Flour Power

I’ve been here for almost one month and I only have a couple of posts about pubs… That’s not right! People might think I spend every day and night at home at the computer, and that’s very far from the truth

There are a few pubs around here that have live music almost every day, and last Friday I went to one of them – the Róisín Dubh (pronouced as “russian dove”, such is the weirdness of the Irish language). For starters, I was amazed at the quality of the pub’s website. For such a small place, I was surprised to know that I could book tickets online (and with a small discount for doing it online). So I bought a ticket for €11.50 (the bloodsuckers from the bank took a €1.50 fee) and Friday at 9pm I had a Guinness in my hand and was ready for a dose of alternative rock.

The first band was called The Butterfly Explosion. I had never heard of them, and in fact the small concert area was about halfway to its capacity, which demonstrated the “unknown-ness” of this band. I managed to record one of their songs, and surprisingly the movie turned out decent, even though it was quite dark. Enjoy “Closer”, by The Butterfly Explosion:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laNknaKyouo

All in all, the concert was pretty good, and a nice warm-up for the main attraction.

After a few minute’s break to prepare the stage, in came God is an Astronaut, and now the room was almost completely full. I had heard some of their songs after I saw a comment in some blog (to which I lost the link) saying that their concert was better than watching Radiohead (a HUGE overstatement). Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the concert and will keep an eye on any new music they release. Here are some pictures (also did some movies but they turned out too dark):

Basically, we (2 of my housemates joined me in the meantime) had a great time. Of course, with some more drinks after the concert, and going to bed at 5 or 6 am.

Before coming here I was wondering what the cost of living was like in Galway, a city that had a huge growth in the last few years and is now suffering quite a bit with the economic crisis. And while I found some stuff, it was all either too generic or a bit outdated. To make it easier for any Galway newcomers, I’ve compiled a list of some stuff that might help in getting an idea of the prices (if there’s anything else you want to know, drop a line in the comments):

• 1 pint (0,57 liters) of Guinness in a pub: €4.20
• 1 can of Guinness 0,5 liters in the supermarket: less than €2
• 1 pack of Lucky Strike (20 cigarettes): €8
• Cellphone call: €0.29 per minute
• Public water-supply: free
• 1 frozen pizza: from €2.50
• 1 bottle (700ml) of vodka: €20+
• 1 bottle of Porto wine (700 ml): €12+
• 1 bottle (1 liter) of Martini: €13
• 1 double cheeseburger at MacDonald’s: €2
• 1 room in a shared house near the centre: €250 to €400
• 1 t-shirt: as low as €2.5
• 1 kebab: €7
• 1 bottle (1 liter) of water: €1+
• Broadband Internet: €20 to €50 per month
• 1 supermarket bag: €0.22
• 1 Kg of rice: €1.80
• Sliced bread (400g): €1.50+
• Taxi minimum fare: €4+
• 1 bus ticket: €1.60
• Dinner at a restaurant with real food: €20+

I hope this helps in getting a better picture of how much it actually costs living in Galway. And if you’re a smoker and love vodka, this might not be the place for you. Just go to Ukraine instead

Remember when I told you I could find no zebra crossings in Galway? Well, I was kind of mistaken:

The funny thing is, they’re located inside a shopping center’s parking lot, which is kind of ridiculous since it’s a place where cars move slower than people, which kind of makes them worthless. And in the main road just a few meters away there’re no zebra crossing to be found…

Ever wondered how a Portuguese song sounds if you replace the Portuguese guitar with a Pan Flute? Of course not, what a stupid question! But you’re about to find out

I was walking down Shop Street (FYI, the “main” street, for pedestrians only, filled with shops, pubs and street musicians) and after passing some guy playing a pan pipe, he got to the end of one music and started another one. That made me stop immediately! Why? Because I recognized it for being a Portuguese song. And I just went back and filmed it:

Sounds familiar? This is the original:

I couldn’t believe it at first, but it really is the same song! They must be one of those groups that are always traveling from one place to the other, and probably spent some time in Portugal and that’s where they got it from.

By the way, the song is about being an expatriate and missing everything you left back in Portugal (“verde vinho” literally means green wine).

A guy from Peru or somewhere like that (I should have asked) playing a Portuguese song with a panpipe in Ireland. Weird (and pretty cool) mix!

So today I had to go to the bank to pay my rent, and my mood was not the best because I’ve been trying to do it for more than one week with no success. I’ll explain.

First I asked the caretaker of the house (not really the owner, just the guy that makes sure everything is OK, takes care of the deposits, etc) to give me the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) of the account I should transfer the money to and he told me he would send it by mail. A few days later (and no sign of said email) I called back and it turns out he didn’t have the IBAN in the first place, he just had the “local” account number. I told him to give me that one and I would go to the bank and get the IBAN myself.

Next I needed to find a way to get to the bank before closing time. Like in Portugal, banks (annoyingly) close very early, and if subtract the bank’s opening hours from my job schedule I end up with only half an hour on Friday. That’s the only time in the whole week I can go to the bank! How insane is that?

This gets me to today, and I went to the ATM machine to withdraw the money for the rent. Tried €300 and got the “insufficient funds” message. Well, this had already happened to me once, and I figured out (after a lot of attempts and a phone call to the bank in Portugal), that there seems to be a withdrawal limit of €250 per day, or at least for some unknown time, until some updates are made (the lady with whom I talked to didn’t seem to know a lot about it either). It’s all got to do with security and the delay between the withdrawal and the time when the actual account balance is updated. I had to ask my father to go to the bank and change/remove that limit. Which he did, and he was informed that the limit had been raised and I should have no more problems. But apparently the problem still persists…

I ended up taking the €250 from the damned machine, tried a few others from other banks (to make sure it wasn’t a bank-specific limit) and ended up giving up knowing that it either is my bank’s fault, or there’s some entity that controls these kinds of international transfers and they enforce this ridiculous limit. I lean towards the first option: it’s all my bank’s fault.

The bank is Millennium BCP. I don’t have any other reasons to complain about them, other than the fact that the bank fees are probably higher than in other Portuguese banks. The online banking platform is quite good (in the sense that I always managed to easily do what I need, and not by comparing to others because I never used any), I never had any problems with erroneous transactions, and the customer service is always very good. But this situation is just unacceptable. They always use the “for security reasons” excuse, but I just hate it when security starts being a such a hindrance to the most basic tasks. I don’t care if they make the PIN number 10 digits long for enhanced security. But I do mind only being able to withdraw €250 in a single day!

It seems that they want me to plan my “rent-paying-day” ahead of time, to make sure that in the day I get that magic amount of money from the ATM I still have some money in my wallet to eat and go out if I feel inclined to it. What the hell!? That’s not acceptable! Do I really have to open a bank account in another bank to be able to freely access MY money?!

Anyway, I managed to get the IBAN at the bank and so I’ll be able to do everything online and bypass all the hassle I just described. But I needed to share this, and alert the readers of this blog (yes, all two of them!) to this issue.