked that I be offered the position in order to, A: maintain a working chain of command and B: strengthen my application for the permanent post when it is advertised.

Needless to say I am quite flattered by their confidence in me considering my relative inexperience (those going for the post will have at least 10yrs more experience). I am quite eager to inflict as much of my "American" mentality on the place as I can (i.e. more efficiency and less bureaucratic oversight). Unfortunately the "upgrade" comes in title only as the government will not allow "upgrades" to include pay increases. Hopefully I can convince the powers that be that I can run the department on a long term basis which will then lead to significant financial incentives. It is definitely an uphill battle as the status quo is difficult to change but at the very least I'll have a nice addition to my CV.

Early Christmas

Dana finally got home today and if it wasn't enough to have her back she brought me the mother-load of cigars. She bought me the Toro Seleccion Internacional which is 10 cigars from H. Upmann, Romeo y Julieta and Montecristo. My mom bought me the Connoisseur Collection which has Hoyo de Monterrey, El Rey del Mundo, Sancho Panza, Flor de A. Allones and Ramon Allones. I bought some Punch Gran Puros, got a Romeo y Julieta #2 Habano from Pete and my personal favorite, The Egg from my best mate Ryan. All I can say is that my Dossier is going to be sick!

- 6%

The Irish government released their semi-annual budget this week where they have tried to halt the continuing debt the country is facing. Currently the country in operating at a debt of 12% of GDP which is one of the highest of the member states in the EU. The big controversy in the budget is the pay cut to public employees, of which I am one. It is a graduated cut which applies higher percentage cuts at different levels of pay. I have calculated the cut to my pay to be just over 6%, which in effect means that I am earning less than when I started 2 1/2 years ago. The calculated decrease in cost of living is around 3% which gives me around a 3% cut in earning potential. This is bad enough, but it comes with the pension and pay levies that the government has applied to public employees over the last 2 years. Overall my net income is down around 20% from 2007 and that hurts.

Let this be a lesson to anyone arguing for government run anything...socialism sucks, big time!

Portugal

My blog has become a travel journal of sorts but hey...what else is there??? We returned from Portugal on Thanksgiving which was a day of serious feasting. Portugal was great. We only had one day of bad weather and got to see 3 different cities while we were there. We started in Evora (pronounced Evra) which is about 100km East and South of Lisbon. It is a small town that is a UNESCO heritage site. The main site we went to see was Capela los Ossos, Chapel of bones. It is filled with the bones of 5000 people and was made by 17th century monks that thought the people needed reminded that life was fleeting. Creepy and cool! Most of the buildings are painted with yellow trim which is supposed to keep out bad spirits.

Next we went to Sintra which is just North of Lisbon on the coast. This was the most beautiful area and was densely forested and had a number of castles and palaces, one of which was Pena Palace which is probably one of the coolest palaces/castles we've seen on our travels. Our hotel was right on the ocean and we listened to the crashing waves all night.

Finally we went back to Lisbon and did some exploring. The country is very hilly and that was very evident in Lisbon. The city is situated on and between several hills. I really liked the fact that although the city was quite large and populated, it had remained "Portuguese" architecturally. The architecture and decorum were very unique to anywhere we've been. They use tile on both the inside and outer walls.

We really enjoyed being in Portugal and thought it was a very beautiful country. It is good to be home now and have a little down time. Maybe I'll blog about something not travel related soon.

Wittenberg and Berlin

We are just back from another great trip to Germany. We visited the birth place of Protestantism and one of Europe's most troubled cities. Berlin is very fascinating simply because it has so much recent history. Wittenberg also has quite recent history relative to some of the places we've been.

We started our trip with an overnight in Wittenberg where we visited the Lutherhaus where Luther lived with his family as well as having room for a number of his students. It had been turned into a museum which featured a number of his writings as well as the history of his life. We also visited the Castle Church which is where the reformation was formally sparked with the nailing of the 95 theses. Inside is were Luther is now buried. The town itself was a really quiet little town but we really enjoyed our time there and even smoked a little hookah!

