Rollin on dubs in Dublin!

Yet another country and city come and gone, but this time I found somethings a little too familiar...

For example, the first pub I see in Ireland is the Beaumont House! Really? Okay...

Of course one has to become acquainted with local news, just to get the mood set. But really? Drink driving? Come on, that doesn't even make sense!

Easily one of the most impressive things in Dublin I saw right away, the 'Long Room' library at Trinity College. Something like 200 years old, dozens of huge bookcases filled with I think 200 000 books. The entire place is wood paneled, all warped and tilted, very cool. They even have the oldest harp in Ireland that the national symbol is modeled after. You'll have to excuse the picture, you're not really allowed to take pictures, I had to be ultra sneaking and the lighting isn't very good for photos, but I think you will get the idea.

Just outside the library was something I could have sworn I've seen before. Turns out that the Vatican had given the college an identical, but smaller, sphere to the one located in the Vatican museum. This one also spins (I tested).

Turns out that the Irish have a sense of humor:

The next day, on the way to a famous and historically relevant jail, I managed to take the wrong bus... 40 minutes in the wrong direction! Opps!

But on the positive side, I got the best seat on the double decker (same buses as London, just yellow) and an extended tour of Irish suburbs. I don't think I saw a single piece of grass. As you can see the roads are narrow (lots of parking on the curb) and the 'yards' are mostly all paved into driveways.

Heading back into the city (on the correct bus), you get a great view of the Spire of Dublin (originally called the millennium spire, but having been finished several years late, it didn't seem to fit...). I guess its the tallest 'sculpture' in the world, whatever. I think what it's best known for is a reference point for drunk people stumbling out of bars, as it has a bright light at the top.

I learned a lot about the history of English prisons at the Kilmainham jail. Mostly that if jails were as bad as they were back then, we would have far less criminals. But as there are rules as to how you can treat prisoners, they created this 'Victorian style' cell room, which I think you will agree is pretty bad ass!

Moving on the the Dublin castle, which isn't much of a castle, as they managed to blow it up in a fire a while ago. But what is left is very castle-like, if you ignore the parking lot around it...

This box is pretty amazing. It used to hold the city seal used for making official documents. It's six-sided and has six keys. All six keys need to be turned at the same time in order to open the box, which is impressive for being built in the middle ages.

Having used to be under British rule, the Mayor of Dublin is actually called 'Lord Mayor' and has to wear this dress and huge gold and silver bling. Imagine in Edmonton, we would have: 'Stephen Mandel, Lord Mayor of Edmonton' hahaha!

Below is I guess a very iconic location for pictures and whatnot in Dublin. But it has a hidden purpose. What it is actually used for is as a helipad for important guests, such as Hilary Clinton.

A perfect example of the attitude toward the current state of Ireland's economy:

I managed to find a 14% beer (yes it's still beer!). Surprisingly it didn't really taste that strong, but you could really feel it!

I had to share this, just lovely!

And now for final thoughts.

Going to Ireland was both fun and enlightening. The pub scene there is amazing. To get real Irish food, you have to go to a pub, as there is no such thing as an 'Irish Restaurant'. Learning about Irish history was great, as it's a story of struggle for freedom and independence. I really developed an appreciation for the emotion that I observed speaking to some locals about politics. From what I understand, people get very involved and emotional when there is an election. That's because not so long ago, they were not their own country, and the British were trying to remove Irish culture from the Earth (a lasting result of that is that English is dominant language, not Irish). Also, the two major political parties are descended from the two sides of their civil war after separation from the British, which makes things tense I suppose!

So once again, I leave more knowledgeable (hopefully that means wise) than when I arrived!

Triumphant Return!

4 planes and 24 hours later, I have arrived back in Trondheim. With the help from my boss I've fully moved into my new room, entirely covered in wood paneling!

While my luggage is still in Amsterdam, I should get it tomorrow, I hope my stuff hasn't been replaced with weed!

Being back in airports, I remembered the ugly twins I saw last time and if I haven't shared this with you before here they are!

Enjoy the snow!

How I $pend My Time

O dear, I just love puns. You get five points if you can correctly identify how many I put in the title.

This post goes out to all my fellow engineers, who share my love for excel.

Now that I have done a considerable amount of traveling, and my habit of making excel sheets to keep track of data (you know what I mean), I have decided to share my travel graphs.

I’ve kept track of the time that I spend on different forms of transportation: trains, buses, boats, and planes during my trips.

And here are some nice figures showing that data, Enjoy!

*The following data only contains time of travel, it doesn’t include waiting time, which is considerable. For example, my plane was cancelled once and the next one was a 2 hour bus ride and 6 hours in a different airport away.

The bar graphs gives you a nice overview of how much time I've spent in transit.

I put in a pie chart cause really, who doesn't like a pie chart, even though they are stupid because they are qualitative. Is the blue one bigger than the green one? Is the yellow one half the red one? The bar graph knows!

