Thursday, April 28, 2005
Picture gallery online!
I returned from Ireland on monday afternoon. Everything went smooth and back home nothing much has changed. It's a good thing to have at least part of my pictures to look at and to wish to be back immediately. And you can have a look to!
I put up a gallery containing a selection of about 140 pictures from my trip. All pictures are only 800 pixels wide to save bandwith. If you're interested in larger photos, please contact me.
Click here to go to the gallery!
Enjoy!
I put up a gallery containing a selection of about 140 pictures from my trip. All pictures are only 800 pixels wide to save bandwith. If you're interested in larger photos, please contact me.
Click here to go to the gallery!
Enjoy!
Sunday, April 24, 2005
A multi-cultural experience in Dublin
Well, my trip is nearly over and I am spending my last day in Dublin enjoying the the really brilliant weather and letting myself flow with the crowd.
Yesterday I took part in the Musical pub crawl. It was guided by two Irish musicans and they were explaining a lot of things about Irish traditional music in a really funny and entertaining way. It was a bit disappointing that were only playing fiddle and guitar but that they were doing very well. I wasn't actually crawling afterwards but I had a few pints as we were supposed to sing along and this makes one rather thirsty of course.
Afterwards I went to a club called the Voodoo Lounge (see, were it is located) to see a gig of a group called Cruachan. They were playing a mixture between Irish folk and death metal. Quite amusing. I learned about the concert from Nino, the Finnish guy I met in Donegal and we met there again. He was there with some young Spaniards, which he had first met earlier on his trip. One of them was a nice and very pretty girl (I didn't understand here name because they all had strange catalonian names like "Quer"and "Kitz"). She lives in Dublin and studies history and works in a museum, which is about the history of the city. When I was passing the museum today I shortly checked to see if she was working but she was not there. Well, maybe next time...
After the concert was over our group disbanded and I went (or rather stumbled) towards the hostel. When I came across another pub with music coming out of it, I decided to pop in for a last nightcap. The band was playing country music and the pub was full of people well over 20 years older than me. I quickly downed a shot of Jameson to overcome the cultural shock. Before I left, the band was playing a tune I was quite sure I knew, but I couldn't really get a grip on it. Whistling the song on my way back to the hostel I suddenly realized that it was the melody of "Wann wird's mal wieder richtig Sommer?" only with different words. So that's not an original tune but blatantly stolen! You really learn interesting and important things every day when you're on holiday.
When I was coming back to the hostel, there were three young people sitting in the lounge and I joined for a chat. They turned out to be Americans on a trip through Europe, two brothers and the girlfriend of one of them. We sat and talked until morning and also had some more beer and even whiskey. Duh, I really felt like sh*t this morning. Also I discovered that I had left my camera in the lounge and, of course, it was gone today. It had not been left with the reception. I put up a notice on the front door with an appeal to hand it in to the reception, if found, but I fear, nothing much will come of it. Well, I guess they do say, that Dublin is rather expensive. Fortunately I saved the pictures I had taken so far only two days ago. I'm undecided, though, wether I should compensate for the loss of the camera by saving the rest of my money or by recklessly spending it on souvenirs like DVDs and booze.
Yesterday I took part in the Musical pub crawl. It was guided by two Irish musicans and they were explaining a lot of things about Irish traditional music in a really funny and entertaining way. It was a bit disappointing that were only playing fiddle and guitar but that they were doing very well. I wasn't actually crawling afterwards but I had a few pints as we were supposed to sing along and this makes one rather thirsty of course.
Afterwards I went to a club called the Voodoo Lounge (see, were it is located) to see a gig of a group called Cruachan. They were playing a mixture between Irish folk and death metal. Quite amusing. I learned about the concert from Nino, the Finnish guy I met in Donegal and we met there again. He was there with some young Spaniards, which he had first met earlier on his trip. One of them was a nice and very pretty girl (I didn't understand here name because they all had strange catalonian names like "Quer"and "Kitz"). She lives in Dublin and studies history and works in a museum, which is about the history of the city. When I was passing the museum today I shortly checked to see if she was working but she was not there. Well, maybe next time...
After the concert was over our group disbanded and I went (or rather stumbled) towards the hostel. When I came across another pub with music coming out of it, I decided to pop in for a last nightcap. The band was playing country music and the pub was full of people well over 20 years older than me. I quickly downed a shot of Jameson to overcome the cultural shock. Before I left, the band was playing a tune I was quite sure I knew, but I couldn't really get a grip on it. Whistling the song on my way back to the hostel I suddenly realized that it was the melody of "Wann wird's mal wieder richtig Sommer?" only with different words. So that's not an original tune but blatantly stolen! You really learn interesting and important things every day when you're on holiday.
When I was coming back to the hostel, there were three young people sitting in the lounge and I joined for a chat. They turned out to be Americans on a trip through Europe, two brothers and the girlfriend of one of them. We sat and talked until morning and also had some more beer and even whiskey. Duh, I really felt like sh*t this morning. Also I discovered that I had left my camera in the lounge and, of course, it was gone today. It had not been left with the reception. I put up a notice on the front door with an appeal to hand it in to the reception, if found, but I fear, nothing much will come of it. Well, I guess they do say, that Dublin is rather expensive. Fortunately I saved the pictures I had taken so far only two days ago. I'm undecided, though, wether I should compensate for the loss of the camera by saving the rest of my money or by recklessly spending it on souvenirs like DVDs and booze.
Irish Instruments Part III: the Bodhran
The Bodhran (pronounced bo-rahn) is one of the few indigeneous Irish instruments and is used mainly in Irish folk music. It is a hand-held drum, about 40 cm in diameter, and spanned with goatskin. Only cheap "tourist" bodhrans have calfskin.
You hold the drum in your left hand and beat it with your bare right hand or a small stick ("tipper"), which is held in the middle so you can beat the skin with either side of it. The left hand is also used to stretch the skin and thereby altering the pitch. When played by a skillful musican the bodhran can produce a very varied sound. Unfortunately there seem to be a lot of untalented players around, making the bodhran player a favorite target for musican's jokes.
Here goes one:
A litle boy says to his mother: "Mum, when I grow up, I want to be a bodhran player!".
The mother answers: "Well, son, you have to decide, you can't do both!"
You hold the drum in your left hand and beat it with your bare right hand or a small stick ("tipper"), which is held in the middle so you can beat the skin with either side of it. The left hand is also used to stretch the skin and thereby altering the pitch. When played by a skillful musican the bodhran can produce a very varied sound. Unfortunately there seem to be a lot of untalented players around, making the bodhran player a favorite target for musican's jokes.
Here goes one:
A litle boy says to his mother: "Mum, when I grow up, I want to be a bodhran player!".
The mother answers: "Well, son, you have to decide, you can't do both!"