We went from there to Berlin where the highlight was definitely the walking tour. We walked through the former East Berlin which is its historical center, visiting the major sites and receiving detailed history from a man who was living in Berlin in 1989. I'll avoid regurgitating the entire walk and just mention some of the sites (although it really was fascinating). We saw museum island which is a nature split in the River Spree that now houses most of the city's museums. Much of it has been restored due to bombing during WWII but they have left some of the lesser damaged structures (mostly riddled with bullet holes) as a reminder of its history. We also saw where the Nazis burned all the books they didn't like from the National Library which is now marked by a plaque with a quote from a 17th century Jewish play write that says approximately, "Once they start burning books, it isn't long until they begin burning people." A bit prophetic. It also has an underground empty book shelf as a memorial. We stood in front of the Brandenberg Gate which was originally commissioned by King Frederick of Prussia but has become the gathering point for every major event in Berlin's history. We saw the Memorial to Murdered Jews of Europe, a maze of rectangular blocks of varying heights that you can walk through and even become a little disorientated. We stood over the spot of Hitler's bunker where he and his mistress committed suicide on April 30, 1945. We walked to the former Nazi Air Force building which was remarkably untouched by the war and became the headquarters for the Communist Soviet government in East Berlin. It even features a big mural showing the "joys" of communism. It is located right next to the remnants of the Wall. For the vast majority of the area where the wall was and is no longer, there is a brick line tracing where the wall once stood. We ended the tour at Checkpoint Charlie which was the checkpoint between the American Soviet sectors and the point at which the Americans and Soviets had a 3 day tank stand off that nearly started WWIII! It was all over an ambassador that wanted to attend the opera in the East and wasn't allowed in. Crazy huh?

The one story that I will relay is of how the wall eventually came down. The Southern Communist states, Hungary in particular started to allow free travel to the Western countries. The East Germans began taking holidays in Hungary and then slipping across into the West. The Soviets copt on to this and locked in all the East Germans. The people became agitated so the Soviets held a news conference with an ill prepared spokesman who said that the Soviet government would "soon" be allowing people to freely cross into the West. This was done to placate the people. However when asked when??? his reply was..."effective immediately." The people began to gather at the checkpoints and the confused boarder guards began allowing a few people through. Eventually the guards were over-run and within 48 hours 2 million people had crossed into the West and that was the beginning of the end of the Cold War.

Jordan 2.0

Once we left Petra we continued up the King's Highway to Amman. On the way we stopped at a castle from the Crusades called Karak which was originally built by the Crusaders in the 1140's and then was lost to Saladin in 1189. The castle has been mostly destroyed but you are allowed to walk through any of it with out restriction. There are some pretty cool areas with tunnels and rooms under ground.

From there we continued on to Amman. We stopped at Mt. Nebo where Moses looked over the promised land before he died. Unfortunately it was a bit hazy so we couldn't see all that far. The next morning we went to an ancient Roman city called Jerash. It is very similar to many Roman cities around the world with its city gates, temples and commerce areas. There are a number of structures still standing and the two amphitheaters are still used. It was impressive to walk down the column lined streets.

We left Jerash and went to the lowest place on Earth, the Dead Sea. As we descended the weight of the atmosphere really had an affect on us making us feel tired and sluggish. When we got down to the shore we were warned not to get any of the water in our eyes. The feeling in the water can not be accurately described but to say that you really can't sink. I went out to a deep enough spot and put my feet straight down and was bobbing with my shoulders out of the water. There is so much salt that your skin feels greasy. We covered ourselves in this black mud which is of course supposed to have healing powers and then continued to float in the sea some more. It was a very strange experience. We could even see the towers of Jerusalem across the sea on the mountain top.

That night we went into town with our guide Abdullah and had authentic dinner (which is way cheaper then tourist dinner) and found a cafe for the hookah. Their hookah is way stronger than any I've tried before. It was difficult to smoke! The next morning we were on our flight back home. It is hard to determine which of the two countries I enjoyed more. I would like to see some of Southern Egypt and travel along the Nile. Our trip was an incredible experience and won't easily be topped.

