Homeland Adventures Part 3

I will now conclude my Irish adventures! If you are wondering what took so long, it mainly has to do with me wanting to keep you in suspense and also I had a labour law assignment to work on which, as a side note, it is proving problematic...

This post will mainly cover the weird little side trips and one off adventures I had. It shouldn't be too long...

River Liffey at night

Public Transport consisted of really cool yellow and green double-decker busses that looked as if they would topple over quite easily on a windy day. They also had a train system called the DART that ran mostly from North to South and along the coast a wee way in both directions. The third part of the system was a tram line that ran from the central city out to the South and West. The tram line was the LUAS which is supposedly Gaelic for speed. All I can say is I think the speed was all in their heads. The tram was at the whim of traffic lights and so forth which meant it took a while to travel a short distance but then it seemed faster than driving when I travelled on it at rush hour.

My hotel was quite a way out of town, about 45 minutes on the LUAS, and was nothing fancy. Perhaps as a sign of its three stars one of the halogen bulbs in the bathroom blew, took out the fuse, and started smoking. I was promptly relocated from the third to the sixth floor where I had a fantastic view out to a range of hills that were covered in lush green grass. Despite constantly thinking that I should take a photo, especially in the pale light of dawn, I never did. Curses!

On my first night traveling into town for dinner, I encountered a woman who was clearly wasted on drugs. She asked me for something but spoke so quietly that I never heard her. Realising she wasn't getting anything out of me she tried to steal the smoothie of someone nearby and another person's purse. Turns out drugs are a big problem, if the signs at all the tram stations telling people to report drug dealers in their neighbourhoods were anything to go by. Also, another night while I was there I saw an argument on a street corner involving several teenagers erupt into a big brawl. I think they were all either high or drunk.

Famous Bar in Nightclub District

The central city is really quite small. There were only two main shopping districts, and one nightclub district. One shopping street was Henry Street which had a couple of big department stores and a shopping mall along it. There was also TopShop and TopMan which I found rather underwhelming. H&M in Copenhagen is way better.

Grafton Street

The other shopping street was Grafton Street which had some really cool shops and department stores and quite an interesting restaurant district down the side streets that came off it. One awesome restaurant I found was called Cornucopia and you couldn't get a seat from about 5-6pm. It was vegetarian only and the menu changed daily. Their food was just amazing!

The best department store I found was called Brown Thomas. This store had nearly every high end fashion label you could imagine: Manolo Blahnik (over-rated I must say), Christian Louboutin, Gucci, Chanel, John Galliano, Michael Kors etc. I saw a lady try some Louboutins on and she nearly fell flat on her face because the heels were so high. Also, no prices on the Louboutins. No doubt it is because if you need to know the price, you can't afford them.  Also, the day I went there, they were giving out glasses of champagne. Yet, while it sounds seriously fancy, according to a guide book I had there are actually several other cheaper brands of clothes on the upper floors. I am guessing they must have all been in womenswear as the menswear was all high end.

My new shoes

I made a couple of purchases while I was in Dublin, but the one that I was truly excited about was a pair of new shoes. See the photo to see what they look like. These shoes cost me nearly half what I would have paid in NZ, even with the exchange rate factored in. When I told my roommate how much I had paid, he was like 'that's their normal price' and looked at me funny.

The last really cool little discovery was a place called St. Stephen's Green which was a really nice city park. I saw quite a few Dubliners hanging out there on the sunnier days. Spring had definitely sprung and I had lots of fun taking photos of flowers in bloom.

All in all, I rather enjoyed my trip to Dublin even if I had a couple of dodgy experiences. I can now say that I have been to the ancestral homeland! It also means that I can spend the rest of my free time over here exploring continental Europe!!!

Life in the Barracks

Rather than me finish off chronicling my Irish adventures, I have decided to whip off on a tangent and talk about something that I have yet to discuss: where I actually live. It has occurred to me that I haven't actually given many details of my humble abode. Today I shall make up for that and keep you hanging for the conclusion to my other story arc...

