ATIE

Well now it’s time to look at the Erasmus semester in conclusion and well to write about this here. I have to say that I never regretted my decision to go on this semester and I can say that these were the best consecutive 4 ½ months of my life with all those great people. I miss you all, my friends.
So now, I had the idea to sum up the Erasmus time by writing the following lists. To some of them I also added some descriptions but I don’t guarantee the completeness of any of these.
But don’t be afraid, this is not gonna be the last post here on this weblog and there is something to come in the photo gallery as well. And yes I am already working on something new at the moment. So stay tuned, as the saying goes.

I will always remember the time in Ireland

By the way, now we finally got snow here in Austria. In my hometown of Fürstenfeld it’s just a few centimetres but I am already happy about this bit. But still, I miss Ireland somehow.

So here’s the lists:

Pubs/clubs/bars I’ve been to, sorted by the (estimated) number of times I’ve been there:

• Molloy’s (The Foxes Covert)
  Main Street, Tallaght
  This was just the pub around the corner for us where we went when we just wanted to go for one or two pints (or sometimes more). It’s just a typical Irish pub and when we entered we normally lowered the average age there by quite a few years. It was often our last chance to enter some pub out in Tallaght, because they never have bouncers at the entrance.
• The Mezz
  Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin
  A club/venue in the centre of Temple Bar playing mostly (Indie) Rock music and having (mostly unknown Irish) live bands playing every Friday and Saturday night. Usually very crowded because it’s free to enter.
• Blu Bar
  Blessington Road/The Square, Tallaght
  A bar in one of the numerous new buildings right next to The Square shopping centre in Tallaght. In the afternoons they serve food and often have sports screenings. Well yes, we had our X-Mas party there.
• Metro
  Old Blessington Road, Tallaght
  That’s a nice place (bar/café) also serving food right on the ground floor of Tramway Court (so it was just two floors beneath my flat). When they opened in early December they had bouncers at the door who wouldn’t let us in a few times because of our shoes. But after about two weeks they weren’t there any more and Metro became a place for us to just go for a pint or sometimes also for lunch/dinner. And sometimes they even had free Bud Light for everybody.
• Trinity College Pavilion
  Trinity College, Dublin
  That’s a place right on the campus of Trinity College next to the sports grounds. They sell cheap beer in cans (4for8) every Friday night until 11pm. But they also have normal beer and other drinks. The pavilion itself is very small, so you have to stay outside most of the time and sit on the stairs which isn’t funny any more form October onwards.
• O’Neill’s
  Suffolk Street, Dublin
  Nice pub near Trinity College/Grafton Street opposite the tourist information church. They have a wide selection of very good traditional Irish food. And it’s one of the few places where you can get Murphy’s beer.
• Turk’s Head
  Essex Gate/Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin
  Nightclub at the west end of Temple Bar. In the front it’s like a normal Café/Bar with rather good music. But in the back and in the basement it’s a night club with rather commercial dance music just as everywhere.
• Zanzibar
  Ormond Quay Lower, Dublin
  Zanzibar is a nightclub on the north side of the river Liffey near Ha’penny Bridge and the inside is styled oriental all over. The music is absolutely dance music and on Saturday night you have to pay five Euro admission. By the way we really had two very good nights out there on my two last days of my Erasmus stay.
• Eamon Doran’s
  Temple Bar, Dublin
  Eamon Doran’s is a place in Temple Bar where the music is OK. In the basement it’s also a venue for concerts. We once saw/heard The Back Doors (a Doors cover band) there. By the way: it’s free to enter but the prices of for the drinks increase every hour as the night proceeds.
• Fitzsimon’s
  Wellington Quay, Temple Bar, Dublin
  Another club in Temple Bar with the same commercial dance music as in a lot of places and with free entry. But no really reason to go there.
• Hogan’s
  South Great George’s Street, Dublin
  This is really a good place in South Great Georges Street just a few minutes to walk off Dame Street. I’ve been there just two times in September but it was really good, especially the Sábado club in the basement one Saturday.
• O’Sheas
  Talbot Street/Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin
  A typical Irish pub which was just a few metres away from the hostel I stayed in for the first week when I came to Dublin. The strange thing there was that they actually pulled down shutters in at the bar, after the last order.
• Bad Bob’s
  East Essex Street, Temple Bar, Dublin
  A big nightclub on three floors in the centre of Temple Bar. It’s a tenner admission but I once had a real good night there.
• The Temple Bar
  Temple Bar, Dublin
  I think everybody who ever comes to Dublin has to go there at least once. And so did I.
• Grumpy’s
  @ The Plaza, Tallaght
  Pub on the ground floor of the Plaza hotel in Tallaght. Well I didn’t count the times we wanted to get in there but the stupid bouncer had once again another excuse for not letting us in. Once it was the “sports” shoes, once he said that they were almost closing and so on…
• Abberley Court Hotel
  High Street, Tallaght
  Just another pub in Tallaght, nothing special.
• The Oliver St. John Gogarty
  Fleet Street, Temple Bar, Dublin
  Typical Irish pub in Temple Bar with the same music as everywhere. The only time I’ve been there it was so overcrowded that you could hardly move.
• Messrs. Maguire
  Burgh Quay, Dublin
  Just one more club/pub in the city centre next to O’Connell Bridge.
• T. P. Smith’s
  Abbey Street, Dublin
  A typical Irish pub in Abbey Street near Jervis shopping centre. Just went there once for a pint after shopping. It’s one of the few places where you can get Kilkenny beer.
• An Bróg
  Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork
  Actually the place with the best music I’ve ever been to in the whole Erasmus time. Right in the city centre of Cork they played real good Indie Rock music the whole night. I like this place and will always remember what happened there. “In the morning you know you won’t remember a thing…”
• Bridge House
  Bedford Street, Belfast
  Apparently one of the very few places to go out in the city centre of Belfast near the city hall. It was somehow strange to be allowed to smoke inside and to pay your drinks in pounds.
• King’s Head
  High Street, Galway
  Just in the centre of Galway in one of the streets in the pedestrian zone. It has got two floors and really is a nice place with live bands playing there regularly (apparently).
• Dragon Inn
  Main Street/Old Blessington Road, Tallaght
  Another pub around the corner but not as nice as Molloy’s although they had an Irish live band playing the one time I’ve been there.
• D|Two
  Harcourt Street, Dublin
  A nightclub in Harcourt Road, a few minutes’ walk south of St. Stevens Green. On the ground floor it’s rather a lounge and in the basement it’s a nightclub with dance floor and everything. Free to enter until 11pm, a tenner afterwards.
• Sinnott’s
  @ St. Stevens Green Shopping Centre, Dublin
  Well it’s in the basement beneath St. Stevens Green shopping centre and it’s a mix between a pub and a discotheque but nothing special once again.

