Pushing pigeons

Jer is horribly upset with me as the weather in Dublin has been decidedly not rainy. In fact, both of us got a bit of a sunburn yesterday as we hung out on the Trinity campus with my friend Colin and his girlfriend. Today is yet another sunny day, though the clouds roll in from time to time and drop some rain.

We arrived in the city center on Saturday and couldn't get into our guesthouse for a couple of hours. We headed over to a little Italian restaurant that I used to go to and hung out there reading up on Ireland and eating a tasty lunch. When we could finally check in, there was a mix up with the reservation and Jer and I did not get the double room we had reserved. Instead we were given two twin beds separated by a bedside table. Very 1950ish and hilarious. The place itself is upstairs from a neat old pub and is incredibly Irish. I love it.

Jer has been treated to the (probably) boring "tour of Elizabeth's former life". It went something like this: this is the bar where I used to work, this is the bar where I used to drink, this is the restaurant that used to have really good Asian food, this is the coffee shop where my roommates worked, etc. He handled it like a champ. And then we went to the awesomely named Kathmandu restaurant, "Monty's". Ha.

Yesterday we wandered around a bit more, picked up our clean (yay!) clothes from the laundromat, changed and then went to meet Colin and Catherine. After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed out to Colin's parents' house to feed the dog and get in a good game of frisbee. After we wore the dog out with that, Colin suggested that we go pigeon pushing. This sounded like a very exciting new game. Unfortunately, rather than suggestion a game of sneaking up on sleeping pigeons and pushing them around, what he had actually said was "pitch and putt". This is apparently a game related to golf where you have a miniature golf course with sand traps and all that, but no weird castles that you have to hit balls into.

As it turned out, the pitch and putt was closed, so we went to the driving range instead. Jer is a good shot. I, too, am a a good shot and somehow managed to hit the ball straight up, bounce it off the ceiling and back onto my head. I have the bump to prove it. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would and it made for a good laugh.

Today we are meeting up with my second cousins who are here in Ireland for a music tour. They are in the bluegrass band Mountain High and are currently doing a live interview on Irish radio. Unfortunately we aren't able to listen to it, but will be meeting up with them in just a bit for lunch.

It is wonderful to be back here and it really feels like coming home again. And you have to love the accents!