View up my street

My apartment is in a complex called Tranehavegard, which is in Copenhagen's southwest. I can't give you a pronunciation guide because no two Danes pronounce it the same way. I have had responses ranging from "where the hell is that ?" to "trane-how- I can't even pronounce that" to some bizarre tongue-twisting pronunciation that I doubt any English speaker will ever be able to master. I re-iterate: these are responses from native Danes who have lived in Denmark their whole lives!!! To that end, we just anglicise it and say it how it is written: Tran-hava-gard. Someone once decided to dispense even with that and just called it 'the Barracks' on account of the scary uniformity of all the buildings. Whatever works I guess.

Other buildings in my complex

My apartment is composed of only five rooms: Bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, entry foyer and 'lounge' which has been made into another bedroom and is where my roommate sleeps. This means that I have to walk through his bedroom every time I need to use the bathroom or kitchen. What makes it worse is that the floor creaks something wicked. As you can imagine, I have learned which bits are less creaky than others, something which is important when roommate gets home from a big night out at 6am, and I get up at 9am to start my day.

My roommate is a really nice Italian from the island of Sardinia. We seem to get along quite well, and have not had any major arguments etc. Just the other night in fact, I sampled some Italian liquer that he reckons you can't buy outside Italy. It was quite nice, really herby with a hint of aniseed. He also made me a Campari Rosso and Martini mix. That was very dry and a little bit peppery. Quite refreshing though.

View from Kitchen to my room

The decor can be summed up in a single word: white. But there are some nice wooden laminate details on the wardrobes and kitchen cupboards to break up the monotony...

The laundry is a couple of buildings over from mine. It costs about $2.50 for a wash, and $1 for half an hour's use of the dryer. The machines are all front-loader Miele.

The view from my apartment consists of more apartment buildings, a sports field and a prison. Don't worry though, Danes aren't that likely to break out of prison because apparently five years is a very harsh sentence, so most are much shorter.

At the end of my street is a huge cemetery that takes 30 minutes to walk a circuit of. Lots of local Danes and quite a few of the other International students who also live around here use it as a jogging track.

There are two train stations within walking distance and five supermarkets within 20 minutes walk or so. The central city is just 10 minutes away by train.

View from apartment. Prison on left

I quite enjoy living here, though the lack of colour in my apartment is starting to wear on me. Perhaps i should invest in some new, colourful curtains...

I will finish on this note: some of my neighbours are really weird. I ran into these two guys at the laundry who ended up spending 4-5 hours doing washing. They were drunk as skunks (probably didn't help) and when one found out I was a law student, he was like 'sweet, I'll hire you to defend me if I ever get sent back to prison'.

Oh My God.

View down my street.

Homeland Adventures Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my Irish Chronicles!

Todays' post will cover the Guinness Brewery Tour, the Book of Kells, and the Church service I attended. Again, fairly wordy, so get that bottle of wine you didn't finish last time and enjoy!

Activity #4: Guinness Storehouse and Brewery Tour

This was without a doubt the highlight of my trip to Dublin. It is Ireland's most popular tourist attraction pulling in nearly a million visitors a year! It was super busy when I went on a Friday. You were first given a brief introduction into the brand and its founder before being left to tour the facility at your own pace. The building where the 'tour' is held is not actually a part of the working brewery, but rather used to be before the brewery expanded. From memory it was the original brewery building at one stage. The Storehouse was a victim of the expansion and after many years sitting derelict, was reopened in 2001 as a space dedicated to meeting the needs of the brewery's many and increasing visitors.

Central Light Well

I thought the whole space was well laid out and you could see a lot of effort had gone into it. It was spread over 6 floors, with floor 6 being the Gravity bar where, at the end of your wanderings, you could relax with a complementary Guinness and enjoy the near 360 degree views of Dublin.

The central light well was in the shape of a huge pint glass and it holds the Guinness World Record for being the largest. Its capacity is equivalent to over 14 million pints of Guinness.

The tour covered the brewing process, the history of the brand, the history of St. James' Gate brewing facility, all the advertising over the years, the merchandise, the changing bottle designs, the varieties of Guinness you can buy (there are several but not all varieties are available in every country) and so on. There was an on-site cafe/restaurant which was quite good value for money and very tasty, especially when you consider that often such places either inflate their prices or serve horrific food.