Beers I drank (sorted by alphabet):

• Bud Light
• Budweiser
• Carlsberg
• Coors Light
  Too much light, one of the worst beers I ever drank
• Corona
• Dutch Gold
  Just a cheep one
• Galahad
  The cheapest Aldi beer
• Guinness
  Well what shall I say?
• Kilkenny
  A red beer
• Miller
  My favourite one
• Murphy’s
  Looks like Guinness but tastes slightly different
• Smithwick’s
  Another red beer
• St. Etienne
  Another Aldi Beer
• Stella Artois
  Belgian from Leuven
• Tennent’s
• Tiger
  Chinese beer
• Tuborg

Trips we made (sorted by date):

• Dún Laoghaire (16/09/2006)
• Glandalough & Wicklow (07/10/2006)
• Malahide (04/11/2006)
• Cork & Kinsale (11-12/11/2006)
• Galway & The Cliffs of Moher (26-27/11/2006)
• Belfast & Giant’s Causeway (9-10/12/2006)

Modules I did at the ITT Dublin (sorted by alphabet):

• Advanced Database
• Distributed Applications And Networking
• English As A Foreign Language
• Internet Based Systems
• Object Oriented Systems Design 1
• Software Development 5

Buses/Trams to take me to the city centre:

• Bus 49
• Bus 65
• Bus 77
• Luas Red Line

Buses/Trams to take me back from the city centre:

• Bus 49
• Bus 65
• Bus 77 (incl. 77N)
• Luas Red Line

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 27th, 2007 at 22:00 and is filed under Nightlife & Leisure, School, Trips, Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.