Dublin

We took our first trip to Dublin this weekend to celebrate St. Patricks Day.  Got in Thursday afternoon and easily spotted an Irish pub adjacent to our hotel, the Bleeding Horse.  Finally got our hands on some chicken wings and a Guinness.  This pub was established over 300 years ago.  It is so crazy to think about how old that is for a pub!!

We were able to score some free tickets to the Irish Craft Beer Festival from the bartender.  We definitely felt like we were locals at this festival as it was not in the tourist area and a big afterwork type crowd.  Friday we hit the ground running.  First enjoyed some breakfast at a local, small business owner cafe.  Love these types of places that are not commercial.  And since all Brussels knows for breakfast is croissants and espresso, we were in heaven with an actual full 8oz cup of coffee and bacon and eggs with toast and relish.  We headed on to St. Patrick's Cathedral which had a gorgeous and really well kept up park next to it where tombs of Jonathan Swift and other famous writers exist.

We toured the Christ Church Cathedral which had an interesting crypt beneath the cathedral, and then headed to the Guinness Storehouse.  The brewery was crazy busy but we made our way through learning about the ingredients, brewing process, and then the most important, the taste test.  There is a gravity bar at the top where you get to enjoy a pint and look out onto the city.  We were good consumers and bought a couple souvenirs as well.  Here is a crazy fact for you, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease for the Guinness brewery at St. James Gate for I believe it was 45 Pounds a year in 1759.  This blew me away that he was able to lock that in for so long.


We then enjoyed some fish and chips for a late lunch, which tasted really good after a long day of walking all over!  We caught up with some friends from the EY program that night and enjoyed some oysters and mussels.  Brussels is supposed to have good mussels, but I honestly thought these were better.

Finally St. Patty's Day was here!  We started off the day by taking a trip to Talbot street and Talbot Memorial Bridge.  We didn't see any information as to how the bridge got its name but Wiki just told me that the bridge was named after a Talbot who protested for government regulation of alcohol (so I'm doubting we could even really be related).  We found a place to post up for the parade and watched the Irish celebration.  There was a science influence for 2012 and it was very interesting.  Didn't seem to have a whole lot to do with St. Patrick's Day but I suppose they have to change it up to avoid doing the same thing every year!  The city was full of green hats, scarfs, shirts, hair, etc.  We actually even saw someone spray painting their teeth green.  We enjoyed a biergarten and then some of the England Ireland rugby game.  Met some Americans from California and had a great time.

I really wish we would have been able to spend more time there.  The people were incredibly friendly and helpful.  It always felt like they were going out of their way to make sure you were ok.  The city had a lot of parks and even coming right out of winter the parks looked so green already.

Brussels

My husband Scott and I are living in Brussels for a couple years now, while I am on a work exchange program.  We moved out here in late September with our dog Spunk.  We are finally feeling "settled" in a 3 bedroom apartment in the city center.  We've been able to take a few trips including Amsterdam and Cologne.  My mom and sister-in-law came over for Christmas and we took them to Paris, Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent.  We had so much fun celebrating Christmas and exploring areas we hadn't yet been to.  Paris was busy and very touristy, but beautiful and majestic.  Seeing Eiffel Tower was something I had dreamed about, and taking my Mom there meant a lot to me.  The Belgium cities were not as crowded.  Bruges was especially enjoyable.  The slow pace, fresh food and historic buildings were my favorite things.  Scott and I also visited The 3 Valleys in France just this past week for a ski trip.  An absolutely amazing place.  We had sunny, clear weather the first couple days and just couldn't get enough of the scenery.  You are skiing in valleys so the view is always of the mountain tops.

The first few months have flown by really fast.  We are getting much more comfortable with our daily routines and even learning a little French... Vouila!! (used by French to mean a number of words) It's exciting to see what life is like in other places of the world and traditions that we are not used to.  We experienced our first European Christmas markets this December.  All the brats, crepes, churros, and gluhwein you could handle! It's a really fun way to get outside and embrace the cold weather with people in the community.  We ate our first Christmas meal at a restaurant this year too.  We were shocked at the number of people out on Christmas and the number of restaurants open for business.  That night we heard Christmas music and saw a light show at the Grand Place.  A very untraditional Christmas for us but refreshing at the same time. New Years was a bit less impressive with fireworks thrown at your feet and puke in the streets, but I'm not sure that these acts are exclusive to Belgium and that I'm not getting less tolerant as I get older!  Oh well, not every moment or experience is going to be perfect. 

At last

Such a relief that my busy season at work is over.  It has been a long time since I blogged and this is because I was working 6 days a week for the past two months till 10 o'clock at night.  I know there are a lot of people out there in my profession that had it worse than that, and my apologies for making my situation sound bad compared to yours, but compared to the normal population this was intense.  The rewarding thing is that there was a big sense of accomplishment and a reason to celebrate.  We went out drinking last night, and the best part was dancing at Flip Flops in Midtown.  Kinda small, kinda fratastic, but it really didn't matter based on the mood I was in.  Woke up at 7:30 this morning and just couldn't let my mind get back to sleep.  Found it so exciting that I wasn't heading to work and I didn't want to sleep the day away.  Overall I have to say that I like my job a lot, it's challenging, rewarding, and I work with a lot of really good people.  There are definitely some shady characters, but they know who they are and they have to live with themselves.

Today is about getting back in touch with myself, my husband and my friends.  I feel like this is my biggest hobby these days, people ask well what do you like to do, and I say that when I have time I hang out with the people I love.  That is one of the things that makes life so good to me, enjoying the company.

Ring in the new year!

Banner Elk was the after Christmas destination for my husband and I.  We had a great time.  Skied Sugar and Beech Mountain.  I recommend only Sugar though.  It had a lot of variety and longer runs.  What a crowded time of year during the day.  We enjoyed night skiing.  However, the scenery was much better during the day.  The mountains are gorgeous.  What a different life that would be from downtown Atlanta.  I suppose that is what makes vacation that much better, is when the experience is scarce.  We only went for two days but definitely worth the 5 hour drive.

Went to Zac Brown at Phillips on NYE, which is what inspired my blog title.  What a great song.  It helps put things into perspective.  The first thing I think of when I hear this song is on a more personal level.  I think about where my husband and I are in our lives.  Late twenties, no kids, no mortgage, no sickness among us or our family members.  I think about places we will go and things we will do to enjoy this great time in our lives.  It puts a big smile on my face just to know that we have that much freedom right now.  Secondly and selfishly, I think about the honorable men and women of the country that fight for our freedom everyday.  I had a good friend in the Army at one time, and I know what a toll it took on his life.  Not to say that it was all bad.  But to have to go through the mental trauma of being in the military is something that I do not know if I could do.  I commend those men and women and admire their courage.

New years resolution?  Well actually that is also inspired by another ZBB song called "Ain't in no hurry"...

In 2011, I want to slow down and enjoy the ride a little more.  Hard to do when you are also thinking you're free as you'll ever be.  But being free doesn't have to mean that I need to rush through everything and do as much as possible.  I am going to interpret it to mean that I can do the things I want to do and the resolution is to enjoy those things as much as possible by not rushing them.  Working in Corporate America also makes this resolution hard.  Turning off the efficiency cap, or as I sometimes like to call my pre-game mindset, is difficult.  But separating work and personal is important for me and something I need to keep in mind in 2011.