Coffeeneuring 2012

I really enjoyed Coffeeneuring this year (for those not in the know, please see the challenge description over here at Chasing Mailboxes). It was not without its challenges - I'm obsessed with my neighborhood and all the little shops and cafes in it, so it was a bit challenging for me to get to places that were beyond the 2 mile radius! That said, I did sneak in one neighborhood shop that was a wee bit further than the others. If you love hyper-local business and ever happen to be in the neighborhood, though, do be sure to check out Nelly's, Walls & Keogh, Tiesan Cafe, and Bibi's. My other major coffeneuring challenge was overcoming my fear of taking awkward photos in coffee shops. I don't know that I totally overcame that challenge, so please excuse the poor photography.

Without further ado, here's my control sheet:

Control One
Date: 10/6
Shop: Brother Hubbard
Address: 153 Capel Street, Dublin 1
Website: www.brotherhubbard.ie
What I ordered: Black Coffee
Notes: It was super crowded inside, even with all the outdoor patio tables taken. So, since it was a sunny day, I got a coffee to go and took it down to the Ormond Quay boardwalk to drink along the Liffey. Brother Hubbard makes an excellent cup of joe, and this was easily the best coffee from my entire coffeeneuring experience. It probably helps that they serve Has Bean coffee and grind it to order.
Total Mileage: 2.9
Photographic Evidence:

Boardwalk on the left. Ha'penny bridge in the distance.

Brother Hubbards = tasty

Control Two
Date: 10/8 (Tara Rule)
Shop: Cake Cafe
Address: Pleasants Place, Dublin 8
Website: www.thecakecafe.ie
What I ordered: Black Coffee and a Brownie
Notes: I love Cake Cafe. It's adorable. And delicious. And called CAKE cafe (#teamcake). All of the outdoor tables have their own bike rack. It's in an alley. For all of these reasons I wanted to include it in my coffeeneuring list, but it's (lucky for me, not for coffeeneuring) just around the corner from my house. To up the mileage, I rode through Rathmines to pick up a coffeneuring co-conspirator at her house. Cake Cafe is always packed, so the secret is to not go on a weekend. Since I needed this to count for Coffeeneuring, I exploited Tara's Rule and went on a Monday.
Total Mileage: 3
Photographic Evidence:

Cake Cafe

Mismatched toile china = :)   Also, I realize the hypocrisy of ordering a brownie at Cake Cafe, but this was a kickass brownie.

The outdoor patio alternates one section bike racks, one section tables. Bike racks are almost always filled to the brim.

Control Three
Date: 10/13
Shop: 3fE/Foam Cafe
Address: 54 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1/24 Strand Street Great, Dublin 1
Website: www.3fe.com / www.foamcafe.ie
What I ordered: Latte
Notes: I wanted to try Third Floor Espresso because I've heard so many good things, so I recruited my friend/coffeeneuring co-conspirator Julia and we went to find it. We failed at finding it. After checking the address one million times, we came upon a door that offered us both tattoos and body piercing AND watch repair, but not coffee. Not to be defeated, we wandered the neighborhood until we found a good coffeeneuring option. Foam Cafe drew us in with the spangly signage, and turned out to be a gem of a find based on the artwork alone. We had an adorable seat under the stairs. 3fE will happen another day.
Total Mileage: 4.2
Photographic Evidence:

Not Third Floor Espresso

It was cute inside

Spangly sinage, bikes.

