Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

It's Tuesday , I'm really cheating this week but my father will be here tomorrow and Thursday is Turkey Day... and in light of the holiday I'm taking a break from detailing my trip to talk about Irish food!

There is the famous potato!





lol

ok - let's start with some good old fashioned Corned Beef and Cabbage!
It's usually a brisket, and 'corned' comes from the corn or grains of coarse salt used to cure it. Cabbage is, well, cooked cabbage. It's pretty darn tasty if you ask me!





Irish breakfasts!!

This is what I get for free every morning at Cooney's in Longford. I've had it once at a little diner in the area and it was good, except for the black and white pudding. O_O I'll get to that later.

An Irish breakfast consists of the following: eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, black pudding, white pudding, and hash browns. I guess it can include more things, like soda bread or a tomato, also.




....Alright.... now black & white pudding... skip down to soda bread if you're easily grossed out.

Black pudding is sausage made by cooking it blood (usually pig or cattle blood) with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. (It's also called Blood Pudding.) Yes, I have tried this - and at the time I had NO idea what it was. I didn't like it before I knew and I'm very glad for that. (Here's black pudding on wikipedia if you doubt me http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding .)

White Pudding is the same thing, just without the blood. Instead, it consists of pork meat and fat, suet, bread, and oatmeal formed into the shape of a large sausage.







And last, but never least - Soda Bread!! I love soda bread. :) It's made simply of flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. You can add raisins or nuts to it. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_bread )






Yummmmmm - warm soda breaaaaaaad :::drool:::

Okay - there's that! Until next week!

Have a great Thanksgiving!!!

Given angel's wings, where might you fly?

Ahh, flying. One of life's ways to torture us. Not that flying is scary, in fact I like it. But the security, the layovers... it's just not that fun unless you're in the air. And no liquid can be brought on the plane. (Better finish that slushy before boarding!)

At 6:29pm on April 10th I will be leaving Syracuse airport. I have to work that day but hopefully I'll get out at 3. That should give me enough time to run home and grab my things... if I'm REALLY lucky maybe I'll get out at 2:30 and I can take a shower before I leave... anyway -

From Syracuse I'll arrive at Philadelphia at 7:27pm. From there I will leave for Dublin. It leaves at 8:45pm and arrives at 8:40am on April 11.

On the 19th I'll get on a plane in Dublin at 11:20, arriving in Philadelphia at 2pm. At 4pm I will leave there and arrive in NYC (LGA) at 4:59. At 5:39 I'll get on a plane to come back to Cuse, arriving at 7:14pm.

Apparently this is all subject to change until then because I received an email saying that a couple of the flights had changed times. As long as my departure from Cuse isn't moved up, I don't mind.

Now airports are charging a fee for ANY checked bags. What happened to the free bag every passenger was allowed? I know not...

US Airways (the entire trip is on that airline) is charging $15 for the first bag under 50 lbs. ($65 for 51-70lbs and $115 for 71-100 lbs.) Second bags are $25 ($75 and $100) and third bags are $100 ($150 & $200). Nothing over 100lbs is accepted... although I don't know how anyone could possibly pack that much.

I'm going to take just one bag and a carry-on. The suitcase is huge so there's no need for anymore room. It's just 1 week. (I might rue those words come April, lol)

As for carry-ons, we're allowed one and a person item (purse, briefcase, laptop, ect.) and one bag that fits in the overhead. The size requirements are up to 51 in (11 x 14 x 26 in). I found a duffel bag at Wal-Mart for $10 that fits the rules.

I'll carefully select a book for the ride. I'll sleep on the plane but not in the airport during the layovers or on the short 1 hour flights.

18 hours and 17 minutes of pure airport/plane fun. Woo.

(And a happy early B-day to Nonny!)

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O bed! O bed! Delicious bed! That heaven upon earth to the weary head.

I've decided I'll post a new blog every Thursday until I leave... however today is Wednesday and I'm cheating... Now that I've confessed, on to the hotels!

