Monday, October 03, 2005

This Blog is temporarily closed - Dieser Blog ist voruebergehend geschlossen.

Hi all,
my Ireland-Blog is closed until I return to the Island. Meanwhile you can find news, gossip and pictures of/about/by me at:


for blog-posts between my return to Germany in 2005 and spring 2006 check:

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Bye Bye Éire...

...so there I am ... having a stop-over at a friend's place in East-Sussex. I left the Island on Tuesday morning after having a short night. My good-bye pints I had on Sunday night with Denis and his better half, John and his better half, Cáitlín and Dajana. I drove all day yesterday through Wales and England. Today I spent the day visiting Tunbridge Wells and Hever Castle. Pictures will follow as soon as I've arrived in Hof and had a chance to load them up.

Friday morning I'll cross the channel and the north of France, visit a friend in Reims and hopefully I'll be home Saturday or Sunday.

Looking at the Newgrange post, I feel like I need to write a bit on what happened since I 'parked' Dajana at Cáit's ...

Well, I drove back to Dublin that Friday night, as I had to be up early on Saturday and Sunday. I managed to get that weekend behind me and on Sunday, after I came home, Paula, Denis and me took the bus to city centre to meet John and Fionulla for a few last pints. Cáit and Dajana took the late bus down to Dublin and were supposed to meet us in the "Banker's" - a pub just off College Green. Denis gave them directions on the phone and obviously sent them around the Trinity College green as opposed to College Green road. I walked down the road towards them and met the two girls just outside the Trinity College. We had a good few drinks, some laughs and eventually took the taxi home around half one. Monday morning we were off to Carlow, as Cáit had her first lecture and I had an appointment with the college doctor.

We were late for both, Dajana and Cáit fought some awesome soccer matches on the SG5-PS2, they were cursing and shouting just like us lads :P We later went up town and took a few last pictures of Carlow - I wasn't in a big photo-taking mood though. Then the moment of good-bye came and it was very weird, at the time I didn't realise that this had been a good-bye for a considerably long period of time, as I don't expect to be able to fly over for the graduations I won't take part in this year. On the way back to Dublin the nostalgia kicked in ... my time in Carlow ran revue before my inner eye, Dajana started to worry as I smiled and starred into the blue from time to time. Traffic was mad that afternoon and we took the wee roads around the Red Cow/M50 bottle-neck. We arrived late in Donaghmede and I started packing my stuff.

It was actually very good that I hadn't unpacked most of my stuff, so I just had to move a few plastic bags downstairs and all in all I went to bed at 1am. I got up again at 4am and packed the car. Dajana and me had breakfast and then I had to say good-bye to Grattan Lodge 77. Another sad/strange moment.

Off we were to Dublin port. On the radio was FM104 (as usual) and somewhere near Raheny the two radio hosts announced a spectacular new song they just found on the internet ... the said "This is gonna be a hit in Ireland in no time, listen to this..." and then I almost crashed the car:

"Ich bin Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil..."
>

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!

That actually made it _very_ easy for me to leave the country ... for a while only though. So anyway, we boarded the ferry, sailed out of Dublin port and into the morning sun towards Britain.

And here now are the pictures of my last 48 hours on the island of Ireland...


at least someone would be laughing while I was becoming increasingly emotional about my going-abroad :P


Paula and Dennis

John and Fionnuala (sorry if the spelling's wrong, feel free to correct me)


Cáitlín and Dajana (you couldn't tell that they had been on the bus for hours at that time and walked around half of Dublin City after Denis gave them directions ;)


The gang united for a last time... (John took the picture)


Loads of Irish psychopharmaca which (temporarily) helped me dealing with my grief.


The Monday after ... we arrived late in Carlow for my appointment with the Doc and Cáit's first lecture :-S


Good ol' Godfather's, they must have made a fortune with me alone :P They'll miss me, thats for sure.



Tuesday, September 20 2005 - I'm leaving Ireland. This is the Dublin Port Stena Line Check-In.