As I mentioned above, you could enjoy your complimentary Guinness at the Gravity Bar, but if you were really keen you could actually learn how to pour your own at a bar lower down. Pouring a Guinness from the tap takes just on 2 minutes before it is ready to serve and the process involves six steps. Simply put, you have to pour so much into the glass, wait for the 'surge' of bubbles to settle and then top it up. This way you get a really good head on it, that lasts to the final mouthful.

Apparently when you drink a Guinness you should get a touch of sweetness at the start, followed by a lovely roasted flavour followed by a long, bitter finish.

I certainly noticed those characteristics in mine :-)

Activity #5: The Book of Kells

No trip to Dublin would be complete without a trip to one of the most famous Universities in the world and the even more famous book it is home to: Trinity College and the Book of Kells.

The Book of Kells is a latin text of the Four Gospels and was written by Irish monks about 1000 years ago. It is famous for being one of the most beautifully illuminated Scriptures ever made. Illumination was an absolute art form: Entire pages are covered in the most beautiful images of holy people and holy symbolism. The first letter on most pages was a work of art in itself. Unfortunately due to the fragile nature of the book I was unable to take photos but I did pull a picture off the internet.

Trinity College itself was quite beautiful, it is right in the heart of Dublin and is a nice oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Fun Fact: Jonathan Swift was Dean of Trinity College during the 1750s.

The other thing that Trinity College is famous for is The Long Room. This is home to some 200,000 of the oldest books in the Trinity College library, some of which date back to the early 1700s.

Activity #6: Church Service

I figured that seeing as I was in one of the most Catholic countries in the world (around 90% of the Irish are Catholic) that I may as well go to a church service.

I went to one called St. Patrick's Cathedral as I figured that sounded pretty Catholic only to subsequently realise that it was actually Anglican. Oh well.

I stayed anyway and it was really nice. It was a choral matins and the service took an hour but didn't really feel like it. The Church was really beautiful and it would have cost me five euros to visit it at any other time.

St. Patrick's Cathedral interior

On that note I shall conclude today's post. Next time will be about the random little extras that I partook in while I was there.

Homeland Adventures Part 1

I have just returned from my uber-exciting trip to Dublin and I have so many cool things to talk about! I will recount my adventures over a couple of posts for the sake of economy. I saw lots of tourist attractions and spent a rather ridiculous amount of money... But at the same time I economised on lots of others. One thing I did work out was that as a general rule, Ireland is about 20% cheaper than Denmark in NZ currency terms. By this I mean that 10 euros is NZ$20 while DKK100 is NZ$25, if this makes sense to anyone.

The main activities that I undertook were tours of the Guinness Brewery, the Jameson Distillery, and Kilmainham Gaol; a Church service; The Book of Kells; and a ride on what was essentially a very modern ferris wheel. In addition, there were lots of small side trips to the two main shopping streets, the bar district and the inner city park.

As a warning, this first post will probably be fact heavy and far too long, so pour yourself a wine, beer or other highly potent alcoholic beverage and steel yo'self.

Random thing #1: Dublin Spire

You may remember that I referred to a random spire, tower thing in the centre of Dublin in my last post. Well, I found out that it is called the Dublin Spire, has been nicknamed the "Stiletto in the Ghetto" (brilliant if I may say so myself) and was built for the city's millenium celebrations. Honestly, it seems about as useful as the tupperwaka (Thank the Stuff comment thread for that one) that the Government wants to build in NZ.

Activity #1: Kilmainham Gaol

West Wing passageway

This gaol was originally built in the 1700s and has been home to a number of famous Irish political prisoners. There were effectively two halves to the prison, the West wing which was the older, original part and the East wing which was built in the early 1800s. The West wing was dark, dingy and not unlike a rabbit warren whereas the East Wing was built in a newer architectural style called "Panopticon". This latter style is still the main format for most prisons today.

Panopticon means all-seeing eye, and referred to the style of prison where you have a ring of cells looking down onto an open space. A warden can at any time cast his eye around the cells and see everything that is going on. The idea behind this approach was that the best way to reform a prisoner was to take away his privacy.

It had also been worked out that light is good for you. Prisoners in the old cells, which were very dark, tended to go insane after a short period of time and also became afflicted with a variety of physical ills as well.

