when in Rome...

as usual, when i wait too long to write a blog, i have to write it as a list so i don't forget what i did. (if you haven't figured it out, you can click on the pics to enlarge them - I've got quite a few, even with my editing, so I've made all the thumbnails small.)
here goes -

May 15: my last day at IDA - woot. It was a little odd, b/c none of the execs were in the office, and no-one remembered it was my last day. I missed out on the usual farewell lunch, but that might work out in my favor. Since I'll be working in the London IDA office as of June 11, all of the execs have promised me dinner and drinks when they come to London on business, to make up for forgetting me. In the end, the head-honcho-manager, and a couple people from the dept. next door surprised me with a huge beautiful bouquet, a box of chocolates, and a card. And my friend Elina bought me a farewell lunch in the canteen. Thank god I didn't ride my bike that day. I never would have made it home with bouquet.

May 16: My solo adventure to Rome - I was pretty nervous about this trip, but I knew Rome would be very tourist friendly, and I armed myself with all the directions I would need to get from the airport to the hostel. It was a smooth trip from doorstep to doorstep - and I managed to pack light enough that I didn't even need to check baggage. When I arrived at the hostel, I noticed an advert for a pub crawl that the hostel did - I was feeling pretty anti-social, but figured that would be the best way to integrate myself into the group. The pubcrawl was 20 euros, and included a glass of champagne, a short guided tour, an open bar for an hour, and then "crawling" to a couple more bars. It was a little quiet at first, but once we started walking, people started talking. "Where are you from" was the standard pickup line. Almost everyone at the hostel was Aussie, Canadian, American or British - it made it easy to make friends, but difficult to experience any real Italian culture. I befriended 2 girls from MN and an aussie dude, we ended up hanging out quite a bit over the weekend. The pub crawl was a good way to start off, and I also discovered the best time to see Rome is at night. (The most impressive thing I saw that night was The Trevi Fountain.) All of the sites are lit up, and the streets are empty. I also discovered that unlike everywhere else in the world, Rome does not cater to late night drunkards that need pizza and potatoes. Fortunatly for me, I remained aware of the fact that I was in Rome to see Rome, not my hostel bed, so I was careful how much I drank. The same cannot be said for some of the others on the pub crawl.

May 17: The hostel I stayed at is a little weird. It really seems to promote drinking and sleeping around. All of the dorm rooms, and bathroom, and showers are unisex. The toilets and showers have locking doors, but no extra space, which made showering, and getting dressed in the still wet shower cubicle a challenge. They also have a bar which serves cheap drinks, fresh OJ, coffee, and breakfast/sandwiches which was convenient, but it also meant they didn't have a communal kitchen - not convenient.

Anyway, I slept in, then went downstairs to the restaurant, ran into a couple people from the pubcrawl and we decided to tour the city together. We went back to the Trevi Fountain to see it in the daylight (that's me in bottom on the photo - apparently if you toss a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, you'll return to Rome - I went ahead and tossed the coin, although I don't really care if I return), some random basilica (they're everywhere) and The Pantheon (built in 125 AD!). The most amazing thing about the ancient buildings in Rome is how big they are.

Next we went for lunch - I was unimpressed with my antipasta and ravioli, although the hazlenut gelato was good. Afterwards, Paul the Aussie dude and I split up from the MN girls. I wanted to go to the Colosseum, which they had already seen. On the way over, we got sidetracked by a cat sanctuary that was built among some ruins. There was a free tour, although it meant hanging around the sanctuary which smelled like a giant litter box, but we did it anyway. Apparently the ruins are where Julius Cesar was killed. They were excavated in the 1920s and cats started moving in. I imagine the excavation stirred up the rodents, providing lots of food, as well as shelter for the cats. Today there are around 300 cats living there, all sterilized and vaccinated. Some live in the part of the ruins that has been turned into a kennel/gift shop, and the rest hang out in tunnels that go under the street. The tourguide/catwomen was an American volunteer, that goes to Rome for a few weeks in the summer just to help out. She was very bitter towards the city of Rome and their lack of support. It was a little creepy to look down in the ruins and all of sudden start seeing cats everwhere. It reminded me a children's book that I remember repeatedly checking out from the library as a kid.

