"This blog is not necessarily for lovers of art, it includes a variety of topics and whatever. I'm a painter who likes to know what's really going on in the world today. So you might find anything from Shamrocks to Salmiakki mentioned here on my blog. There will of course be some boring, factual and informational posts, but I'll keep them to a minimum, I promise!
Part 3 of my summer holidays 2013 in Ireland, and a visit to the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. Once again the weather was on our side. A perfect day to see these amazing cliffs. I've been here on a few other occasions when it was always either raining, misty or just dull and cloudy. But I finally got some nice photos this time. Click on images to enlarge!!!
A drive up Corkscrew Hill on the way.
Nice place to dial a pizza!
The Cliffs of Moher
A quick pose with my BK-46 Finnish football jersey!
I took a few video shots of my own while at the cliffs but it looks like I won't get to edit them just yet. Here's one I found on the net.
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This is part 3 of a set of 'Ireland' travel posts here on my blog. Click on the destinations below to read the rest!
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... And so to part two of my Irish summer holiday recollections. This time a look at the village of Kinvara in County Galway on Ireland's west coast. This was to be our basecamp as planned back in Finland since way back in January beforehand. I even mentioned my plans to Irish radio presenter Hector Ó hEochagáin on his breakfast show to warn him I was coming over!
Kinvara can be found on the map below just south of Galway city in the centre of the picture. The village name can also be spelt Kinvarra as on the map here, but please don't ask me why!
After driving non-stop from Dublin it was nice to stretch the legs and find our pre-booked accommodation. And we were not disappointed!
Click on image to enlarge
View of Kinvara harbour with the Burren hills behind in the distance. Our house rental is in the centre of this photo.Click on image to enlarge
Nice living space with all mod cons and free wi-fi! Click on image to enlarge
Hawthorn / Fushia House Rentals Click on image to enlarge
This was our home for three hot days and nights (that's something you don't hear too often in Ireland!). It got so warm that the asphalt on the roads started to melt. Unusual weather for Ireland, but always welcome. We prebooked our accommodation at the Hawthorn home rental after we booked our flights back in Finland.
Patio view of the harbour
Patio view with free parking
The tide comes in!
The tide goes out!
Kinvara Garda Station (Police)
Watching the sun set at a nearby beach
Old ruins close to Kinvara
A boat
A wall
A closed Pub???
For some reason P.J.Flatley's pub seemed to be closed while we were in Kinvara. I heard about a cellar bar there which interested me. But a visit wasn't to be had! Luckily there's no shortage of bars and pubs in this small village, and over our short stay I got to visit a few of them. We got to hear some traditional Irish music in a pub called Connollys. Even though it's a pub aimed at the tourist trade, it came with a decent pint and prices weren't a rip-off like so many other tourist pubs. We also popped our heads into a pub called Conole's, but skipped having a drink as it lacked any atmosphere whatsoever. Instead we headed up the street to Tullys Bar which was just what I was looking for. A normal bar with a tv and music playing in the background. It also had a pool-table and friendly staff behind the bar. I wouldn't call Tullys a tourist pub, but it's a good place to meet and chat with the friendly locals. I couldn't have found a nicer place even though some dog ran off with the cue-ball in his mouth! A decent pint of Guinness also.... mighty!!!
Good Morning Kinvara! Maidin mhaith!!
After a pleasant Guinness-fuelled sleep it was great to open my bedroom window to the smell of the sea. I've done this on occasions in Finland also, but it's never the same. It's a completely different experience. The sea looks and smells very different with salty water and seaweed everywhere.
Kinvara, Co.Galway
During our time in Kinvara we used the facilities in our house rental as often as we could. I got to cook a full-Irish breakfast to my Finnish guests which was hard work but fun. I then watched as they all tried to figure out how a typical Irish heating and shower system works, which was even funnier! Yep, some things are different in Ireland. We did get to sample some of Kinvara's restaurants and pub-grub, the best being served at the Merriman Hotel where the staff were excellent. Using Kinvara as a base on the westcoast we also travelled to nearby Doolin in County Clare, driving through the Burren and visiting the Cliffs of Moher. We also took a boat-trip over to the Aran Islands as well as driving around the Connemara loop. But I'm gonna write about that on my next blogpost. Before leaving the west coast and heading to the city of Kilkenny we visited Kinvara's main tourist attraction Dunguaire Castle.
Dunguaire Castle, Kinvara, Co.Galway
Check out this program from the BBC here which shows more scenes from Ireland's west coast as well as some interesting bits of history. Might be a good idea to go full screen for this one!
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This is part 6 of a set of 'Ireland' travel posts here on my blog. Click on the destinations below to read the rest!
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Thanks for reading my blog and please feel free to share it with any of your friends.
You can receive my blogposts direct to your email or facebook profile by pressing the follow button at NetworkedBlogsand you are welcome to visit my art page on Facebook by clicking the 'Like' button under my signature below.