Panopticon Architecture

Place where prisoners were shot

The tour was very good value. I learned quite a lot about the nearly 1000 year struggle against British rule which could hardly be described as benevolent, and the numerous attempts at uprisings. I also learned about the rather unfortunate history of the prison. At one stage it was essentially a brothel, and the Chief Warden was effectively the pimp. For a long period there was no segregation of genders, everyone was just thrown in together and the inevitable result could be described as horrifying. During the great famine, many Irish committed petty crimes just to go to Gaol, because that way they could actually get something to eat. During this time the Gaol was totally overcrowded as you would have four to five people in a cell designed for one or two.

On the topic of the Great Famine, I learned something rather interesting. Apparently, famine affected many parts of Europe, particularly Belgium. But, whereas the Belgian government spent huge quantities of money importing food for their citizens, Britain refused to do the same for Ireland. It is for this reason that the famine was as bad as it was.

As for the political prisoners, I can't remember too many specific details, other than the fact that quite a few were executed, often publicly. We saw a yard where half a dozen people were executed by firing squad, and on the way into the gaol you could see above the main entrance the place where ropes were hung for public hangings.

Where public hangings took place

Activity #2: Jameson Distillery

The mashing stage of Whiskey production

This particular tour was rather disappointing. It wasn't that long and didn't really go into that much detail.  I learned about the basic whiskey making procedure, a small amount about the history of the brand, and received a "complimentary" whiskey (i.e. included in the ticket price). I found out that the main differences between American, Scotch and Jameson whiskeys is how many times they have been distilled. American is usually distilled only once, which gives it that characteristic bitterness. Scotch is distilled twice and the barley is malted over a peat fire giving Scotch more smoothness and a smoky flavour. Jameson is distilled three times making it very smooth and lending a sweetness to the whiskey also. Canadian Club is made from a mix of barley and rye which gives it that very sweet, almost caramel flavour.

Copper Pot Stills

One thing that was interesting was that Jameson still uses the "pot still" method of distilling, whereas most modern whiskey makers use "column distillation". "Pot stills" yield a lower alcohol volume per distillation so more distillations are needed to get the alcohol percentage up, and pot stills can only carry out batch distillations (i.e. one at a time). By this I mean they distill the raw product, draw off the condensate then put the condensate into another pot still and distill it again until the required alcohol content is reached. In contrast, the "column still" can yield up to 96% alcohol by volume and works continuously by having the raw product fed into the bottom of the column, the condensate goes through a series of stages in the column and the final product of distillation is drawn off the top.

As a result, all Jameson is single malt whiskey, whereas other brands like Johnny Walker can have a mix of up to 40 different malts in each bottle.

Activity #3: The Ferris Wheel thingy

Again, not that impressive. It was so far to walk to it, as it was down in the docklands and it didn't give that great a view of Dublin than if it had been in the city centre. But for the sake of posterity, I will pop in a photo of Dublin from the air with a lovely view up the River Liffey.

In the foreground is a development that has stalled due to the dire economic crisis in Dublin. To the left is where Dublin's financial district is.

On that note I shall conclude the first part in my miniseries. Look for the next one in the next day or two!

Dublin Day 1

This is going to be a very short post to detail some of my first impressions of Dublin.

My flight here was with Norwegian Air, one of those low-cost airlines that charge for checked baggage and food etc. It was fine, though the bi-lingual announcements became a little irritating, mostly because the Norwegian announcements had twice as many words as the English ones...

Dublin seems much more alive than Copenhagen: more people about, more cars, more music (four different buskers within 500m). The architecture is fairly typical terrace-housing style. Lots of brick but there are a lot more newer, modern buildings around. One truly weird thing though is this really tall spire in the centre of town. It looks like a flag pole and is ridiculously high. I will snap a photo tomorrow.

Other strange sights include newspaper sellers walking amongst cars, waiting at intersections for the lights to change, purveying their wares; and watching an afternoon TV show where the hot topic of conversation was the perils of cobblestones as footpaths.

The other main issue here in Ireland is the banking bailout. According to the news, the cost of bailing out the Irish banks may be north of 80 billion Euros... It appears that Ireland's economic woes continue.

Anyhow, that's all for today!

Home Away From Home

This is a very short post about a really cool cafe that I was shown by some friends over here.

Cafe Retro is a not-for-profit cafe that is run by volunteers. Any profits they make go to helping disadvantaged people in Africa.