Queueing ... I'm gonna miss it :P


Thanks Petrus, for making my last Irish morning a gorgeous one!


Unloading a container ship, quite impressive.


The Irish Ferries "Ulysess", Europe's biggest and strongest car ferry. I don't sail with them anymore though, as they've started registering their ships in Barbados and replaced their Irish staff with low-wage workers from Poland and Lithuania.


Sailing out of Dublin Port - into the sun, into the East.


...yeah, I am a wee bit home(.ie)sick already...


bye bye Howth, Dublin, Ireland ... I'll be back!


Hmm, Dajana must have its funny how the chimney is actually smaller than me.


Holyhead (Anglesey, Wales) lighthouse ... welcome to the UK!


You bet Dajana was happy to get her feet on solid ground again.


There we go, leaving the ferry, touching British ground, which is a good moment to close this Ireland-Blog until I shall return. Ye find the other pictures of Wales, England, London and France on my Germany-Blog at http://sven-s.blogspot.com

Sunday, September 18, 2005

wind of change???

...more like a massive calm I'd say ... first election results show the two big players SPD (social democrats) and CDU (conservatives) head to head at roundabout 34/35 %, the liberals at 10%, Greens and Socialists at 8/9% ...

doesn't look like there's gonna be anything but a big coalition between the two major parties ... Do I really wanna return to this Germany? And the worst is still possible ... Angela "Angie" (das) Merkel could still become chancellor - nothing wrong with a woman, but I object her and her party.

:-(

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Hamm, Fies waschn, ...

saang un ze bedd. ... which roughly translates to "home, wash your feet, have a piss and off to bed". ... nothing could describe my current state of mind better than this old phrase, my Granny used to use :P

And off I am.

Palace of the Boyne

Morning!

Went up to Brú na Boinne yesterday (thats Newgrange for you :) and further on to beautiful Co. Cavan. Pictures will follow Sunday

Cáit wrote a very good post on this weekend as well.

Here are my pictures:

The exhibition in the visitors centre showed many ancient "things" :P


Boyne Valley impressions


Just like Southern Gardens...


Naw girls, ye can't possibly be fed up with me taking pictures? :)


Thats better :oD



and this is the famous Newgrange passage tomb with some of its inhabitants on a weekend-leave.


Why does my little sister look so scared? :P



Once a poser, always a poser :)



the monument and its Co. Meath surroundings




thats Lough Sillan near Shercock and the famous playground...

Dajana's trying to explain to Cáit, how to rock the wheel :P


Cáit swinging into the evening sun




Saturday/Sunday (I was back in Dublin making the money for our trip home) and C&D enjoyed the local lake Killarue :P


The meanwhile famous "lonely chair".

Blog youse later.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

No Graduation for me this year

Went down to Carlow yesterday to get my repeat-exams results. I passes SE1 and I failed SE2 - so I won't graduate from ITC this year, instead I'll repeat SE2 in summer 2006 and hopefully I'll have my degree by autumn 2006.

It was kinda strange to be back in Carlow and at the college - moreover, it might have been the last time for quite a while. Tuesday I'll take the ferry over to Wales and by Sunday 25th I'll be back in Hof/Germany. I'll spend those last few days with friends and even though I'm pretty much broke, I'll try to make the best of them.

So, yeah ... this blog will be closed soon, my German blog can then be accessed from http://sven-s.blogspot.com - of course I'll continue writing in two languages.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Got my Irish German-Passport - gorgeous day






Hey - welcome back :)

got my German passport from the embassy in Booterstown today. *STRIKE* :P

It was a gorgeous day today - I drove on to the beach on my way back home - yeah right! Here you can drive ON the beach - no environmental protection regulation keeps you from spilling your engine oil in the sand and from crushing the crabs and bugs with your tyres. :-P

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Beautiful Kerry - lovely Southwest





















So ... Friday morning 6am we went to Killarney/Kerry. Long drive, great landscapes, beautiful pics :)