fanny pack, or fanny pack?

they came and left. but it was a good craic. i was ms tour guide for my mom and sister in fast motion. 4 days to drink in ireland is hardly enough but we did our best. it was nice to finally get some visitors, especially ones that look like me. so i showed them around, where i live, work, drink, play and dublin became very small for me very quickly.

we started off with a viking splash tour of the city. its basically a tour for little kids, but who wants to sit on a boring sightseeing bus for adults? this tour was the best ive ever taken! we were on this boat which was also a bus that remained from WW2. they gave us viking hats and taught us how to roar. besides the 3 of us girls we were on the tour with about 15 primary school boys, i was almost in tears from laughter. the goal fo the tour was to scare the native, or Celts as we referred to them on the bus (since we were the vikings) we would creep up on people walking down the street, having a coffee, or just looking up at the sky and roar at them, sending them in bits! there were some jokes and we got to see all the highlights of the city, like bono's recording studio and stuff.

we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Guinness Storehouse, i never really had any expectations of it but it was ok, alot of information about how to make stout and the Guinness family and you receive a complimentary pint at the very end in the Gravity Bar from where you can see a 360 degree view of Dublin. The view was spectacular! The whole time my people were here I was bumping into people I know, they must of thought I was really popular but in reality, the city is just really tiny!

(view from the Gravity Bar in Dublin ---->)

We then headed off to Kilkenny, a midievil city just a few hours south of Dublin with a very typical castle..... maybe a night there was a bit much but we got away from the city for a bit. Kilkenny was nice, friendly, lots and lots of Polish people. Maybe I started noticing this alot more once my people came, just because we spoke Russian to each other, but it was unbelievable how many Polish were in this little Irish town. We ate a an excuisite restaurant in Kilkenny where even the waiters were Russian... however they did not warm up to us one bit, so typical. Back to Dublin and we cover the basics, meet my friends, eat at Rick's, drink more beer, buy some souvenirs and they are off to CA. (Kilkenny, check out the castle in the back)

So short and the family is gone. I think they only got over their jet lag by the time they were leaving already. Hope you Californians didn't freeze too much over here! (Katya and I at St. Stephens's Green)