Top ten things to do in Ireland

Recently Alison Curtis on her Today FM show, listed with the help of the listeners the top 10 things to do in Ireland, and this is what they came up with:

Top 10 things to do in Ireland before You Die
10. Wake Up Beside a Galway Girl
9. Visit Newgrange
8. Road Bowling
7. Pint in the Grave Diggers Glasnevin
6. Climb Carrintool
5. See a gig in De Barras Clonakilty
4. Paddys day in Doolin
3. Go to the Ploughing Championships
2. Attend the Culchie Festival
1. Watch an All Ireland Hurling Final in Croke Park

I personally only manage to do only one of those ( number 9, and it was worth it ) in the list.
So here's my personal top ten:

11. Listen ghost stories in Kinsale.
10. Watch the sunset over Rock of Cashel.
9. Circumnavigate Ireland in a sea kayak.
8. A night out in a Doolin or Brandon pub.
7. Spend a night on one of the Aran Island, after a day of cycling, you'll enjoy the best guinness in the world.
6. Watch a hurling game in Croke Park ( an all Ireland final would be a best, but even the club final on Paddys day is interesting ).
5. Visit Newgrange ( Ideally, on a solstice day, but you have to be drafted ).
4. Drink a pint in the South Pole Inn, on your way to Dingle.
3. Have an unexpected encounter with dolphins on the west coast of Ireland ( can be expanded to seal and basking sharks).
2. Climb all the way up to the Skelligs.
1. Participate to a Currach race down in Kerry or a Galway Hooker race up to the Arans.

Tom Crean

English: Photo of Tom Crean taken aboard the Endurance, 1914.

I went to the theater last night to see a wonderful performance about Tom Crean, at the Belltable. I've already talked about him in a previous post.

He went three times to the South Pole with Scott and Shackleton, and survive all of them.
Terrific story, remarkably brought to life with some humor by the comedian Aidan Dooley. The piece is called : "Tom Crean - Antarctic Explorer" (Written and Performed by Aidan Dooley).

There is a highly recommended book by Smith, Michael: Tom Crean: Unsung Hero ( Mountaineers Books ).

And if you're on your way to Dingle, don't forget to stop in Anascaul, and have a pint in the blue pub after the bridge: the South Pole Inn.

The Bisounours go to the Pub

I've seen an interesting comparison between the land of the "Bisounours" (Care Bears, Bisounours is the French translation ie kiss bears) and Ireland, in another expat blog (Estelle), since I have in my head pictures of Bisounours drinking in Pubs, getting drunk.....



When doing this, I actually discover that in the care-bears there is an Irish connection through "good Luck Bear" ("Grosveinard" in French), who is green and bears a hearted shamrock. And you actually can see its influence in that ad:


Have a Great day.

Beach Horse Race

Last Sunday, I was in Kilkee ( trying to dive as usual), absolutely gorgeous day, blue sky.. absolutely perfect, and despite the gale warning in operatiosn on all coast, the sea was nice to us.
But the main attraction was on the beach, as a horse races were organized there. It's an annual event and a very enjoyable one.

Preparing the racing Field:


The Track:


Reconnaissance:


And here we go:


















From the pier:


....

2nd Blog

I've been looking for a while a blog called Grenoble Daily Photo , it shows a picture a Grenoble everyday. I used to live in Grenoble before coming to Ireland, so it's interesting to rediscover part of this city ( and even some parts I did not know).

So it kinda of inspirate me to do the same with the town I am currently living in : Limerick.

So here we go: Limerick Daily Photo