****more added to this blog after i sleep - assuming i can sleep. my lovely housemate has fallen asleep with metal music playing at high volumes - less than a week to go..........

ok, i'm back. it's finally a beautiful day in Dublin. I met a friend for lunch (after getting lost on the way), and then cycled over to the shopping center to find a big carry-on bag. I found a fairly cheap duffle/roller bag at TK Maxx - it cost more than the bags at the budget bag store, but I'm telling myself it's better quality, and it has wheels. I could totally be a bike messenger - I cycled all the way back to the house with the giant bag slung over my shoulders. ****

Anyway back to Rome -

So after the cat sanctuary, Paul and I finally made it to the Colosseum. It's pretty weird walking up to it. It's so huge and so familiar looking, and stuck right in the middle of modern day rome. It was getting late, so I didn't go inside, and we were tired after walking all day. (I think in most cases I like having someone to travel with, but when it's basically a stranger, it can be a little awkward. I was happy to sit on the grass outside the Colosseum and people-watch, but Paul was eager to get back - and I didn't care enough to argue.)

That night we tried take-away pizza and met up with the MN girls, some dudes they met and all went to an Irish pub where we played stupid drinking games. Ugh. Of course I befriended the British guy, did my best to ignore the drinking games, and we talked about London all night. After a couple pints, we walked home - detouring to the Colosseum to see it at night. I tried to use my handydandy self-timer feature to take a group photo, but drunk boys aren't very good at standing still.

May 18: The majority of this day was spent either waiting around to get into the Vatican, or in the Vatican. I woke up early, along with every other tourist in Rome, to try and get an early start. Of course I ran into Paul the Aussie, and Tom the Brit, at breakfast, so I ended up not leaving the hostel as early as I had intended. Paul hadn't seen the Vatican yet, but he was leaving that afternoon, so he decided to join me in the hope that he'd have time to at least make a quick run thru. We arrived around 9:30 - I'd say the line was already at least a 1/4 mile long and not moving. I found out later that the Vatican doesn't even open til 10. Paul decided that he didn't care that much about seeing it, gave me his unused 5 euro voucher for a tour (that still cost me 32 euros!) in the hopes that being in a tour would let me skip the line later, and we went for coffee and more gelato - pistachio this time. At noon, after saying bye to Paul, I met up with the "tour"... It was nice - the tour guide was an American art historian that had been living in Rome for 8 years and she had lots of knowledge and was easy to understand. Unfortunately, I didn't get to skip any lines and still had to wait for an hour, with a full bladder, to get in. I felt like I was at Disney World.

Once were in in, everything went smoothly. The Vatican Museum is huge, but the tourguide walked us thru and told us about the most important parts - we all had wireless headsets hooked up to her mic, which was nice because we could look around while she talked, instead of having to stand still while trying to lip-read amongst all the other tourguides and tourists.
Here's some pics from the museum:
There were sculptures everywhere - mainly of naked men.
I thought the painting was cool because it's in color and B&W.
The last pic is of The Gallery of Maps.
After The Gallery of Maps we went into The Sistine Chapel - no photos allowed. It was crammed full of people, everyone looking up, but still pretty cool. You don't realize how huge the paintings are until you're staring up at them. The "Last Judgement" was my favorite - I could have stared at it for a long time, and I was surprised at how small "The Creation of Adam" is, considering is probably the most well-known image from the Sistine Chapel.

After the Museum and the Sistine Chapel, we found out the real perk of paying for the tour. We got to use a back entrance into the Basilica of Saint Petrus (or St. Peter's Basilica). Another HUGE building - we got there just in time to see the beginning of 5:00 mass, although it was all in Italian so it didn't hold my interest. As we entered the building, the sun was shining in just right - The Holy Trinity maybe? or maybe not - regardless, even with all the people, it was beautiful.

The tour ended, leaving us free to hang out. We had the option of going up to the dome, or down to the crypts, but I was tired of waiting in lines, so I just wandered around the basillica some more, and then hung around in St. Peters Square (and got more gelato - mango). I'm glad I went to the Vatican, I'd been wanting to see it since I wrote a report about it in 7th grade, but it left me feeling a little down on mankind - To think that for as long as humans have been alive, we've been devoting our money, time, and lives to "higher beings" that may not even exist - it seems like there are better ways our efforts could be spent - and if there is a higher power, he/she/it would understand...

