First, the Food

Our dining proclivities should be evident by now. So we were understandably excited about a visit to Barcelona, an eating town, in the land of tapas and paella. And while paella never landed on our plate, we did consume many tasty bites of tapas, and also the Basque version, pintxos. Tapas and pintxos are both bar food, meant to be enjoyed throughout a night of socializing and imbibing, and are constructed out of similar ingredients: olives, anchovies, cheese, red peppers, shrimp, squid, pickled veggies. Pintxos are usually on a piece of bread and are speared by a toothpick--pintxos is the Basque word for thorn. After full days of sightseeing, we didn't have energy for hopping, but we did make a dinner of pintxos our last evening. We sat on the patio at Bilbao-Berria. The waiter brought us glasses of Cava, a sparkling wine frequently consumed alongside a red pepper stuffed with tuna, or peppers and anchovies atop pickled onions, or anchovy wrapped olives. Dos Mas, two more, are two happy words! We were so enchanted that we forgot to take pictures. At the end of the meal, the waiter counts up your picks (prices were indicated by the length of the pick). Our pinxtos meal with two glasses of cava each was €36.00. Yes, dining in Barcelona was wonderfully affordable, especially compared to Dublin.

Tapas is available in many restaurants, but at places it's the speciality. We made a stop at a tiny, standing-only bar called Quimet y Quimet. We ordered three plates: seafood, cheese and bread. The cheese plate had tiny pears and wine jelly.





Our favorite meals were at Bar Central. Yes, we ate there twice. This little spot in Barcelona's Boqueria Market consists of about twenty stools, a beer spigot, a glass case of seafood and a grill. Thursday we shared a truly amazing seafood platter of razor clams, squid, salmon, mussels, other things de mar and a plate of fried potatoes drizzled with garlic and olive oil. On our second visit on Saturday Bill had sausage and potatoes while I had a plate of my new favorite food--grilled squid. I know there are a lot of squid squeamish out there, and I understand--you have to chomp a lot of rubber calamari to find the exquisite delight of this fork tender, sweet offering from the sea. I was tempted to go directly to the nearest tatoo shop to have "Squid is my life!" indelibly marked on my skin. As it was, Bill had to talk me onto the plane, claiming that 12 years of marriage is more important and rewarding than unfettered access to grilled squid. We'll see.

The object of my affections, along with some little clams.

We also snapped a pic of our neighbor's sardines. I thought they looked lovely. We were a little intimidated to order them, but now we know how to eat them, and they'll be on our plate at the next opportunity.

Other moments of gustatory merit: Bill's grilled rabbit at a Catalan restaurant called Can Culleretes, several stops for pastries, many cups of café con leche, a welcome first meal of avocado and brie bocadillo (sandwich) and quiche, and a blindingly pink drink of dragonfruit juice. We also were enticed by a taqueria where we had pretty darn good enchiladas, tacos and guacamole.

Possible Blog Topics about Barcelona

• Tapas vs. Pintxos
• Three ways to know you're being pickpocketed
• Gaudi: Insane genius or just insane?
• How many streets must a man walk down until he finds a specific candy store?
• Annoying Americans who can't speak Spanish
• Five Tenets of Catalan Independence
• Picasso's blue period: How blue was it?
  

Please identify in the comments the three topics for which you have an insatiable curiosity.

St. Stephen's Green Park

My new job will be downtown, near St. Stephen's Green Park.

The green was established as a park in 1664, with renovations in the 1800s creating the current layout. I'll enjoy grabbing a sandwich and walking in the park on sunny days. I may even run into Bono tending sheep. As recipients of Dublin's Freedom of the City award, the members of U2 have the right to graze their sheep on several public greens in the city.

Even in the rain the park is lovely. These pictures are from our first visit to Dublin in October 2006. The daffodils are currently blooming in the park. I'm sure it will be beautiful throughout the spring.


I'll be about two blocks South of the park, near the National Concert Hall. My office is about a 20-25 minute walk from the DART, so I'll be participating in the train crush and speed walk with hundreds of other urban workers. Better than sitting on Mopac? I hope so!

We set March 18 as my start date, allowing six weeks for my work permit to be processed. Looks like it may take the full six weeks. I have to wait until Tuesday the 18th because March 17 is a national holiday, of course!

Neolithic and Norman

During the Spauldings' visit of last weekend we accomplished something denied to us the last time we attempted it: we visited the neolithic monument at Newgrange.

This is what I looked like the first time we attempted this in 2006. We drove around for hours trying to find the place, and when we finally found it we were too late for the tour. We actually cried, we were so tired and disappointed.





This is what I looked like last weekend. Not only am I smiling, but that is indeed the monument behind me. Newgrange is a passage tomb built over 5000 years ago and predates the Great Pyramid of Giza by 500 years and Stonehenge by 1000 years. It was built in such a way that on the shortest day of the year, the winter's solstice (and two days before and after), the rising sun would shine through an opening above the entrance and illuminate the inner chamber for only a few moments. The other 360 days of the year the chamber is pitch dark. A lottery is held every year to pick the lucky few who will be allowed into the chamber on the solstice to observe the amazing event. The wall behind me in the picture was painstakingly reconstructed over many years from the stones that had fallen from the sides of the monument. The wall was built up and knocked over repeatedly to determine how the stones would've fallen so their original placement could be determined. In other words, this is very nearly how it actually looked 5000 years ago. More information on Newgrange can be found in the Wikipedia.

