Ireland vs Georgia

Weekend weather warning

Snowy day in Dublin

Chinese New Year

I was walking along Parnell Street yesterday afternoon when I ended up in the middle of a ceremony for the Chinese New Year. There were around thirty people out on the street in traditional costumes and dress, holding banners, flags and banging drums and cymbals. In the midst, a dragon danced to the beat and the procession moved from door to door of each Chinese premises along the road, stopping at each entrance to perform the ritual. The same set of red and gold banners were moved along, hung from each doorway as the party moved from door to door. First the dragon would enter the premises and dance around inside. It would rub and dance against the door on its way in and out, as if marking the door with luck or blessing for the proprietors and customers. From the top of each entrance hung a cabbage on a piece of string; after coming back onto the street the dragon continued to dance before turning back and reaching up to take the food in its mouth. Now the rhythm really intensified, a tumultuous, rumbling din of drums and cymbals as the dragon crouched down to eat the food and then leapt up, throwing it out of its mouth in all directions. People were clapping and smiling, and the party then moved behind the dragon as he danced to the next doorway, where the banners had already been hung and the ritual would be repeated. It was spectacular.




2009 is the 4707th Chinese year, the calendar dating back to the crowning of the Yellow King in 2697BC. 'New year's day' changes each year: the Chinese calendar is based on cycles of the moon rather than set dates, so new year is celebrated on the first day of the first Chinese lunar month (the next cycle sees 2010's new year fall on 14th Feb). 'New moon time', the equivalent of midnight of New's Years Eve, fell at 15:55 in China this Monday, 07:55 in Ireland.

Tighten your belts

Recession-conscious denizens of Abbey Street are 'dying for a smoothie' no longer. Jaaaas!

Neon Neon

Gothenburg has lots of it, because it gets dark so early I would have thought.

Gothenburg views, pt 2

Gothenburg views, pt 1

Back to Sweden

My Frederikshavn hostel had the tightest breakfast schedule I have witnessed in my short travelling career to date. Standing at the desk, handing back my key shortly after the appointed 10am check-out time, I spotted the sign on the door: 'Breakfast, 8:30-9:30'. No room for error there. All was not lost however, and I stepped out into the morning sun, wandering in the general direction of the ferry terminal. 10 minutes later I passed a small cafe on the town centre's main street, Danmarksgade. It was called The Farmor's [sic] Fast Food Cafe, and there was a rattling, hanging sign outside: 'Brunch, 7.90KR'. I quickly reckoned that this'd do me just fine, marched hopefully in, and ordered said Brunch. And after some coffee, orange juice and a solemn gaze through that morning's Football pages, this appeared in front of me:


Half an hour later, full up and happy I was on my way again to the boat. It was a new experience for me to be able to walk up to a ferry and check in as a foot passenger as easily as it was either side of this crossing. No arduous, ungodly 8-hour car journeys from Dartford to Holyhead or Fishguard to come over to Ireland here; the variety my Dad so enjoyed subjecting us to when we were kids. The simplicity of being able to leave one hostel, walk down the road and get on the ferry to Denmark, and then do the same thing the next day to return to Sweden was a new one for me. Not a traffic jam or stomach-churning motorway service breakfast in sight.


It didn't look like there was anyone about when I first arrived, but I was able to catch the 11:50 sailing back to Gothenburg, which got in at 15:15. There are usually three other daily crossings to Gothenburg from Frederikshavn - 14:30, 20:00 and 22:45 - and the trip takes around three and a half hours.

Aab Aalborg vs Celtic

I was really lucky to get along to the game due to the size of the Energi Nord Arena, Aab's home ground. The crowd on the night was less than 13,000; a sell-out supposedly although there were a lot of empty seats scattered about the ground. The travelling Celtic support had only been allocated 600 tickets in the corner of one of the small stands behind the goal, the stadium as long as it was wide. Local touts hanging around the pubs were offering tickets for 1000DKK a throw, about €140 - hence all those seats with no-one in them.


Ticket and programme from the game - they don't make them like they used to.



It all went wrong, yet again, for Celtic as it appeared an elusive away win in the Champions League was on the cards. Leaving the ground after the game, it seemed like the Danish supporters couldn't believe the way the game ended either. As a result of the win Aab stick around in the UEFA Cup while Celtic are sent packing from Europe this year, back to domestic football with the small matter of a winning a fourth consecutive league title to see to.

Newspapers from Frederikshavn the next day:

Gothenburg - Frederikshavn - Aalborg

When I booked flights to Gothenburg either side of the Aalborg-Celtic match, it appeared quite simple to make the trip over to Denmark by ferry and train/bus. Nearer the time I tried to find out a bit more about times and prices for the trip, needing to know I'd be down in Aalborg with time to find a ticket somewhere. I couldn't find much, in fact it was only after Google threw up this blog that I found any proof of a train line here at all.

But Top Fixer, Copenhagen-er Christine Scoot of WorldSkills put me right, sending me on these links for the trains and the boats (here's another good one.) To somebody else looking up a similar trip this may be of some use, in the same way I was pleased to discover news of the existence of trains in Jutland from the blog above. Anyway, in the end, it was a simple trip.

Boats to Frederikshavn from Gothenburg usually go four times a day, at 08:00, 09:30, 16:00 and 18:45. The terminal is along the Andreegatan main road to the west of the city centre, a few blocks north-west of the Haga district. I was staying in a hostel close by, and went down the day before to buy a return ticket in the terminal. This cost €47, 155SEK each way as a foot passenger and some other booking fees on top. Shortly after 7am the next morning I was back for the first boat of the day.



The crossing takes around three and a half hours; I was in Frederikshavn before midday.


The train and bus terminal are a five minute walk from the ferry terminal here, and I soon had my feet up on a train down to Aalborg (60km away). A return ticket cost me 135DKK - approx €19. I got the InterCity train for Copenhagen; there are also other trains that run Frederikshavn-Aalborg, and it appeared there were one or two trains for Aalborg every hour. Frederikshavn is the starting point on this InterCity line; the train reaches Copenhagen around six hours later, stopping in Arhus, Odense and Roskilde along the way. From Copenhagen the same train carries on to the city airport; it would be possible to fly to Copenhagen and catch a train from the airport all the way to Frederikshavn, and why not keep the ball rolling and catch a boat to Gothenburg, if you felt that way inclined.

An Pholainn

Some photos I took at last night's friendly between Ireland and Poland in Croke Park. There was an enormous Polish support at the game, outnumbering the bemused Irish fans by 2 or even 3 to 1. Red and white Polish banners hung all around the stadium and on the empty Hill 16, many with the names of the towns back home. I picked out some others: 'London', 'Edinburgh', 'Waterford'. A large Polish flag hung from the Cusack Stand on the halfway line: 'Dublin Brigade'. A collosal banner was held slightly longer over the token line of Gardai deployed to the midst of the lower tier clamour as it was passed from one side of the Cusack to the other. And as the remaining Irish supporters trudged to the exits after the final whistle, Polish pop tunes blared round the stadium (after a blast of 'Teenage Kicks' which we were told was recorded 30 years to the day previous) - triggering another huge roar from the visiting support who were in no rush to go anywhere. The Polish who travelled from near and far whipped the night sky over Croke Park into as intimidating an atmosphere that no away support are ever likely to match. Ask Stephen Hunt - his ears are probably still ringing from the deafening whistles as he stepped up to pull a late goal back for Ireland from the penalty spot.

Upstarts' Last Stand

I was in at the Rothco gallery this afternoon to help take down the Upstarts exhibition. A few last shots taken before we got to work:





All gone, and all done for another year.