Autobahn and über-wealthy

This blog was supposed to be online yesterday but our internet connection was down a couple of hours. That’s why I am late again.

Third Week

So today is our relaxed Day, we decided to stay at home in the evening so got some time to write another blog.
This Tuesday we went to a pub/club called “Diceys Garden” a second time. There are two dance floors. One is outside in the “Garden” and another inside. Every Tuesday a band is playing on the floor inside, unfortunately the same band every week and the same songs, too. That’s why I probably will not go there again but I really recommend going there at least one time.



On Wednesday we just played a round of billiard which is really expensive I think. By now we found two billiard saloons here in Dublin. At the cheaper one you pay 1€ for 6 minutes to play. That’s why we just play for half an hour.
On Thursday evening Tim and I have been to “Le Cirk” with some Brazilian people I told you about. I got the picture from the Brazilian BBQ now. Here it is.



At the pub some Bands were playing Live Music. They seemed to be very young but still they played very good.
Friday evening after being on a party we went to a pub with a bunch of young people we meet on the street. After leaving the pub we had to walk home in the rain. Thats only the second time since we arrived here in Dublin that I got wet from the rain. I hope at Berlin there is nice weather too?
Saturday afternoon we went to a game of football. David and Sebastian were visiting us that day. I won’t talk about the game much because I think Sebastian is the right man for doing that. David however mentioned the tiny entrance to the Stadium in his blog and here is a picture I took. I even had to go sideways to get through.



In the evening we went to the pub “Le Cirk” again, but this time it was quite boring. We went there to early the pub was quite empty. So we decided to go to Buskers a pub/club because some musicians where playing live music. Sadly they stopped five minutes after we entered the pub. Still we had a great time. Sometime after midnight David and Sebastian left to get back to Belfast. Afterwards we went to one of the two Porterhouses in Dublin. Actually it is a pub but like most pubs there is a dance floor and most of the people were dancing. At the Porterhouse they sell a beer called “Porterhouse Red” which is brewed by the Porterhouse itself. It’s similar to Guinness and Smithwicks and for my taste somewhere between, it’s a pretty good one. We meet some Spanish/Portuguese/Brazilian friends at the pub and had a good time until the Pub closed sometime around 3am.
There is another picture from the one time Tim and I went to the beach I wanted to share with you. When you see it you wouldn’t believe that I took this picture in Ireland rather than Spain or another Mediterranean country. That’s what it felt like to be on the beach.



Today we went to the Soul festival picnic at a park near our apartment. There were basically some live bands playing. I took some videos and want to share the Band called “The Barley Mob” with you.



Learning French, teaching German
Well I am hanging around a lot of French, Italian and Spanish people. Most of them at least know some German words. For example I want to ride the autobahn sometime, a Japanese guy told me. Of course you have to teach the German word for cheers… Prost not Bost, which by the way is: Kampai in Japanese. So besides learning some Japanese I improve my French too. By the time I am able to have a simple conversation in French, while at first I had difficulties to think of a lot of French words.

I read through the newspaper some morning last week and stumble across the word creation über-wealthy in the newspaper. It was an article about some rich people. Thought that was quiet funny.

Money
As David mention in his blog Dublin is really expensive.
For a pint of beer you got to pay 4€ if you find a cheap pub. Often you will pay 4.50€ to 5.50€ for one pint. (Diceys 2€ for one pint each Tue – 5€ entrance)
We buy all our food at Tesco, the cheapest supermarket but sill expensive. By now we actually just ate at home to save some money. A Cheeseburger is about 1.70€ at Mc D and BK.
Cloths however are quite cheap especially at Pennys where I got a sweatshirt for about 15€ and some shirts for 11€ each.
A one way ticket for the bus is about 1.15€ to get to the city center. If you want to go further you have to buy up to 2.20€. Gladly I got a monthly ticket from our funding.
In the end it is quite expensive to go out in the evening and as David said, but the best opportunity to speak English is when you go out somewhere. At work I don’t get the chance to speak English very often because everyone is just working including me. Still I used my time and money here very well by now.

Later,
Lionel

Groundhopping Part II

On saturday 29-05-2010, David and me traveled to Dublin to met some of our guys down there. You may read his post and I don’t want to bore you with things you already know.

Lets talk about the important things, the football!


