The Emerald: Downtown Waterford City

Today I went downtown Waterford. I was pretty nervous at first because:

1. I was alone in a foreign country

2. I had no cell phone to call and I wasn't sure where pay phones were

3. I didn't even know exactly what I was going to do

4. I had to figure out the buses to get back home

But, it turned out to be a great day! I started the day off at the tourism office and went on a walking tour of the city. The tour was about an hour and our guide was fantastic. (Thank you Buechler family for the Rick Steve's book...this tour was in there and it was just as great as Rick said it would be!) I took LOTS of pictures and I'm still trying to decide what to do with them. I think I'm going to get a Flickr account so that I can upload a lot of photos at once and I will put the link for it on here whenever I add new photos. One of the stops on the walking tour was a glass shop that was started by some former Waterford Crystal employees. The make only glass (no crystal...which has lead in it which distinguishes it from the glass---see, I'm still learning even though I graduated!) They had this amazing piece that has been created for New York. President Obama will be presenting it to the State for the 10 year remembrance ceremony for 9/11 next month. The president hasn't even seen it yet and I have...how cool is that? It's a tower shape and has engravings on it of firefighters hands reaching down to help people. It's wonderful. We also saw a handful of gorgeous cathedrals on the tour.

At the end of the walking tour I wandered over to the House of Waterford Crystal---a place that I didn't know existed 4 months ago. But alas, I am educated in the realm of fine crystal. I have always liked my kitty's name (her name is Crystal for those of you who don't know), but now I think it's even cooler that she's named after something so awesome. The tour took us through the entire factory, from moulds and blowing, to cutting and polishing. While I thoroughly enjoyed the "how it's made" portion of the tour, I think my favorite part was the massive showroom at the end. It's the biggest showcase of Waterford Crystal in one room in the world. Which seems fitting since this is it's home city. So many pretty sparkly things that I will never be able to afford...but it was so fun to look! There were actually some things that are reasonably priced, I was quite surprised. I'll be paying another visit or two to browse and decide which piece to bring home :) They have some cute little Christmas ornaments that wouldn't totally break the bank.

After gawking at lots of sparkly things, I walked a few blocks down the road (Jennifer told me where to go) to a fish & chips place for some lunch. It is called Dooly's (mom, it's pronounced just like your relatives "dooley") The fish was fantastic but the chips (fries) weren't my favorite.

Next in my day came the trek home. I walked the 4 or 5 blocks back to the bus stop and was 10 minutes early for my bus. I was feeling pretty proud of myself at this point and so I sat down and waited. And waited. And waited...and FINALLY after 35 minutes, my bus came. Or so I thought. I asked the driver if he went to Williamstown Road (my stop) and he said no, but the bus coming in 10 minutes does. Well ten more minutes wasn't so bad after I waited for 35. So I sat down to wait some more. Right about the time that the ten minutes was up, I heard screaming and honking and guess what is coming down the road? A gay pride parade. Yes, all this waiting and my bus (wherever it is behind the backup) is delayed even more because of some ridiculous gay pride parade. The parade ended and I eventually got on my bus over an hour after it was originally supposed to come. Jennifer told me later that buses rarely follow the schedule here. Often times they are super early, other times they are obscenely late. Good to know. I made it home just fine after I got on the bus. And here I am typing this blog. It was gorgeous out all day and a storm has just moved in. Pouring rain and thunder...I love thunder!

Anyway, I'll be working on editing my photos and hopefully have them up very soon! I'll share a few here for now, but the rest will come later.