Category Archives: Parties and social gatherings

Not strictly outdoor adventures, but sometimes parties take place outside! Or near a window! Thus: it counts.

Apr24

A breather in Bulgaria – Sofia!

Posted on by
Standard

Tuesday, 26-August-2025 through Sunday, 31-August-2025


Bulgaria.

I haven’t been to this part of the world, before. I knew that I had the best tour guide I could ask for in Andrea, and had done the base background research on the history and culture (and had obviously absorbed some myself, such as Banitsa), but the adventure was a first foray into a new world, regardless.

It was glorious.


I can’t overstate how great of a guide Andrea was / is – I lovingly call her “The queen of Sofia”, and that title was well earned the whole time we were in town. Everywhere we went, people recognized her. Every restaurant saw the owner, chef, or someone similar come out to visit and catch up… alongside consistent extras unexpectedly appearing. Each bite was excellent, and each drink was special. I was in incredibly good hands.


Now, what did we do, specifically? Quite a bit:
– We visited Andrea’s Grandma for her birthday!
– We had amazing food – Italian, Turkish, pastries, and BBQ
– We met fun and interesting people – tons of folks from Andrea’s previous life, all interesting and enjoyable
– We explored. Walking around the city, I even had an afternoon of solo exploration where I got to recollect the fun of my Grand Adventure, exploring a city where I don’t know the language.


It really was an excellent start to an excellent vacation.

Apr20

The Weir

Posted on by
Standard

Monday, 25-August-2025


Brendan Gleeson is one of those actors who I’ll always remember as the first character I saw him play – “Monk” GcGinn, in Gangs of New York.

Now, that does make it interesting when I saw him on stage here in Dublin, playing an aged mechanic from a small town in the countryside of Ireland… but it also kind of worked – In my own head, maybe he survived the movie, and made it to retirement back in his homeland?

That fun mental idea aside, I’ll have to be honest – I wasn’t overly enthused about The Weir.

As I understand it, it’s a “chamber play”, with a single set, minimal scene changes, and minimal conflict or resolution. It’s interesting, and I can’t fault any of the actors, but I simply didn’t find it particularly interesting or engrossing. It was… there. The stories were told, the acting was lovely, and I left the theater feeling like nothing significant had really happened.

Now, I recognize that the play is supposedly one of the best of the modern scene… and I don’t doubt that the cast was top notch.

That doesn’t change my view, though. I’m glad we saw it, no two ways about it, and the theater was absolutely beautiful… but I don’t think I’d go see it again.


Apr18

An evening at the Sackville Lounge

Posted on by
Standard

Saturday, 23-August-2025


After a day of home improvement, what does one do? One, and ones partner, head out onto the town for a fancy bar takeover!

Aside from the home improvement, and the excitement of the bar takeover (which is when one bar sends their bartenders to another bar for an evening, I’ve learned), we were also having a slightly melancholy celebration for a classmate and friend of ours – it was the end of her time in Dublin, before heading out of town for a new job… and so we absolutely needed to celebrate her in style.


I’ll say – it was a rather excellent evening.