Bohemian FC – Shamrock Rovers

We visited the big Dublin derby between Bohemian FC (Nickname: Bohs) and Shamrock Rovers (Nickename: Hoops). It’s a match of big rivals and it was perfect football weather, rain. We were looking for some seats at the Jodi Stand. It’s the name of the grandstand at Dalymount Park. We found some beside the Bohs – supporter. Therefore we could listen to their chants the hole match. This chants were ironic, funny and rough, vulgar (I mean, it’s still football ;)). Here an example:

On the Banks of the Antartica, where the white have never been,
There’s a great big f*ckin Polar bear, half shagged to death by a football team,
We are the perverts of society, we are the worst you’ve ever seen,
We’re a shower of loud mouth b*stards, we are Bohemian Football Team…

We are very well renowned for raping little kids, steeling old age pensioners and little boys toys,
We are the Perverts of society, we are the worst you’ve ever seen,
We’re a shower of loud mouth bast*rds we are Bohemian Football Team…

Good guys ^^

Unfortunatly the match wasn’t so good. In the first half both teams were very nervous and they don’t create any clear chances. The seconnd half was a bit better. More aggressiv and especially in the last few minutes with many scoring schances. After the finale whistle both teams clashed against each other but no one get hurt. By the way the game ended in a draw (0:0).

Stadium Daylmount Park

I‘ am still in love with the awesome stadiums in UK and Ireland. It’s only a stone’s throw from your seat and the pitch. The supporters getting really furious if some of their players getting tackled right in front of them. Great atmosphere! It would be perfect if we would have those grounds in Germany, without fences, trenches etc.
Stadium impressions

„When I die they won’t remember who I dated, the fights and the car crashes because they’re not important. They will remember the football.“

George Best, 1946 – 2005

Expensive day in Dublin

Hi there,

Sebastian and I went to Dublin last weekend. We catched the bus at 9am in Belfast.

Down in Dublin we met Marco and Alex who were waiting for us at the bus station. We went to Dublin to see  a football match (Sebastians idea) between the Bohemians FC and the Shamrock Rovers F.C (also called „the hips“ by the Bohemians).

 Tim and Lionel joined us on the way to the stadium. I dont want to talk a lot about the game because is was not very interesting at all (the reslut was 0:0). But the atmosphere and the Stadium were pretty cool. The entry was the smallest and tightest I’ve ever seen. We had to enter it by making yourself as thin as possible. Maybe Lionel is able to upload a picture of that. The support of the fans was quite good but I was not able to understand what they were singing.

After watching the game we chilled out in the appartment of Lee, Tim and Maik. I would like to say that it is a nice place to live, but in my opinion it is a real dump. In the OSZIMT they told us that the apartments in Dublin are nice and clean. I can tell you that it is the oposite of that. I am really glad to live in Belfast right now because our house is very much better than this small and untidy flat.

Anyway, we were drinking a lot of beer waiting for the time to go on. We actually wanted to go to the pub but it they told us that it is too expensive to go there before 10pm. The reason for that are the prices being extremely too high for them in Dublin. That is something I really have to complain about. Why are young people sent to Dublin, although everybody knows that they cant afford that? It is not possible to improve your English if you are forced to sit at home because of not having enough money to go out?….I don’t get that….

But later on we spend a real good time in the pub that would have been much better unless the high prices. I was only one day in Dublin and I spend over 100€. Lionel told us that this is a problem you have to deal with all the time in Dublin. We visited two different pubs. It was really funny although the music was extremely to loud. I like the bathrooms in Dublin’s pubs because they are extremly clean and you can get parfume for free ^^.

After partying in the Pub until 1am Sebastian and I got home at half 4 (4:30). We fell asleep immediately……:)

Conclusions:

  • Dublin is a nice City
  • Dublin is too expensive for students like us
  • I’m glad to live in Belfast after visiting Dublin
  • It doesn’t matter in which city you are: Irish pubs are great !!!

‚The Academy‘ and the club ’21‘

Hi everyone,

If you are following my blog you know that I wrote about the Dublin nightlife already. Here comes another article about that topic.

