Slanté Dublin!

Rainbow over Ireland

Last year two friends and me made another friend who turned 30 a rather selfish gift: a girl's weekend in Dublin. We intended to go there on St. Patrick's Day, but the high costs made us move our trip into May, in the hope that the weather would be warmer by then.
I was already looking forward to being with those three very special friends of mine again. We could have even spent the weekend just around the corner and it would have been fabulous. But going to Ireland has been a dream of mine ever since I was a little girl and fell in love with Irish folk music.
The idea of grabbing an instrument anywhere and make people dance and party motivated me to try to learn the guitar once. I have no talent for making music however, so I have never really learned to play it right. The only instruments I can improvise on are my tin whistle and my Native American Flute. Singing along proves to be difficult with those however.
Dublin did not disappoint me, there was live music on every corner, in every pub, basically around the clock. And I LOVED it!

Beautiful weather in Ireland - who would have thought?

When we arrived, three of us from Cologne, to wait for the fourth to make our little shamrock complete, we went - of course- into the airport pub to have the first pints of the trip. While chatting and looking forward to meeting Pauline again we somehow naturally got to talking to the pretty couple to our right and to the English gentlemen to our left. It made me feel like home immediately and we exchanged numbers with the guys from Manchester, who had sailed from there to Dublin with their yacht. Well, you never know what you might need a yacht for, so we thought, they are funny and kind, why not have a drink later. (We stayed in contact the whole weekend and Nigel, Ian and Pete (was it Pete?) invited us over to celebrate Nigels birthday at the local yacht club, but we somehow didn't manage to get there, which might not have been a bad thing, after all it was a very posh club and we were very drunk most of the time...) Still, it was nice to check with them from time to time. And who knows, we might go to Manchester one day and it is always great to know some locals.

Once we were complete, we took the bus to the city. Public transport is not expensive in Ireland, to get to the city center by bus we paid 3.30 €. We grabbed a burrito from Saburritos, (3 Sr. North Earl), which we really enjoyed. Once we had managed to find our hostel, we did not leave again for that evening. We intended to, but ended up on the floor of the room, talking for hours. Which is the best you can do when you reunite with really good friends. It warms my heart to know how deep the connection between us four still is, even though we do not meet on a regular basis anymore like we used to, when we still lived close to each other. Our conversations cover everything, from serious crisis / health / relationships-topics to the weirdest and stupidest jokes and I love that.
(Good we only found out on the last day that you were not supposed to drink in the hostel rooms, but only in the lobby. But then again, I think we wouldn't have cared...)
Breakfast at the Jacob's Inn was better than I had expected, we could choose from cereals, musli, eggs and toast with jam or Nutella. Coffee, tea and juice were offered as well. The first day we got up early enough to join the offered free walking tour.

View from the roofterrace at the Jacob's Inn

Alan, our tour guide in front of Dublin Castle

Our guide, named Alan, wearing a woolen sweater under his shirt (wtf?) and a red head, was very passionate about Irish history and a true patriot, telling us about the Easter Rising and the Irish fight for independence. I already knew a lot about it because of school and university, but it was interesting to hear about it, while standing at the actual places where everything happened. The walking tour of about 2 hours covered most of the sights in the city, be it Dublin Castle, Temple Bar District or Trinity College. The inner city of Dublin is really not big and great for walking. Alan took us into one of his favourite pubs in the Temple Bar District (it is not called after the bar, but the"bar" in the name refers to the strip of land belonging to a guy called Temple) The Old Storehouse, 3 Crown Alley. It is a very beautiful pub and Friday noon there were still space and you could get a beer easily. The weather was a bit cloudy that day, but there was no rain, although the forecast for the weekend had been gruesome.

The Famous Temple Bar - And we didn't even go in....

After the walking tour had finished, we went for another burrito, this time at Pablo Picante, Fleet Street. It is a funny looking place with Mexican masks, looking like a mixture of wrestlers and superheroes. I have seen them before and on tv there seemed to be running a tv show they starred in as characters from the 60s, but I don't really know what they are. The burritos were really good, while the waitress there was probably the only unfriendly person we met in Dublin.

Across from the burrito place there was a beautiful looking pub, The Auld Dubliner, 24-25 Temple Bar. It was early afternoon, but when we went into the pub, it felt like ten at night in Germany. People were dancing, singing, drinking together and there was a very good singer, covering evergreens.

