Brick Lane
London


A microvideo of Brick Lane

Traditionally a Bangladeshi neighborhood, Brick Lane is a grittier area in London, full of flea markets and street vendors. It's kind of like the Oakland of London neighborhoods. We wandered through the area, eating food from various ethnic food stands. The little, hot, Japanese rice whateverthey'recalleds were my favorite. Nom nom.

Some kid playing carrom in the market

After filling our bellies with fried things, perusing the local crafts, and playing a quick game of carrom (which I dominated, by the way), we set off for a drink in a nearby pub called Commercial Tavern. Good drinks. Good atmosphere.

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Bike tour of the sights
London


Buckingham Palace

Sunday was spent biking all over London with my friend Jackie. We started with a quick tour of Hyde park. The weather was nice by London standards so there were plenty of people enjoying the greens. We biked along the Serpentine and out the corner gate to St. James park.

Stopping shortly at Buckingham Palace for a breather and a few pics, we quickly mapped out the rest of the tour -- to Westminster Palace, over the Thames, meander to Tate Modern museum for a quick visit, then onwards to meet up with our friend Jenny in Brick Lane.

The Palace of Westminster

And so we did. It began to drizzle a bit by the time we got to the museum, and our quick visit gave us a chance to dry off and immerse in the galleries. More than the installations and pieces in the gallery, the museum itself struck me. Formerly a power station, the building preserved its massive scale when it was transformed into Tate. There are places where you can still see some of the old power station machinery.

The lobby of Tate Modern

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Finsbury Park
London


Originally a woodland area, Finsbury park was born as the woods were gradually cut back during London's boom in the 19th century.

I arrived in Heathrow in the early afternoon, and my friend Jenny had already invited me to a birthday party in Finsbury Park. A quick tube ride brought me to entrance of the park. I wandered in, still a little dizzy from the whirlwind of airports and undergrounds.

The wide expanse of green in idyllic weather, laughing, kids on skateboards smoking by the tennis courts speaking unintelligibly, kites, kids, laughing. Like Valium.

My gait relaxed and I kicked on my pink shades. Not really knowing where this party was in such a large park, I wandered around for a little while and found myself naturally gravitating to the sound of a drum circle.

From Finsbury Park, 26 April 2008

Listen:

Typically, everyone in a drum circle wants to be a soloist and it sounds like garbage. I won't say this circle defied the trend completely, but their groove made me happy enough to sit in an empty seat behind a djembe and rock out with 'em. I love dropping ostinato in drum circles, perhaps because no one else does. I think it helps bring the whole thing together. In the pic above, you can see the empty seat, the djembe, and the rest. Listen to the audio, too -- that was taken right before I sat down.

These kids joined in, too.

After some more wandering, I met up with my two friends from Cornell, Jenny and Jackie. We headed over to their friend's birthday party for some delicious cake and beer and laughing and kazoos. Beautiful first afternoon in London.

Amelie, the birthday girl, is pictured here in the pink shades.

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Skiing in Soelden
Soelden, Austria



Soelden has some of the best skiing in the world. I wouldn't know. I spent most of the time flat on my ass.

Day 1: Four hours of lessons. It was very rudimentary and slow-paced, so I decided to dare the slopes myself. I could go fast. I could go straight. I could turn gently while going fast. But I couldn't slow down or stop. That was a bit of a problem.

Day 2: After getting four hours of sleep, Lasse wakes me up to hit the slopes. Surprisingly, my head doesn't hurt. Unsurprisingly, I couldn't walk straight, nor could I put my ski boots on without much difficulty. I stumble onto the slopes, get a quick bite to eat (not without the assistance of Jula), then soldier onto the lift. The result can be seen below:

Flat on my ass. The whole way down.

Sliding backwards with my skis in the air for about 5 minutes was probably the best part of the day. It got me down the slope without having to worry about standing up, looking where I'm going, or thinking much at all.

Day 3: We take it a little easier the night before, but my legs are completely dead by this point. I get a few good trips down the slopes, though, but not without hurting my shin on a particularly nasty fall -- which, by the way, is a good way to meet people. You get lots of "Hey, how ya doing. Are you alright??"

Relaxing lunch with Manuela and Joao.

After my injurious spill, I decided to call it quits. Back to the restaurant by the lifts, where I enjoyed a few beers and a lovely painkiller from a kind Googler.