On my way back to the hostel I passed a big interesting building so I went in (I unknowingly has scheduled my trip for "Culture Week" so admission to all the sites was free!). I still don't know what the building was, but I got some great pics of the Roman skyline. My walk back to the hostel took forever - up until this point I had been following other people, so it was the first time I really had to look at a Roman map...slightly confusing. I made my way to the Circus Maximus (used for chariot racing among other things) where there was a metro (subway) stop, and after 6 it's free to ride - hooray, my feet were killing me.

May 19: I met up with the MN girls, and we took the metro to Piazza Barberini, where we saw Bernini's Fontana della Api (Fountain of the Bees), and the Crypt of the Cappuccini Monks. The monks moved their church in the 1600s, and had to take their dead with them, so until the 1800s, they decorated the walls of the church with the bones of their dead. There are several rooms decorated with bones and skeletons in monks robes. In the last room, a sign reads, "What you are now, we once were. What we are now, you shall someday be." Creepy.

After the crypt, I split from the girls and went to The Roman Forum and Palantine Hill - it was nice - it's a huge outdoor area, so it's not overrun by tourists. I considered waiting in line to go into the Colosseum, but decided I'd save it for another day - and spent a couple hours wandering around the ruins and sitting in the grass. The Forum was the central area where ancient Rome developed. Before it was excavated, it was used as a cow pasture. The image of cows wandering around among half buried columns and ancient temples is pretty funny.

That night the girls and I had talked about doing the "Spanish Steps pub crawl". Apparently they take up to 100 people, and you get free pizza. We met at the hostel, ate some pasta, one last serving of gelato (coffee flavored) and went to our rooms to take naps and freshen up. I passed out, and slept until my new roomies arrived - 3 guys from Michigan - recent grads of dental school on a post-graduation trip around Europe. The migrane I'd felt coming on seemed to have receded so I took a quick shower and went down to the bar. Fortunately the girls had decided they were to tired for the pub crawl, so we spent the evening at the hostel bar, drinking cheap Italian wine and chatting with other travelers.

May 20: 7 am bus to the airport - busted at security for the mini-bottle of wine I had in my backpack, but the guard was more excited about the "Do Not Fall In Love" SDS sticker that fell out of my bag as he searched it. I told him to keep the sticker and the wine. Back home to cold Dublin.

It's a blustery, blubbery, bloody Sunday.

Here's a picture that Pete took of me on the nature trail at Lough Derg. I think I'm feigning happiness.

I go to Rome on Wednesday, and I'm not taking my computer, but I'm going to try to write a journal as I go, so that I'll have a nice detailed blog when I get back. :)

I went to church today - I needed some quiet - if that makes sense, which I know it doesn't. The boys choir sounded like a movie soundtrack. And the sermon reminded us how important love and forgiveness is. I know that sounds incredibly cheesy, but it's still good to be reminded of things like that.

Bank holiday comes with a six pack of beer, then it's back to work a.g.a.i.n.

(mom, in case you're wondering, my title for this blog is lyrics from a Blur song)
(also, I posted a couple more photos for my and myung's trip)

Let’s see, what news has happened this past week.

On Wednesday, I hopped on the Luis line on the way home from work, and rode it, with all the commuters, out to Dundrum. There is a huge mall and cinema there – I grabbed a sandwich and crisps from Marks and Spencer and snuck my dinner into the theatre where I watched “Curse of the Golden Flower”. Pretty good movie, although a little slow, and it could have used some more king-fu fighting – but visually it was really beautiful. Unfortunatly, I had a headache -which seems to be a failrly common occurence in this country. Fortunatly the tension headache/migraine medicine (paracetamol, antihistamine, caffeine and codine) that I bought worked pretty well when it's not being mixed with other painkillers and beer - I wouldn't recommend that.

On Thursday night, Elaine and I went to see Juliet and the Licks. I know both the guitarist and the drummer, so we were on the guestlist. Yah! I never would have paid €30 for the show, but it was really good. I’ve always been kind of indifferent to Juliet Lewis as an actress, but she makes a great rock n’ roller. She had tons of energy and didn’t care about looking pretty all the time. Afterwards, we went backstage and hung out for a little while. It was nice to see old friends, and it was nice to hang out with band people. I’ve decided that I feel the most comfortable with people that play in bands – we all common experiences/backgrounds – I don’t have to spend ages explaining my life story, or why I’ve travelled so much and how it’s not really that big of a deal, or why we’re not huge in Japan, or where my band mates are…etc. After the show, Elaine and I tried to go to a club that we’ve frequented a few times lately. It was completely dead, and I got in an argument with the door girl about giving us our money back because we didn’t want to stay. In the end it worked out – we didn’t get our money back, but the promoter gave us a voucher for 2 for 1 for the next night. I’ve been feeling really confrontational lately – I haven’t been in an especially great mood, and I think I’m just sick of people being mean and stupid for no reason.