Alan had told us to spend a night out at the Cobblestone Pub, 77 King St N, as Temple Bar District is very touristy and not typical Irish. We liked the pub, although the interiour reminded us a lot of pubs we know from the continent. In the small concert hall next to it, there were four very Irish looking guys giving a concert. The atmosphere was a bit boring first, but we just went in and danced nonetheless. Some of their music was really good, twist mixed with rock, inviting to dance. After we had flooded the little dancefloor, not caring about making a fool of ourselves, others joined and after a while we all had a very good time. After the concert we found out that actually, you had to pay to get in, but as we were motivating people to dance and heating the atmosphere, no one really cared. The bass player was flirting heavily with one of us while still on stage and it was nice to chat with him and some friends of the band afterwards. They are called "Vagabond and Thieves" by the way.

Vagabonds and Thieves

The Shamrock in front of the Old Jameson Distillery

We walked home, having a weird conversation about what would be the last song we would want to hear before we die. The discussion ended in all of us singing "Bochum" by Herbert Grönemeyer, as well as the traditional miner's song "Das Steigerlied", dancing through Dublin at night, celebrating the city where we had all gotten to know each other.

Howth

Howth Harbour

As we had seen a lot already on Friday and we all love the sea, we decided to sleep in and then take the train to Howth, a fishing village near the sea that Andrea had read about the first time she had been to Dublin. The weather was - very surprisingly - fantastic, with over 20° and full sunshine. We grabbed ourselves some ice cream and went to the pier, to lie down in the sun. I was already thinking of buying me sunscreen - as I turn red like a lobster immediately when I am in the sun - when the clouds came and we hurriedly sought shelter in front of King Sitric Pub, E Pier, Howth, as all the tables inside were taken.

Howth right after the Storm

Hell broke loose and soon enough, water came from every side of us and we crammed inside at a two person table to finish our Fish and Chips. (We failed to eat anything Irish while being in Dublin, which I am really sad about. Ok, the Irish cuisine is not famous, but it would have been a nice opportunity...) Fish and Chips is the most Irish meal we had all weekend.

After the lunch at King Sitric, we collected some coffee about three cafés further towards the station and I can tell you, the café did not look like anything special, but Andrea got the salted caramel ice cream there and it must be some of the best ice cream I have ever had. So creamy, yummie and good! So if you are ever there, check out the kiosk-looking thing with the ice cream and try it. We walked around Howth for a bit, but as the weather promised more rain, we went to Dublin again.

Howth market - Look at all the cupcakes on the right

Now the bad weather stuck with us for the rest of the evening and on our way to the Temple bar District (to check out if it is really that horrible on weekends, to find out - yes it is!) our shoes already got drenched. We found a nice pub to sit down in the middle of the Temple Bar District after a while - already feeling frustrated by all the drunken, exhausting tourists (like us, haha), we stranded at Bad Ass Cafe Temple Bar, 9-11 Crown Alley. There was a duo playing more traditional Irish songs with a guitar and a banjo, taking over the fiddle parts, which was odd at first, but had its very own charme.
Dublin was full of bachelor parties that day and one looked more miserable than the next. I was so happy to have my "hens" with me, we had a great time, inspite of wet feet.

Bad Ass Bar - Cheers

Temple Bar District

On the way home to the hostel we passed a rather dodgy looking pub quite near to the Jacob's Inn, so we thought why not to go in to have a nightcap before goint to bed. And what can I tell you? It turned out to be our best night in Dublin! A trio of young musicians, one playing the guitar, a petuite girl the fiddle and a guy with a beautiful voice, looking a bit like a mixture of a hobbit and Jack Black, playing the Bodhrán, a traditional Irish percussion instrument. They were crouched in a corner, playing traditional Irish folk. And people around were going crazy. Everyone was dancing, singing along, cheering.

Musicians at The Celt

One groom-to-be even came forward and sang "Seven drunken Nights" with the band, which I thought really brave and also not badly sung. It was a great atmosphere and somehow the way I had always thought Ireland to be like. We were thrown out of the pub (The Celt on Talbot Street) along with the band and walked home, badly drunk. (Watching the homepage of the pub now I want to go back there immediately. People were great, it was a cozy place and Irish music does something to me, I cannot really grasp it, but it has always touched me in a very melancholic, longing way.

