Engagement Party

You can always tell its been a good night, when this is the before:

And this is the After................................

It was a great night and I want to thank everyone for coming, given how much alcohol was drank I'm confident everyone woke up a little dehydrated. Although everyone has our gratitude equally, a few people deserve a special mention:

Natacha - For the World's best Home made card
John, Aine and Mark - For wonderful speeches
Orla - For saying yes

I thought the restaurant worked out well the food was really good (starters were like Mains) and service was excellent. Then after the Restaurant for a few more in the East Sydney (None were needed !!!) and after that nothing out of the ordinary happened at all......................

All other photos on Orla's Facebook page.

Easter 2010 - Adelaide Surrounds

The first post in a very long time................. We went to the wine regions around Adelaide for the Easter long weekend, McClaren Vale and Barossa are two of the best known in Australia (with the world's oldest Shiraz vines). We flew to Adelaide on Thurs evening and then just a short drive to McClaren Vale and once we found the right turn we stayed in this lovely cottage just off the main street which was a great location, we'd highly recommend it (its called wine and roses).

With a lovely fire going and the knowledge that this may be our only sober time of the holiday I decided to propose, I had planned to over the weekend but seemed like a really good moment and once Orla realised I was serious I'm delighted to write she said yes almost immediately.

After the surprise and excitement of Thursday evening, we got an even bigger shock on Good Friday, that most of the vineyards were closed, doesn't make much sense in Oz as they're not holy joe's. So First off why headed to a beautifl beach, you never think of beaches around a wine region but it was really lovely.

Given our limited choice we only managed to visit 3 vineyards but two of them were really good so no harm done. We had lunch in Leconfield Wines (Richard Hamilton) which was so good we ditched the car and decided we'd walk the remaining 5k back to our cottage. After that we went to the vineyard of the 'black sheep' of the family Hugh Hamilton and even though the wine wasn't as good the setting was excellent, so we sat out and had a bottle overlooking the vines.

On the way to Barossa we visited D'arenberg & Wirra Wirra, both excellent vineyards. We chose to go via the Adelaide Hills which was a pretty scenic but journey full of windy roads. By chance we stopped a vineyard on the side of the road called Kersebrook Hill, which turned out to be a great find (I'd highly recommend it for anyone else). We stopped in a few other places along the way and eventually found our B&B called "Barossa House B&B" (which was central with lovely hosts but nowhere near as comfortable as our McClaren Vale accommodation). Alot of restaurants were booked out for Easter Saturday so we had to settle for faulty towers, that said the food was ok and a very nice member of staff offered us a lift home (after the lock-in), every other staff member was borderline insane.

Next morning we got up and early and cycled round the vines, we probably got to 7-8 cellar doors. Cycling is a great way to get round and the weather was beautiful, we started in Penfolds which is world famous and always produces the best rated Australian wines. After a few tastes we became very amused by random signs!!I tried some meade (fermented honey) which is quiet nice but I wouldn't be able to drink to much of it and Orla even managed to find an engagement ring for $6, which looks real to me. We managed to stay relatively sober and headed for a lovely meal in a fancy restaurant in town (after paying for the world's most overpriced taxi!!).

Our trip back to Adelaide was painless and we would have gone to the Zoo if we could find parking anywhere but after about 30 mins of looking we gave up. We ended up sitting in a lovely pub for the day enjoying the nice weather. Adelaide feels about the same size as Galway although its supposed to have a larger population than Dublin.

New Apartment

After living in 68 Crown Street for about 4 months we really liked the area but there were a few things about the old place that were bothering us, so the best solution was to move about 5 doors down to 63!! The new place has a bit more room and is more modern with better facilities (it even has a spare room for any visitors !!)The only problem was it came completely unfurnished so we had to pretty much buy everything but the kitche sink. We've gradually been picking up furniture here and there for all the rooms and thankfully we are now pretty much done, so here are some pics ...

Our First Aussie Holiday!

