a love of Dublin pizza: with my dad

Happy Thursday! Today is the final day of voting for round one of the #MaximCoverGirl contest! Click here to cast a free daily vote and help me move onto the next round! Besides that, how are you doing? Are you taking time to check-in with yourself and give yourself the care, love, and attention you need? If not, it’s perfectly okay to set aside time for yourself to do whatever you want/need to do during ‘me time.’ Maybe it’s yoga, meditation, running, reading, building a pallet garden, dancing your silly little heart out to some Hall and Oates (still bummed I couldn’t see them at the Hollywood Bowl last weekend due to Covid-19), or even playing animal crossing. Whatever you want to do during your assigned ‘me time,’ make sure you’re doing it and giving yourself a break. Also, if you’re protesting and helping support the Black Lives Matter movement, you might also need to set aside some me time. That’s okay, too. It’s important to rest and recharge so you can start each day strong.

If you didn’t get a chance to read yesterday’s post - “a love of Dublin pizza: Dublin Pizza Company” - it was the second post in a row about pizza I ate while living in Dublin. And since I’m trying to set aside time each day to focus on things I love, today’s post will also be about pizza. We’re definitely time jumping left and right, but my past couple pizza posts, especially yesterday’s, reminded me of another time I had pizza with my dad on one of his visits to see me in Dublin. My dad and I did a lot of fun things together on his first trip to Ireland, but he still remembers one of his favorite nights being one in which we got out of Dublin city for a few hours. He and I jumped on the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) and took a nice 40-45 minute train ride out along the coast to visit Bray. Bray is one of two small coastal towns I’d visit every once in awhile when I needed to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city (the other being Howth).

I had wanted to give my dad a memory of Ireland that was something other than visiting the Guinness Storehouse or Jameson Distillery (which are both things we did) after hitting a lot of rights-of-passage Irish tourist experiences. That train ride to Bray was a nice way to point out to him many of the various running routes I took on my longer runs when training for the Barcelona Marathon, as well as showing him some beautiful coastline. When we got to Bray, we stopped for dinner at a small little pizza place called Platform, which was tucked away just off the Bray Prom. My dad and I shared a vegan pizza, and I was very proud of him for trying it, especially since it had vegan cheese. He even remarked, “I can’t believe I’m here in Bray, my first time in Ireland, with my daughter and eating vegan pizza. That’s pretty cool!” And it was pretty cool. It was a nice precursor to the main event of the night! (And yes, the title of the post says Dublin, but we actually had pizza in Bray... sorry!)

We walked from Platform to the cozy little seaside pub The Harbour Bar, which is exactly as wonderful as its name dictates, to see a night of Candlelit Tales. Candlelit Tales is a small group of Irish actors and musicians who do live storytelling shows of Irish folklore. The mythical stories are full of love, war, sex, and competition among clans. The storytellers present the tales in dramatic fashion while accompanied by soft, live music playing behind them as they stand or sit on high stools. That night at the Harbour Bar was not my first time seeing Candlelit Tales, but it was the most special because I got to take my Dad (who loved it). To go from having my dad read me ancient mythology as a kid to then taking him to have ancient Irish mythology told to him was a truly special, full-circle moment.

Candlelit Tales performs a lot in Dublin, County Wicklow, and at festivals in Ireland. If you’re ever visiting and get the chance to see a live performance, I’d truly recommend it. If you happen to see them at the Harbour Bar, make sure you also check out the original artwork of Al Hanney. Have you ever visited a new place and had a unique cultural experience separate from guided tours? If so, I’d love to hear about it! Subscribe in the e-mail submission box below and reach out, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and reach out to me on the “contact” page. I’m so happy you're here and that I’ve been getting a lot of really great, fun-to-read stories, questions, feedback, and food recommendations from a community all over the globe from all different chapters of my life (and from new friends I can't wait to meet one day)! The other stories of people’s travels that I’ve gotten to read via e-mail, text, tweet, DM, etc. recently bring me such smiles, and I am so grateful for all of it! I hope I get to hear all about the crazy stories you’ve been thinking about as we’ve been on this virtual journey together! Especially during this time of uncertainty, unrest, and pandemic, it's important to surround yourself with things and people (via video chats) that bring you joy; we're all in this together. I couldn’t do this without you! So THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, truly, thank you.

And please, I know the world is in a period of uncertainty and tension right now, and we all have more important things to do, but I would really appreciate your daily vote for me to be Maxim Cover Girl 2020. Click here to vote! Voting for round one ends tonight Thursday June 4th, and I would really appreciate your help and support!

AND, if you're in the Los Angeles area and considering some delicious take-out anytime soon, please click this highlighted link for a google doc of black-owned restaurants in LA you can support right now.

Sincerely,

Johny

P.S. - If you want to catch up from the beginning on this series of adventures, here's a cheat sheet to the posts (in order in which they were published):

1. Won't you join me?

2. grateful for starbucks and sandymount strand

3. Once Upon a December in the National Gallery

4. plant a smooch for that gift of gab

5. may the 4th be with you: Dingle style

6. cinco de mayo: the best Mexican food in Dublin

7. pizza in roma

8. mussolini’s window and the philosophers’ metro stop

9. father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife

10. it's the vatican, not the vatican't

11. spoiler alert: i did not lose my hand

12. more pizza and gelato and Neptune, oh my