The Celt

Sunday, our travel home day, we were all rather tired and hungover. I was really sad our trip was over, but I made two vows that day: it was not my last stay in Ireland or Dublin and we will do a weekend trip annually, the four of us. Can't wait for the next one. You girls are the best :-) And thank you for the pictures!

In Düsseldorf I checked the possibilities to see Irish Folk bands perform, but our live-scene is disappointingly small. Spotify helped me to get over my Fernweh a bit. Check out this touching performance in the Royal Albert Hall of the Auld Triangle.

90 Days Challenge by Mark Lauren Halftime - And some Lindy Hop

I know, I know. I haven't been writing in quite some time.

The reason might be that I had a few days of motivation black hole, meaning I just couldn't bring myself to do the workouts and eat according to the plan. Last weekend we have been on a nice trip with the van, as Thursday was a public holiday here and we had taken the Friday off work. I am proud to say that I managed one workout "on the road", which I did in the van. Space was scarce and therefore it wasn't my best workout ever, but I was glad I did it.

We saw the preparation for a fox-hunt, all the riders dressed up and excited

When I went back to work things went downhill. Every day when I came home I was so tired, I could not even lift my arms, let alone lift myself onto my arms. I collapsed on the couch and fell asleep immediately. Three days in a row. No idea where this came from. Maybe it had to do with the weather changing or with some cold my body was fighting off.
After this short backlapse I managed to get back on track however. My nutrition is also getting better again. We are eating a lot of protein, cooking with veggies and good meat and I can feel that my body has much more energy again. Maybe the bad eating habits a few days before made me suffer from the tiredness. And now I am already at day 45! Wow, halftime! I feel like it is only the start of a longer journey however.

The last three days I managed to go back to my plan and redo the workouts I missed. Yesterday's workout was called "Burner" and I can tell you, nomen est omen. My arms were burning the whole day afterwards. A pretty good feeling after days of laziness.
In the evening I went to a Lindy Hop concert of Meschia Lake and The Little Big Horns. Everybody was dancing like crazy, it was awesome! I have danced some Lindy Hop before, but that was about ten years ago, so you can imagine how much I sucked on the dancefloor! The great thing about Lindy Hop is, that no one cared. People in the scene are really cool and helpful. After some time I got better and more confident. It is so much fun, I want to convinve Mr. Schön of joining me in a class. Cross your fingers that he agrees! Dresses and hairstyles are also great to look at. Some guys even danced in woolen suits or leather jackets. Knowing how hot I already felt, they must have been close to their melting point. But, no pain no gain! I love men in suspenders and with rockabilly hairstyles. Some of them looked so cool, dancing with their beautiful partners. I sometimes took breaks from the dancing, just to look at them (and to take a break I have to admit...). The singer from New Orleans`voice blew me away. Even while talking, her husky voice baffled me. Check her out here. In the video you can see that even without a mic her voice is so strong, unbelievable, as are her dance moves. Really cool! I had never been at a concert before, where everyone was dancing like that. It must be a lot of fun when you perform on stage and see this kind of reaction.

Spring was really pleasant those last few days and we had the first big picnic in a park nearby. The baby in our bunch will soon be a year old already. As his mum is too busy with everyday life I will make him a photo- and memory album of his first year on Earth. I adore the album my parents made for me, which might be why I think this so important. It is great fun to choose the pictures and arrange them, more like in a scrapbook. If I were paid for that I would be happy to do it all day long.
With all the working out and the good weather, there hasn't been a lot of time for knitting lately, but I want to get back to that during the next two days, which are holidays in Germany as well.

Did someone say "barbecue"?

Have a great weekend!

90 Days Challenge by Mark Lauren - Fourth week

Yummie!

Wow, I am on day 30 today, so one third of the Challenge is over. I cannot actually remember what I did before that. The challenge does not take up all day, merely 60 minutes per week till now, but it still somehow is deep in your head all the time. Your nutrition, the planned workouts and last but not least, the sore muscles remind you of the challenge you are on.

The facebook group has been a great support and motivation for me. There are people who do the challenge in all kinds of stages and levels, so you have a lot of experience in one place, where you can ask questions and also post motivations. To me it is always great to see how fit people can get within this time if they eat according to the plan.