Yesterday evening, after a usual work day, which is well described by my roommate Chris in his blog entry from morning to night, I did the usual. I went to the gym with my other roommates Ben and Flo. Although we didn’t feel like it, we pushed really hard (literally 😛 ). Afterwards my legs were a little bit sore so I was thinking about not going out… BUT on ‚The Academys‘ website it said ‚free entry to the RnB night from 22:30pm to 23:00pm‘. After relaxing on the couch for half an hour or so my legs felt better and I started to dress myself all up.

After a quick ride with the Luas and a short walk I arrived at the club. But my friends, which arrived almost simultaneously and I couldn’t enter because the concert given, should have taken one more hour. So we left and asked some pedestrians if they knew another club nearby. They told us about the club ’21‘. After asking a couple more pedestrians we finally found it. We thought the name of the club is related to minimum age you can enter with. But although our group of six had 2 ‚youngsters‘ in it we all got in without any problems. The entry fee was 10€, the usual fee in Dublin without concessions.

Then the party finally started. The club had a VJ, playing live DVD videos on several plasma screens, only one floor but the whole club basically consisted of that floor. There were some pool tables in the back, a lot of chillout zones and a lot of beautiful girls on the floor which shook their bodys very sexily

Later that evening, while taking a short break outside, I was introduced to some German girls once again. Their Irish friend had already stolen my hat in a playful manner several times inside the club. (that hat was stolen like hell… 😉 ) We went in again, danced and fooled around until the club closed at 2:30am sharp.

Afterwards my two roomies went home while the rest of us took a bite at MCD and Lundis respectively before seperating and heading home in different directions.

from morning to night

Hi folks!

At Monday it was back to the rat race. This work week wasn’t very varied. Up at 7.30 am and sometimes I get up on the wrong side of bed… At 9 o’clock I start with work. But with an empty bag cannot stand upright. So we go at the break to „Laundis“ and buy the „Weekly Madness“(sandwich) for only 2€ at 1 o’clock pm. At work we’re looking for bugs and test them (every day) and translate some English strings into German or bad German into understandable German. After work we go to our apartment and eat something again (6.15 pm). Afterwards we do a lot of sport at gym or do nothing and watch a movie… However I think the weekend will be better…

See you later…
Greetz Chriz

Chapter 5: Prohibition, visitors from far away and perfect weather

Hi everybody!
Sorry for being late this time. I simply can’t imagine that already another week has passed… Also I had to apologize if my sentences are sporadically a little bit weird because yesterday I forgot to do some push-ups, so I’ll do it while blogging. ^^

Well, some bad news at first: Actually we are supposed to write about our work placements, but on Friday last week I had to sign a written agreement about preserving the company secret. Nevertheless I’ll post something on my own risk – no risk, no fun! *lol* No, actually I think it is ok as long as it relates to my blog. 😉

Among others my tasks last week were to update a Dell switch and a Cisco router with the latest firmware and to configure SNTP, the time zone and the summer-time on the Cisco router. And in order to update the router I had to create a TFTP-Server (with some Freeware program) so that I was able to upload the new Cisco IOS. Furthermore I copied 2 Backup-files, created VMs of them and integrated them into a Test-Network, also I upgraded another ESX-Server with 4GB RAM.
Today I started to reinstall a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. In the process of that several (annoying) problems and errors occurred – I’ll don’t want to list them all, but it took way longer than normal to start the installation process at last (after installing ‚.Net Framework‘, ‚MSPowerShell‘ and a BIOS update for example). Tomorrow I have to finish the installation and configure the Exchange Server…

the Botanic Garden

Now for something completely different. On Sunday, where the weather was really beautiful warm and sunny, I received lady visitors from Germany: A former female superior from the German armed forces (Sandy) with another girl which I don’t know before (Mary). Mainly they came in order to visit a Rihanna concert in the ‘Odyssey Arena Belfast’ and to see me. 😛

They also took a flight from Berlin to Dublin and a bus to Belfast like we did by the way. So I went into the city to pick them up, but they’d left the bus somewhere else than us so it was hard to find them… After a short walk through the city I led them to their hotel and went to the ‘Botanic Garden’ to meet Riccardo and Friedrich in order to relax a bit in the sun. On Monday night I met with the two girls, after they were back from the concert, at the Botanic Inn to drink some beer and talk with Sandy about the good old times at the armed forces. We had a lot of fun at that, oh yeah… xD They left Belfast yet this night with the bus to Dublin because their flight to Berlin was about 7 or 8 o’clock on Tuesday morning.

