Easter

My Mom always says that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, but here in Ireland this year it's really done the opposite. It snowed yesterday! Only briefly. But still -- exciting!

I've been asking around about Easter traditions here and it seems that the main one involves eating a lot of chocolate, just like back home, which is fine by me. I'm just sorry that no one is likely to give me an egg this year! Looks like I'll probably have to buy my own! Oh well!

Purely for research purposes, I have sacrificed myself and conducted some careful research into the chocolate situation here in Dublin, and here's what I found out:

Dotted around the city there are various Butlers Chocolates outlets. Although I should probably save money and have the cheap coffee at college, I sometimes go to the one on Wicklow Street for a Cappucino and an itsy bitsy truffle. Coffee and chocolate make for a killer combination.

Then, there's the Lily O'Brien's range. Also very good! And Lir Cafe. And I'm pretty sure there's more. There does (and you have NO idea how much painstaking effort went into this analysis) see to be a common trend among the Irish chocolatiers, however. I would say that Irish chocolate, in general, tends to the baroque, with flavour heaped on flavour, and ooooohhh... sticky toffee praline.

I'm going to have to cut this short now because, to be perfectly frank, all this talk of chocolate is making me hungry. I've seen some local street vendors flogging Jedward Easter eggs on the cheap so again, purely for research, you understand, I might go and investigate what the cheaper end of the market has to offer.