Polish Clover

The ramblings of a temporary transplated American from the concrete jungles of West Norriton, PA who lived abroad in Ireland during the summer of 2012. Stay tuned for writings, pics and videos of my misadventures.

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Missing Malahide today.

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Favorite store in Malahide.

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Did you like Malahide?

LOVED MALAHIDE!  Really miss it.  Duffy's was my favorite and we loved il Sorriso for dinner.

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JUNE 2012 IN REVIEW

I sketched out notes for each month Vicki and I were living in Ireland and touring Europe.  I thought I'd would share these notes in a quick easy to read bullet point entry.  My hope is to do this at the end of my postings for that month.  June really was full of adventures.

June Highlights:

May 31st-June 1st USAIRWAYS Flight 722 from PHL-DUB

Arrived in Dublin with rough check-in at the Westin

Befriended Polish Security Guard, gives us GPS to use

First time for Vicki driving on the right side of car & left side of road

Bavaria Girls Welcome to Dublin

Guinness count begins

Bavaria City Racing Formula One Demo through streets of Dublin

Arrived in Malahide June 4th; checked in to the Grand Hotel

First trip to Gibneys (got the bangers and mash) on June 4th

Followed the Olympic Torch from Howth to Dublin

Roadtrip to Belfast June 9-10

Euro 2012 at Gibneys to watch to Boys in Green

Adventures in Irish Laundry

Saw the Malahide Castle and for the first time on June 20th

First Trip Advisor Reviews

Quick trip back to the States (fishing, Phillies, & Rehoboth Beach)

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(Taken September 11, 2012)

REST EASY?  I really got into writing TA reviews I pumped out 8 during the last two weeks of June, that's a lot of writing for me.  But I loved it. I didn't love writing bad reviews but the truth needed to be told about our experience at the Westin Dublin.  Wonderful location, but the customer service was a bit sketchy.  If you're interested just click on the title of this entry to go directly to my TA review.  EDITOR'S NOTE: The Westin Dublin did make good by deleting the incurred minibar charges.  

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CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF.  One of our tasks during our short trip back to the States was to finalize all the paperwork for our Jack Russell Terrier, "Bandit", to be cleared to fly and enter Ireland. Maybe "task" isn't the right word for our experiences moving Bandit to Ireland, "ordeal" sounds more appropriate.  I'll create another post highlighting our misadventures in dog exportation later. In the meantime, here he is at our vet after he passed his exams.  "Seems like he's saying you're taking me where?"

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COMING (back) TO AMERICA!  We had scheduled a week long trip back to PA to catch some fish, wack some moles, win some prizes and spend a little R&R with the Friends in Rehoboth Beach, DE.  

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MALAHIDE CASTLE.  Yeah, so there was a castle in our backyard and acres and acres of grounds.  It was awesome. More on Malahide Castle later, OR just click on the picture to cheat to the good part.  Taken June 20, 2012

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BUDAPEST: THE MOVIE.  In between my laundry battles and sailing lessons I continued to mess around with iMove. Incredible program.  Here's more highlights from our adventure to Budapest.  Enjoy!

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ADVENTURES IN IRISH LAUNDRY.  Little did I know, this was just the beginning of a battle that I would wage for months.  Our house only had a washing machine.  When my wife first looked at our place she had assumed that it had a combo washer/dryer.  This was not the case, our collective hearts sank when on our walk through day of the house we realized there was no dryer.  Best line of that day was from my wife after learning this news, "How does one dry their clothes then in rainy, wet Ireland?"  We were then introduced to the "hot press" located upstairs.  A "hot press" is basically a closet with all the hot water pipers running through it.  This would soon become my new best friend.  

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An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea.

Wikipedia.  

Thought you'd like to know what a exactly an "estuary" was besides an awesome sunset location.  

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Some of the amazing Broadmeadow Estuary sunset and twilight scenes we witnessed.  Not too shabby right?  The pic on the left was taken at 9:24pm, the days were super long during the summer in Ireland.  This messed with our body clocks in the beginning.  

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"Can I Buy You A Round?" As I mentioned, we were temporarily living at the Grand Hotel in Malahide  until our place was ready.  One of our favourite, funniest and coolest moments of our first few days in Ireland occured at the Matt Ryan Bar at the Grand.  Here is where we met, in person, our very own "Cable Guy."  He sat down with my wife and I and my wife's work collegues to discuss setting up the cable for our residences.  But the first thing he does before discussing any details was to offer us all a round.  At first, we declined, but he insisted so we accepted.  When in Ireland right?  I just thought this was the coolest thing, having pints of Guinness with your Cable Guy in a (hotel) pub.  I knew from that moment I would love Ireland.  

Cheers to you Michael S.  Thanks for the pint.  

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My wife and I are big fans of TripAdvisor, we credit our great vacation experiences to the opinions and reviews of the TA community.  I wanted to start sharing our travel experiences to give a little back. My first TA review was for Faust Wine Cellar (http://www.gbwine.eu/), just click the title of this entry for the full review.  In short this was a stellar wine tasting experience.  If you go to Budapest (and you totally should) book this tasting and try some Hungarian wines; they are fabulous.   

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A WEEKEND IN BUDAPEST. Taken Weekend of June 15-17, 2012

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Budapest? Can Americans go to Budapest?

DannyZ & Vicki