I still do not eat according to it. From time to time cake still finds it way into my mouth. My protein intake is much higher though than before the challenge. I eat cooked eggs, fish and creamcheese or Greek joghurt with banana and strawberries on a regular basis.

Before blending

A few days ago we spent a lazy evening watching documentaries on Netflix and stumbled upon the great „Sick, fat and nearly dead“. A guy from Australia travels the US for 60 days and all he eats is juiced fruit and veggies. He loses a lot of weight and feels exhilarated, telling everyone about juicing. I watched it and felt like buying a juicer immediately and putting kale into it. And you know what? We bought a blender and are making green smoothies. My first one is sitting in front of me right now, Orange, apple and spinach. It tasted really great. Looks a bit odd, though. Or looks very healthy.

After Blending - Very Green

Our new Blender: Very practical, you mix your smoothie in your cup

The challenge has reached a major step, because from this week on, I will do four instead of three workouts. Yesterday was officially the first „two-workouts-in-a-row-day“ and it sucked. No workout has been as annoying and hard as this week's Opus. I sometimes even paused during the active phases, because I just couldn't do it. Sweat was running down my face, my chest, my belly. I had to shower immediately and wash my clothes the minute the workout was over. (I hate sweat) But I was really happy that I have done it even though I didn't feel like it all day.

If you look closely. You can even see a bit of mucsles in my belly and arm, which is motivating me to eat better and keep up the work.

Emerging Muscles - So proud :)

90 days challenge by Mark Lauren - Third week

Paradise Beach offers a great view on Düsseldorf's tv tower

It is day 23 of the challenge and I am quite happy with it. During the last days it somehow felt as if nothing was changing anymore and my lower belly seemed to stick out just as before... But:
I measured myself, just like on every other "evaluation"-day and I am still getting slimmer in the waist. This is a big aim for me, because I tend to have a more "straight" figure and adore people with hourglass shapes. My chest and waist measures are quite ok, it is just the waist - and the upper arms - I would love to reduce. I am really glad I measured myself, because it can be a great motivator to see the progress in the numbers, if you cannot really "feel" it. And on the scale not much has changed, but then again muscles are heavier than fat, so, that doesn't count anyway.

1st week:                                         2nd week:                                   3rd week:

Breast: 92 cm                                  Breast: 88 cm                            Breast: 90 cm
Waist:  75 cm                                  Waist:  72 cm                             Waist:   71 cm              
Hips:   93 cm                                   Hips:   93 cm                             Hips:     91 cm
right upper arm: 27 cm                    Arm:   26 cm                             Arm:     26 cm

I guess the breast measurements change within the cycle, so they have not much to do with the challenge. But my waist and hips have been reduced quite a lot within two weeks, which feels great! Yay!

Not pretty. Workouts arent't pretty I guess.

Eval is a training you do every week to measure which fitness level you have reached. There are three and till now I have only trained on level two, but today Eval told me that I am ready to start with trainings on level three. Knowing that tomorrow's workout is going to be "Tyrant" is a little bit intimidating, but I will try my very best. Uff

Next level, here I come. (I know, all those loose pieces of paper! Some people write all their results into notebooks. But that's how I am.)

Doing the workouts has always be the fun part of the challenge and I have do admit I didn't really pay much attention to the nutrition. This is definitely one of the reasons that my belly doesn't want to disappear. It has been incredibly hard for me to eat enough protein, as I have always been a carbohydrate-fat-junkie. But today, I really made an effort, I even bought Protein-muesli. My lunch was gyros, so only meat and for tonight I bought lentils for Indian lentil soup. According to my lifesum app I managed to reach my protein goal of more than 100 grams for the first time - like - ever! So proud! So, may the muscles come! (I just hope I will resist having something sweet for tonight. Mr Schön is away, to poker with his guy-friends and Lisek and me are home all alone.

The protein-muesli. Quite ok, but not as yummy as some other mueslis can be :)

The weather has been gorgeous today, warm and sunny. After a very busy conference yesterday, I took a day off and didn't do anything work-related, which was perfect. I took the dog out and we went to Paradise Beach, which really is a sandy beach just outside the harbour area of Düsseldorf. I can easily walk there from our flat, which is great on such a sunny day. (I have always wanted to write a post about all the things I love in Düsseldorf. The beach will definitely be part of it.) Lisek was hilarious. He got some sand into his eye I guess and he tried to get rid of all the sand in his face by rubbing - in the sand. (He would be successfull on grass, but, yes, with the rubbing in the sand the problem was, that the sand of course didn't come off.) And he loves the Rhinewater, walks in, and always dips his face in. I have never seen that in a dog. It is incredibly cute. I took a dog frisbee with me we have once gotten as a present. To make it short: It didn't pass the Lisek-test. Now it is a mrere ring of thick rope, which is also fine.

