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A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 28 trips to carry that many people.

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Boyfriend and I headed off to Berlin early December for a well deserved city break. Berlin has always been on our wish list but we never got around to it before and the Christmas markets in December provided us with the perfect excuse! We had a truly amazing weekend. I’ll take it from the top…

We flew out from Dublin at the reasonable hour of an 11am Ryanair flight to Berlin Schonefeld. Boyfriend got chatting to a wacky Irish girl sitting next to us on the plane. CA as she called herself lived in Berlin for over a year and was all about the nightlife. CA recommend that we take a visit to the ‘best bar in Berlin’ AKA Roses. How right was she!!! We paid a visit to Roses that very night at 12am after a plethora of cocktails and a fabulous Vietnamese meal in Hoi Naam located beside GorlitzerBahnhof in Kreuzberg. The meal brought back memories of the amazing culinary delights we experienced in Vietnam in 2009. The food was authentic and very easy on the pocket too. Two starters, two mains and two bottles of beer came to EUR18. Bargain central! Our next stop was a bar across the street called Hanibals .The all night happy hour sealed the deal here for us. After a few post dinner cocktails we made our way over to Roses bar on 187 Oranienstrasse in Kreuzberg. Roses was amazing! It doesn’t get camper or kitcher than in Roses. The walls and ceilings were covered in bright pink fur and bar was packed with fine young homosexual Berliner hipsters mixed with a bunch of New Yorkers on pilgrimage to the hipster mecca that is Berlin. The crowd were extremely friendly, so much so that we stayed partying the night away until 5am. The bar woman in the front bar was particularly hilarious in her antics. On the way back to the hotel, we were hounded by the locals to continue the night at the main club in Berlin but alas we were bunched so back to the hotel we went.

We stayed in the Radisson in Alexanderplatz in der Mitte. Now this was one handy hotel in an excellent location. On arrival, the friendly receptionist asked if we had any preferences. I replied ” a room as high as possible”. We were offered a compact room on the 28th floor with an amazing view of the city which we took in earnest.

The following day, Boyfriend and I explored Berlin, rambling through the busy streets, sampling Gluhwein at the many Christmas markets scattered all over the city. That evening we met up with an old Irish friend who had recently moved to Berlin with her German girlfriend. We met them later that evening at the Christmas markets in Charlottenburg. Next stop their trendy apartment in Kreuzberg, then back to Roses to for some more debauchery.

Berlin is an amazing city and I would love to make a return trip in the summer. It has it all. It may not be as polished as Paris or Barcelona but it makes up for it in terms of edginess and cool vibe that is virtually all over the city. Ich bin ein Berliner…

If you are interested they were a new pair of Campers, the Piu model I picked up over the weekend in the Camper store on Wicklow Street in Dublin.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

Aptly quoting Samuel Beckett, David Norris sensationally left the race to become president of Ireland in early August from the steps to his stately home on North Great Georges Street. Earlier this evening, Senator Norris was back in the race as he was proposed by four councils (Fingal, Laois, Waterford and Dublin City) to be on the ballot paper on the 28th of October to become president of Ireland.

The campaign is set to the most interesting in the history of the state purely for the fact that the rule books for elections in Ireland have been torn up based on the results of the general election earlier in the year.

This presidential election is unique for the following reasons:

• it is the first to have no Fianna Fail candidate on the ballot paper
• it is the first to have so many candidates in the running ( at last count)
• it is the first to have a modern Sinn Fein candidate
• it is the first to have an openly gay candidate in the running

David Norris, Dana Rosemary Scallon and Martin McGuinness interest me most of the seven candidates in the field.

Norris, because of his liberal nature and I believe that he is the most interesting candidate. It will be interesting to see how the clemency letter incident evolves and I am sure Norris wants to shake it off as soon as possible so he can focus on a positive campaign.

Dana interests me due to the fact that she represents conservative rural Ireland. This voting block cannot be underestimated and Dana will certainly take a few votes from Fine Gaels conservative candidate Gay Mitchell.

It will be interesting to see how the public react to Martin McGuinness. He has excelled in his role as Deputy First Minister in the north and definitely has the C-factor – charismatic.

We are set for a fascinating race to the park!

Big families came up in conversation. My boss mentioned that he has 5 kids – 3 planned then a set of twins. Our American friend then lets us know how nice it is to be part of a large family. He has 8 brothers and one sister. His father is an obstetrician gynaecologist. He brought his work home We all cracked up in a fit of laughter. Hilarious. His parents desperately wanted a girl and finally got what they wanted. Bless…

My friend Farah introduced boyfriend and I to the world of Macaroons last week. I can’t believe these tasty treats have been missing from my life. The are absolutely delicious! I’ve often seen them in Brown Thomas, the upmarket department store on Grafton Street, Dublin but apart from the vibrant colours on display, I was never tempted to buy any. Boyfriend didn’t particularly like them although trying the Rose Petal flavoured one didn’t help. That particular one was not a nice epicurean experience but the rest were tasty little things indeed. Next one in Grafton Street, I shall be taking a detour to the Macaroon counter @ BTs.