poor Mao

oh Mao. (before....)






The restaurant I used to work in was gutted by a massive fire the other day. It didn't strike me much until I was actually in the place. It was horrible! It was like death, everything mangled and destroyed, frozen forever in this new grotesque stinking mess. So sad.

THUNDER BABY!!!

Corina and I braved temple Bar's finest tourist trap, The Thunder Road Cafe.
It was as shite as we both imagined.....
Oily salad, cheesecake that didn't seem to contain any cheese??? The only redeeming factor (besides the flirty barman) was the statue of a Gardai wearing what seemed to be Corina's boots.
Nice.

It's official

I'm a loser.
I lost my camera.
My lovely orange camera that Mark got me for Xmas.
Poo.

Kidulthood

Worst. Movie. Ever.
(not really but almost!)

The Gig, the German conclusion....

After the Cathedral I had a bit of a wander (also known as getting desperately lost - something I am remarkably adept at) As if by led by a force greater than myself, I instantly found two of my favorite things. H&M, and sushi. I am desperate at tourism. Forget sampling yummy german food, just give me raw fish. NOW.






I had to, of course, sample the local beers. It was sunny, VERY warm and I was on vacation afterall!!




In my travels I found lovely shops, churches, a beautiful pub with a gang of shouting dice players, and the coolest book shop, like something out of one of my madder more vivid dreams. I was coaxed in by the tinkling of a harpsichord, and found tiny room after tiny room filled floor to ceiling with the most wonderful books and toys and quaint kitsch. It was SO ME!! I'm not sure if it was a library, a museum or a bookshop but I didn't care - I was in Love! I wandered around for ages, too scared to touch anything (but secretly touching the corners of everything when noone was looking) and when the man (with the pretty eyes) behind the lovely little wooden desk went into the back room I hurredly took all of the photos I could then ran out!! In my haste they didn't turn out very well but here are a few...








Then FINALLY it was gig time. I took a taxi out to Gabaude 9 - A very cool club in the warehouse district, interestingly enough between Gabaude 8 and Gabaude 10. (hmmm)
I hadn't seen Mike Clive in yonks, and when I did see him last it was rushed at best. This was a great reunion. It's 8 years since we were dating (YIKES) but we're still great mates which is uber cool. We basically laughed, and chatted and laughed for the next 5 hours, broken by the gig of course. He's backing up Jason Collett with his own band Palomino. Excellent players and great tunes. It was a beautiful night.









(and I had the yummiest sandwich...)


The only bad thing that happened occured in the airport on the way back... i was very sleepy after staying up all night. (in another moment of sheer brilliance I neglected to pre-book a hotel and was DELIGHTED to find the entire city full of visitors for the annual Koln exhibition) Instead I took a bus to the Frankfurt airport and waited, and waited, and waited.
It was in the midst of my absolute tiredness, when I came upson, completely unawares....
HAMISH.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Germany, the Cologne conclusion....

So I liked Cologne best, maybe it was the sun, the wonderful sleep from the night before or simply the city itself. It's a beautiful place. Truly.
I had bucketloads of sleep in Frankfurt after forgoeing the night before. The hotel Cult was great. The best part were pillows shaped like pyramids and made of fluffy wonderfulness. A divine sleep was had!!


(and look who I met in the lobby!)

After my 13 hour kip, I was off to Frankfurt main train station. So very big, and so very clean! I was actually struck by the lack of litter and debris in the whole country. A welcome change from the rampant litterbug epidemic in Dublin. (I don't even need to mention the lack of peeing in the streets. - but oh, I just did!!)



The trainride was great, very quiet and fast, and the view coming into Cologne ensured that it was love at first sight, between the river and the Cathedral.










TBC............

Germany, the Frankfurt adventure....

Germany, Day 1.
Frankfurt. I liked it 2nd best, but i liked it alot.
I stayed in the Hotel Cult, visited the Cathedral, ate sushi (as you do when in Germany!) and sampled the yummy German beers.

Germany!!!!

So I'm off on monday to Germany to see Mike Clive... It's been years since we hung out properly and where better for a reunion than Koln?? Gone are the days of the New Grand. Instead, he's rocking with Jason Collett (of Broken Social Scene fame...)