Travel

Fiat Punto

I bought a new (to me) car!!

After a little over 4 years in Germany without a car (I didn’t need one), I moved to Ireland. Ireland does have some public transport and alot of Taxis which are relatively inexpensive. However, after about 6 months of being here – I have grown rather tired of the waiting for busses that aren’t on time, taxis that cost 10 – 15 euro to get home with my groceries, and the inability to take my dog anywhere he can’t walk to (he’s not allowed on busses/trains/taxis here) when I want to take him with me. (In Germany, he was allowed on busses and trains – so we actually got to do alot together – including going to cafes.)

The result is that I started looking for a little transportation for the weekends. Thanks to my friend, Liam, he managed to locate (through a friend of a friend of a friend) a 1999 Fiat Punto with 98,000 miles on it. It’s a right hand drive (British), and gets about 40 miles to the gallon. They’re normally between 1200 and 1400 Euros to purchase, but he found this one for 700 Euro – and I had to jump on it. It has 2 new tires, a brand new radio, a new head gasket, new fan belt – and despite not being super clean (the person who had it before me used it to transport her dogs too) – it runs great, and most importantly — it does what I want it to – gets me from point a to point b, runs me over to the grocery store – and more importantly, it will let me take the dog with me to go hiking and/or out into the countryside for some further exploring of Ireland.

Now, just to get used to buying gas that runs over 6 euro a gallon ($10); driving on the “wrong” side of the road… and finally get my full Irish driving license….

Note: I am still planning on walking to/from work and riding my bike where I can, because I want to keep my carbon footprint (and insurance) as low as possible. This car is simply for the stuff that I can’t do with a bike or on foot – like taking my dog to go hiking in the mountains around Dublin.

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The Architecture of Temple Bar


Somewhere in Temple Bar, Dublin Ireland

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been gradually putting together a bunch of photographs of buildings that are in the Temple Bar District of Dublin. Each one has caught my eye for different reasons and at different times of the day. The end result is that I have my own little collection going, which I’m posting here to share with you and which I’m sure I’ll be adding to as the months go by.

The Quays Bar

The Quays (pronounced “keys”) Bar

Ok I can tell you why this one caught my eye – it’s because of the brightly colored subway tiles on the outside. There’s brown, green, yellow, and sort of a tourquoise tiles on the front – and the arches really make this stand out on the street. It’s rather typical of some of the shops in the district – but this one, for some reason, is high up on my favorites list. I think it’s because it’s across from a larger open space, where they run the book market on the weekends.

Venetian Masks in shop window

This one – well, I love the brightly colored masks. It was perfect for selective color, and well, most people are going to miss what the shop really is. 😛

Industry - recycled goods shop
Industry – recycled and repurposed goods shop

This has to be the coolest shop near Cow’s Lane. It’s filled with recycled and repurposed goods – the last time I was in there there was an old library filing cabinet system that you could buy for your own home – and use as sock/craft drawers. Tempting.. tempting.

Elephant Castle Cafe
Elephant & Castle

I think I liked this place because of the name. It’s a cafe, and I can’t figure out what Elephants and/or castles have to do with each other. I also rather liked the way the sunlight highlighted the front windows – as it shoots right in between two other buildings. Most of this district is so built up and close together that you’re nearly always in shadow. It is sort of depressing, but typical of the era in which it was built. I think this is why this particular building made me smile – it maximized the sunshine.

The Chameleon (Indonesian - check out the awards)
The Chameleon Indinesian Restaurant

This is out of focus, unfortunately, but I liked how they displayed all their award mediallions at the bottom of the windows. I also liked how there’s two entrance doors.

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Temple Bar Trad Fest

Back the end of January, I went up to the Market in Temple bar. As luck would have it, while searching for the new market location (the city is putting an awning over Meeting place square) I suddenly heard the wail of a dying cat very distinct instrument called a Bagpipe. Following my ears up Essex Street, I found a sign to discover that it was the weekend of the Temple Bar traditional Music Festival. Luckily the tortured goose *cough* music from the bagpipes didn’t last long – and I had my camera (with internal video camera) with me.

This means that while I couldn’t record the entire thing – I was able to record some of the variety of performances and music to share with those of you out there. One thing I will note that was consistent – Almost every performance had someone in the audience participating – clapping, dancing, foot tapping or singing along. That made the experience that is the Temple Bar Trad fest that much more enjoyable.

I do hope you enjoy the video.

P.S. No Cats or Geese were tortured in the making of this blog post…

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