Bring on the music of the worlds

It's this time of the year again where Dun Laoghaire becomes crowded with all kind of colourful people, who are on a mission to enjoy music and food from all over the world.
Yesterday was a surprisingly hot and sunny day for Ireland. I somehow missed the change to good weather and nearly melted in my black jeans.
The festival seems bigger, brighter and more colourful than ever and yesterday evening finished off with a famous man Khaled - King of Raï. He cheerfully sweated through his pink shirt, smiled and tried his best to animate the crowd. He would have been more successful, if people would have interrupted their phone calls and conversations and did some dancing instead.
I enjoyed it though I have to admit that like most people I did wait for the only song of him that I knew "Aïcha" and "Didi". I think the poor man had much more fun performing his other songs and got slightly amused by the various cries for Aïcha.

Sand fleas, diddly and the smell of sheep droppings

Last week was spent on a discovery of Ireland. And discovering we did: a beautiful beach full of sand fleas that did not seem to bite, lots of different types of sheep (that crap a lot), any kind of diddly music and beautiful scenery.
First we visited the Burren. Very interesting terrain - a limestone karst area full of little roadside attractions such as castles, stone forts (little piles of stones mainly collapsed, so don't get too excited, or stone walls that one day contained houses and animal pens).
After that it was off to he impressive cliffs of Moher. They were nice, nothing too exciting. Parking was only 8 Euro and the whole thing is very organised tourism.
Doolin and the Aran islands were really beautiful. I can only recommend cycling on the Aran islands to anyone. Its an amazing scenery and there are lots of little sights to discover.
Galway was interesting, but I really liked Sligo and the drive up to Donegal. Beautiful windswept beaches and yes lots of castles make up the scenery.
On a trip like this you really get to experience the beauty and the slow pace of this island. Guinness tastes a lot better outside Dublin, yes one can get fed up of eating fish'n'chips, every pub in any village you stop seems to have an unlimited supply of musicians playing diddly music and at some point you even might get tired of constantly stepping into sheep droppings, but if you are ready to wear your rain gear in July you are in for real treats of scenery and archeological sites, such as the most extensive neolithic site in the world "The Ceide Fields"in Mayo.

The Joy of Localisation...

This is one of my personal favourites. I discovered this beauty yesterday during a windy walk on the beautiful peer in Howth. I guess I will be throwing a rope and then try poshing a button :)