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Soelden at Night
Soelden, Austria

Palkomuski, a Gypsy dance band that owned the night. Watch the whole thing.

The video above and the pics in this album pretty much sum it up. A small town with basically one street, Soelden is also a famous ski resort. The combination of the two result in a bar or club on every corner. Most of these were europop clubs or claustrophobic drinking bars, but we found an acceptable vibe in the Harley Davidson bar. It might sound pretty lame for an American to spend much of his Austrian night in an American motorcycle-themed bar, but my friends and I enjoyed singing along to the 80s hard rock. The night certainly felt like a ride on a Crazy Train. Or, perhaps, we were taken down a Highway to Hell.

An example of the beautiful decor in the Harley Davidson bar.

Thursday night was the exception. We heard that a Gypsy dance band would be playing at the Snow Rock cafe, so we made sure to get there early. There isn't much to say that isn't implied in the video above, so let's leave it at that. You really should watch the whole thing (the last minute is quite fun).

Here's that link to more pics, again.


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Giant's Causeway
Northern Ireland

From Giant's Causeway 13 April 08

A thousands of nearly-perfect hexagonal igneous rock make up this amazing landmark of the National Trust.

A long time ago, Fionn mac Cumhaill, an Irish giant, wanted to fight his Scottish rival, Benandonner. Deciding to build a bridge to Scotland, Fionn strode across the sea to challenge the scot. Upon seeing the massive size of Benandonner, Fionn doubled-back across the bridge to hide at home.

His wife, being the more reasonable and clever one, dressed him in a blanket and laid him in a cradle. Benandonner, having chased Fionn across the causeway, arrived shortly after. He busted into Fionn's house, but immediately saw the body of the largest baby he'd ever seen. Thinking, "if this is the size of the baby... this dude must be huge!" -- the Scottish giant bolted out of the house and ran across the causeway, destroying the bridge behind him.

From Giant's Causeway 13 April 08

Giants Causeway has a beautiful view to accompany the lovely mythology.

Giant's Causeway provided for some of the most pleasant and beautiful hiking I've had in a while. Click here for some of the pics.


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Bushmills Distillery
Northern Ireland

From Bushmills distillery 13 April 08

Glorious wheat and barley aging in sherry casks.

The distillery received its license from King James I in the 1600s and has been making whiskey every day since. We weren't able to do the tour, but I enjoyed a lovely 12-year old single malt reserve at the restaurant. One can smell the hint of vanilla.

From Bushmills distillery 13 April 08

Click here for more pics of this historic distillery.



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Carrick-a-rede Bridge

From Northern Irish coast 13 April 08

Reportedly once a very precarious bridge, the Man decided to ruin it by making it sturdier and safe.

Carrick-a-rede bridge. Originally created as a functional passage to a small island fishery for the local salmon farmers, it now doubles as a big tourist attraction. If it wasn't for the amazingly beautiful weather that day, I'd be disappointed by the lack of life-threatening precarious-ness that was promised at the beginning of the tour. Enough talk... more pics:

From Northern Irish coast 13 April 08

From Northern Irish coast 13 April 08

From Northern Irish coast 13 April 08

Click here for more pics of the Northern Irish coast, including a couple nice castles.


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Political Murals of Falls Road
Belfast

Some of the murals on the Republican side of town, Falls Road

Our black taxi tour started with a stop in front of a series of murals painted along the outside of a factory wall. The last still-functional linen factory on this stretch, it still operates with two locked gates -- one is locked by those on the Loyalist side of the city, the other by those on the Republican side.

The murals here, which seem to be painted over and updated regularly, reflect some political sentiment in the city at the time. Looking at the picture at the top, the left-most mural was apparently finished just that afternoon. The one in the middle is dedicated to Fredrick Douglass and his time in Ireland. The right-most mural is the first painted jointly by people from the Loyalist and Republican sides of the city. It's a recreation of Guernica.

Dubya drinks oil as bubbles of money come out his ears.

Immediately across the street stood the unassuming apartment buildings shown below. Until very recently, British troops occupied the top floor of this building. A residence on the Republican side of town, the building was home to Catholic families on the lower floors. Knowing the IRA would never blow up the Catholic homes, the British were able to garrison there for years.

Home to Catholic families and British troops.

Click here to see more political murals, as well as other pics of Belfast.