Wadi Rum and Petra

I had to split up my Jordan pictures as there are just too many! This first slide show is of our 4X4 trek through the Wadi Rum desert and Petra. I was surprised at how much I liked the Wadi Rum. Wadi means valley and Rum is the name of that valley. Petra is called Wadi Mosa, or Moses Valley. I would put the afternoon that we spent in the desert as one of my top 3 things we did, no joke! It is sand...all sand. The "mountains" if you can call them that, are huge sandstone rocks that have been eaten away over time by the sand storms that continually blow through. The sand is like powder and the rock looks like melting ice cream. The colors of the sand stone are the most impressive. Apparently the bedouins used to use the different colors as makeup. It really does paint your skin. We stopped a few times to climb various rock formations and even saw what they claim is T.E. Lawrence's cave. We stopped at a bedouin tent and had tea where Dana dressed up in and bought an authentic Jordanian head scarf. There is a castle in the middle of the desert that the French built in order to film movies but the Jordanian government shut it down. The whole thing is shrouded in mystery but the French were probably doing something "immoral."

The second half of the show is of Petra, made famous by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Petra is a city entirely built into the rock. There are caves cut into the stone for personal residences (some still used by the bedouins) as well as temples and tombs. The most recognizable is the Treasury which is staggering. The entrance to the city is through a narrow canyon (almost 3/4 mile) that is almost like a fault line through the rock that towers over 100 feet above you. At the end of this crevasse is the Treasury. We rode camels through part of of Petra between the Treasury and the amphitheater. The colors of the sand stone were again a site to see as well as the amazing detail they carved into the rock. There were donkeys everywhere and bedouin kids trying to sell you a ride on one. We spent the whole day there and it was one of the most impressive places I've ever seen.

I'll post more about Jordan later including our trip up the King's Highway to Amman and floating in the Dead Sea. Hope you enjoy.

Egypt

We are back from our trip and after visiting 2 continents and being on the go nonstop we need a vacation from our vacation. Egypt and Jordan were awesome! We had so many pictures it was hard to pick but I tried to give just an overview of what it was like there. This one is just Egypt.

We arrived into Cairo 3 hours late and thankfully our guide was there to meet us. He transferred us to hour hotel which was a converted palace that the former king of Egypt had used for hosting dignitaries. Needless to say it was beautiful and our room had a view of the Great Pyramid off the balcony. We spent the first full day there on what turned out to be a private tour. We had an Egyptologist who walked us through the Pyramid area giving us the facts and history of the mighty structures. His name was Muhammad (as was our driver and bodyguard for the drive to Sinai) and was very knowledgeable and friendly. After seeing the Pyramids and the Sphinx we zipped into town to visit the Egyptian museum. Muhammad took us through the museum giving us the history of the most important pieces on display. The museum holds the items found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun, who was unimportant and died very young, but was the only king of Egypt to be found with his tomb intact. The museum was so much better because we had a guide who gave us all the highlights, otherwise it would have been quite overwhelming.

We left Cairo the next day for Dahab which is on the Eastern part of the Red Sea known as the Gulf of Aqaba. The drive in Northern Sinai was flat desert with nothing (really NOTHING) but rock and dirt. As we got further South the landscape became more mountainous and we started coming across Bedouins in their camps or out with their goats and camels. We cut through the mountains on a valley road and came out at the Red Sea which is spectacular. The Red Sea is clear aqua blue water lined with reefs. We settled into our hotel in Dahab and took a 2 hour nap before departing for Mt. Sinai at around midnight. The climb up Mt. Sinai takes about 2.5 hours (after a 2hr drive) and we, along with hundreds of others, watched the sunrise from the top. The trail up is the camel trail where people often rent camels to take them most of the way up (which is exactly what I would do should I ever hike it again!). The hike was exhausting and a little dangerous. It is pitch black and there are camels going up and down the mountain and they stop for no man! We had a Bedouin guide who kept us out of the camels' path fortunately. It was a beautiful sight to see the sun coming up over the desert mountains. We went back down a different way called the "3000 steps to the monastery." It was equally exhausting but took half as long and was significantly less crowded. That afternoon we went snorkeling at a place called the Blue Hole. The sea life was amazing. Unfortunately a lot of the coral in the hole had been killed by people but as you went out it was even more colorful and impressive.

The next day we made a run for the boarder. We drove up to Taba and crossed into Israel (which was not easy) where we drove through the resort town of Eilat and crossed the boarder into Jordan (significantly easier!).