We took a few days off work (well Ro is changing job so has a nice break in between), rented a jeep and headed north. We stopped at a Koala Sanctuary in Port Macquarie and then drove onto Byron Bay which is absolutely beautiful with some great restaurants and lovely beaches (even if it is a bit windy). On our way home we stopped off in Hunter Valley for 2 nights and did lots of wine tasting! We also purchased our biggest holiday souvenir ever...a wine barrell for the balcony!!

Melbourne June 2008

A savage time was had by all in Melbourne, despite the fact that we lost the rubgy (but had front row seats and lots of green stripes on our faces)! It was great to see Deirdre and Danny again before they head off on their travels back to Ireland. There was an awful, awful lot of alcohol consumed (the bono debate being a sure sign of too much drink!)! The slight problem of Ro and Danny carrying the massive "for lease sign" (for their apartment) inside and up two flights of stairs into Dee and Danny's apartment (it was funny though!) and hilarious that Dee, despite being cross, praised Danny "for all his effort in the lifting"!!!!! Thankfully Ro was sober enough to drag Orla, Duff and Aine out of the bar and to the airport in time!

Thanks for the lend of the jersey Dee!

Pictures of Sydney Apartment

Here are some pics our apartment in Sydney our new address is :

2/68 Crown Street,
Woolloomooloo,
NSW 2011
Australia

What really attracted us to this place was the numeber of o's in the name!!

Unfortunately its only 1 bed but there is 2 comfortable couches if anyone is planning a visit, I also have the added benefit of being able to see where I work from the balcony.

Dublin - The Return

Well to everyones great surprise we arrived home early as a little Valentines Day treat for all our family and friends. With Ro being home for only 10 days before heading back to Sydney there were some busy busy days (filled with job and apartment hunting) and even busier nights - far too much school night drinking went on. Orlas back for a few more weeks to study so hopefully now that Ro's headed off a lot more studying and a lot less drinking will be the result (haha!!). Thanks to everyone for reading the blog, we hope it didn't depress you all and instead made you want to do some travelling and come visit us in Sydney, there will always be a bed, couch or floor for any of you!xxx p.s. if anyone knows of a cheap way to get some 4000 photos developed do let us know!!!!

Bangkok

Thanks to the generosity of Orla's parents we were treated to the luxury of 3 nights in the very fancy Marriott Hotel. The Hotel was really spectacular with amazing furnishings, but have to say the prices for food & drink were a bit of a shock. Normally in Thailand we'd spend between $2/3 each on our dinner, but in the Marriott you wouldn't get a sandwich for less than $6.

Between 11 trips to the tailors , picking up a few things for our families and trying to post the majority of our things to Australia we really didn't have enough time for the touristy things. We visited wat pho which is pretty spectacular, but as were planning on returning in the not too distant future we'll get to see that grand palace!!

Hanoi

Not even worth a blog entry after 14 hours on a crappy night bus with next to no sleep we had to argue with taxis for bout 30 mins in the cold to get a fair price for a taxi to the airport (as we didn't have much money we could only afford $15). Then we sat miserably in the horrible airport for 6 hours waiting for our flight to leave.

Have to say the flight was grand and we were delighted to arrive in Balmy Bangkok.

Hue

Brr...its cold (and rainy) in Hue. Got in late and so had a few beers, a feed and Ro greedily held the pool table in a local bar for the evening! Next morning it was still cold and rainy (thank god we invested in winter coats in Hoi An), so off we set with socks and flip flops (the style) to visit the Citadel. The Citadel is pretty impressive but harder to enjoy while avoiding the puddles of mud and water (and the people looking at us strangely in our socks and flip flops!).

Not much else here so we found some warm coffees (with fresh milk!!) and hot chocolate. Heading to Hanoi on a night bus tonight where it promises to be even colder.

Hoi An

We got a night bus from Nha Thrang to Hoi An which was fine and luckily our hotel let us check in at 6am. Hoi An is a lovely town that feels really authentic and the people are so nice and welcoming. It is also probably the tailoring capital of the world as it seems that half the shops here make clothes, we were warned that it gets addictive. By an amazing stroke of luck we arrived just in time to get our orders in before tet (the New Year festival), Orla got a lovely suit and shirt made in about 2 days, pity her dress didn't turn out as expected (a bad design choice)!! Ro got some trousers and shirts made, we both have to say the tailors were really lovely and they are very cheap compared to Thailand but still seem to maintain a high standard.

