As I mentioned; having friends or family visit is a lovely excuse to see the touristy parts of my home city that I wouldn’t otherwise see.
We started with the Jeanie Johnson, which I hadn’t seen. Then off to Trinity’s Old Library, which I had. Lastly, the Dublin Castle itself, which I hadn’t seen.
Nicely book-ended, no?
Well, in case the photos don’t make it clear enough… Dublin Castle is fancy. Like… fancy-fancy. Not “Buckingham palace”, or “The Vatican” level, obviously… but still. Pretty damn fancy.
Technically this started before any of my previous posts… but I wanted to set the stage before we dove into the play itself. Seems right, you know?
So Cassis.
Small town on the French Riviera. The Cote De Azur, in French. A tourist town, a fishing town, and a sea-side town down by the Mediterranean. An absolutely cute town, with a billion different restaurants and shops and other great places to walk and explore.
Small alleyways with beautiful growing plants. A few friendly cats to say hi to. Limestone streets, worn smooth by countless sandals, with day markets and night markets every so often.
Siestas halfway through the day, to avoid the midday heat, followed by late-evening dinners that last past sundown.
It wasn’t a bad spot. Daniel picked well, when he first proposed the trip back in 2014, and I followed up beautifully when suggesting my Mom and Steve come visiting.
Keeping with Tradition, I kept a list of the various places that I, and we, ate. There’s a lot of them, so bear with me:
Le Luminyen – Actually by the University of Luminy, I ate here after my walk up Mt. Pugot. Still, very good and worth visiting for a snack
Alcazar – My first meal in Cassis itself. Excellent food, though a bit unexpected… I ordered Fries and Paella… but the “Fries” were actually fried Sardines! Unexpected, but delicious.
Le Delphine – A quick and simple brunch, with pastries and fried eggs and a latte. Can’t complain… but I found that eggs aren’t really a breakfast thing in Cassis, unless they’re in a quiche.
Midday Express – Excellent hot sandwiches, quick and easy and great for taking before my hikes into Les Calanques
La Voûte – Great rissoto, mediocre burgers. Lesson learned here – In France, order French food. Or Italian, if you’re in Cassis. But don’t order American… it’s just not worth it.
Bistro’quai – Solid food, though I frankly can’t recall any real details here.
Le 8 et demi – Means “8.5” in French, though I’d give them a solid 10. Great pizza, great food, excellent Crepes. We went here at least 3 times, if I remember right.
Le Petit Oyster Bar – Excellent oysters, glorious mussels, amazing charcuterie boards… what more could you want? Ohh right, great wine! It’s France, of course there’s great wine!
La Tarte Tropézienne – Amazing place, went quite a few times to pick up pastries for breakfast and tartes for dessert!
La Stazione – Excellent Italian food in the heart of a French town. Good pasta, good wine, good times!
Wednesday, 10-Nov-2021 through Monday, 15-Nov-2021
My friends came to visit!
Two weekends in a row… I’m the most social of all the social butterflies, it seems!
And honestly, I’m so thankful for it. 2021 was, for mas as for everyone, a challenging year. It’d been a year of huge personal growth, and excellent introspection, but at my core I’m still a social creature. Self-reflection is only a part of the growth cycle… sharing those insights, and getting other people’s input, is just as important to someone’s growth.
So when Daniel and Erin asked if they could come to visit the weekend after Dillon and Liz’s wedding… well, I couldn’t say yes fast enough!
Sunday, 14-Nov-2021
With two days of pretty heavy hiking behind us, Sunday was targetted as being a bit more of a low-key day. Hanging around town, exploring a bit, hitting some shops… The rose guarden… you know, all those cool touristy things that we kinda need friends to use as an excuse for.
Ohh, and a friends-giving party!
It was a good day – nice and calm, quiet, and a good / relaxing end to the weekend. There’s not much to be said, from my recollection… we explored, chatted, and took some cool pictures. One that I’m especially proud of, if I may segregate it out…
The rest of the day… Well, I don’t really have much to write about our adventures in the city. But after we got back, we dove into cooking! For Friendsgiving!
My neighbors and I have gotten the chance to spend some more time together, which has been awesome, and there was absolutely no way that I could turn down a Friendsgiving invitation! We cooked up some stuffing, heated up a pie, and took the long walk over to their house by stepping out my door, turning right around, and walking into the door next to mine.
The evening was awesome, and honestly a little strange for me – this was the first time I’d been to a real “house party” in Oregon. COVID aside, the last few years have been… anti-social, to say the least. Not saying it’s a bad thing, but parties and group events weren’t really a thing that I’d done here – which made this just that much more interesting and enjoyable.
A very good evening, to say the least. Made extra much so by fun puppy cuddles, of course!
