A bit of a crawl

I got over to Carl's just in time for the start of the Hollyoaks omnibus (high drama this week!), after which we surfed the web and out together a short list of hotels where we might stay in Zürich in May. We ended up with five possibilities and they've now been vetted by our friend (and ex-member of the Music Group) Martin who lives there. Fortunately, he recommends the one which we preferred best, so it's time now to proceed to the booking stage.

It was after 2.00 by this stage, the day was brightening gradually, and it seemed like a good idea to venture out. It's a while since we've been to Blackrock (not a million miles from Carl's place), so that got the vote. Somehow, it developed into a bit of a pub crawl. Tonic didn't appeal to us, and Sheehan's was a bit offputting at first because of too many TVs with conflicting sports coverage on them. We stayed there for one, though, and it turned out to be a pleasant interlude, especially when the sun broke through and created nice patterns on the floor. We left when the smell of chargrilled food became too strong and the atmosphere became smokey (though not before I blipped these unlikely companions on a shelf behind the bar). From there it was on to O'Rourke's, a long-established stalwart of the Blackrock pub scene. There was football on the telly there too, but we sat at the bar regardless and had a good old time, even catching a bite to eat (I had the scampi and apple crumble -- yummy!) The Australian barman was chatty and friendly, even though he took a notion that I had an American accent. The Breffni is just across the road from there. TV sport coverage was even worse there, with the customers much more interested in horse-racing than in talking to one another, but we managed to find a quiet corner and got away from the intrusiveness of the demon TV for one more pint. Our mini crawl finished in The Wicked Wolf, where we sat right at the back beside a large window with a view across the Bay to Howth. The barman came over to us at one stage with binoculars, apparently thinking that we were interested in watching the arrival of 'The World's Largest Car Ferry'. After that it was time to call it a day in terms of pub-crawling, so we headed back to Carl's Kino to watch an episode of the Horatio Hornblower TV series, following which I came back home to do some work.

By the way, I've also back-blipped for yesterday if anyone's interested.