Dublin zoo

Red pandas!!!

Apparently peacocks like pizza... 

Giraffe eating his morning spinach

Cute baby gorilla cuddling with mom & staring at me 

Male giraffe tasting the urine of a female giraffe to see how much estrogen she has. Love learning about animal mating rituals!

My relative, the Gibbon

Shrine of St. Valentine

I was in Dublin visiting my boyfriend for Valentine's Day, so of course we had to visit the shrine of St. Valentine at the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Whitefriar Street. In 1835 Pope Gregory XVI gave a reliquary containing the remains of St. Valentine to John Spratt, an Irish preacher who was visiting Rome. He brought them to the church, and a shrine was built to house the remains. You can read more about St. Valentine here: http://www.carmelites.ie/stvalentine.html

Sweet princesses

Saw these "sweet princess" chocolates at Fallon & Byrne, a really nice grocery store in Dublin. My boyfriend said they reminded him of me. :-)

Day after the tube strike

Heart biscuits at Carluccio's

Sunny grey day

The skies are rather strange today - sunny and grey at the same time! 

Rose petals

I love the fact that Waitrose sells rose petals. I'm going to google recipes with rose petals now!