…like a ghost I walked the streets of Temple Bar…

I just got back from my trip and I must say, that I had a lot of fun. Saw some stuff, bought some stuff, and even learned some stuff.

One of the most important things I learned was that when you need to pee, and you see a sign like this …



… buying a pint of the dark stuff, just so you can take a leak, doesn't really solve anything.

I’ve got to get some shut-eye now, but I will try to update soon. I’ve got tons of pictures, some might even be good enough to share.



I drank so much stout, I’ll be crapping black for a month!

Win-Win…

So when I got home yesterday I find something in my parking space. This is not that odd of an occurrence, and I can usually squeeze in without hitting too many cars. But today I come home to this…



I thought maybe my landlord had rented the upstairs to Carnival folk while I was at work. I was imagining that my new neighbor would be a beautiful trapeze artist, like Gina Piccolapupula whom you may remember from Big Top Pee Wee...



…but no such luck. It turns out that the thing is just a big washroom…



Lots of sinks on this end, and two bathrooms at the other end. I’m assuming they are bathrooms anyway; the doors are a little more securely tied on the other end. I could get into them, but at this point I don’t really care that much.

A bathroom trailer, huh… do you think my neighbors are trying to tell me something? Is this is some weird Germanic custom that they do during the spring? Am I the person on the block who is the most in need of cleaning up? Maybe I’m just the most full of sh … oot that couldn’t be me, could it?

I think someone was probably towing it and broke down and had to leave it here yesterday. It was gone when I got home today.

Anyhoo…

The day after the Derby party (Sunday) I had to go to Stuttgart for an early Monday meeting. I would be there all week for work. Sunday was also the last day of the Cannstatter Fruhlingfest. This is the spring festival they have in Cannstatt, which is right outside of Stuttgart. They also have a Volksfest there in the fall which is kind of a mini-Oktoberfest (from what I’ve heard). The Fruhlingfest is 3 weeks long and seems more like an amusement park with beer.

Not that I am opposed to such things, but as I was standing in one of the Bier Gartens watching this crazy ride rotating around three axes I was thinking about two things.

1) I’ll bet there’s a lot of chucking that goes on here…

and

2) Where the hell is my umbrella?

After noshing on this pretty awesome sandwich…



I was wandering around and I noticed this guy with this gold trimmed wife-beater shirt on. He was wearing a cowboy hat and just prancing around. Then I surreptitiously zoomed in on him and saw what his T-Shirt said…



… I don’t think he was really American.

Work went fine in Stuttgart, and though I did not get to see much of the area I had a good time.

Saturday I am heading off with a buddy to Scotland. We fly into Edinburgh where we will participate in the Scotch Whisky Experience and eat some haggis. After two days in and around Edinburgh, we will work our way up to Stirling to see Doune Castle and spend the evening in Falkirk. From there we will head over to Glasgow for a day and then fly over to the Motherland of Ireland. We will have 5 nights in Ireland: two in Cork, two in Dublin, and one somewhere in between. We may go to the Beamish brewery in Cork and probably hit up Guinness in Dublin.

We’re flying on Ryan Air so we will be packing light. I’m actually going to take only my second-string underwear, so that I can just throw it out as I go. This will leave me with more of two things…

1) More space for any knick-knacks that I decide to pick up (sorry – no haggis ... or kilts)

and

2) More space in my underwear drawer.

All around, it really is a Win-Win situation when you think about it.

I'll will not have my computer while I'm gone. I may be able to approve comments while I'm away, but I doubt that I'll even try. Of course this means that my already pathetic schedule of updating will come to a grinding halt for a while.

Eight lines about a horse...

A horse is a horse
of course, of course
and no one should dine
on a horse, of course
that is, of course
unless the horse
is the one that
Tony’s feeding his friends.



And you thought I was going to make a bad Eight Belles joke, didn't you?