Tapas

I found this via Beep and decided to do it:

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

My first answer was Barcelona, how it was the perfect city for tapas and art and napping and partying all night. Except I don't like tapas, so I tweaked an answer or two and got Dublin.

Yeah, I know, who doesn't like tapas? I assumed I did and enrolled in a tapas course last fall. After one evening of making aïoli, gazpacho and more, and eating it, I was Wide Awake. I later found out that a little garlic is relaxing, while a lot will wake you up. Since I'm not crazy about seafood or losing my sleep, and the only dish that I really liked that night was the gazpacho soup, I thought about whether or not to go back. Other factors that normally would be ignored now ended up in the "against" column, so I withdrew from the course.

But since then "tapas" has come back into my world, via yoga. "Tapas" means heat and basically means to burn away your own impurities through spiritual practice or self-disciplined. It's explained rather well on this website (frames; look for "tapas" in the overview).

Oh, the description above about pub crawling or biking through old neighborhoods? Count me in!