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Crown Saloon and Restaurant
Belfast

The oldest bar in Belfast, the Crown's Italian marble construction is still in excellent shape.

After our black taxi tour, we headed to Belfast's oldest pub. The Crown is situated in the heart of City Centre, and right across from the Europa Hotel.


The Europa is a large, four star hotel made famous as the most bombed hotel in Europe. In the 60s, the IRA was having trouble getting much media attention around their cause. Since all visiting British journalists would stay at the Europa, the IRA felt it would just be easier to bring the action to them.

The upstairs restaurant in the Crown was cozy, inexpensive, and focused on local favorites. Beef and Guinness pie was recommended by someone at another table. I had the fish and chips.

Fish and chips at the Crown. Nom. Nom.

Click here for more pics of Belfast.

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Clanard Martyrs Memorial Garden
Belfast

A poster by the Clonard memorial near Clonard Monastery, Bombay St.

Once settling into our hostel in Belfast, we hired a black taxi tour. These tours feature the Loyalist and Republican murals of Belfast, and give an up-close view into the history of this divided city.

In August, 1969, Loyalist extremists burned Catholic apartments on Bombay Street. Listen to Bobby, our black taxi driver, tell us more of the background here: .

Bobby then took us to Shankill Rd, on the Loyalist part of town. This city is divided by a 20ft-high peace wall, running for miles in western Belfast. Here's a close-up of a Loyalist mural on Shankill, commemorating Oliver Cromwell's legacy in Ireland:

Click here for more pics of the murals of Belfast.

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Grand Canal docks

Not so much a landmark as a functioning port, the Grand Canal docks were a pleasant little surprise just down the street from my apartment. Dublin is an interesting quilt of old brownstone homes, beautiful churches, gentrified apartment complexes, modern office buildings, and old industrial areas. The Grand Canal docks falls into the latter category. Here are couple more pics:



Click here to see more pics.

Trinity College

William Lecky

My Sunday afternoon was spent peacefully, wandering the libraries and quads of Trinity College. I think having seen the Book of Kells and read Joyce in Trinity should qualify me for some honorary Irish Catholic standing.

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Bahay Kubo


Manila Rhythm - Brown Eyed Girl

Sunday's dinner plans brought us to a well-regarded Filipino restaurant, Bahay Kubo. A South African cabernet accompanied our seafood, chicken, duck, and vegetable dishes, but neither the wine nor the food had us nearly as excited as the atmosphere. No fault to the food, the satisfying meal was eclipsed by the Manila Rhythm, the Undisputed Titans of Filipino Cover Bands (it may be a small playing field, but they're the champions nonetheless).

These Heros on Nylon Strings showered us with wave after wave of classic Western rock, including the Rolling Stones, Prince, Dire Straits, and the Beatles. Check out the video of their cover of Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl.

Click here for more pics.

National Gallery of Ireland

On the walk back from St. Stephen's Green, I stopped by the National Gallery of Ireland. Its collection features, but is not limited to, Irish art from 17th-century onwards. I don't remember seeing any 21st century pieces; I think I'll get my fill when I visit the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

A featured exhibit in the Gallery is the Jack Yeats Museum. Starting as a commercial illustrator, Jack Yeats moved more and more to an Expressionist style in his later years. You can see the contrast in these examples of his earlier and later works.

In this recording, you'll faintly hear two American women discuss and read the description for "An Island Funeral."

St. Stephen's Green

Fusilier's arch, with a memorial to Jeramiah O'Donovan Rossa in the foreground.

At the end of Grafton Street sits Fusilier's arch, entrance to St. Stephen's Green. There's a very pleasant duck pond close to this corner of the Green with park benches alongside. Good for people-watching and duck-feeding. Click here for more pictures of the Green.

People-watching by the pond.
Listen to the birds and happy passers-by:

Grafton Street, Dublin

A view of St. Anne's Church from Grafton St.

Visiting a recommended vegetarian restaurant led me through Grafton Street Saturday afternoon. Dublin's center for window-shopping, it reminded me of other major shopping areas in other cities, like Ithaca Commons (only bigger) or Orchard Road (only much, much smaller). I'm happy to say that, unlike Orchard Road, Grafton Street didn't feel conjested with American franchise chains. You will hear plenty of American accents, though.

The mix of American, Irish, and several other accents is accompanied by the sound of street musicians. Here's a clip of one such act:

Click here for more Grafton Street pictures.