Control Four
Date: 10/21
Shop: Fixx
Address: 13-17 Dawson Street, Dublin 2
Website: www.fixxcoffeehouse.ie
What I ordered: Chai
Notes: I became a regular at Fixx when I first moved to Dublin because I was homeless/without internet and they're one of a handful of shops that don't limit your wifi use to 20 minutes. They also make an excellent chai, and have a secret bathroom door. Can you find it in the photo?
Total Mileage: 2.5
Photographic Evidence:

Chai

Sneaky

Control Five
Date: 11/4
Shop: Java Espressobar & Kaffeforretning
Address: Ullevålsveien 47, 0171 Oslo
Website: Unknown
What I ordered: Espresso. At $6.50, it was by far the cheapest menu item (Norwegians have an embarrassing amount of money).
Notes: I chose this shop off a yelp search simply because Kaffeforretning looks like coffeeneuring. My friends couldn't really recommend anything that wasn't 711 because they all make normal-people salaries and not Norwegian salaries. I was going to get a daily pass on Oslo Bysykkel (http://www.oslobysykkel.no/oslo_bysykkel.asp), but it would have cost me 2.5 espressos, so I borrowed my friend's membership card instead (his yearly membership costs 3 espressos). Remembering how to bike on the right side of the road was the hardest bit.
Total Mileage: 3.1
Photographic Evidence (crappy cellphone photos this time, sorry):

Norwegians are rich beyond my wildest dreams. 

Coffee made here.

Control Six
Date: 11/10
Shop: The Art of Coffee
Address: Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2
Website: www.theartofcoffee.info
What I ordered: Cappucino and a goat cheese ciabatta
Notes: I've been wanting to try this shop for a while because the building is just silly. It's a giant glass pagoda in the middle of a residential/old industrial area. It's also right on the grand canal, so the view from my seat was of swans and houseboats (including, as possibly seen in the photo, some bizarre confederacy supporters). I also like that I can get to this shop from my house almost exclusively using just the Canal Way Cycle Route (which I'm obsessed with).
Total Mileage: 3.5
Photographic Evidence:

This building amuses me greatly.

Nice view, and near school. I'll be back between classes.

Control Seven
Date: 11/11
Shop: KC Peaches
Address: 2829 Nassau Street, Dublin 2
Website: www.kcpeaches.com
What I ordered: Hot Apple Cider
Notes: KC Peaches is across the street from the library and has a student discount. Wins all around. Plus, they have this ridiculous display of baked goods. I met some friends for Thanksgiving dinner planning, so apple cider seemed an appropriate choice.
Total Mileage: 3.3
Photographic Evidence:

She's working a chip and pin machine, not texting.

Awful photo of baked goods including my reflection, glare, and the camera strap.

Picture of the Day - October 2010

I'm sure most people who read this (2 out of the 3?) know that I spent 2010 working on a project where I took one photo each day. That was pretty much the only rule; it could be the most exciting thing that day, something I thought was pretty, or just a hastily assembled still life because it was late and I had forgotten to take a photo earlier. All photos are taken with the same camera, and are unedited (except for one or two that are cropped). I still haven't broken the habit of carrying a camera around with me everywhere, and it is odd to look back on my life in a series of 365 photos.

Click to Englarge

October, 2010

October 1st

October 2nd

October 3rd

October 4th

October 5th

October 6th

October 7th

October 8th

October 9th

October 10th

October 11th

October 12th

October 13th

October 14th

October 15th

October 16th

October 17th

October 18th

October 19th

October 20th

October 21st

October 22nd

October 23rd

October 24th

October 25th

October 26th

October 27th

October 28th

October 29th

October 30th

October 31s

Morning Routines, at long last.

I promised to post my commute video a while ago, but then life happened and I never got around to editing it.

So here is some of the really shaky footage. I think the handlebars on Big Purple were way easier to use with a camera in hand than the ones on Seventies Puffer Vest. I take several different routes to work, but this is one of my favorite variations, especially when the leaves were all different colors.



Merry almost Christmas everyone! I think I may go to Austria next week, in which case I may be blogging again sooner than planned.

-L

Karst Biking, Starfish Eating

Kyla just left earlier this week after a pretty amazing visit. I'm so glad she was able to come.

We did a lot. After touring Shanghai for a few days, we headed down to Yangshou so I could prove to K that not all air in China is polluted. The topography in Yangshuo is incredibly unique. There are karst formations all over the world, but I cant think of many that are so heavily forested as those in Yangshuo. Yangshuo is super touristy, but for good reason. It's beautiful, and has tons to do.

