02 octobre 2008
DUBLIN
I finished September with a 8 days week of work, so it was high time to enjoy a little holiday far from Belfast. That's why i headed for Dublin, which is 3 hours away by bus (for more or less 20 euros a return ticket). Even if there is no more any material border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the bus was stopped on the road and we were asked an ID card. With the shift of the operator on our mobiles, the sudden apparition of Gaelic languages on all road signs, and the speed limit which changed from Miles per hour to Kilometer per hour, that was the only sign we were entering "another country".
I was told a lot about Dublin, but what should be told especially is that it is an expensive and crowded city. Even at the end of September, streets were full of tourists, and, with the big bright sun of Sunday, it was absolutely choke-a-bloke everywhere. For example, at the end of Grafton Street (first pic) where a street artist, someone between a stand-up comedian and a guitarist, was improvising jokes at the expense of all the public around him. I forgot his name unfortunately. Something like McSavage... And of course, it was choke-a-bloke too around Temple Bar in the night, where street artists shared the pavement with some other artists masters in the art of swindling people out of their money with impossible tricks.
Of course, i went to Trinity College to see the Long Room and the Book of Kells (manuscript written in 800!) where it is unfortunately forbidden to take any photos.
And of course, Dublin wouldn't be Dublin without the GUINNESS STOREHOUSE :
There are loads and loads of more pictures on the photo album DUBLIN.
Two more pictures for Czech Republic : I found a Czech hostel/restaurant, and also i found the "walkers" i saw last year on the Vltava in Praha !
26 juin 2008
Live Session at "the Duke of York"
The problem, in Irish pubs, is that it's very difficult to hear musicians playing. All the people around make so much noise that it's barely audible ! So, the contrary of what happens on the continent, where music is just hear to make people deaf !
What i learned the day after : the "Duke of York" in spite of its name is a bar where only one kind of people tend to go, the kind who is Irish and proud to be, and it's better not to go there wearing a Union Jack because my housemate told me a guy was killed there in a fight because he wore Reebok trainers with a tiny Union Jack on it ^^
