Cajun Chicken and a Pot O' Gold

So here are some pictures I took today. You can see the amazing rainbow over the mall. Guess the pot of gold is somewhere behind the sporting goods section. . ..
Below is a picture of one of the crazy stone walls here. They look ancient, but who knows how old anything is. This was was slightly more interesting than others, but certainly not the craziest I've seen. Below you can see the very narrow sidewalk. Two people really do not fit on this sidewalk but often share--often with one person in the road. But they don't get run over. Drivers here are pretty attentive and nice--less road rage than in the states for sure. We saw a sign on the freeway that said "164 deaths caused by cars in the last 4 years in Cork" and something about how motoring is really dangerous.
I wonder how many weeks it takes in Houston for that many people to die in auto-related incidents. It goes to show that there are just a lot fewer people out on the road here. Today, I was one of those people on the road. I dropped John off at work and drove back to the hotel ON MY OWN!!! I was so proud of myself for not getting lost/crashing/going the wrong way in a roundabout that I did a little victory dance when I got home.
Below is a shot looking down the street we are on: Maryborough Hill. I don't think that is Cork City in the distance, but it might be. So I think the Irish are a very literal people, and I like that. For example, a street like "Maryborough Hill" isn't named that because it is quaint; it's named that because it's on a doggone hill!! A steep one at that!!!


Another example is the development where we are going to move into (hopefully Friday if it all works out). It's called Copper Valley Vue (you can see a valley and now it's pretty colorful) and we will live in Copper Valley Heights (at the top of the hill that overlooks the valley). See, literal! I like this!! It's not like in Texas where you'll have a place like "Sunset Meadow" where you can neither (A) see the sunset or (B) see anything resembling a meadow. Or subdivisions with the name "canyon" in them--there's no canyon anywhere. But here, if there was a neighborhood named "canyon" I'd watch my step!
Okay, so the last picture I posted is of the drive out of our hotel. You turn off the road and zoom-zoom down this little path with the sun and the shade and the pretty trees. It's really awesome. Hopefully we will be moving out by the end of the week into our new awesome house. It was the one I put the link to in the last post--the four-bedroom in Glanmire. It's a really nice, spacious house with a great backyard.
Looks like our neighbors on both sides are young or at least active--one had a kayak in the backyard and the others had surfing equipment drying in the backyard with their cute fluffy big dog. He seemed really nice. The dog--we haven't met any neighbors.
So. . .the other part of my title has to do with cajun chicken. We have yet to be in a restaurant or pub that does not offer cajun chicken. John tried it the other night in this pretty posh restaurant and it was very good. Yesterday we were in a pub for lunch and the lady next to me ordered a cajun chicken philly and it smelled delicious.
Sidenote: Yesterday there was awful weather and monsoon-type rain and wind. EVERYONE in the Mount Oval development (one we were considering but decided against) must have headed to this pub for warmth and food because by the time we got there (after 1PM) it was completely packed and the only open table was right by the door. Each time the door opened we were blown over by a gust of wind. We thought it was pretty funny--so did the couple next to us. That will teach us to avoid the lunch rush!!! Ohhh. But I had the BEST fish and chips--they actually call it "the Haddock" on most menus instead of fish and chips but it is DELICIOUS!!! I don't think it's one of the fish I'm supposed to avoid, and that's good because I LOVE it! Yes, I know, deep fried fish kind of defeats the purpose of the good vitamins and oils in fish, but at this point, if it sounds appealing that I'll eat it!!!!!
At the same pub John got this dish called "bangers and mash" that my friend Tami told me about. He gets this enormous plate with these sausages on a pile of mashed potatoes and onions with some brown sauce. He pretty much licked the plate. Hoewver, the burps this dish later dished out were HORRIBLE and I had to open the windows of the car in the pouring rain to get some relief at one point.

So my final item in this blog is a list of cars that are out of place in the States but make complete sense here. We have been noticing this and compiling a list (we have also noticed that three beers are racing for interstellar domination: Heineken (by far the most pervasive), Budweiser, and Corona). So here are the cars that are silly in the US but make sense here:
Hyundai Santa Fe
the Volvo SUV
that tiny Land Rover SUV thing
the Yaris (duh)

Well, more interesting stuff to come. I'll keep you all posted about our housing. We cannot wait to move in somewhere!!!!!!!!