Galway - the Wellington of Ireland
Monday, 10 September 2007
Our first adventure out of Dublin into another part of Ireland was Galway, you could say it’s the culture capital of Ireland. We trained it into Galway, got picked up by the charming Dominic and had a beer while waiting for the lovely Victoria to arrive home. We had an absolute blast, and we’ve made a wee list to illustrate why:
Things we liked about Galway:
- The old town feel – cobbled stone streets, medieval looking buildings, dark pubs and restaurants, a very homely and pretty city.
- The fresh food market - looked and smelt amazing
- The mini-putt - especially Em who took out the win and the prizes
- The temporary fun fair – great timing, the mighty mouse roller coaster is worth a mention, the log ride (always good fun getting drenched), the dodgem cars, and of course the mechanical bull (the question in debate – who stayed on the longest???)
- The street performers - true quality, much better than those in Grafton St (Dublin)
- The town square - you really can’t beat a peaceful town square, although it’s not as peaceful in the early hours of the morning when people are doing nudie runs though it (won’t mention any names Dom!)
- The pubs – good booze combined with good company
- The windmill Italian restaurant – great pasta (only cross against the restaurant is they didn’t put us in the requested windmill table!)
- The dance off – Tor really curved up the dance floor
- The café we searched and searched for to find eggs bene - delicious and coincidentally run by kiwi’s
- Supermacs?? (Galway’s version of gourmet McDonalds) – Hmmm still think Eddie Rockets beats Supermacs, though the crowd lined outside for burgers early Sun morning, looked like they disagreed!
- Catching up with Tor and Dom and meeting their new friends - good times, yes that’s right good times people : )
Things we didn’t like:
- Having to go home back to the big smoke. We miss you Galway! Don’t worry . . . we’ll be back.
Labels: Travel
posted by Tim @ 4:55 pm,
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Don't dream it's over
Friday, 7 September 2007
After dispatching team after team throughout the season, finals finally came around, providing the custard squares (Hot Custard fame) with two very close games.
In the semi, Marmighty – the old foe. The game was a hard fought battle sending both teams into extra time as there was a two all draw at full time. In accordance with the rules, a drop off situation applied, with golden point to decide who progressed to the final.
The custards D held strong and their attack was full of passion. They were not losing this game! The custards had enough gas in the tank to edge over the line securing their place in the finals – amongst rumours of a mis ‘touch’ call, but the ref played on.
Deservedly in the final, the custards need to once again rise to the challenge and muster all their energy to take on speed and skill of
With the light dimming, and on the back of two successive games, the custards season was about to turn to, well, custard.
Grand Masters went on to claim the fame and glory that comes with victory.
The season is not quite over for everyone. Teams have been assembled to head to Aberdeen on September 16th to compete in a tournament. So before he can hang up his boots, duty calls once more for young Timmy – I’ll keep you posted.
posted by Tim @ 4:35 pm,
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Guinness is good for you...
So their advertising campaigns would lead you to believe! In fact, it is, who Gnu?!
Yes, we did the traditional tourist thing in Dublin and visited the old Guinness factory. To put old into context, Guinness has been around for longer than New Zealand has!
Making Guinness seemed easy really at first, I mean it only has 4 ingredients: barley, yeast, hops and water. But as we were wandering through the self-guided tour, we found out that it is really quite a lengthy process.
When we got to the adding water part, there was an amazing water feature, where water was running over the clear glass ceiling above and pouring off the ceiling into a huge waterfall. An excellent photo opportunity for the many tourists!!! Yes, this included us, we had a token photo under it as well : )
The marketing campaigns were very entertaining using selling points like; Guinness helps you overcome illness, insomnia . . . and the list goes on. It seems one of their artists was quite obsessed with animals as well, which made for some interesting posters.
We had lunch at their restaurant and their beef and Guinness stew was amazing, a must-try! It even inspired Em to download the recipe off their website and try it at home.
Finally, the highlight of the tour – the free pint of Guinness at the gravity bar. This was like a nightclub - but open only during daylight hours. It was packed full of people and the music was pumping. The bar had amazing views looking out over Dublin and many people taking advantages of yet more photo opportunities.
So, you might be thinking, is Guinness the new Tui, Corona, or Export Gold for the wandering chimps?? Well, Em struggled to get a whole glass down her (but she did and is very proud of it), and Tim is coming around to it and drank it with ease. Locals tell us that it’s an acquired taste and it takes 6 or 7 pints to really start liking it, so I s’pose there’s no harm in having a few more pints to make a fully informed decision!
Labels: Travel
posted by Tim @ 3:54 pm,
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