On Saturday, we were woken up bright and early (after not going to bed til 3:30 am), so that we could drive down to Limerick for RiverFest. There was a bmx event going on, so all of the Dublin BMXers headed down. Apparently last year it was a big event, but on arriving in Limerick this year, we realized the BMX portion of the Fest had been downsized. I got bored pretty quicky so I left the "skatepark" and wandered around Limerick on my own for a while, took some pictures and met a really cool cat.


(Look closely at the windows & doors, it's a mural)
There was an international BBQ, where representatives of different countries were giving away their version of BBQ. I sampled a few – The Philippine BBQ’d chicken was delicious. When everyone tired of BMX we watched some kayak-water-polo, tried unsuccessfully to see some fireworks, and then everyone went to pub for another late, but fun night.





On Sunday, we slept til noon (waking up for a quick breakfast at 8:30, since we wanted to get our value out of the B&B), and then Pete, Eithne, Elaine and I piled into the car and drove out to Lough Derg, which is famous for a monastery on a little island in the middle of the lake that has been receiving pilgrims for over 1000 years – people go for 3 days, deprive themselves of sleep and food, eating nothing but toast and black tea, pray and walk around barefoot. Unfortunatly, we didn't plan ahead, and although I usually try to research new places before I visit so I have things to do, I didn't this time. So we had no real plan and ended up on the opposite side of the lake of the visitors center and museum of the monastery.

My traveling companions seemed to content to stay on the main road, which was lined with thick foliage, making it impossible to see anything, while increasingly getting in bad moods. My suggestions of "let's check that out, or how about we turn here?" went either unheard or ignored - my guess is ignored. We finally pulled off the road into a look-out point, where I got out of the car, and headed towards the tourist info board, only to turn around and find myself alone. Everyone else had stayed in the car. Unwilling to get back in the car so soon I walked down a path into the woods. Upon returning, Pete had driven off alone, and found the access road to get down to a little cemetary and the shore of Lough Derg - which included a cute little hiking path - so in the end, it turned out to be a decent day. That night we went out for some awful Chinese food, and were in bed by 10:30.

Monday, which was bank holiday, and raining, we decided just to head back to Dublin and stop and the National Irish Stud, St. Fiachra's Garden and Japanese Gardens on the way home. No, the National Irish Stud is not a collection of hot Irish men, but is a place where the development of Irish bloodstock in racehorses is promoted. So basically is was a bunch of really expensve horses. Fortunately the rain let up just as we arrived, we managed to sneak in, and I got to pet a foal.

"There's a hole in the world like a great black pit...and it goes by the name of London."

Been staying busy this week. Tonight Elaine and I went and saw Sweeny Todd - I got discounted tickets from my work and it was well worth it. We sat 4 rows back, dead center. If we'd been any closer we would have been spit on. The production was excellent - the theatre and stage were on the smaller side - minimal props, but lots of makeup, costumes, smoke and lights, and the acting and singing were great. The stage was built at a slant, which allowed for the fog to roll off the stage and into the audience. It was really creepy.

Yesterday we went to see Cold War Kids. They were kind of a mix between The Walkmen, Kings of Leon, and a church choir. Afterwards, Elaine and I went to an indie night at a club in Temple Bar called The Hub, I've been wanting to go for months, I met the hot DJ right after I arrived, and he promised I would like it. I did. I stared at the DJ and danced all night.

Myung left on Saturday morning so it's back to the routine, for a couple more weeks at least. I am starting to feel stressed about London - I guess I need to start doing some serious job hunting. I saw on TV last night, that the marketing industry is in recession, which doesn't give me much hope for a career in graphic design - I guess I'll try to look into some film stuff.

Anyway it was nice to have an old friend to hang out with for a couple weeks, and great to have someone to travel with. I probably never would have made it up to Inverness, if Myung hadn't have been here.