Well, I’m a bit exhausted now and I’m getting very tired too. I think I’ll post something like general facts (good-to-know-stuff, you know) about Belfast next time… maybe…, we’ll see… 😉

Catch ya later!

Thats all I’m telling you right now …

Hi folks,

I still waiting for my server, to start my main task. Unfortunately there is nothing else to do for me. Therefor I study the hole day a 1000-paper book about the Configuration Manager 2007. The name of the book is „System Center – Configuration Manager 2007 Unleashed“ (from Kerrie Meyler, Bryron Holt and Greg Ramsey). It is not to bad and could help me.

On wednesday we had a little „Abschiedsparty“ for one of our spanish guys. Fortunately the party were located in a other house, relating to Davids Blog.

I met a lot of interesting people from all over the world. They were from Switzerland, Brazil, Spain (of course ^^), Lebanon, Saudi-Arabia, England, Germany (no not David) and some locals. It was a very good party, I really had a lot of fun.

I looking forward to do a big Ground Hopping Part II, just one word „DERBY!“. Thats all I’m telling you right now 😉

Stay tuned!

Annoying Spaniards

Hi,

I have to tell you something. Over the last 4 days we didn’t have warm water in the bathroom. Yesterday the Houseowner came over to fix this problem. After figuring out, he said that someone misconfigured the heaten of the house (probably a spanish guy) which is applied to the house’s water system and supposed to warm it up. When he got into the house he saw that it was really dirty arround here.

Let me explain why it’s so untidy inside the house. The reason for that is, that the spaniards invite their friends every single evening of the week. They always drink beer, cook dinner, listen to music very loudly and….of course…they don’t clean up. I did not feel responsible for their waste and so I didn’t take care of it.

Anyway, the Houseowner (don’t remember his name) complained about the house being so untidy. He also reported that to the Agency that is responsible for the organisation of the exchange students. Today I got an email informing us about an inspection that will occur on the next days. If there are any damages or cleaning to be done at this time they will charge us a fee.

DO YOU REMEMBER THAT ONE OF THE GUYS IS THROWING A PARTY TONIGHT???

I replied apologising for the dirty house and now I am responsible for cleaning it. Damn, I’ve been living here for about 2 weeks now !!!? My only hope is that they clean the house after the party. Next week a lot of the spaniards are leaving Belfast. Maybe we get rid of the waste then….:(

Hopefully, your not gonna get into such trouble, too, guys.

cheers

David

Another Article

Hi there,

Because of our HSDPA Internet Access being unstable over the last days, I wrote this article at work. Work seemes to become more and more interesting but I haven’t done anything special this week. The most common jobs comming through are concerned with preparing Computer Systems to further utilisation by the technicians on site. In a nutshell: Installing Windows, configuring it, adding and applying some remote tools etc.

I’m looking forward to enjoying the weekend again. On Wednesday one of the spanish guys that we share our house with, throws a party because this is his last week in Belfast. Yesterday they all startet to cook for this event and OMG, they’re good at it. Miguel made some spanish omelet using a recipe of his mom and it tasted great. The best omelet I’ve ever eaten.

After Pablo (the guy who leaves us) left his room, we can use it for guests visiting, like Sebastian’s or my girlfriend. Hopefully there is nobody moving in until my girlfriend’s coming. But if anyone of the guys in Dublin wants to come over for a weekend we can use the room as well.

I stupidly forgot the camera again, so I cant upload any pictures right now. I know that my arcticles seem to be very boring, but I don’t care ;). Let’s see if anything interesting happens until the next annoying arcticle appears…

goodbye for now

Big history…

Hey boys and girls (:,
haven’t much to tell right now. But to keep you all informed I’ll tell some generally things.
At the weekend I’ve been bored and tired, truly not the best conditions to go out for party and meeting new people.
But at friday evening we’ve went to the Botanic Inn and afterwards to Laverys. As far as I realized, nothing special happend there.
At Saturday we’ve played Poker (David, Sebastian, Oliver, Bartosz and me), drunk a few pins of beer and talked ‚till 3 or 4am.
We’ve also done a small BBQ at sunday for chilling and enjoying the weather.

the great BBQ
our huge fireplace

Sorry guys, would like to be able to tell you more fascinating stuff…
Bye!