Actually, I'm a little overly excited about my Longford hotel. I'll be staying at Cooney's Hotel in Ballymahon (which is down near the bottom of the county). Booking it was a little strange... I sent an email asking if they had vacancy from April 11-14 and a very nice lady (named Anne) emailed me back. She said yes and they had tentatively booked me a single room! I just had to send her my credit card info... of course my cell won't let me call Ireland (something I'll need to rectify before I leave) so I emailed it. Talk about nerve wracking. Anyway, it's all booked now and I couldn't be happier. Check in time is "around lunchtime" lol but they can accomadate me if I have an earlier flight. How nice are these people? Anyway... it was 190 euros for 3 nights which rounds up to about $242.00. And! It comes with a free Irish breakfast every morning! There's a bar there too, not that I'll frequenting it of course.
Here is the link to their site if you want to know more: http://www.cooneyshotel.com/index.htm
A couple pictures......





Now, as for Dublin... it looks very nice but not as small and personal. (Of course I could be completely wrong.) Either way, I like my choice!
It's got WiFi in my room (unlike Cooneys where I'll be hunting for a cyber cafe of some sort to blog to everyone) and 24 hour room-service. Check in is at 2 and check out is at noon. It's about 15 minutes from the airport too.
Here's the sight: http://www.ardmore-hotel.com/
And pictures......





Now, let's hope there are no bed bugs in Ireland!!! LOL (I don't want to walk the streets at 4am again, huh Linz?! hahaha eeek)

~Until next week~

The best laid plans of mice and men...

Ok! Today I'll break down my plans for you...

At 6:30 pm on April 10th (after working) I will leave Syracuse, with an hour layover in Philadelphia, and arrive in Dublin at 9:00am April 11th. (They are 5 hours ahead, by the way.)

At the airport I will pick up my rental car and drive about 2 hours to County Longford. The hotel is not set in stone there as of yet. Expedia didn't have anything in the area so I'm on my own for finding one. But, assuming they accept Mastercard, one will be booked tomorrow (crossing fingers), in the city of Ballymahon.

I will spend Aprill 11th through the 14th in Longford exporling. (No particular plans yet.) Then I will return to Dublin.

Check in time at Ardmore Hotel in Dublin is 2pm. I'll have the rest of the 14th to explore the city, and I will have a free day to do _____ (?) on the 16th.

As for the 15th I will be taking a day trip to County Clare, and the 17th I will be taking a day trip to Cork. I'll blog about all this stuff in detail later.

At 11:15am I will leave Dublin. There are 2 layovers on the way home: Philiadelpia and NYC. I will arrive back in Syracuse at 7:14pm.

So, to tally that up:
1) round trip flight
2) rental car for 8 days
3) 5 nights at Ardmore Hotel
4) day trip to County Clare
5) day trip to Cork
........ all for the low low price of $1,690 and some change.
(Of course the Longford hotel will hotel still needs to be added in there once it's booked.)

I guess that about sums it up for now!

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Fortune Favors the Brave!

With a third week of vacation in 2009 I thought it might be nice to take a trip. The original plan was Japan, of course. But then, there I was, on Expedia, checking out Japan for April (just for a week - I thought it would be nice to see some cherry blossoms) when I recalled a conversation with a girl in my department, Becky (hi!). She said she had found some cheap tickets to Ireland. Being the curious person I am I decided to check it out...

And sure enough - great deals galore! I told no one about this plan except for my dear friend Jim (hey Batman!). He told me "book it - book it now!!!" I looked around a bit longer... plotting things out... then there I was, about to pay for the trip and he says to me "no, don't do it. it's too early." Okay, now I'm not sure if that was reverse psychology since I was taking so long to do it (Yes, I know your sly ways.) but I believe it was. Well, either way, I was not changing my mind. I was excited with the deals I found and bit the bullet!

From April 11th through April 19 2009 I will be in a foreign country all alone. Dining out will be a little awkward but I'm excited to do this on my own. And who knows, maybe there will be some nice locals. However, I am a little (teeeeeeny tiiiiiiiny bit) scared. But! Fortune favors the brave!!!

I made this blog (thanks for the idea Michelle B.!) to keep everyone updated while I'm there and share some photos. Over the next 5 months I'll plot out my plans for everyone so stay tuned!

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