Ireland day 4: Back to the A'dam for work

It's an early start and into the car for the long trip back to Dublin. Our flights back are mid afternoon, so we are time pressed to get back to Dublin Airport. OUr only stop is a toilet stop in Athlone. Mainly because we know the area and can make it a quick stop. It's a much nice day and we get some good family photos in front of Athlone Castle:



We make pretty good time back to the airport, which leaves us with quite a bit of time to kill before our flights. I settle down to some blog updating and work catch up(It's a Monday) in a cafe, while my family have some coffee and get over the tiredness of the long drive.

We eventually head through our gates and then have a final pint of Guinness together, before I'm on my flight back to Amsterdam. It's an early night before I start another bitch of a proposal writing week.

Ireland day 3: Galway

We get up early and enjoy another fried breakfast in the homely atmosphere of the B and B. Its about a 2 hour drive onwards to Gallway. The scenary slowly improves as we near Gallway. We head straight for the centre for a wander around, as we are too early to check into our hotel. Gallway is a great little picturesque town. It has a beautiful river, and a very old shopping street with lots of little shops full of character.





I'm delighted to notice that the record shop is blaring out VS by Pearl Jam:



I head in and have a look for some music to fuel the afternoon drive which we are taking up the western coast. I settle on the Rolling Stones new album:



We head off in the Car and try to find the hotel. Our soundtrack is the opening track os Big Bang; "Rough Justice". It's definitely the stones. They have such an established sound, that you get the feeling that you've heard it before, but you know that it's good. It even has good quality Mick Jagger lines such as:

"So put your lips to my hips baby
And tell me what's on your mind
I know you still got that animal attraction for me
It's been a long, long time"

We are staying at the travellodge, and my brother and I are delighted when we find out that we can tap into a free wifi connection in the room. Jesus, we're easily amused.

Our road trip takes us up the coast, where we stop by the beach and head out onto the rocks for a picnic. The weather ahs really improved since leaving Dublin, where it was pissing it down. Now we have bright sunny weather with a little cooling breeze, which seems perfect for the smooth sands which make up our view of the Gallway coast.

We have produce left over from the market in Dublin which we have augmented with some salads and stuff from a Supermarket on the way.

After lunch, my brother stays in the car with his sketchbook while my parents and I head out on a wee walk. It's a great little town, and the pubs are already overflowing, even though it's 2 hours until the Hurling kick off. We head of on a country road which takes uss down and onto the beach, and then get a few photos:





There is a river which flows into the sea, and I am convinced that there must be a place where we can cross it and head back to the car. We head along one side of the river, and soon realise thatit was afruitless short cut. My dad however wants to continue. I think it''s something about woodland walks, he seems to think he's in the scouts again. We very quickly get lost. We are trailing my father along the path, when we follow him under a bridge which has a rusty sign instructing trespassers to beware of the dog.

We have now went under the main road and have to climb through ferns and long grass to make it up to the wall where we climb over and jump onto the road. So much for shortcuts.

Once back at the car, we head back to Gallway to hit the street and see what atmosphere is offered by the home town of the Hurling championship underdogs.

My brother and I watch about 30 minutes of the first half over a pint of Guinness, but the fact that we have no knowledge of the rules, game or scoring system, and can't actually see the screen means that we are cheering along with the crowd about half a second after they are. We head out for a wander.

Out on a a wander, we window shop for a little while, have another pint and generally doss about until we meet my parents a the car and head back to the hotel. The most memorable moment during this donner was when we saw a drunk with a radio having a conversation with an Oscar Wilde statue about how the game was going:



By now we've heard almost all the stones album. It's fairly uninteresting. Mick still seems to think that white guitar based disco isn't dead. By far my favorite track is the bizarre Keef vocal lead "track 6???", his gravely weather worn out of tune voice works great on the track. He is a living legend, a knight of the 20th century who wears history on his face. All in all he is a human miracle just on the fact that he can still stand up.

Dinner is a quiet affair in a little restaurant, then we head out to a few more pubs. They are full to the brim, but luckily due to the smoking ban, the bars now spill onto the street. We stand about outside with our pints of guinness and talk to a few locals. I think Gallway would be a great place to some with some mates for a pub crawl.

