Mar19

Noctilucent Clouds

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Monday, 30-June-2025



I’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights, but somehow I keep missing them… But tonight, I saw something even less common. Something I hadn’t even heard of before we looked it up.

Noctilucent Clouds.



In short, these are clouds so high up in the atmosphere that they’re reflecting sunlight from the other side of the Earth. They happen at high altitudes, late in the evening… and tonight, Andrea and I happened to be still up working on a paper for class… no idea which, since June was basically just all papers at that point.

But still. A glorious view from our window, and something I’m incredibly grateful to have seen.


Link to the Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud




And as a bonus, a few pictures from the sunset preceding the midnight lightshow:

Mar17

Dublin Pride

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Saturday, 28-June-2025



Interestingly, I don’t think I’ve ever actually been to a pride march.

Now, I’ve been to countless meetings of the Northeastern pride club, supported them in a few adventures, but… yeah. Growing up in Massachusetts, Pride wasn’t really a thing that I considered. Mass legalized gay marriage ages and ages ago, and I’ve just taken it as normal fact, I guess, especially having lived in such stereotypical cities as Boston and Portland.

Andrea, on the other hand, grew up in a slightly less egalitarian community… To the point that she’ll tell a story about, during Bulgaria’s first Pride March, having to pause and wait for a Molotov cocktail that had been thrown in their path to burn out.

So, very understandably, attending Dublin Pride was very important to her. And, thus, to me.



Pride march in Dublin wasn’t what Andrea expected.

It was huge. It was organized, and there were rules about who could walk. The whole city turned out for the event, it seemed, with absolutely no one and nothing protesting against the walk. We couldn’t even join the march, officially, without joining an “official group” who had registered (and donated…) to the organization of the event.


So we joined. We walked. I took it all in, and then we got burgers. It was… normal? Normal.

And that’s a good thing, in my mind.

Mar15

A hike up the Great Sugar Loaf

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Tuesday, 17-June-2025


Dear lord it’s been a minute since I’d gotten to go on a hike.

Time to rectify that!

I had a day off, I had the option to rent a car and escape the city, and I’d put together a list of hikes to check out. I pulled the list up, picked an option that wasn’t so far away, and headed out of the city and toward the “wilderness”.

I’ll say – for a short near-city hike? This was solid! I took a slightly non-standard route, taking the long way around via a big old loop, and that extra milage made all the difference.

A quiet parking spot, a calm walk in, some good solitude and quiet as I made my looping way toward the summit.

Then, a relaxed lunch up top, some good views of the ocean and Dublin itself… yeah. This was the escape from papers and classes and city insanity that I needed.