Pyramids and Petra

Tomorrow before the crack of dawn we will start our grand tour of Egypt and Jordan. I have to admit there is an element of fear involved but we will be seeing things that make the Roman ruins look modern. Below is a short itinerary from the website that should give a basic idea of where we're going and what we are going to see. The hotels all look very nice -
Cairo - Oberoi Mena House
Dahab - Le Meridien Hotel
Petra - Petra Marriott
Amman - Amman Marriott

Short Itinerary

Day 1 Arrive in Cairo. Transfer from airport to hotel
Day 2 Cairo - Pyramids, Sphinx & Egyptian Museum tour
Day 3 Drive to the Red Sea at Dahab (option to climb Mt. Sinai)
Day 4 Dahab - Free time (option for snorkeling at the Blue Hole)
Day 5 Cross into Jordan. Wadi Rum jeep safari. Drive to Petra
Day 6 Petra - tour
Day 7 Petra. Drive up the King's Highway to Amman via Kerak, Madaba, Mt. Nebo
Day 8 Amman. Tour to the Dead Sea and Jerash
Day 9 Amman. Free time. Transfer to airport for flight home

We'll have slide shows galore when we get back so be ready!

Happy Anniversary

Two years ago on September 6th we arrived in Dublin to start this phase of our lives. In some ways it has flown by and at the same time it seems like an eternity ago that we packed up our lives and boarded the jet plane. We wanted to travel and travel we have done. This past year took us to Edinburgh, Manchester, Athens, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Venice, Florence, Prague, Vienna, Bruges, Brussels, Oslo and Bergen. Mix that in with a few (or several) trips back home and you get the picture of what we do here. We're starting this 3rd year with a trip to Egypt and Jordan and then we're hoping to follow it up with a week in Israel and few more short trips to Italy, France and maybe Spain before we hopefully move back home early in the new year.

On a lighter note

Last weekend we had some decent weather so we took the cats out in the back garden to run around, eat some grass and have fun hiding in the bushes. There was some excitement over birds of course and plenty of new smells. Indi especially likes to just sprint from one end of the yard to the other. We should get them out more often because they love outside time.

No You Can't!

I have to admit that after the crushing victory Obama had in the election last year I thought that America was ready for socialism. It turns out that America was just naive. I couldn't have predicted there would be such a backlash to Obama himself but it looks like it has begun.

U2

On Friday night we went to see U2 play at Croke Park here in Dublin. I'd say it would be tough to argue there is a bigger rock band in the world and the endurance of their music speaks for itself. They put on an amazing live show on a weird War of the Worlds type stage. It is great to see all their energy and excitement even now in their 50's. Getting to see them in Dublin certainly goes down as a highlight of the time we've been here.

Here are some pics from the show.

New shirt

While we were in Bergen we noticed a T-shirt shop that had some funny sayings. One was in my slide show regarding their taste for whale meat. I picked this one up and wore it yesterday. I'm sure it was shocking for people to know there was an evil capitalist among them.

Norway

We arrived back from Norway on Tuesday both having seen one of the most beautiful countries in Europe and having closed on our new house. What a day!! Dana has a nice slideshow on her blog of the new casa. It's very exciting to be back in the rhelm of home ownership. Now if we could only live in it.

Norway was beautiful. Here are the pictures. They start in Oslo which was a very modern clean city. We visited a sculpture park which had over 100 nude sculptures that were...strange. We also went to a viking museum and the Kon-Tiki museum, which has boats constructed in "old world" styles and used to cross the Atlantic and Pacific to show it was possible for cultures to interact long before Columbus or any other European adventure. We then boarded a train for the West coast. The train ride took us through some beautiful countryside. When we arrived in a town called Flam we got on a boat that took us through Sandefjord and down the coast to Bergen. Bergan was another amazing city. It was more what I expected Norway to look like with peaked roofs and colorful buildings. All together is was a very enjoyable trip even though it was really expensive. They have a 25% tax on everything and even more on alcohol and tabacco. It was strange that during Norway's high tourist season it was not very busy which I suppose is partly due to the expense.

Climate continued...

I've just read an addition to the continuing and growing climate change debate which has shown it is really a showdown between observational science vs. consensus science. Under President Bush there was an outcry by libs and greens that he was censoring those in his administration who spoke out in favor of man-made global warming. This came mainly from Jim Hanson, a NASA scientist, who while being "censored" by President Bush, managed to give several hundred speeches on the topic. It became such a hot topic that when Obama was elected he vowed that "the days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over." His new EPA director picked up the mantra and promised to base policies on science and provide overwhelming transparency.