It's a pretty early night when we head off to bed, having completed the western leg of our family weekend to Galway

Ireland day 2: Back on the road

Today we are going to explore a little more Dublin, then head off in a rented car and explore a little more Ireland, so after a good old fried breakfast, it's out and onto the streets of Dublin. We head over to Grafton street to see the bustle of the shopping streets. It's like any other shopping street. What's nice about Dublin is that the various statues that you find in any other city are given colloquial names:

Molly Mallone becomes the "Tart with the cart"



James Joyce becomes the "Prick with the stick"



Oscar WIlde becomes the "Fag on the Crag"



There are various others:

Hags wi´ the bags



Floozy in the Jacuzzi



The latest is a huge needle which sticks up out of the shopping street near the post office:



No name has been settled, but there have been several suggestions, the "Stiletto in the Ghetto", "the Skewer in the sewer" or just Milligan(After the famous comedian Spike Milligan)

While we are here, we take a quick trip for stamps and post cards in the post office. This is no Ordinary post office, it is the post office that Michael Collins defended when the Irish republic launched a revolt against their British invaders. You can still see the bullet holes in the front of the building. Unfortunately it was scaffolded for repairs when we were there.

We head back to the hotel via a little open market for some picnic supplies. It's now time to head off and pick up the car before hitting the road.

Once on the road, we are reminded that the Irish Hurling League final is on in Dublin tomorrow. The reigning champions Cork are playing the underdogs Gallway. We are on the Dublin to Gallway road, so it seems like every car which passes us in the other direction is heading to the game.



Hurling is a team sport of Celtic origin, played with sticks and a ball. The game, played primarily in Ireland, is the world's fastest field team sport. It resembles the games of shinty that is played primarily in Scotland and bandy that was played formerly in England and Wales. Hurling played by women is also known as camogie. Hurling is Ireland's native sport.
The roads are unremarkable and I'm pretty glad when we get to Athlone.

Athlone (Baile Átha Luain in Irish, meaning "town of the ford of Luan") lies on the River Shannon near the southern extremity of Lough Ree, some 130 km west of Dublin. The west side of Athlone forms part of County Roscommon while the larger east side lies in County Westmeath, but administratively, almost all of the town has been included in Westmeath since 1898, and planning applications are dealt with be the respective county councils. The town's population in 2004 was 15,936, slightly more than that of Mullingar. Athlone sits close to the geographical centre of Ireland. Nearby are Moate on the road to Dublin, Ballinasloe on the road to Galway, and Tang on the road to Ballymahon, County Longford.

We are staying in Athlone to break up the journey to Gallway.

We have a small Bed and Breakfast on the outskirts of town, and once we are settled, we head off into the centre for an explore. The only thing worth seeing in Athlone is the castle. It is however a nice little town, and it is probably more genuinely Irish than Dublin has become. For want of somethign better to do, we head off to the Cinema. I would calculate that our last family trip to the cinema was at least 10 years ago, so it's quite good fun. We go and see "The longest Yard" which is a bad Adam Sandler and Chris Rock comedy. We really enjoy it. Chris Rock is always funny though:



I wouldn't however recommend it. It was just good film to go and watch with your family.

Afterwards, we head to the night life area for something to eat and another few pints of guinness. After lapping up a little bit of atmosphere in "sean's bar" we settle on Indian for the night. We fill ourselves with curry and then see if we can find a space at the bar. The bar is really long and authentic, going way back into a beer garden, the floor is uneven and dilapidated and the whole bar has a great atmosphere. Given that it's saturday night, it seems like everyone in the surrounding area is drinking here toinight, so we squeeze ourselves back out and wander round a little before heading back to the Bed and Breakfast and finding something a little closer to home.

We eventually settle on a little bar whose name I can't remember, but it has live music and Guinness on tap. We tap along to some music while enjoying our drinks, and then head off to bed ready for a drive to Gallway the next day, making sure on our way to the room, that our guinness fueled mother hasn't defaced any of the varnished jigsaw painting which adorn the walls of the B and B

Ireland:Day 1 - Dublin

We wake up, and I'm I have a little more energy. The problem with moving so fast, is that when you stop, you're body shuts down. I associatte my family with home and non-work. So i go into shut down when I spend time with them. Hopefully Ireland has enough to offer to keep me wide awake.

Today is our first day in Dublin, so we can head off and see the place. We have tickets booked for the Guinness Warehouse in the afternoon, but at the moment we are free agents.

