What a great weekend! I think I’ll need the next week to recover from it, but it was well worth it.

Friday night was low-key – some wine and pizza at Donal and Leslie’s apartment. We chatted and caught up and I was able to get to know Don’s father Martin a bit more. Who is wonderful!

Saturday Leslie and I walked around town, took in some of the sights and headed home for a bite and get our green on for the big day at the bar. We once again had pizza and by the next day we realized we had pizza about four times – and I came from Italy!! :) Not that I’m complaining, I can probably eat  pizza everyday and be content!

Love this view

A taste before later that night

The bar was so much fun. There was live music, birthday parties, rugby matches. Lots going on! Unfortunately Ireland lost to England but everyone was a good sport about it. No brawls with the English in the room! And then the rest of the night was just a lot of Guinness and good times! After closing time, we headed to a place that only opens for the “after bar” crowd. And we had more pizza!! That took us to about 5am before we headed home. Needless to say, Sunday was a bit of a lost day. We hung around in our pajamas all day long. And to top off my outfit, I realized the first night I had a huge hole right in my crotch! Good thing we were comfortable around each other! (and that I had underwear on).

The aftermath of Sunday night!

But somehow we managed to get enough energy to head out for dinner on Sunday. Which somehow lead to more time at the bar and a club until about 2am and not going to bed until after 4am or so. Which contributed to me completely missing the first of my 5 trains back at 7:30am.  Oops!!! I couldn’t believe I did that – I don’t do things like that! So after spending time in our pajamas again, I confirmed with the train station (with Leslie’s French skills) that I can take the journey the next day. Problem solved on my end – just had to tell my Italian family. And I fixed that with a text message that was unanswered.  I have to admit, I felt a bit like I was 16 and I broke curfew. While they are a very welcoming family, it’s a bit difficult to be 32 years old under someone else’s roof feeling like you are on a schedule. But I guess I had to expect that coming in to this. I suppose this means I’ll be staying locally the next couple of weeks!!

Monday was just a day around the town a bit more and by the time 10pm rolled around and I had yet another beer in my hand, I thought I was going to face plant right at the table. So I headed home and got ready to ship out (for real this time) the next morning.

The trains were fairly uneventful. There was only one delay for the most part so all things considered, not bad. I was trying so hard to stay awake as we rolled through Switzerland since I arrived at nighttime but sleep won out. I did get to see some of it, but I’m sure I missed some really nice views. I fell asleep on every single train. Getting too old for this stuff! :)

So Leslie, if you’re reading this, once again a huge thank you to you and Donal. You have a great group of friends who were so fun to spend time with and get to know. Looking forward to seeing you both again soon!