The food in Vietnam is great, so we decided to give one of the cooking schools in Hoi An a go. They had different dishes for the half-day & full-day classes so we decided to split up so we could get the most out of it. Orla's class covered starters and garnishes (she now knows how to make a rose out of a tomato skin!) and Ro's prepared mains, the classes were great (were both looking forward to trying out some of the dishes in a normal kitchen).

The Tet festival is based on the Lunar calendar and normally falls somewhere between the end of Jan and Mid-Feb. This year "The year of the Rat" began on Feb 7th and we were in Hoi an for the celebrations. After enjoying a few free cocktails in our hotel we headed to town for the festivities, there was a carnival near the river and a really impressive fireworks display. Nearly everything shuts down for a few days after tet and it was really good to see the Vietnamese be able to relax and enjoy there holiday (most people seem to work from 6am-10pm 6/7 days a week) so they defo deserve one. So "Chuc mung nam moi" (Happy new year).

Next stop Hue.....

Nha Thrang

Nha Thrang is a nice place. The beach is grand but a little dirty and the waves were seriously huge (bigger than Bondi) making it impossible to swim! The place we stayed in was great with a nice roof top terrace.

The snorkelling around here is supposed to be great so we headed out on a snorkelling trip to visit some of the nearby islands. Unfortunately we picked a windy day and so at the first snorkelling stop we spent more time helping/rescuing people from the water (while the staff watched and shouted in vietnamese!!!). Despite the poor snorkelling we had a great time and the lunch buffet served on the boat was fabulous, we were then treated to the "floating bar". This consisted of our guide sitting in a tube with a crate of red wine bottles floating around him. We all jumped off the roof of the boat, were thrown floating rings and then fed free wine until it was all gone. I'm sure the boats insurance company charged a lot for this level of safety!!! It was great fun though! Next island stop allowed Ro time to display his volleyball skills andthen we headed to an aquarium where we got up close and fed some sea turtles.

That night we got in some roof top poker, a few beers and some ipod music - felt like we were at home. We then headed for Hoi An.

Dalat

After a reasonably pleasant 5 hour bus journey we arrived in Dalat. This town really does feel like a town in the French Alps in the Springtime, absolutely lovely. We even lucked out with our great accommodation "Dream 2" which is for nothing and comes with the best breakfast ever!!!

We decided to brave it and booked ourselves an "Easyrider" countryside tour. Basically this involved each of us riding around the Dalat countryside on the back of our guides motorbikes. Sometimes a little scary with jeeps and lorries flying towards you on the narrow roads. We have to say it was a fantastic day though. We visited some coffee plantations, flower greenhouses, rice wine making (saki) sheds, mushroom factories and even a silk factory. We also climbed around (and under) the Elephant Waterfalls and visited a "Crazy House" Hotel - very hard to explain, perhaps a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter land (how this ended up in Vietnam we have no idea)! Our bus leaving Dalat literally drove at 100 miles an hour even over one lane bridges, and interestingly enough had a large tree strappedto its roof!!!!

Mui Ne

Mui Ne was such a great surprise. It is a small town build along a lovely beach in South Vietnam and not totally overrun with tourists. We found great accommodation with a pool, which was great as the weather was amazing but sometimes the sea was quite rough. We liked the place so much that we instantly upped our stay from 2 nights to 3.

We rented bicycles, unfortunately Orla was forbidden from photographing Ronan on his girlie bike (the only one available) with a lovely basket at the front. They did the job though and we got to cycle out to a great sunset spot and then the next morning we got up early and cycled 15kms out to view some red sand dunes. These were great but the views along the way were also lovely, especially the small fishing village and harbor.

Mui Ne is a great place to chill for a few days with tasty seafood (at fantastic prices) and even some Vietnamese wine, which to our surprise is very drinkable indeed, so after tasting a bottle it was only right that we headed to the source about 1500m above sea level in the mountains of central highlands!