Tag Archives: Ireland

Belfast: Pearl Jam & Ben Harper.

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Our main purpose of stopping in Belfast was to see Pearl Jam with Ben Harper & The Relentless 7 at the Odyssey Arena; granted it was a great city to see for other reasons.  We used Julie’s Ten Club seats for the show and they ended up being GA floor seats.  In other words the best seats I’ve ever had at a Pearl Jam concert.  We waited about 20 minutes before the gates open and then managed to hit the vendor booth for a poster before heading to the floor.  By the time we got to the stage we were about 8 people back from it.

Ben Harper played about 7 songs during a quick set but it was good.  Pearl Jam sounded really good but I wasn’t that into the set list.  Maybe it was just the second encore but the first three songs of the show might have been may favorite songs from their respective albums:

Sometimes
Do The Evolution
Animal

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Side Note:

* Being in General Admission we had to deal with people all night trying to move their way up to spaces that didn’t exist.  Julie and I nearly had to throw down but luckily we made a strategic move.  There was a group of girls behind us who were insisting on moving up and gettting in everyone’s way.  About two people in front of us were two Italian guys who weren’t putting up with anyone’s shit.  We stepped aside and watched the madness as these girls tried to get past these guys.  They nearly smacked the girls in the face and the one guy literally did the ‘Momma Mia’ thing with his hands while saying “You don’t fuck with an Italian!”.

** I took this picture because of the amazing advancement in beer transport technology:

This is the Tour Guide/Body Guard/Drinking Partner that I hired for my time in Ireland. His references were good...

Dublin: Guinness Brewery & Jameson Distillery.

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Julie and I finished up the first part of our honeymoon in Dublin, Ireland.  We managed to make our way around the city hitting several pubs, the Guinness Store House and the Jameson Distillery.

Guinness Store House:
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This will probably come down as one of my favorite parts of the trip.  As one who doesn’t usually ever drink Guinness, I’ve had my share so far this week beginning with the free pint at the end of the tour.  The whole Guinness brewery is huge, several city blocks.  You don’t really get a sense for the place until you’re at the end of the tour atop the Guinness Gravity Bar.

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Jameson Distillery:
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After we finished up at Guinness we walked a couple of blocks across town to the Old Jameson Distillery.  They no longer actually make any Whiskey here so that was kind of a downer.  It was more like walking through a museum than anything.  There was free whiskey at the end and Julie participated in a whiskey taste test that included Jameson, Johnnie Walker Black, and Jack Daniels.

Needless to say she was not please.

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Temple Bar:
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The Temple Bar area of Dublin is basically a strip of pubs and shops in the center of the city.  We did the rounds and stop in a far share of them.  We watched one of the World Cup games at the Quays, Bruno was no where to be found.  We also drank at the Brazenhead which is considered to be the oldest bar in Dublin dating back to 1198.  I’m not sure how accurate that is but the mens room was definitely circa 1572.

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Sidenote:

* Unlike usual, our experience with the Airline Industry was pleasant.  We flew Aer Lingus which seemed to have a very modern plane and we managed to arrive 30 minutes early.

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** Despite Dublin’s lack of decent maps and our inability to navigate via dead reckoning we successfully found a Leo Burdock for fish and chips.  I could have used some ketchup but other than that it was good.

*** The rest of my photographs are here on Flickr.

Ireland and my thoughts on International Travel.

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Late last night I returned from Ireland in what has been a two week
training session and my second experince with International Travel. I’ve come to believe that International Travel is simply an Aptitude Test, or maybe more accurately Survival of the Fittest. The Heathrow Mile wasn’t nearly as bad the second time around, but then again it never is. Irish Customs’ is a joke compared to the US or British. As with most of my trips, slogans were coined and marketing plans devised. I’m contemplating an Irish Startup that specialize in creating bumper stickers and t-shirts that simply read ‘Stick It To The Crown’. I’m confident they would do well in the Republic of Ireland. Below are some random pictures from my time in Cork, Ireland.

*Note: Click on the images below to view larger images.

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