Enter Alan Carlin. Mr. Carlin works in the EPA's Environmental Economics division and wrote an analysis questioning the EPA's science of man-made global warming in response to the Obama attempt to circumvent congress on the issue by declaring carbon (that element which is the scientific definition of whether something is "organic") a pollutant thereby giving the EPA the power to regulate it. The response to Mr. Carlin's report was what could best be described as a gag order by is superiors. The plight of Mr. Carlin has been picked up by Republicans who want an investigation. The EPA has now switched its efforts to discrediting Mr. Carlin as a "denier" and "only an economist" (though he does hold a degree in physics from a little place called CalTech!).

I can see all this playing out in some sci-fi movie where we all have to pay fines for being polluters because we exhale too much CO2 or perhaps some justification for Chinese-esk population control to protect the "mother earth" from all of us "unnatural beings."

Travelling on

Many of you know that we are going to Norway next weekend and visiting Oslo and taking a train through Sognefjord. It looks really beautiful and I'm very excited to go. We just booked our next really big trip that will be our most exotic trip to date. We're heading to Egypt and Jordan in September for a 9 day tour. It looks like it'll be an amazing adventure. We'll probably have more info as we get closer to the date but for now here is the tour description.

"the worst scientific scandal in history"

The weather conditions among climate change policy makers seems to be in a turbulent free fall. The WSJ has a nice op-ed piece documenting the current state of affairs which I'll try to summarize. Politicians around the world are backtracking and downright repealing new green laws that have been touted as necessities via every media and left wing news outlet. Evidently the "science" behind man-driven global warming is not as undeniable as we were once led to believe. In fact, nearly 700 scientists from geology to physics and meteorology have publicly criticized the U.N. climate summery for policy makers. Countries including Australia, Poland, Czech Republic and even France are now having their climate policies driven by anti-consensus scientists. As the global criticism to crippling economic policies to fund green programs grows, more people are speaking up and the media and politicians like Obama will find it harder to silence the dissent.

Birth...day

It is true that I have recently been elevated into my 30's against my will. I got stuck at work most of the day but the main excitement came when I got my present from Dana. We are going to do a wine tour in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany. The tour includes vineyards and wineries at a castle and a 13th century village. I can't wait to make another trip to Italy which is by far my favorite country in Europe.

Thanks a million my dear!

What's next?

Funny (not funny ha, ha) story in the WSJ about how Christler execs are already getting around the rules set up for their "bailout."

"The new Chrysler-Fiat partnership will get around U.S. restrictions on executive pay by having its top officers deemed Fiat employees," the Detroit Free Press reports:

The new Chrysler is among the first companies to fall under rules outlined in February by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, for companies getting "extraordinary assistance" from the Treasury that would cap pay for top executives at $500,000, excluding restricted shares of stock. The final rules for the limits have not been released. . . .

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has already indicated he will replace Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli. But under the deal, any of Chrysler's top officers can be deemed a Fiat employee who's "seconded" to Chrysler, and therefore take pay from Fiat beyond any Treasury cap.

In our view, this whole deal is an abomination. The government should not be bailing out Chrysler or its unions; if it cannot make cars profitably, it belongs in bankruptcy court.
That said, we have to admire the Chrysler execs' sense of humor in using Fiat to evade a fiat.

Prague

This is the first of 2 slide shows I plan to make from our most recent trip. We were in what I would consider the most Eastern part of Western Europe, Prague. It was a beautiful city that had a sort of eerie charm not unlike Edinburgh. We started by visiting the castle which over looks the city. It was more of a compound of buildings that contained a large cathedral that looked as if it was the oldest part of the "castle" complex. We visited the old town square which has the Astronomical Clock and the John Hus memorial. We crossed the Charles' Bridge and explored the city. We went in several of the cathedrals, one of which contained the withered arm and clenched fist of a would be thief who tried to steal the statue of Mary hanging as a reminder (or warning). See if you can pick out that picture. It was not as cheap as we had hoped it would be but we still had a great time.

United

On Wednesday night I was invited to go up to Manchester for the semi-final 1st leg of the Champion's League between Man. United and Arsenal. Of course I said I had to think about it and 1.2 seconds later I was making arrangements to get out of work and head to Manchester. I am a United supporter and would be ecstatic to go to any game and a chance to go to a Champions League game, especially against Arsenal in the knock out stage is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Both teams of course played their first 11 and watching them live was amazing. United won 1 - 0 and should of scored 2 or 3 more in a very exciting match. I know most of you could care less about soccer but if you are ever interested, the next leg is on Tuesday at 7:45pm my time (mid day in the U.S.). It is a very good representation of what soccer should look like and you will see some of the best players in the world.

