Los viajes

Next week I'm off to Barcelona for a few days with el chico and his fam. I've been studying Spanish for 2 years now (although I skipped a level as I wanted to learn faster and I'm arrogant- I have progressed very quickly but as a result my vocab has suffered) and the pressure is going to be on!

I have an iPod touch and look around for apps to help with Spanish occasionally but there never seem to be any particularly good ones- until now. I read about this one somewhere and can honestly say it's really good- it has an offline dictionary and phrasebook without taking up too much memory and has an awesome word game!

Birthday Holiday

I just got back from a trip to Ireland with some friends for my 25th birthday. I'd never been before, and was delighted the cliches were all true! We stayed in a tiny village in County Clare and had the craic in some great little pubs (the craic was so good I forgot to take any pics of them), and of course visited Father Ted's house.

Food also featured heavily, and I can recommend Monk's seafood restaurant in Ballyvaughan for their chowder. We made a very rustic looking beef and Guiness pie without a recipe, and it turned out just fine.

As you'd expect from the coast of an island embracing the Atlantic in February, it could at times be stoically bleak.

 

 

At other times however, the sun shone, wind died down and the emerald isle dazzled.