It has really cool vintage furniture and nothing really matches. The sign outside advertises one of its offerings as 'hygge' which (according to a Danish source) is pronounced something like 'hyoog' and is, according to the web, a fundamental concept in Danish society. The word has no direct English equivalent but is indicates something similar to cosiness/closeness.

They serve delicious beer, which I think is organic, and coffee, They also have tea that is donated to them by a Danish company called A.C. Perch which has been around for some 300 years and is the purveyor of fine teas to the Danish Royal Family. I have tried their Earl Grey and it has a really nice, subtle, well-balanced flavour.

I say it is my home away from home because it has free internet and it is the only place I can get any study done. I have found that if my surrounds are too quiet, I can't focus and my mind floats away on a daydream. Cafe Retro has nice surroundings and is just noisy enough to keep me on task. Today, I spent five hours there and managed to get through five Space Law readings, bringing me right up to date!

ChinChin Jones and the Temple of the Dead!

I now present the, possibly long-awaited, post that I promised last time!!!

Recently I went to Roskilde, a small town about 30 minutes away from Copenhagen that is apparently famous for three things, four if you count the fact that it used to be the capital of Denmark. The first is an annual summer music festival that, if my sources are to be believed, is on a par with Glastonbury. The second is a Viking Ship Museum and the third is a rather impressive Church. The Roskilde Festival is not held till late June, but I did check out the other two things.

Place of Interest #1: The Viking Ship Musuem (I warn you, there is a history lesson embedded here)

I read about this in a pamphlet that I had foisted upon me at an orientation meeting, and thought I might go have a look-see. The building itself did not look like a museum at all, and had it not been for the flags outside and a nearby street sign pointing to it, I may have been tempted to ignore it. To me, it looked like the sort of building that might house a public swimming pool. Yes, that dull.

Smaller Trading Vessel Circa 1040AD

Confusion aside, the museum was quite interesting if somewhat lacking in ambience. Quite a number of years ago some historians received information that in the Roskilde Fjord that the town overlooks there were possibly some Viking ship remains dating back to around 1040AD. The theory went that they were scuttled to prevent the Norwegians from traversing one of only three passages through the fjord. The reason there were only three was because there was an elaborate barricade system across the fjord (and the reason for that is because all the Nordic cultures were at war with each other at some point in time). The barricade system no longer exists though. At any rate, historians went looking and found the remains of a staggering five ships which were raised from the bed, preserved and put on show.

A small trading vessel also

One of the ships was the classic longboat and the rest were shorter, broader trading vessels. I learnt a lot about the Vikings and how far they travelled. Apparently they got to America before the Southern Europeans ever did but a) had difficulties with the natives and b) found nothing there that they couldn't get back home so a permanent settlement was never created (how different might the world be if they had stayed?) Also, most of the main towns on Ireland's east coast, including Dublin, started out as Viking settlements (hence the preponderance of blonde hair and blue eyes in the Dromgool family).

From what I gathered, the museum is much more interesting in Summer because they have made modern reconstructions of a number of Viking boats based on the info they gleaned from the scuttled ships, and you can go sailing on them.

I have added some photos for your enjoyment.

Place of Interest #2: Domkirke (aka the Temple of the Dead (my title incidentally))

The other big attraction in Roskilde (and I am not kidding, it's huge!) is Domkirke. It is the main Cathedral in Denmark and also the place where every King and most of the Queens of Denmark have been interred. This Church dominates the Roskilde skyline and is built nearly entirely of red brick. There were apparently two Churches there before it dating back to the 1200s but this is the most recent and is about 300-400 years old.

I can't really tell you much else in words so the rest of this post will be a photo essay of snaps from inside the Church.

Church Front

Cool Silhouette effect

Tomb of Margrethe I, the most venerated Queen.

His and Hers Granite and Marble Tombs

Marble Tombs

Church Interior

My final note regards three big urns that I found on the way back to the train station. A local saw me taking a photo so decided to give me a brief history. Apparently they cost NZ$250,000 each, had to have special ovens built to fire them and are made of liver-paste. I can't help but feel that that last point may have suffered a translation error. Or it could be true. In which case, those urns are both innovative in terms of material, and slightly disturbing for the same reason.

Farvel!