I made a spur of the moment decision to go up to Belfast with Eithne and Elaine on saturday. All of the boys were going up for a BMX jam, and promised a fun night out on saturday - they didn't have room in the cars, so we girls got up early and took the bus. Eithne, Elaine and I arrived Sat. afternoon, only to find out upon arrival that the boys were running late. They didn't show until nearly 11pm, and then didn't want to go out. So much for a Saturday night of debauchery. The girls and I went out for a drink, it was ok, but we could have done the same in Dublin.

Sunday we did some shopping (even spending £s, it tends to be cheaper than Dublin) and then went to the BMX jam. I, of course, was content to hang out at the jam all day - 30 or so cute boys on little bikes, and me (not to mention that I'm a minor celebrity with some of them:). But Elaine and Eithne, who were only there by default (since Pete is Eithne's boyfriend), soon got bored and we left, went and had coffee and then caught the bus back to D-town.

Up til 3 am again last night. I really am going to try to get some sleep tonight. The circles under my eyes are unacceptable. :)

maggie and myung's big adventure

I’m not really feeling in the mood to write a blog, but I want it done, and I’m just sitting here at work playing stupid online games so I might as well. Myung came over from Austin last Sunday, and we’ve spent the last week gallivanting around the British Isles. (i'll be adding more pictures - it's taking a while to go thru mine and myungs)

Easter Sunday – Myung arrived early morning, she called when she landed & I met her at the bus station near my house. We relaxed for a few minutes and then headed to Easter Mass at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in the city centre. This is supposedly the main cathedral and Cardinal Desmond Connell was there. He was the Archbishop of Dublin from 1988 – 2004 (during the sex abuse scandal, which severely damaged his reputation). Watching an 81 year old little man, slowly shuffle around the congregation sprinkling water on people, while wearing a giant funny looking hat was fairly entertaining. However, Myung’s jet lag, and the stuffy, incense filled room got the best of us, and when people got up for communion, we got up and left. That evening while Myung napped, I went to BBQ, where I developed a migraine. My plans for Myung’s first night in Dublin were cancelled, since I had to go home to bed. It ended up OK, I asked Al to pick up some Indian take-away (he was easily convinced when I offered to buy him some food as well), and we hung out at the house eating and chatting and watching TV.

Monday – We caught the bus up to Belfast. The city was dead since it was Easter Monday and a bank holiday, but we wandered around in the dark, taking pictures and trying to see some sights. (the photo was taken using the long exposure feature on my camera)

Tuesday – Bus to Giant’s Causeway. We stayed in a hostel in a quaint little town called Bush Mills. We took an interesting tour of the Old Bushmills Whiskey Distillery – I volunteered to do a whiskey taste test. Basically in about 15 minutes I did 5 small shots of whiskey and water, and then had a hot toddy. Triple-distilled Irish whiskey is way better than scotch whiskey (yuk), and definitely smoother than American Kentucky bourbon. Afterwards we split some really tasty fish and chips, and went for a stroll around the town.

Wednesday – we got up early, made breakfast and then walked the 2.5 miles to Giant’s Causeway.

It was a beautiful day, we’d brought a picnic and we ended up spending about an hour just sitting on the rocks in the sun watching people try to take pictures of the waves without getting soaked.

We’d planned on taking a steam train back to Bush Mills, but it turned out it wasn’t running so we walked back and caught the bus to Belfast. It was a nice bus ride along the coast, lots of cliffs, cute villages, and baby lambs everywhere. – Very picturesque. Another evening in Belfast – we walked around a bit, and found a restaurant where I got a huge portion of beef stew and champ (basically mashed potatoes) for only £3.50 (about $7.00).

Thursday – woke up at 4:30 am, to catch our flight to Glasgow. Of course it was delayed, but we still made it in time to catch our train to Inverness, Scotland. The train ride was about 3 hours, not to bad and we both slept some of the way. After arriving in Inverness, we walked to our hostel to drop off our bags (the hostel was no where near as private and quaint as Bush Mills, where it seemed more like a hotel – a room to ourselves, with a bathroom and shower in the room. The huge Inverness hostel felt like summer camp – shared room, toilets and showers – and a huge group of highschoolers hanging out.) We then wandered around the town, had lunch, did some shopping and made reservations for a bus tour for the next day. We finished off the evening with a cheap wine and cheese dinner, and expensive pay as you go internet, before sneaking a pot of tea, and cake up to our room before bed.

Friday – The driver of the bus tour happened to be staying at the hostel, so we met him in the parking lot and started on a near 10 hour drive thru the Scottish highlands.