View from the hostel:


Our first day it rained pretty heavily, so we got accustomed to our hostel and signed up for a cooking class. We stayed at the same place my friends stayed at last semester. Monkey Jane's is definitely a good place to meet people, and has a pretty unbeatable view. I even met someone from GW. Our cooking class was all foreigners (like most of Yangshuo) and majority American. It was a friendly, if eclectic group. We learned how to make Guangxi food, which was mostly stir fries with oyster sauce, but we did make egg wrap dumplings which was an exciting first experience for me. Prior to cooking we went to the farmer's market to buy our ingredients. I didn't get a picture of the dog cages, but I'll assure you they were sad.

Cooking class:


The next day we went to visit the water caves. The caves in Yangshuo were absolutely amazing. I don't think I've ever been in such large caverns before. We went on about an hour long walking tour where we were allowed to do things that would cause the EPA to faint. Kyla, Shavan and I felt too guilty to shimmy up stalagmites and traipse about through protected caverns, but the other tourists on our walking tour did not experience such heistation. Also during this walking tour, I attempted to translate the guide for Shavan and Kyla and learned a lot of important new vocab, like mammoth and jellyfish.

After the tour of the caves, we had the chance to play in the mud bath and then sit in the hot springs. The mud bath was goopy. I really can't think of a better word to describe it. Thick goop. A bit shallow, and so gross. But fun. The hot springs were amazing! When I've been to hot springs in the past, they've been man-made enclosures, usually about kiddie pool sized. These were natural shelves built into a cliff, each housing a small pool that fit one or two people. The cliff itself was inside a massive cavern. It was definitely a surreal experience. I wish I had photos of these things I'm describing, but we didn't bring cameras in for fear of breaking them in the mud baths or something. For future visitors, don't listen to the lady who guards the lockers, you can easily and safely bring your camera with you.

Monday we went for a bike ride along the Li river. As I mentioned earlier, the scenery here is just amazing. I'll just post photos instead of describing in too much detail. We biked for maybe 10 kilometers or so through mud paths and small villages to the Dragon Bridge. Instead of biking all the way back, we hired some bamboo rafts and floated in luxury about half way back. The highlight of the rafting ride was my discussion with our driver (captain?). He asked if we had tan people in America, and I responded that we had people of all colors and that it was often a vanity thing to make your skin tanner. This delighted him immensely, since in China tanned skin means you're lower class and have to work outdoors. He declared that the darkness of his tan would mean everyone in America would call him 大老板 （big boss). Then he looked at our white skin and at the umbrella above us in horror, and quickly removed it so we could soak up all the vitamin D possible.

Views from the bike/raft ride:






Tuesday we went tubing on the river. This was super beautiful too, and relaxing, until I was sucked under a concrete dock and "surfaced" underneath the boats in a marina, losing my sunglasses and almost dying. FYI, the current is stronger than it appears. When I finally made it to air, the current was too strong for me to swim to shore. Before I was swept away to Vietnam, I hailed a bamboo raft that was toting some tourists. The rafter fished me out with his pole, but then one of the tourists goes "她想去哪里?!" (Where does she want to go?!). I'm sorry, I didn't hail this raft, fully clothed in the middle of a river clutching my shoes hoping to hitch to Guilin! Silliness. I still have some pretty awesome bruising.

Sunrise in Yangshuo:


That night we caught a flight back to Shanghai for another few days. I worked while Kyla EXPOed. Before you know it, we were traveling again, headed to Beijing for the weekend. I sent Kyla ahead with some friends which was a good idea, since my computer died, and by the time I actually made it to Beijing a few days later, I ended up spending a good deal of the time (6 hours in one day) at the only Apple store in China. Aside from computer drama, it was again weird and nostalgic to be back in BJ, especially since this time we visited some of the cafes and bars where I used to hang out.

Kyla's home now and I'm back to my fun routine of work, apply for work, study Chinese, apply for work. Hopefully I'll fit in the Expo before I make moves. Next stop: Korea in two weeks for a spontaneous weekend.

~L