London....

This last week, Steven left for London to do primary research (thanks Mike, John, and Luke for letting him crash there with you). I'd like to tell you all the things he did, but it mostly sounds like archives and books. If studying at the library were a sport, there are times I swear he'd be the team captain. He doesn't deny it either.

I had the chance to meet up with him for the last few days that he was there . We had a great time! We came across a deal in the newspaper for staying in London and watching a West End show (aka Broadway in The States).  We stayed actually not too far from where we will most likely be living next year.  I flew in on Friday and we wandered around a bit. That night we went to see my favorite play, Les Mis, at the Queen's Theatre. You know it's good when you're trying to hide your tears at the sad parts and quickly look around you to make sure no one sees what a nerd you are only to realize everyone else is crying too.

Right across the street from the Queen's Theatre was London's China Town. I have been wanting great Chinese food for a while. We've been to the one here in Maynooth, and unfortunately it was just kind of bland food. So we wandered through China Town and ended up at a restaurant called London China Town Restaurant (go figure). It was amazing. I've only had duck one time before and it was just fine. But this duck was very tender, juicy and had a lot of flavour. It came with pancakes that were more like tiny tortilla style wraps that you would use before cooking it into a won ton. The sauce was a smoky BBQ honey sauce that you put on top of shredded cucumbers and shredded onions. In short, if you ever end up in the vicinity of London, go to Queens Theatre entrance, turn 180 degrees, walk into China town and the first alley on your left is the restaurant. Although if you go during the Christmas season and you have ever seen The Christmas Story, you may end up with flashbacks to the scene where they go to Chinese food and they sing Fa ra rah ra rah ra rah. YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTq20prt0K8

Saturday, we did some more touring around London. After riding the Underground, we now understand what people mean when they say Europe has great public transportation. It's 15x better than what Ireland has. It's relatively inexpensive too if you are staying in the central London area. You can check out all of our pictures by using this address:  http://gallery.me.com/shsifuentes#100464.  One of our favorite stops was St. Paul's Cathedral. It was pretty amazing. We couldn't take pictures inside because it is still used as a place of worship. So, I've borrowed some on here from their website.

St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England

The Nave of the Cathedral (when you walk in). If you look at the end of the hall you can see
where the the ceiling changes. This area is the picture below

The Quire

The floor above the Cathedral floor is pretty amazing. It is called the whispering gallery. It basically is a large circle around the base of the dome. What you can do in the whispering gallery is stand on opposite sides of the circle and face the wall. One person talks into the wall and your voice travels, or whispers, all the way around to the other person.

We made the hike to the top of the 3rd dome, the Golden Gallery. It only took 526 steps to get there! Needless to say, I felt like we worked off dinner and dessert from the night before. It was well worth it though.

The view from the Golden Gallery

If you walk 526 steps up, then you have to also walk 526 steps down...

After some of the travels, we were able to pick up a couple of last minute discounted tickets to Steven's favorite play, The Lion King. I hadn't seen it before and it was amazing. Another one of those events where I largely felt like we were the only ones showing up with without kids. The Lion King is most definitely for kids and those who are still kids at heart. They created the most amazing costumes and it was fun to see the giant elephants come down the aisle in the opening scene. One thing that I did notice was that some parts were different from the movie in that the lines were altered to sound more English as opposed to American English. I did have to laugh a couple of times where a joke didn't come out just right and it was oddly apparent that it didn't really fit into British humor. 

Here are some of the other pictures from around London.

Covent Gardens

Vandalism left over from the student protesters the night before in
Parliament Square

I tried so hard to get him to act like Clark Kent turning into Superman.
He wasn't very interested though. 

Westminster Abbey- we wanted to go in but it costs your first born child if it's not during Mass. 

Overall, it was a great experience and we are looking forward to living there next year!

Handel's Messiah @ St. Patrick's Cathedral

Life has been eventful around here lately. The snow has caused quite a disruption for almost everything. Classes are sometimes cancelled and one exam has been rescheduled so far. Our apartments have officially lost their gutters due to the heavy snow and ice. I think Monday, classes will be in session more or less. We've still been out and around town, but the buses are prone to shutting down due to the icy roads. Thankfully, the trains are still running (on Irish time of course). 

A few weeks ago, Steven and I purchased tickets for the Handel's Messiah at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. Even though the snow was coming down pretty heavy, the show went on. We made our way into Dublin on the train with our friend Theresa and then met up with Stephen D. for dinner at the Porterhouse before hand. After, the three of us went to the Cathedral for the show. I wish I had better pictures of the Cathedral because it was absolutely beautiful. There was a large garden on the backside that was covered in snow. We will hopefully have the chance to go back and take better pictures. 

You can see in the picture of us after the show that we had backpacks. We were a little worried that if the snow kept falling then the trains would stop since they were already on a limited schedule. Thankfully Stephen D lives in Dublin and offered to let us stay there if the trains stopped. So we packed overnight bags just in case.

I really enjoyed the Messiah program. I knew that the composer was German and that it was originally performed in Europe, but the piece was written in Dublin and had it's first performance in Dublin in 1742.  This year, it was performed by the Culwick Choral Society in aid of One Family (http://onefamily.ie/). Overall, if you ever have the chance to see this performance sans kids, I would recommend it, but purchase the program if it has the words. 

St. Patrick's Cathedral

After the show

Irish Stew

I found a fantastic Irish stew that was really easy to make and tastes amazing. I thought I would share it with you:

The ingredients for Irish Stew are layered in a heavy pot and slow-cooked in the oven, allowing the lamb and potatoes to tenderize and the flavors to deepen and meld. The best part is that you can walk away from the simmering pot and return two hours later to a mouthwatering meal.

3 pounds small Yukon gold potatoes, peeled

2 medium onions, (about 1 pound), halved lengthwise and cut into thin half-moons

2 1/2 pounds lamb shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

Freshly ground pepper

2 teaspoons coarsely chopped fresh thyme

3 cups homemade lamb stock, or low -sodium store-bought chicken stock

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh curly- or flat-leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut 1 pound of the potatoes into 1/4-inch-thick rounds; spread them out in a large (5- to 6-quart) heavy-bottom pot or Dutch oven. Layer half the onions on top of the potatoes.

Place lamb cubes on top of onions. Sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt; season with pepper. Add the thyme. Place remaining onions on top of lamb. Add the stock and 1 cup water.

Place whole potatoes on top of onions. Sprinkle with remaining teaspoon salt; season with pepper. Cover with a tight-fitting lid; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Transfer to oven; cook, without stirring, 2 hours. Sprinkle with parsley.

Serves about 4 - 6. 

Side note: I cut the recipe in half and it gave us both about 2 large bowls each. 


Also, if you have ever seen How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, I kept thinking of the scene where Matthew McConaughey make lamb for his date with Kate Hudson and she starts crying and singing Mary had a little lamb.... while I was making this.