Also last weekend we visited Trim Castle, in Trim, County Meath. Built by Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter and finished in 1206, it is the largest castle in Ireland and the largest Norman castle in Europe.





We toured the interior and climbed to the top of the walls of the keep, which afforded a spectacular view of Trim and the countryside.















This gatehouse and other parts of the castle were featured in the Mel Gibson epic Braveheart. The river Boyne can be seen in the background. It was a very successful day of touring a very historic part of Ireland.

Frosted Mini-Posts

• When Scotland is playing Ireland in Dublin, you will see scores upon scores of kilts in City Centre--on men of all sizes, shapes and ages. Should have taken pictures, but that would have seemed touristy. Instead I just gawked.
  
• Even though television and the cinema seem to be dominated by American fare, the bookstores maintain a strong presence of Irish writers.
  
• We met a group from church for lunch yesterday at a food court in a nearby shopping center (anchored by one of the few 24-hour supermarkets). As we were walking in I said to Bill, "Couldn't we go somewhere more Irish, like a carvery?" I was kinda kidding. "This is Irish now," he replied.
• The instructions on Bill's Nivea for Men tells shavers to "take a hazelnut-sized blob of gel on your palm." Hazelnut-sized! This unit of measurement would leave most US men blobless, I'm afraid. Although I understand folks in the Northwest are very hazelnut aware.
  
• We really enjoyed having guests with some shared past and context. They were a welcome refreshment in the midst of all things new.
• Now, the frosting: Brandy butter, a common Christmas-time shmear, is like butter cream frosting with brandy. Amazing! I would eat it on toenails.
  

My Fair City

When in City Centre of late, Bill and I have taken to standing proud and proclaiming, "This is our city!" After four months the city does feel familiar, at least our stomping grounds of O'Connell, Stephen's Green and Temple Bar. Monday, the Spauldings and I rode the tour bus around Dublin. Ireland gave them gorgeous weather for their visit, and it was mostly warm enough to ride in the few covered rows of the bus' top deck. We stopped off at the Guinness Storehouse, which artfully illustrates the brewing process, as well as the history of Guinness and Arthur Guinness himself. The building's shape evokes a pint glass, and when you reach the foam level, you have a 340° view of Dublin. I had another "my city" moment up there drinking my dark ruby brew, which you'll believe really does give you strength, looking out over the city as the sound of U2's chiming guitar filled the room, apropos of everything.

Tuesday we visited the Dublin Zoo. You have to appreciate a zoo with a vocabulary in addition to zebras. February must be baby primate season; we saw several adorable babies. A baby elephant had also been born days before, but was not yet on public view. After the zoo I successfully maneuvered our troop back to Temple Bar where we stopped by a pub for some snacks and then wandered some shops including a bookstore. The Norwegian residents were hungry for books in English! And of course I bought two books as well. Bill came down and met us for dinner, the mandatory trip to the chipper.

I must not be a true Dub, as I am still charmed by a shamrock in the head on a pint.










Kayleigh ponders euro-sized marshmallows (they are not small nor large) in her hot chocolate at the zoo tea room.






Oslovian Portlanders in Dublin, in the park at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Howth Cuisine

Our guests from Oslo arrived Friday evening intact and in good spirits. Another successful Ryanair adventure. Saturday morning Bill fed us eggs, rashers, mushrooms, white pudding, sausage, toast and broiled tomatoes, i.e., an Irish breakfast. Thusly fueled, we spent the sunny afternoon wandering St. Anne's park.

Saturday night we went to dinner at Aqua in Howth. We arrived in time to enjoy the sunset over Dublin Bay and also to order from the Early Bird menu. Early Bird options occur frequently on Dublin menus, typically a three-course Prix Fixe, and are attractive to diners far from retirement. Aqua's Early Bird offered three courses and a bottle of wine for €65 per couple. The four adults took advantage of this option, while the resident 8-year old chose buttered pasta with parmesan, and an improvised Shirley Temple.

Kent had the best appetizer, a salad with chicken and a quail egg. Tracy and I had fried calamari, mostly tender, but could have been crispier fried, in my opinion. Bill's seafood chowder was tasty. Bill and Tracy had salmon with Savoy cabbage for entrée. Kent had a steak on bean cassoulet and salsa verde and I had haute fish and chips.

Desserts were beautiful and tasted good too. Bill's orange mousse roulade was probably the best, Kent's cheesecake the weirdest, and Tracy and my lemon tarts the tartiest. Kayleigh's trio of homemade ice cream was delightful, but chocolate sauce accents can be tricky when they look like part of the plate design!

After dinner we looked at some charcoal drawing in the lounge. The artist was one of our fellow guests last weekend in Wexford. The lounge was lovely and we considered lingering in front of the fire, but we decided instead to head out into the cold night to catch the DART.