This one is my favorite. It shows how much travelling I have done and when, but also how my travel mode habits have changed. While its not exactly what I wanted, its pretty close.

Peace out!

I left my gloves on a bus in London

­­Ello ello ello there.

I’ve now been to both capitals of the two countries that founded Canada so long ago, and I will say that the English side has won me over. While Paris was awesome, London always kept me laughing, for example:

Since it was a Saturday I went out on a pub crawl for some London partying, some of the bars were douchey and lame, but it gave me that chance to chat up some locals, a nurse and a political adviser to the US military in Iraq, pretty sweet! It finished off at the Ministry of Sound, self described as the best dance club in London, with perfect acoustics and humidity controls, blah blah blah, whatever, the bass was insane!

The sweet sign projected on the wall outside.

After a great night of clubbing, of course there is parliament building to see. Great weather made walking around London rather comfortable, and the late time of year meant pretty much no tourists.

Just incase you forgot they do everything backwards here, a convenient reminder.

And some great flying buttresses at Westminster abbey. Its in such great condition because they charge 15 pounds to get in, unless you go in for worship that is…

Buckingham palace, pretty unimpressive, apparently it wasn't made to be a palace… ya okay… The Stockholm palace is much more impressive.

Some afternoon sun presented with some great lighting for pictures.

The Clock Tower, often wrongly called Big Ben, which is actually an informal nickname of the largest bell inside the tower.

The back side of Parliament.

And to keep up with tradition, some evening pull ups on what must be the worlds largest sundial, on the summit of Tower Hill.

The Tower Bridge, next to the Tower of London, just of Great Tower road, ya I know, very original naming sceme. Really impressive construction techniques for a 120 year old brigdge. It’s a steel suspension truss brigde that opens with an upper walkway for pedestrians, very cool, but I don’t believe it opens any more.

Next stop the British museum, to see some world famous Greek and Roman sculpture, which I seem to have developed quite a liking for. The Greeks were much more skillful than the Romans, and like the current Hollywood, almost all Roman Sculpture are copies of Greek work that doesn’t exist anymore.

And instead of showing you dozens of statues and pieces of buildings, which you can’t really appreciate, I’ll show you the roof! Its really sweet, made for the Queen or whatever.

A return to the Tower of London during the day was next. While its quite pricey to get in, they keep the Crown Jewels here so kinda a big attraction, what with having a 530 carat diamond the size of a golf ball! There’s also the lesser, 300 carat diamond, small by comparison.

Ahh and here is what most of the London tube looks like, escalators and lifts, cause that baby’s deep! The amount of stairs you have to take to get to the tubes is in the range of 200!

I also got lucky and happened upon a tube strike the second day, so it was time for the bus, which was insanely busy, as was the rest of the city since everyone had to walk to work that day.

I hung out with some Aussi’s I met on a tour who were quick to point out my terrible pronunciation of British words, such as ‘Leicester’ is said ‘Lester’, which is stupid.

Until we speak again...

I'm in East Berlin!

Hallo hallo!

So I am finally on my last leg of the trip (and i don't say that with any sort of non good feelings) and I am now in Berlin! We've done the free tour today (New Europe) and it was really informative as always, learning about the history of Berlin from 100's of years ago to the present day.

This will just be a short check in, but my initial impression of Berlin is that is it a city that has many layers, like the scene in Shrek, if you want to, this city will never get old. So far (0.7/3.2 days) it has given me the impression that it is it's own entity and that it has almost and endless amount to offer. We've got a lot ahead of us and the following posts should be amazing! ;)

Celebrity Status!

Turns out that Backpackers are a hot topic in Norway. I was just interviewed by a local newspaper about how backpackers travel in Norway, specifically if I would want to walk to the airport. I guess many people do, as it is only 3 km to the town, and there is no walking path. Pretty cool, my third interview by a newspaper!

The second interview I haven't blogged about yet, and was on my boat trip to the Russian border. I had an informal interview with a German travel reporter on the bridge of the MS Polarlys. The bridge was kick-ass, and I might get a mention in a Berlin newspaper!

Just thought I'd mention that, only 3 hours till take off!

Torp Sandefjord Lufthaven

I am 'en route' to Germany for what should be an epic 2 week adventure, punctuated by the last launch of space shuttle discovery on Nov. 1. And you shouldn't be surprised that I will be watching the live stream from Frankfurt.

But before then, I have a 5 hour wait here at Torp Sandefjord Lufthaven, which is a strange name for an airport, even though it is an accurate description. Getting here only took 10 hours by train, which isn't bad at all due to the rather nice trains in Norway. One day (probably when I'm back to Canada) I'll make an info-graphic detailing how much time I've spent going to places, rather than being at places, cause I'm sure it's a stupid amount.

Although, I really don't mind, as you might have guessed, this airport has free wifi! And my plane tickets were only $28 return!