Treats!

The goodies have arrived! These photos are not the best but you get the idea. Don't be jealous.

Visitation and Vacation

We are finally seeing our first visitors of the year tomorrow. Jamie and Steven (my sister-in-law and her husband) are coming to see us for the first time. We are turning around almost immediately and skipping out of Ireland for the Czech Republic and Austria for about 5 days. I'm excited because it feels like we are heading to a new part of the world and we haven't been any where in a while; well, since last month anyway. It is always nice to have travel companions and I'm sure that we'll have a really good time.

They were also nice enough to bring a little shipment of goodies along with them.

Trinidad EMS robustos x 8
Perdomo En Vidrio rothschilds x 10
Partagas Black bravos x 10
La Gloria Cubana charlemagne x 10
Gurkha Rare Breed robustos x 5

JR Cigars is having amazing sales right now so if anyone is interested in such things you should definitely take advantage now! I'll be posting pictures of these beauties tomorrow!!

Belgium

I'm trying to catch up on my blogging and I've finally made it to Belgium which was a few weeks ago. We flew into Brussels and then took the train to Bruges where we spent a day and a half and then spent the last day in Brussels before we flew back home. It really was a weekend trip and I don't think we could have found more to do there had we stayed longer. I really liked Bruges. It is a combination of quaint gothic with the Flemish architecture popping out all over the place. There are chocolate shops galore and the only other thing Belgians take as seriously as chocolate is beer. We weren't crazy about the beer but it was cheap and plentiful. There are canals criss-crossing the city and we were able to take a boat tour, which gave us a different perspective of the city. We did a tour of the only remaining brewery in Bruges. The tour guide was excellent and we really enjoyed that. We even got to go on the roof and take a couple of photos of the city scape. We saw Michelangelo's only sculpture to leave Italy in the cathedral in town and found a cigar bar where I had a nice Ramon Allones Habana.

We went to Brussels for our last day and were less impressed with it. The Grand Palace was a beautiful square surrounded by gothic buildings. We walked around the city and saw some of the other buildings but other than that there didn't seem like much to see or do. Belgium was a good trip and I'm glad we made it there but I don't think we'll be heading back any time soon.

Florence, Italy

We visited Florence during our Venice trip and were glad we did. The city doesn't hold the charm of Venice but it is strikingly Italian and it was great to see the area where so many great minds including Michelangelo and Da Vinci came from. The city is built around their large cathedral called the Duomo. From the outside it is massive and built of white and green marble. You can see from the pictures that it just towers above the rest of the city. Inside it is surprisingly small. There is a large river (where we actually saw an otter swimming) that separates the main part of town from the hills where the old city wall is still visible. The main bridge, Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), is lined with jewelry shops. We hiked up the hill overlooking the city with a copper replica of Michelangelo's David standing atop it. The views of the city were amazing.

There are no shortage of museums to visit there either. The first we went to was the History of Science museum. Unfortunately much of is was under construction so we could wander around one floor. There they had several of the first models of the solar system and the telescopes used through history. It even had Galileo's Finger! We visited the famous Uffizi Gallery which contains the largest collection of the Renaissance art. The highlight of Florence was without question going to the Accademia gallery and seeing Michelangelo's David. The gallery contains a few other works including some unfinished statues by Michelangelo where were neat to see how they came to be from a block of marble. The David was breathtaking. His sheer size is impressive enough but the detail in the facial expression and even the veins in his arm are amazing. I haven't seen anything else like it and of course we couldn't take any photos. As Dana says, it shows what a mockery the "modern art" movement really is when compared with true artistic genius.

Florence is a must visit simply for its historical significance. I think Venice will beckon us back some day just because the city is such a wonder in and of itself. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the land of the man himself. Although the celebration is not nearly the scale of NY or Boston it is still a fun event. We probably saw more Americans here today than we have since we moved. We went out for an early lunch then found the Early Show from NBC doing a live broadcast from Dublin Castle. We stayed for that and then found a spot near Christ Church to watch the parade. There are participants from all over the world and I even saw the Arizona flag flying...REPRESENT! Here's a few pictures from our day.