On coming out of the hotel, it's clear that Dublin is the most similar city I've ever been in to Glasgow while being in a foreign country. It rains the same way.

We head off towards the centre. We need to find an indoors pursuit to get out of the rain. My dad suggests a trip to Dublin castle, as the guide teaches you a little about history:



The next tour starts at 11am, so on returning after a coffee, we join the tour.

Although it's more of a country house than a castle, it has a checkered past which make it a good overview for getting some history of Dublin. The Viceroy lived here when Ireland was under British rule. Soldiers were brought here during the Easter rising(An Unsuccessful rebellion which attempted to start an independent Ireland in 1916)

Generally, it's a country house similar to the insides of several other castles:





By the time we leave, the weather is far better, and we head down to Temple Bar via a couple of shopping streets for some lunch:



The temple bar is an area of Dublin which has been renovated to provide lots of drinking establishments and traditional dublin nightlife. The truth is it has become a tourist trap full of Faux Dublin Stag nights and hen nights. It's not a bad place at night, it's just a bit of a characterture of reality.

We've opted for lunch and a Guinness in the Old Dubliner:



It's standard irish fare, with some good traditional music, hearty winter food, and a creamy pint. We sit at the window and watch the world go by. The lonely planets come out and we work out the best way to get to the Guinness Warehouse. we've decided it's close enough that we can walk. The walk takes us past Christchurch cathedral where we stop for a few photos:





Eventually, we walk down the wonderful alleyways of warehouses which lead us to the Guinness warehouse:





The Guinness Storehouse tour is a huge multimedia experience that cost 12 Million to build a few years back. It's very impressive and teaches you how they make Guinness, the History of Guinness and also some fun and games. You slowly make your way through the exhibits which move up the six or so floors of the tour, and then finally at the top you get a free pint of Guinness.



In the gravity bar, you get a panoramic view over the whole of dublin:



Far more impressive though was an american tourist on a beige and biscuit tour who had more tourist patches than I've ever seen on one jacket:



After the Guinness store house it's about 5pm, so time to head back to the hotel to freshen up before going out on the town.

We are heading out to Temple Bar to find something to eat and then to track down some live music and Guinness. You can see a recurring theme here. We've probably had about 4 pints of Guinness so far today.

Finding a restaurant that meets your needs shouldn't be too tough, but given that it's Friday night and everyone in Dublin seems to be on a hen or stag night, most places are about busy and noisy. We eventually find a little indonesian Rijsttafel place called the Cameleon.



It's a pokey little restaurant, so has a great atmosphere and homelyness. They bring out various dishes and let us try lots of different Indonesian dishes. There's various satay's, sambols, and rices, but the pick of the bunch is the aniseed pork:



After dinner, we have a walk along the Liffey to let our dinner digest and then seek out a bar which has some live music and Guinness on tap(Not exactly tough). we find a bar which has a live blues band. They're pretty good, and do a good rendition of Red House. Then it;s off home to bed in preparation for going further afield tomorrow.

It´s a long road to Tipperary(Well Dublin)

After a long week of work which made Bulgaria seem like a distant memory, I'm off for a long weekend with my mum, dad and brother in Dublin.

I head off from work to the airport on Thursday evening and fly over to Dublin. I arrive first and sit around the small airport at Dublin and wait for the Scottish residents. Even though the Irish are both the neighbours and cousins of Scotland, this is my first time in Ireland. It's strange being in a European country with the Euro for currency which is so close in culture to Scotland.

I'm absolutely shattered after a week of solid work, and overdosing on Caffeine. I'm looking forward to a slow weekend, and most of all my bed. It seems to take for ages for the Ryanair flight to arrive from Prestwick, but eventually it does, and I get to see my family again, but most importantly of all my brother sorts me out with an Irn Bru which makes everything okay again:



We head off in a taxi to the hotel, and immediately it's clear that I'm not in the Netherlands anymore. The Taxi driver is jovial and talkative and asking all about our stay etc. The Irish call this the "craic". The good conversation and fun.

We settle in the hotel and immediately head off to the bar beside the hotel for our first pint of Guinness and a good hearty meal. I opt for the Fish and Chips and after the long pour the Guinness arrives:



It tastes wonderful, and soon enough the fish and chips arrive to complete the dish. Everyone wolfs down the food and we catch up with gossip, jokes, news etc.

Everyone is pretty knackered, so it's off for an early night.