Ok, so here's my first blog. I'll do a quick recap of the last 5 days. Left for Ireland last Wednesday and arrived in Dublin on Thursday morning. The whole plane ride over I couldn't go to sleep. I guess I was excited. Honestly I was, and at the same time starting to feel nervous. I was on a plane to Europe, to live with a girl whom I've spent a total of 4hrs with physically, but countless hours communicating with via email, text messaging, skype, etc.

(for those that don't know the full story of how Gabi and I met, i'll write about that another time)

So I arrived in Dublin, picked up my luggage and made my way out towards the arrival area. I finally saw Gabi and I smiled. Gave each other a hug and then shared a kiss, our first kiss. It put my mind at ease and I was all smiles. We made our way towards the City Centre of Dublin to find our hotel. And after walking up and down O'Connell St, we found our hotel and dropped our bags off. We couldn't check in until 2pm, so we went to Cafe Kylemore for coffee and enjoy each others company.

Now, we had no real plans in Dublin because it was just a means to get to Budapest (Bp). But the week before, as I was getting my haircut, I found out my stylist (Sara at Zina G Salon in Hillcrest) was going to be in Dublin as well. So I sent her a txt msg and we decide to meet at Gogarty's bar in Temple Bar District. Sara tells me she's really excited to hang out and meet Gabi. She knows the entire story and Gabi is excited to meet one of my friends. After dinner at Gallagher's (i had the seafood boxty-irish potato pancakes w/ salmon...mmm good), we meet Sara and start drinking.
**side note: we meet around 10pm and there's still light out...it tripped me out!
Anyways, we bar hop around Temple Bar District and that was that. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad Sara met Gabi.

The next day, Gabi and I decide to go to the Guinness Storehouse. I was still jet lagged so that was all we did. BTW, if you've never been to the GS, I highly recommend it...you get a free pint of Guinness w/ the tour....BRILLIANT!!!!

**another side note: for those that care, I ran about 1.5 miles in dublin both days to continue my streak...i lost count of how many days, but i'm sure mark can tell me. i think 162 days at that point.

So, we finally arrive in Bp. Gabi's 2 friends (Julia and Agnes) pick us up at the airport and drive us back to "our flat". :D When I get there, I was in awe of my new home. The place is really big. It's 2 bdrm flat, i'd say roughly 1000 sq ft. The 2nd bdrm is used as a storage room. We have a balcony that overlooks Eagle Mtn. The bathroom is separated, the toilet is near the entrance and the bath tub is connected to the master bdrm. The toilet reminds me of a port-a-potty w/ running water and electricity b/c it's about the same size. The bathtub is a trip! I don't use a bath tub....i shower. :D

Gabi and I decide to go out and get something to eat. We hadn't eaten since breakfast in Dublin (oh, btw....there's a filipino restaurant in Dublin called Cafe Manila and they serve Longsilog!). At this point in my journey, i'm already missing carne asada. Rich sent me a pic of a carne asada burrito while I was in Dublin...i hate u rich! Now, here in Bp, instead of mexican restaurants open 24hrs, they have "turkish buffets" or arab places (according to gabi) that sell gyros. It's kinda like a carne asada burrito, if you squint your eyes and are really drunk, you can't really tell the difference. At least that's what I tell myself. Anyways, it's quite delicious.

The next night Gabi and I have our "first date" here in Bp. We go to Old Man's Pub, the place where we met. On Sunday night they have live jazz performed by the Cotton Club Singers. They're kinda like the Manhattan Transfer but in Hungarian. We enjoy the music, a nice dinner and a bottle of wine. I even order a cigar and Laphroaig neat. It was a good date. (for those that are wondering...yes ;) )

Now i'm off to get ready. Gotta go to the American Embassy.