Flour Power

It's now more than a month late, but I need to get this one out of the way: on the 15th of January, my Guinness counter hit number 500. It has come a long way since number one, when I first arrived to Ireland.

And since this was more than just another pint, I made sure I drank it in the same pub I had the first one in. And more: I was sitting at the same table. And this took place exactly (give or take a couple of hours) one year after Guinness Pint Number One. Historic, eh?!

"And now what?", you might ask. Well, now I stop counting. It was fun as a topic of conversation, but the fun was gone when people insisted on telling me how much money I had spent on Guinness.

Now that I'm done with the counting, I also got rid of the counter in the sidebar. I just felt the need to point this out, otherwise people might think I stopped drinking Guinness altogether, which is not the case at all. Rest assured, Guinness people, I'll keep sending money your way...

Yeah, I know it's been a while since my last post. And it has been even longer since I did any proper post about the life here in Galway. I think the last ones were during the Volvo Ocean Race. But don't you think that nothing has happened since then! It's just that... well, instead of being lame and saying I didn't have time to post, I'll do a quick summary of what has been happening.

So, in reverse chronological order:

This last week was the "back to work" week. To start off nicely, I had a great 16-hour trip back to Galway (including a 7-hour wait at Madrid airport) which left me completely messed up for the rest of the week. And getting back to work after 1 week out also meant extra stuff to do and not even a bit of time to wander around the interwebs. Aw, c'mon, don't give me that look. Everyone surfs around the Internet while at work...

The week before that was spent in Portugal. The 6-month INOV Contacto internship had ended and I so I took 1 week off to go back to my home country. Plans had been made to spend most of the time visiting friends and that's what I did. Going to the beach and finally get some proper sunlight was also part of the plan, but with all the other stuff happening there wasn't a whole lot of time for that. And there was also the not so nice part of taking care of paperwork. Anyway, it was a great week, and I wish I could have stayed longer.

Two weeks before leaving I had a friend coming over to visit. And as a good host I showed him the best that Galway has to offer. That means a lot of pubs. That also means going out from Monday to Friday (he left on Saturday). During that week we also visited Dublin, and more importantly, I finally went to the Guinness Storehouse. I got to see how the stuff is made, tasted the best pint in the world (right at the brewery, you can't get any better than that!), and learned how to pour a pint of Guinness correctly. Also had a chance to show him that tag rugby is a lot of fun and not to be mocked with. All in all, I think I convinced him to come back one of these days, and that means it was a great week (the best bit was definitely the Irish breakfast...).

And going all the way back to June, 3 friends came to visit, during the last weekend of the Volvo Ocean Race. Listened to some concerts that were happening outside while confortably sitting down in the living room, watched the Portuguese national soccer team pulling one of those last-minute goals against Albania for the World Cup Qualifiers, and went out to enjoy the Galway nightlife and one of the most important aspects of Irish culture - the pubs.

And now that this has been taken care of, blogging will resume it's natural rhythm.

Stay tuned!

(photo by the_girl)

It was 6 months ago that I moved to Galway, Ireland, for a 6 months internship sponsored by the INOV Contacto program. It was 6 months ago that I left the comfort of the house I had lived in for the previous 20-something years and moved to a completely new place. It was 6 months ago that I had the first of many pints of Guinness…

Those were 6 great months.

A lot of fun was had at the awesome Irish pubs. Some travelling was done around Europe. A lot of people were met, and some became good friends.

Those were the good things, and although not everything was perfect, I really can’t point any especially bad experience. So the overall experience was very positive.

And that’s why I’m going back!

That’s right, I hadn’t made it official yet, but I’m announcing it now. The company where I did the internship offered me a contract extension and so I’ll go back to Galway for some more time.

It’s now time to rest, and I’ll be back in one week.

(photo by Mark van de Wouw)

Quark Expeditions is offering to send one lucky blogger to the Antarctic Peninsula for two week's worth of freezing cold and penguins. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? That's why I'm participating!

Here's how it works... The one with the most votes by September 30 will be flown to Argentina in early 2010 to embark in one of Quark's expeditions to Antarctica. The winner will become the expedition's official blogger, and will have the responsibility of reporting the whole thing - the preparation, the expedition itself, and the return home. I think I'm qualified for the "job", and that's why I'm asking for your support.

Long story short, I need your vote:

Please vote here!

Yes, you have to register to vote, but it's not that bad, it only takes a couple of minutes. You might have to check your spam folder for the confirmation email.

I'm gonna need thousands of votes to win this thing, so feel free to ask your family, friends and pets to vote for me. Also, sharing my link or a link to this post will be very much appreciated (just use the icons in the end of this post).

Thanks in advance for your help!

@ the Fancy Dress night of the Galway Corinthians Tag Rugby Tournament (I plan to explain this later)

Can you spot me?

The image above shows the closest I could get from the WiFi service on board of a gobus coach… That was after accepting the terms and conditions and answering questions about my opinion about the service. Yes, they did ask my opinion about it before I even used the damn thing…

Now it’s safe to say the service wasn’t that good, don’t you think?

I got all hyped up when I got the news that Gobus would start providing free on-board WiFi and was eager to test it. And now that I actually get to do it, it just doesn’t work. Big fail.

Well, at least I do have an opinion now, if they ask me again.

UPDATE: On the way back I tried to use the Citylink service, and didn't work either. And it seems they're both using the same system (fleetconnect). Well, considering that I have friends who managed to get it working, I'm wondering if it's some kind of operating system incompatibility.

Today, the 10th of June, is Portugal Day. I usually don't celebrate it that much when I'm in Portugal and I don't even remember there being any huge celebrations like for some other countries' national days. But at least it's a national holiday, and it kind of bummed me down that I had to work today. It triggered that "I wish I was there" feeling.

So, a little bit of history (taken directly from Wikipedia). Not that I don't know it... but it's just so easy to get it from there...

This day marks the date of Luís de Camões' death in 1580. He wrote the Lusíadas, Portugal's national epic poem celebrating Portuguese history and achievements, more specifically the 16th century Portuguese explorations, which brought fame and fortune to Portugal. According to popular lore, Camões saved his epic poem by swimming with one arm while keeping the other arm (the one holding the book) above water.

He became a national hero and now the date of his death is the Portuguese national day. And there's also a statue in his honor in Lisbon oldtown.

Lesson history over, off to work again now.

The Green Dragon resting at the Galway docks.