It was great, Graham, our guide, was young and goofy and a great storyteller of highland history. Among other things we saw old Druid stone circles, drove the length (and back) of Loch Ness, went to Culloden (a battlefield where the British basically massacred the Highland army) and saw Eilean Donan castle (a castle built on a tiny island – it’s considered Scotland’s most romantic castle).



(I didn't take the pic of Eilann Donon castle, but this is what it looked like)

Friday evening, we went to a pub in Inverness called Hootenanny’s. We ate excellent and spicy Thai food and drank locally brewed, organic beer while watching a traditional Scottish band – bagpipes, an accordion, and Scottish drums. After dinner we went to the club upstairs and watched a pretty good local Indie band – whose singer seemed to think he was American – wearing his trucker hat, and singer in a husky American accent.

Saturday – we slept in til checkout time, and then went to H&M, the Inverness Museum of Art, and hung out by the river until it was time to catch the train back to Glasgow. We stayed at a B&B in Glasgow called The Old Schoolhouse. It was literally right next door to the Glasgow School of Art and, just down the street from my regular bar when in Glasgow – Nice N’Sleazy so there were plenty of cool-looking people hanging about, and lots of people watching. We saw a cheesy but entertaining indie/metal/electronic band at Sleazy’s and then headed back to the B&B. I think Myung and I were both eager to take advantage of our clean, comfortable beds, plus we had to wake up semi-early so we could get our full Scottish Breakfast in the morning.

Sunday – I tried a nibble of haggis (made of a sheep’s heart, liver and lungs and then boiled in the animal’s stomach.) It actually was pretty tasty, but hard to get past what it’s made of. After breakfast we walked through Kelvingrove Park, and went to the Kelvingrove Art and History Museum, then met up with Will Smyth and just hung out at his place for the afternoon. Myung had to catch the train to Edinbrough, so I walked her to the station, found an internet café to waste an hour, and then caught the bus out the airport. Uneventful flight – but on arriving back to Dublin, the airport was a madhouse. 3 flights all collecting baggage from the same terminal, I had no €s for the bus, and the downstairs cash machine was broken so I had to run upstairs and by the time I made it to the bus stop, all 3 midnight aircoaches were full. (Any other time of day it would have been fine, but after midnight the bus only runs on the hour). I called my housemate Pete, who happened to have the car that he shares with his girlfriend (not normal for a Sunday night) and chivalrously offered to come pick me up.

Finally home! expecting a dirty house, but OMG – Drucko had cleaned everything – even the fridge and stovetop! Granted, it’s only because he has a ladyfriend in town that he wants to impress, regardless, it was nice coming back to cleanliness.

DONE.

sometimes i forget i'm on an island

Pete and Eithne bought a car about a month ago, and it has made it much easier to take little trips to the beach - which is only about 15 minutes away.
Both times I've gone it's been pretty cold, regardless, I didn't get to stay long enough either time. There's something about the sea and it's smells and sounds that lets me just kinda zone out. I've met plenty of people that feel the same way - although I've yet to meet a Dubliner that does. We go to the beach and do what we're there to do - walk the dog, throw the frisbee... and then we leave.
The beach we went to yesterday, Sandymount Beach, went on forever, there was alot of standing water, so I guess at high tide there is water where we were- apparently you can walk to Dunleary quicker than you can drive, if you walk across the beach. I suggested trying to walk to the water but no one seemed to think that was a good idea.

Pete & Al were throwing the frisbee and it landed it a giant puddle. They were both too wimpy to go in after it, so I volunteered to do it. It was a good excuse to take off my socks and shoes, and to test the tempature of the water. It was cold, within seconds my feet were aching.


Last weekend we took Lucky the dog to a Dollymount beach. He loved it. There were tons of kitesurfers, people driving their cars on the sand and at the end of a little peninsula there was a giant statue of the Virgin Mary.

I've injured my back somehow - my top right shoulderblade and neck - I can't really turn my head. Hopefully I just slept wrong, or sat in the same position on the couch for to long, and it'll be better in the morning, but at the moment it's pretty painful.

I've also discovered a new shopping center with a 24 hour grocery store and a movie theater not far from my house and work. I have to take a tram to get there, but it's only about 3 euros. Maybe I'll go see a movie after work tomorrow. I saw 300 last week, and I also went to advance screening of Sunshine. 300 was better.

here's a photo by pete of me, Eithne and Lucky.