28 July 2011

My Irish adventure: Tramore

Leaving Dublin the 20th June felt like a relief. Away from the noise and the busy busy people, heading for the south. Our next destination was Tramore, a little coastal town close to Waterford. Got on the bus and drove through several places connected to songs I knew; Carlow (Follow me up to Carlow) and Athy (Johnny I hardly knew ye) to mention a few. So I was humming and Solveig were counting sheep...
When we finally got to Waterford, we jumped straight on the bus to Tramore...it couldn't be that hard to find our host...well, I was wrong, but a handsome man saved us by calling the taxi-service...

Our street
 I will let the pictures talk...yes, I know I'm boring...but there will be more details after the pictures...

A charming little pub...were we got stuck, talking to the locals

Two of the locals...great craic

A glorious and windy day in Tramore

I love beaches like this one...

my lovely, mad sister will be going back here....soon

The waves mesmerizes me...they hypnotizes me....or was it the surfer?

...and clouds

PEBBLES! Feeling like a child again

A nice place for deep thinking

An evening in Tramore
 But Tramore wasn't only waves and pebbles. It was also an amazing coucsurfingexperience and the place where I joined my first trad-session. It was unbelievably cool and I'm so thankful that Patti (a friend of our host Karen) talked me into it. The evening in questioning started with a most amazing pot-luck hosted by Patti and her husband Mark (bring your food, share and have fun).
Pot-luck

I also brought with me my fiddle, and when we felt it was time we moved over to the nearby pub where some guys had gathered for a trad-session. Luckily they didn't have a fiddleplayer with them, so I soon found my place in the group.

St Leger; my first trad-session

Karen; our amazing host....you are so supercool, thanks for everything

The guys.... the boy playing the bodhran was unbelievably good

Suddenly, I'm sitting there and cannot understand that I'm doing it...

AWESOME GUYS

The guy to the right, playing the guitar, sang a song called "Wagon Wheel" which got stuck in my mind...and when we left the pub to go home, he congratulated me on my playing and singing ^^


Of course the audience wanted something norwegian, so after a pint of Guinness me and my sister stood up, and sang: "Eg rodde meg ut på seiegrunnen" (I rowed out unto the pollackground)...an amazing song about a man who rowed out in the morning, meets his archenemy at the fishingplace, and makes him fall out of his boat by the use of his fishingrod...yes, Norwegians are weird. And then we took "Wild Rover" and the pub rang with the  chorus..."and it's no nay never!"
A brilliant ending to a brilliant night...

*************
The 23rd was our last day in Tramore, and it was with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to Karen, Kayliegh and Erin.
A good Irish breakfast :p
 The best way to start a morning is....tada...with a proper Irish breakfast...this is also the best hangover-cure I know ^^
Housechicken

Next stop: CORK

22 July 2011

Dublin in pictures

Detail from Kinlay Hostel

BUSKERS!

From Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham

Execution spot

Pro or anti-treaty?

Pure brilliance

Beautiful

Detail from Glasnevin

Detail from Halfpenny Bridge

The Custom House

Merchants Quay

Pain

So true

I'm thinking about a pint...do you?

One of the treasures of Ireland: second-hand bookstores

And warm, wooly sweaters that smells like a sheep...

My Irish Adventure: Howth/Dublin part 3

I like Dublin, but more than 4 days can be too much in a way. So getting out to Howth the 20th almost felt like a relief, to get away from the noise and just breath.
Getting the bus in Dublin can only be described as a peculiar experience, since noone seems to get to the busstop on time..
Anyway, the drive out to Howth was beautiful, the sun was shining and it seemed that half of Dublin were heading in the same direction as us.
View from the pier.
 Howth seems like the total opposite of Dublin, and it felt so nice to breath in the salty, fresh sea-air. To feel the emptiness of thought...undescribable.
Those of you who read my travel-description last summer might recall me mentioning Howth in my story about Bachelor's Walk (chapter 6) and as all the other places of historical interest, this was a place that meant something to me. When I closed my eyes, I imagined how the place looked like almost 100 years ago, when the gunrunners managed to smuggle their load to Dublin without being caught by the roving eyes of the English.

One of several lighthouses in the area

Such a view
When we got to Howth, we followed the pier out to one of the lighthouses on the peninsula. I sadly didn't feel that well, so I didn't walk around the cliffs. Oh, I wish I did, but that will be something to do next time. So after some wandering about, me an my sister found (surprise surprise) a pub. Mum and dad had went for a walk out to the cliffs to see some birds and James would hopefully turn up...
So a pint and a newspaper, reading anything but the news...how many strange names the Irish give their horses...
* Clouded Thoughts
*Theboyschoice
*Nurse Ryan
*Gormanstown Cuckoo
*The Recovery
*The Talking Turtle
....and the list is endless...
Wonder what their owners were thinking of...


A cider so much better than the norwegian crap---Bulmers yummy!


Busy busy...even early in the afternoon
Abbey Tavern...what a place. They had a fireplace, which made me drowsy and when James, his friend, mum and dad came, I tasted Beamish for the first time...oh what a pint. I don't know which one I prefer; Beamish or Guinness...
Anyway, thanks James for introducing me to the wonderful taste of Beamish.


The evening got spent in the hostel, playing and singing. Great last evening in Dublin


*****************
The next morning, after packing all my stuff, I went walking along the quay in the sunshine. To take in the city like this felt liberating and I got a chance to see the monument over the famine-victims.
I'll let the pictures tell the story, because I'm lost for words:

Liffey in the morning

Treasurehunting...finding cool sculptures

James Connolly; a leader of the people
 This is one of my favourites scultures. It's a good representation of the man James Connolly was; a man who fought for the workers and for the Irish people. A strong and determinant man who dared to dream, believe and try to achieve---
A harp in the distance
 The Famine-memorial was amazing...or maybe I'm choosing the wrong word to describe it. Rather...memorable? It portrays the undescribably event the famine was, in a VERY good way. While I was standing there, looking at the different figures, my mind made up their individual stories---Maybe I will make a story about them?
Does he have any hope in our society...or is it lost like in 1847?

You can literally feel his pain and agony

Famine vs wealth, past vs present?

A silent cry for help

All is lost...even hope

An urban harp

A frozen movement
 So the last day in Dublin turned out really nice and memorable...well, it started raining, we misread the bustable to Waterford and the bus was late...but I will let you, my reader enjoy some more small moments from Dublin in the next chapter which will only contain pictures.
And then....tada: TRAMORE