Roarrrrr

And now?

Isn't that pretty? Ten minutes from the city center. Düsseldorf, I love you!

Last weekend we spent some awesome days at the Niederrhein, a post about it with all the pictures I took will follow. Take care and think about doing the 90 days challenge, it is really great fun!

Beam me Up Scotty - One year of travelling with our camper van

Off we go...

It has been one year now since we bought our camper van we call Scotty. - You know why. (For a while we even thought of calling Lisek „Tchekhov“) The original plan was – and still is – to travel through Europe for half a year. Two friends of ours took off two weeks ago on a very similar journey. Before we bought the van I was a bit afraid that we might not use it so much and it would wear off some of it's novelty quickly. My grandmother thought we were crazy to buy a van like this. But all doubts have proven absolutely wrong. We love taking the van on trips over weekends. Only packing some clothes and off we go.

Spontaneous trips are somehow the best. When we only have the weekend we have to stay in our area, which made us appreciate how beautiful our county is. We have gone to see mountains, lakes, old volcanoes, meadows, rivers and intersting buildings, old ones, new ones; European bisons living in the „wild“ and some of the oldest and prettiest towns in our area we had no idea were so close by.

Beautiful town of Monschau

Just like teddybears fur

After we had decided to buy a van the decision to get a new dog was also as chances were that we would travel abroad less often with the van at hand. In which a dog might also help to get a better sense of security. Lisek is so welcoming of everybody that we cannot really feel safer, but people might think twice of robbing us if they can hear him barking inside the van. Lisek loves the trips we take with the car. As soon as the motor is running, he is lying down in between us and falling asleep. And we are off to another adventure. I cannot describe the feeling I have when we are on the road. We rarely plan ahead, most of the time we only knwo which are we want to visit and sometimes we checked out the parking lots fitting for our vehicle (although with a car as small as Scotty, we are allowed to park in most parking lots anyhow.)

This was taken at a lake in Netphen

We wander off, driving through beautiful landscapes, deciding to go where it looks prettiest. I can understand how this way of travelling might stress some people out. It can be fun to know where you are going to end up and looking forward to exactly this and that hotel, finca, etc. But to just live in the moment and do what you are feeling like is priceless. If you feel like having a nap, you stop and have a nap. If you feel like eating, you stop and cook something wonderful on your stove. By now I have even taken some showers in our van and it is lovely. To be so independent (we have solar energy, a fridge, so all we need from time to time is gas and new food.)

Along with the beautiful nature to see, the memorable aspects of our trips are the people we meet. I am not a big fan of the typical camper couple, I imagine them to be too conservative and square. People with a van however, I am usually quite happy to get to know. One day in the Sauerland – an area with beautiful mountains practically „around the corner“ from Düsseldorf, where some areas actually look more like pictures of Canada than Germany – I wanted to visit an ecological farm, which they had plenty of there, and who offer sometimes vacation for kids. I am technically not a kid anymore but I still love animals and pets, so we went to a nice looking farm on the top of a hill and just rang the farmer's doorbell. He was welcoming us and showed us a place we could park overnight – free of charge. The next day he even invited us on a tour of the farm and gave us two litres of the freshest milk. Mmh, really good :) (The whole experience is overshadowed by one of the worst hangovers of all times that made me travel back home with a bucket on my lap... ) check here for an impression of the Sauerland

view from our bed

The chef is busy in the kitchen

Next weekend we might go to visit the area where I grew up in, the Niederrhein. One thing is for sure, we will not find any mountains there. (When I was little we called the bridge over the autobahn we had to pass on the way to town „the mountain“, which might give you a good idea of how flat this area is. We have this saying that you can see today who is going to visit the day after tomorrow...

Nonetheless lakes and beautiful meadows and forests make up for the lack of mountains. I am looking forward to discover the area of my childhood in a whole new light. Here you can find more information.

All year Christmas shop in Monschau

First holiday with Lisek

Externsteine

Scotty at Night