It's been a while since I've had a little blog post here, but then what's new about that eh? I had planned on posting a few photos over the past few months but I've just been so lazy. To be honest, I reckon I spend too much time on my computer between reading emails and social media, most of which seem increasingly to be just spam or scams. Are any of you having the same problem? Anyway I wanted to post this item on my blog for my own record, so here goes! It concerns a bit of bad weather in the town where I live. Coming from Ireland I'm fairly used to a drop of rain. I use the word 'drop' lightly here as it's an Irish thing. A drop of rain to an Irish person is usually equal to torrential rain elsewhere in the world. I say this just so you know where I'm coming from. It's not often you hear an Irish person go on about the RAIN!
new swimming pool
Anyway the rain arrived yesterday, and flooded out the garage under my house. I use this garage as an art studio space, which I call 'The Art Garage'. This is where I keep most of my paintings and drawings. Lucky for me however I managed to get most of my work out of danger before the water level got too high. Only a few items were damaged. Also, stupid old me didn't have any wellies (wellington boots). I only had a pair of crocs to wade through what was freezing water, made so by a pile of large hailstones just outside the door!
My garage wasn't the only casualty in Karis, a lot of other premises where flooded also including the local supermarkets. Here's a video somebody else shot in Karis centre. It's hardly a state of emergency I know, but nice to keep a record.
Next time it would be nice to have some kind of weather warning from the met office. Only a small thunder and a small amount of rain was the given forecast on this occasion. But nevermind, everything is back to normal here now though. Hot sunny Finnish summer, just the way it should be!
Thanks for reading my blog and please feel free to share it with any of your friends. Big Hello to any readers living in NYC, thanks for all your greetings and support!
You can receive my blogposts direct to your email or facebook profile by pressing the follow button at NetworkedBlogsand you are welcome to visit my art page on Facebook by clicking the 'Like' button under my signature below.
Firstly, I have been lazy once again with my blogposts here. I sometimes wonder why I bother really. I suppose it started as simply a hobby, and I've never really stuck with many of the hobbies I started in the past. Unless it's something I might get some kind of satisfaction from or 'a buzz' as they say in Dublin, I quickly get bored! I attempted to make up for my lack of posts by pimping up the design of my blog. I've dumped the dark layout in favour of something a bit brighter. Call it updating if you will, I call it medication. Maybe it's a reaction to the ever-increasing dark evenings here in Finland. Latest I looked, it was already getting dark at 15.30. 'My way of cheering myself up I suppose. My neighbours have taken the easy approach of switching their Christmas lights on straight after Halloween!
Another reason for my blog absense has been the changeover of my old Nokia mobile phone for a new Samsung smartphone. Yes folks, I've joined the land of touchscreen goblins and geeks. It feels unusual not hearing the famous Nokia sound anymore.
The Nokia sound been a part of my life for so many years and was once the only connection I had to Finland when living in Ireland. Little did I know it would take me back to live in it's homeland. A part of me feels like I've betrayed my little friend (or five little friends to be precise!). But Samsung are now the top phone on the market (pre-iPhone 5), and I have felt for a long time now that the average Nokia phone was becoming less dependable. Yes, it's nice to see the Lumia edition doing so well, but I would never pay so much for something I could easily let fall down the toilet on a fun night out (for the record, I have never dropped a phone down a toilet!) The casings on my last two phones were nowhere near as sturdy as my previous Nokias from the beginning of the millenium. Now they were indestructable phones full of Finnish Sisu! I even had one which survived a trip in a washing machine. Here a reminder of the faithful Nokias through the years, mobile soft porn for the Nokia connoisseur! (Click images to enlarge)
This was meant to be a post about an art exhibition I attended last week, but I got side-tracked by my newly found geek excitement. So that post will follow separately tomorrow! For now it's goodbye Nokia, hello Samsung. Until Nokia bring back a more economical and sturdier phone (with a holster), I won't be changing back any time soon. Samsung is perfect for now, but I'm only a novice to the smartphone world!
Thanks for reading my blog and please feel free to share it with any of your friends.
You can receive my blogposts direct to your email or facebook profile by pressing the follow button at NetworkedBlogsand you are welcome to visit my art page on Facebook by clicking the 'Like' button under my signature below.
This blogpost is written especially for anyone living here in Finland.
Living in Finland for a few years now, I have witnessed the harsh winters and learned to deal with cold temperatures. I have shovelled my fair share of snow and lost the feeling in my fingers several times.
It's been a long cold winter and now summer is finally here!
Time to get the Kabanossi and Karhu out, put the sandals and shorts on, set up the trampoline or pool if you're lucky enough to have one.
Going a little crazy just because of a bit of sun is something I can relate to, being an Irishman. One could easily replace the Finnish cold for Irish rain in this equation. And believe me, a cocktail of Irish rain and atlantic winds can really get you down sometimes. Show an Irishman a window full of summer sunshine and he'll be straight out for a game of golf before getting ready for an evening of barbeque and beer! I've noticed that Finns are very similar in their appreciation of all things sunny and nice too. While the Finnish winter can be beautiful and unique in it's own way, one window of summer sunshine and the Finnish public are straight down to the beach, park or their summer cottage for some quality time!!
So before you go out and disappear under the big glow of the summer sun, let me wish all my blog visitors in the northern half of the world a very happy summer!
And if any readers living here in Finland have doubts about letting your hair down this summer, or if you are having second thoughts about jumping in that lake with nothing but your birthday suit on, why not watch this video. Remember, while the winters here are wonderful and picturesque, they are also very long. The summer is short, and I think this will encourage you to enjoy it even more. It's a long video, but worth watching at least for the guy's commentary. I thought he was funny and....and I must go visit that well-known "Baltic country Viagra", I heard it's economy has been growing rapidly since joining the Eurozone. He seemed to enjoy his visit anyway. I watched this on full screen as he used a top of the line Sony camera.
Thanks for reading my blog and feel free to share with all your friends. My next blog will return to a subject I love to hate!
-Alan
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