i’m not sure if dad just wanted to make things difficult on himself but the two countries that we rented cars in where among the 4 that actually drive on the left side of the road. of course, we found it just slightly ironic that we got lost by the driving test centre.
eye-rland
this place was the sweetest cafe i’ve ever seen.
ok, this one’s preeeetty good…
oh o’neill’s! i shall never forget thine buttery guiness!
it was a VERY windy day as we drove around ireland.
soooo zen.
we cracked up when ryan bought this. yes, it is a bear-giraffe.
fun!
london baby! home of the the eye.
one tourist thing that i totally recommend checking out is the tower of london. terribly impressive!
this is paul sebastian. we ran into him coming up from the tube. the beauty and heart of his music are beyond words. we watched him play for about a half hour before making our way to the next stop.
and he didn’t appreciate me taking pictures of him.
hello oxford!
one last note… for three days we carted around eight people and their luggage in a car designed for 5.
well for now, that’s pretty much it. we had a great time, thanks for tuning in!
stay close, stay alive!
enjoy your independence ;)
more lounging around in switzerland…
nellie and i decided to grab some fondue when a drumline paraded it’s way down the street. “why” you might ask… well, because it’s sunday ( of course. )
so, the euro cup ‘08 is kinda a big deal. such a big deal that when we got to the zurich train station we were greeted by a massive replica of a team huddle…
just how big you ask…
this pictures needs no explanation but that are now in france.
my beautiful bride…
our fearless leader
that ryan’s sooooo hot right now…
notre dame’s buttress is better than your buttress
i dare say that i’ve never truly had a beer before yesterday. nellie and i went to o’neils in ireland to get an authentic irish meal, a pint, and watch the spain vs. russia soccer final. this was probably the best experience we’ve had so far and i say that it needs to be on anyone’s bucket-list.
stop drinking guinness from a can. buy it in ireland. ;)
switzerland is something else! and easily a country i could see myself moving to. the country is breathtaking and the people are milky-choclaty sweet. i’ll admit that, at times, it’s felt a little zoolanderish, everyone walking around in their little happy swiss goups, wearing their little swiss hiking outfits, smiling in the relentlessly-happy swisstastic way — it’s like a moving REI poster and i’m not even kidding.
we spent a lo of time on the train today and seeing “sights” i’d rather look at the wikipedia picture of but here are a few of us enjoying swiss transit.
ryan and i began a little wager regarding the hit single he is going to right by next year. he’s not at all discouraged by the fact that he hasn’t seriously played an instrument since he was 12. this is him writing a terminologically accurate song about child birth, i wouldn’t be surprised if this turned out to be “that” song ;) ( tangent : check out flowbots if you haven’t. )
HURRAY???
either something got lost in translation or this is a refreshingly honest lotto advert.
lot’s of the love-birds…
seriously – come to switzerland. it’s amazing!
wordpress, has apparently adopted the microsoft ethic of software building by making v2.5 great lookin’, easy to use, and horridly buggy. bravo for them right? it has decided to eat all my images and clever antics for the first part of the trip. so here’s the unfunny third attempt – ala wordpress.
funny story, we had quite a few celebrity run ins. not a-list celebrity sightings but c-listers, you know the kind you can barely recognize hiding behind a wall of ashtrays and european beers — much more fun.
remember the “INCONTHEVABLE” sicilian pirate in the 80’s classic “the princes bride?” yah, stood by him in line. how bout Job from the cult classic “arrested development?” yah, ’bout near took his foot off with my luggage. and to top it all off, our plain was delayed on the runway for 45 minutes while air force one made a “secure” take-off from heathrow airport. read into that what you will…
with all the advancements they are making in compost processing, along with the sharp decline of the us dollar, i wouldn’t be surprised if pure cow feces made a run on the dollar soon.
like picking a favorite child… but harder.
breakfast. can you spot the nutella?
poor kid…
i’ve only got a few minutes left before we hitch a train for lucern but i wanted to drop some goodness for you.
in other news, i’ve tried posting “europe : two” 3 times now and have developed an increasing hated toward wordpress. i’ll keep you posted.
killer shop. this is beer soap!
this coffe shop rocked my world and the mead kicked my but
as i mentioned in the ( yet to be seen ) post before, we ended up coming at a very unique time. the euro 2008, european soccer cup is in full swing. we got to watch a game in old town prague with about 300 screaming russians. RU-SSI-A, RU-SSI-A!!!
airport fun…
oh the swiss and they’re dramatic irony.
and i thought we had it bad ( btw… swiss francs are just about 1 to 1 one the declining dollar )
this is our new backyard.
’till next time…
word up!
we’re in the throws of packing for europe and, after two weeks wheezing our way out of the “ignorance bomb” that seems to have blown up around us, the trip can’t come soon enough. of course, i’m sure that europe will deliver a fair share of nescient delights.
in other news… no laptop. which means no pictures — making this a text-only blog until further notice. maybe i’ll take my thesaurus along to spice things up… then again, maybe not.
till then… stay alive.
this week has been ridiculous! as a few of you may know, my car got broken into – yes, again. that puts us at just about one major automotive crisis per month this year. i’m choosing to take it as a sign that God is done with our current cars and can’t wait to get us somethin’ new ;)
i digress… i’ve been under a mountain of paperwork and decided to trip back through time.
a couple weeks back nellie and i got to spend a few days in vegas with of few of our closest friends… here’s the frames.
breakfast…
and lunch…
on our way up, we were trying to determine if this was a poor coincidence or a prophetic warning.
little stretch break portrait session. here’s one that nellie got of me.
and one i got of my hotness.
mmm… this image is sooo right, i can’t describe it with words!
in an attempt to stretch every penny as far as we could, we spent a good portion of time prowling for $5 blackjack. i try to stick away from “posey-posey” pics like this, but john looked so dirty, i could barely resist.
yah, we hit vegas hard…
it’s undeniably clear that i have been a pretty lame blogger of late. balancing my responsibilities has a super hero have proven to be harder task than anticipated. alas, i really am trying to make more time for the things i enjoy, blogging included.
a couple months back, my family picked up a maltese-poodle mix and i have to say that he’s one of the cutest dogs i’ve ever seen. and while they teach him how to sit, lie-down, and roll-over, i’ve enjoyed the higher calling addressing values of fight, bite, and how to still feel like a man after the snippety-snip.
in any case, his name is P.J. Barely and he’s somethin’ else ;)