The Soiree

We went to a cigar soiree Monday night at a wine bar here in Dublin. The evening included tapas, wine, single malt Irish whiskey and of course cigars. It was really a great atmosphere as about 50 guys showed up to take part leaving Dana as the only girl in the bunch (which made me very proud!). We met several interesting people including 2 ex-marines and a few Dubliners. We were given a Diplimaticos Habanas and a Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve. I must say that they were both excellent and I feel like we really got value for our money, which is quite odd for Dublin. I can't wait until the next one. We'll see if any of the guys went home and told their wives that there are women who attend so Dana won't be so out numbered next time.

Venezia

Bonjourno! I know we've been back from Italy for a while now but it is always on the mind. Venice was especially beautiful. I had heard that countless times but you really can't appreciate the spectacle that the city is until you've seen it for yourself. It was once one of the richest cities in Europe and the Grand Canal ("main street") is lined with palaces. The architecture is somewhat unique in that not only is it built on water but most of it is from the Byzantine period and looks like a combination of European and Middle Eastern styles. As far as giving a true feel of what the city looked like, our pictures fail miserably. It doesn't help that in a lot of the places you go into in both Venice and Florence you are not allowed to take photographs. We think they're afraid we'll steal their essence!

We spent our time wandering semi-lost through the narrow streets finding on more than one occasion that the street we were on dead ended into a canal. We took a gondola ride and had to help our gondolier tilt the boat to make it under the low, slowly sinking bridges on the side streets. It was nearly Carnival so the stores were packed with masks and outfits for the 10 day long celebration. We found Venice to be a city that isn't visited for its sights and attractions but just for the city itself. I hope we get to go back! Ciao!

Back to reality

We have returned home and we're still trying to settle back into life after our surprise visit to the old AZ. It was such a good trip getting to see everyone and enjoy a few days of sunshine and warm weather. It is even more missed as I am writing during the first snow Dublin city has seen in the last 7 years (lucky us!). We are leaving for Italy in 2 days which means good food and good wine and hopefully better weather.
Thanks to everyone for making time to hang with us on absolutely no notice. Surprise visits probably aren't the best idea for the future but this one sure was fun. Happy birthday Yunuen! We hope to see all of you real soon!

Prego!

I think we've pretty much shouted this one from the roof tops so it probably isn't news to anyone but we got really great tickets to Venice/Florence in a couple of weeks. AerLingus was having a mad sale. Not only that but we found great places to stay for 1/2 to 1/3 the price of their normal room rates. We're pretty used to staying in budget places and blowing our money on the sites and food so I totally feel like we're splurging. We're staying 2 nights in Venice then taking a train over and spending 2 nights in Florence. We'll report back after we've got lots of photos to make you jealous with! In the meantime, check out our hotels (Venice/Florence).

Dude!

This might be the craziest thing I've ever seen. Click the link to watch these guys gliding in wingsuits. My favorite part is when the guy is talking about what they were doing and says they got "bored." Awesome!

The Old Year

As this was our first full year in Europe it was fun to look back on all the places we went and things we did. We were away from our friends and family which made all our traveling bittersweet but thanks to everyone that made the long haul over here to stay for free and see bits of Europe...uh, I mean visit us. In all seriousness, we are very thankful to everyone who visited and you are all welcome back in 2009. We started 2008 in Rome, saw the West coast of Ireland, London, Cambridge, Manchester, Edinburgh, Loch Ness, Paris, Bordeaux, Barcelona, Bacharach, Kusadasi and Athens. We've decided we better get started this year if it is going to live up to last year so hopefully at the end of the month we'll be visiting Salzburg. Egypt and Maldives are also on the agenda before June.

We visited Dana's family in Minnesota/Wisconsin for an early Christmas. It was nice to spend the time with family. I got some sweet cigar books for Christmas including a diary to record and rate various cigar experiences. I started last night after dinner by smoking a Rocky Patel Sun Grown which was a real treat, and to make it better I rang in the New Year by smoking a Kahlua as my first cigar of 2009. If anyone is planning to come and see us this year and has somewhere they want to go let us know! We are basically living one day at a time with no long term plans, just planning the next trip. We'll see what I have to report a year from now and from where I'll be reporting!