pop quiz!

#1 I couldn't achieve an angle that allowed me to show the whole market. this is just the beginning. the whole thing is staged in an alley behind one of the historical cathedrals


#2 the first bite of doughnut
#3 obligatory street performer photo (though not a very good one). this guy plays sax at least every Saturday, and it's awesome.






#4 obligatory street photo













Question: How would you pronounce the following:

Cois Abhan.

WRONG!


it's pronounced cawshh ow-vwan. bet you didn't see that coming!

Saturday is market day, so my flatmate Orla, my New Jerseyan friend Kaitlyn, and I strolled downtown around 1 o'clock and browsed for a while. Today also became my "spend money" day (sorry, M & D!), which I kicked off by buying a pair of earrings from a pushy Bolivian woman selling hand-made jewelry. her accent made me miss speaking in Spanish. then I bought mushrooms and a cucumber from a cranky young farmer, and Kaitlyn and I bought doughnuts from one of the most-(apparently)- genuine-and-therefore-most-beautiful men I've ever met. they were made right before our eyes, and personalized by our request for cinnamon sprinkled on top.

I dragged Kaitlyn along as I tried to check out the yoga studio downtown (I've REALLY been missing yoga), but all we found was a sketchy hair- cuttery and a useless flyer. I stopped in at the "chemist's" (pharmacy) and walked away with 8.31- euro drops for the infection in my eyes. we spent all day downtown, just wandering around. oh, and we stopped in the used book store, where I got 4 books for 9 euro-- I'm really hoping to do some pleasure reading at some point. we were going to walk back to the apartments, but on the way we passed the open door of a pub that was brimming with screaming people, and remembered that Ireland was playing France in rugby today. So Orla and I went in and watched the end of the game amidst the chanting throng (Ireland lost, sadly-- 21 to 26. but it was pretty exciting). the rest of the patrons began drowning their sorrows in Guiness (except for the six French people who were brave enough to make themselves known-- they drank Guiness in celebration), and Orla and I ducked out and walked home.

oh, I should have prefaced all of this with the fact that
it didn't rain all day! and it was warm enough that I only wore a jacket over a sweater! beautiful, absolutely beautiful

now if only my eyes would stop pussing so much that I when I wake up at 6am they're so crusted over that I can't open them and I panic until I've scraped it all off and then can't fall back asleep for three hours because I can't breathe through my nose and my throat hurts and my eyes hurt too
(Cheese and my stomach don't have a healthy relationship, so I will forego the cheese and simply accept the whine. thankyewvarymaauch.)