malogna and bilan

ok fine.
balogna & milan

first we stopped at the ferrari museum
their street cars go 0-110 in 3 seconds
geez louise

here's a winner
(like it literally won)

next we spent a night in bologna

my favorite part was seeing this melted ice sculpture
that's funny

leslie's boyfriend, joseph, didn't tell her he'd be in bologna
rude
see, it looks JUST like him

then we ate gelato popsicles
italians gettin' crazy

the next day we stopped to see how balsamic vinaigrette is made

they use these here barrels

for a LONG time
notice the "1952" label

we got to taste some after our tour
(it's not like the balsamic vinaigrette i'm used to.
much thicker & sweeter & more acidic, all at the same time)

over ice-cream
goooooooooood

we finally made it to milan

& saw the 3rd duomo of our trip
this one took 6 centuries to build

next door is the world's first mall
(or so we think..)

& here i am inside spinning around 3 times on some dip in the floor
that brings you good luck.
probably just another way to make tourists look like fools

then we shopped around and had appetizers and pretty drinks at a place called Frank. delicious!

next day:

meet massimo
he knows a lot about design
therefore, he was our guide for the next 2 days

he has a piece of the duomo in the backyard of his office
hello. the duomo.
apparently every fifty years the statues have to be replaced

first he took us to a vintage/modern design shop called:

dear quad friends, don't let these letters conjure feelings of tiresome walking to the far far far parking lot

they made new things out of old stuff
novel idea

bizarre things too

next we went to this little villa built in the 20th century

typical 50's bathroom

hipsta red
pump the breaks

massimo took us to this museum
it opened really recently

 saw some picasso

and other modern art
hmm.

the museum had a great view of the duomo

the next day massimo took the interior design girls to some showrooms

modern lighting

furniture

looney's favorite chair & lamp in cappellini

the only thing we didn't see were milano cookies and bologna meat

you can't have it all

ciao ciao

dub it up

ladies and gents, i give you

dublin, ireland

safety information on a ryanair flight

notice the necessity to take out your dentures in case of emergency

hmm, what's that language written above english?
irish. yeah, it exists

sadly, we didn't visit

dear em, i found your street
or your lane

we visited the guinness beer storehouse

here is the lease that arthur guinness signed for 9000 years
clever

the tour was semi-interactive
so here we are standing in front of a waterfall demonstrating
how their pure water comes from the mountains

reds like guinness
i don't

i learned how to "pour my own pint"
that i refused to drink

dear anna, i loved our big/little bonding
some big's and little's go out to lunch (which we do occasionally)
we also learn how to "pour the perfect pint" in ireland together

hello, dublin

tried the heel click jumping pic

love this one of kp

that night we went to whelan's
which is the pub from p.s. i love you
cool

the next day we visited an irish market
plenty of potatoes, of course

the fight jump

we went on a walking tour with dave
he's not as good as fiona from france

cool grass
just thought you'd like to see it

this building was built on top of some viking remains
which were therefore ruined
how thoughtless

the famous temple bar

with live entertainment

a statue representing the potato famine
i love it

a new one
a male red

we went to howth for the evening
dublin harbor / irish sea area

we took sailor jumping pics,
obviously

a sea lion
look at his ears

dad, here's a map for orientation's sake

this is exactly how i pictured ireland would be

anna and me

we ate dinner at "the bloody stream"
sounds gross, but it was gooooodddd

then we watched the sun set over the harbor

when we got back we decided to find a cool pub
success
live irish music. boom.

the next morning we went to see the book of kells (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells)
and avoided this massive line
irish people don't know about the early bird and the worm thing

strolling in a dublin park
and jumping around some

nice find

red pants and hair

and there you have it:

dublin.

cheers!