Saturday, June 09, 2012

Parents Irish Holidays - Part 3 Donegal

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Guinness for strength...

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Heather Blooming

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Sheeps on Donegal cliffs...

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Donegal coastline...

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Walking on Aran Mor

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The Ferry to bring us back on land

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Carrick-on Shannon pub ... Ireland coloured

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Bundoran Beach

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Walking on Donegal beaches of fine sand

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Mum

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Dad



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The END


The End

Parents Irish Holidays - Part 2 Northern Ireland

Starting with Belfast and the Titanic experience, very good, worth a trip
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Newspaper headline...
the last message of the Titanic...
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Titanic last message....
Then the Giant Causeway....
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My folks walking to the causeway ...
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Dad on top of the Giant Causeway...
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Walking on the giant causeway


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Viewed from the top of the cliff.
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Northern Ireland Coastline
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Pause...

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Coastline on the right of the rope bridge.... blue sky and sea
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The rope bridge
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Derry the republican side and the graffiti
  Last stop Derry and the republican side.

Friday, June 08, 2012

Parents Irish Holidays - Part 1 Dublin

Dublin, Temple Bar
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Temple Bar Pub

Local drink: Guiness
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A pint of Guinness on top of the storehouse

Side of a Pub in Temple Bar
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Old dubliner painting

On the liffey
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Tall ship on the liffey

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Irish Holidays with my parents

I am back from 10 days travelling with my parents in the North of Ireland with my parents. A good occasion for me to visit, Irish places I don't usually hang into.

Here's the full road trip ( minus some detours ):
View Larger Map

Over 1400 km, a couple of days in Dublin , then in UK before finishing in Donegal.
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Tallship anchored on the Liffey
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Guinness for moral support
First we started in Dublin Visiting the Guinness StoreHouse The quays, and Trinity College and the book of Kells
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Sculputre along the old quays
 

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That's the way to ensure it won't be stolen...
 Also a bit of wandering under the sun in the streets of the fair city: We also visited St Patrick Cathedral, and seen it's organ fund:
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A keg as an organ fund... inside St Patrick cathedral ... ???
Suprisingly at the restaurant in Temple Bar I was able to find some Muprhy:
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My favourite stout... Murphy
Then after a small detour through NewGrange ,we were off to Belfast to see the Titanic Quarter:
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The entrance of the Titanic experience...
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The dry dock in the Titanic Quarter in Belfast
We settle for a couple of days in Antrim, visiting the Bushmills Old Distillery:
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A nice sample of Bushmills
 Then the Giant Causeway, and the coastline. Before going back to the republic we went to Derry:
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Diamong in Derry
 The flower were blooming all over the place...
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Heather blooming
We settled in Killybeg for a couple of days:

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Killybeg fishing harbour
Off course we had a bit more pints of Guiness:
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Mor stout
And healthy Irish breakfast:
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Irish Breakfast ... foodporn
We also did a bit of tweed shopping:
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Tweed shopping
It was soon time to go back to Dublin, but on the way back we stopped at the Bundoran beaches:
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Bundoran Beach
And Carrick On Shannon. By 5PM wednesday we were in Dublin, I said goodbye to my parents before they fly back to France, and soon I was on the way back to Limerick via the bus:
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On the way back to Limerick
 I realize that I have a lot more pics, so I'll add a post or 2 to add those later.

All picture on this post taken with Instagram on Android.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Last instamonth May 2012

MyMonthOfMayInstagram by TOF2006
MyMonthOfMayInstagram, a photo by TOF2006 on Flickr.

Last month seen through Instagram.
A bit of work, some interesting gigs, some sea activities, clear blue sky, some rugby deception, some beer...

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Franz Ferdinand in Dolans



Another brilliant gig this week, in Dolans, with the fantastic Franz Ferdinand, a great music set, all the hits and four cracking new tunes, on the top of that.
As Stuart Clarke puts it:

Franz Ferdinand have been the band of my first years working in Grenoble, transitioning from my student life. Great tunes, all full of memory. Brief another amazing night in Limerick :D

The setlist was :

  • Cheating on You / Do You Want To / Tell Her Tonight 
  • Right Thoughts / No You Girls / The Dark of the Matinée 
  • Brief Encounters / Fresh Strawberries / ??? / Midnight! 
  • Take Me Out / Ulysses / Trees & Animals / 40′ 
  • Outsiders / Jacqueline 
  • Encore:
  • Michael /This Fire






UPDATE:
You can also read the excellent review of the gig on the Blog IndieLimerick:
http://indielimerick.blogspot.com/2012/05/franz-ferdinand-live-at-dolans-limerick.html

Monday, May 07, 2012

A good start for the Month of May

Bank May Holiday, with his now traditional Riverfest, was planned to be a busy weekend. The weather at times was menacing, but everything turned out great.

All started out with a chill out session on Friday night in the infamous Wicked Chicken, all with good tunes and excellent company (K & P )

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The infamous Wicked Chicken....

We could not end up the night like that, so off we went finish ourselves to the Costello, his sticky carpet, and relax dance-floor, made some brilliant encounter down there, from past DJ (now teacher of the place) to Mr Scruff gig's friends.

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Costello godess overlooking the dancefloor...
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Water the drink of legends ;)

Definitely the perfect warm up for the long weekend.

On Saturday the big BBQ cook off, took place on Arthur Quay's, we manage to preserve ourselves a table, well guarded by bubbles gun.

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Almost shining on a busy Arthur Quay...


Nice free food, and free music along with great people, mostly musician and psychology student, with the odd intrusion from work colleagues.
After an afternoon baking in the - at times - sun, it was time for me to go to Thomond Park, to enjoy a game of Rugby (Munster vs Ulster )

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Munster Mascot

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Munster on the attack....

This end up my day, but from what I heard the festivities were to continue long after my departure.
I had an excuse to leave early (10pm), as I was going diving in Doolin the following day.

On sunday morning, I arrive in Doolin, after escaping the gates in place for the Great Limerick Run.

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Stoned view from Doolin pier


It did not take long to launch the boat, and off we went to the Aran Island ( Inis Mor ) to dive the wormhole ( I am still in the process of editing the video, so wait for the next post ).


In the afternoon we went for another one, along the Cliffs of Moher, under the sun.

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The Cliffs viewed from the sea....

Once we were done, we had to take care of the boat, and after complicated exchange with some locals ( not facilitated by the foreigner accent of our diving club - including mine ), we ended up finding a suitable place to park it overnight. And it was time for fulfilling dinner.

A bit later, I had the extreme pleasure to be join by G&T in McDermott pub , around some nice guinness, enjoyable trad music session, for a nice chat. And it was not till well past 1AM that we had to say goodbye.

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Guiness for strength in McDermotts
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The legendary G&T

Up came monday, after a restful night - not enjoyed by everybody due to the weather conditions. 
And we were off, for another dive, this time  the club boat was hosting many guests from different clubs ( Cork SAC, Burren, and Ennis )
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Aughinish Boat

Delightful dive, starting with an impressive wall of Anemones displaying all their colors in patches ( Orange, Yellow, Purple, blue.... ).

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Aughinish Diving boat making way for the happy hooker.
And on our way back, we were greeted by a jumping dolphin, following us up to the pier.
You can actually read a bit more about this May dive weekend on the Aughinish website:
http://www.aughinishdivingclub.com/news/159-dolphin-the-cliffs-and-worm-hole


Some more....


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Happy Hooked in Doolin ... ( the ferry  name ;)


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The Cliffs viewed from Doolin....

Brickmania

Lego Smurf castle ??   Eva.... massive build Swimming in bricks ?