Despite leaving almost an hour late from Toronto Canada we landed only 20 minute late at 11am in Dublin. In typical Irish weather it was partly cloudy and the sun was peaking trough.
At the airport I jumped on the 747 Public Air transport for 7€ one way (12€ round trip), it dropped me off about a block away from my hostel for the the night. I’ll review the Four Court Hostel in the next post after a good night sleep but this afternoon I had planned to be a tourist and check out the Guinness Storehouse and the Open Gate Brewery.
Both these attractions you can purchase tickets in advance on the Internet, I highly recommend it as the Storehouse line was about 1 hour, while the open gate brewery was walk in but you had to be on the list as entrance is limited.
Guinness Store House
The Guinness store house is located about a 15 minute walk from the Four Courts Hostel and very easy to find as there are several banners and signs and tourists pointing the way.
Escalators between each level, there is also elevators to one side and stairs for going down.
The storehouse is so named because it was once the site where Guinness was stored in barrels. However the whole building has been revamped into a exotic tourist attraction with a “pint glass†centrepiece up the middle which apparently could hold 10 days worth of production of Guinness.
Various slogans donned almost every wall at the store house.
Each floor is dedicated to various stages of the Guinness mantra, starting with the ingredients and malting process with higher floors dedicated to advertising history, proper tasting techniques, and how to pour your own Guinness.
Tasting Room Sampler with various aromas being pumped in the room to help enhance the experience.
While I found the tasting room quite a cute experience the real fun was where we learned to “pour our own Guinness†out of real keg taps.
Apparently taking this “course†makes me a certified Guinness pourer…
After pouring your own perfect Guinness with the direction of their hands on instructor you get to enjoy your pint of Guinness in a traditional Irish pub setting specifically for drinking.
It was perfect before I took a sip… honestly… would I lie?
Now if pouring your Guinness isn’t of interest to you then you can take your 1 drink voucher all the way to the top floor where they have the “gravity bar†which has panoramic windows over looking the entire 44 acre Guinness estate which includes the modern brewery and various supporting buildings.
View from Gravity Bar
Finally I headed back to the ground floor which has an extensive Guinness merchandise from pint glasses, clothes to other nick knacks with Guinness label imprinted on it. Glassware could also be engraved if you do choose. There is also a separate section for women clothing. Given the location I found the overall prices to be reasonable and not entail a huge markup.
The Merch Store
Next I head to the Open Gate Brewery where Guinness has various experimental beers…
As a graduation gift to myself (who else is going to buy me cool travel presents) I decided that I should finally visit the Emerald Isle (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) as everyone else in my family as done so at least once… yay heritage! For most of the Ireland Portion I’ll be on a Shamrocker Tour, afterwards I’m heading to Southern England to visit with my brother and some free-styling adventure travel.
A hint of what’s to come!
Given my down-sizing a few years ago in order to move to Toronto for school and a 1 bedroom apartment I had to divest of a few larger pieces of equipment and especially a large assortment of travel bags… So I did a bit of Pre-Trip Shopping 🙂
Osmo Mobile 3 and Sirui Video Monopod – Aka the Wizard Stick!
I needed a Day bag without holes (long story involving a branch) and I was on a budget and deadline 🙂
I also rarely (if ever) drink, for me its more a taste of the culture when I travel, although yes… for some reason I can’t seem to avoid checking out every brewery/winery/distillery I come across. Guinness is apparently the drink of Ireland so I managed to grab a can and give it a go… I’m told it tastes better in Ireland… one can only hope!
Guinness in a can – pre-trip dive into Irish Culture
Evening Flight out of Kingston AirportSeat in the last row of the airplane #winning! There are like 8 people on this plane…Toronto… I was literally down there 3 days ago… (Irony)Tiny Bombardier Dash 8-100 Airplane landed in Toronto
So of course this tiny little airplane was not going to fly me all the way to Ireland, but in Pearson International Airport fashion… its time for a walk-about in haste to board the next (and much larger) plane!
In-Flight Tracker and Technical Information
Long story short… I made it to Ireland, now to find some Guinness.
I needed a place to stay last minute in Toronto, quick look online and the Rex fit two main categories. It was inexpensive and well located for where I needed to be the next morning. Plus there was the bonus of live entertainment and food onsite which made for an appealing one night stay.
The Rex Jazz Bar (Hotel Entrance is around the corner to the left)
I arrived at night after a long day of surface travel
Check in at the hotel was pretty straightforward once you located the entrance, then I headed straight to the bar where a live band was setting up to play (fun note: staying at the hotel meant you get to skip the cover charge at the bar!)
Live Twelve Piece Jazz Band – You Like Jazz right?
The band was exceptional and played a variety of musical pieces, several of which were composed by various member of the band. Overall a solid performance!
After a long day of Travel, Familiar Comfort Food are the best… wait is that avocado?
At this point in the day is when I remember to eat, I ordered the Rex Burger and a cider from the menu. Wait staff were kind and managed the patrons during the breaks between songs. While it did slow the ordering process a tad, better than then trying to yell over the music.
Mason Jar Cider – Yum!
The Hotel… right… so the hotel is above the Jazz Bar, and the entrance is at the back. The receptionist is kind and originally from Ireland with a thick Irish accent (I’m heading to Ireland in three days… what a coincidence!) and the Rooms are quite spacious considering the cost.
The Room!
The bed has much to be desired (its basically a metal spring bed, good for a night but I’d be hard press to sleep comfortably on it for a week). Also of note while there is a functional sink in the room, the bathroom is down the hall and shared.
Additional Room & bathroom Photos!
It should be pointed out that in order to stay at the Rex you really need to enjoy Jazz music until 10-11pm at night. Because the hotel is directly above the bar you will hear the jazz music until closing. Its not ear shattering, but you can’t turn it off.
Wake up to a Beautiful Toronto Morning
So I enjoyed my one night stay at the Rex, but then I love good Jazz music lulling me to sleep 🙂
So for the last few years adventuring around the world has been on hold as I became a graduate student at University of Toronto in Mechanical Engineering. However with that wrapping up and the prospect of re-entering the workforce its time I sneak in a “small” vacation before life gets busy once again. Which comes to the topic of travel planning, as I’m a bit out of the game and the board has changed quite a bit since my last great adventure involving an airplane.
A bit to small for my current journey but none the less effective
For one, I used to use a travel agent, Megan Weir, at Ottawa Adventure Travel before they got bought out by Merit ( https://merittravel.com/expert-profile/megan-weir/ ) and she was able to help me plan trips as she understood the market offerings and my highly spontaneous travel hijinks. Conversations like “I know it’s Thursday but find me a trip to the tropics leaving tomorrow afternoon/evening” and tight budgets… $1000-1500 / week + flights top (with the exception of the Africa Trip which was closer to $2500/week). And being last minute there were always deals and not being too picky we would navigate the current offerings and land at a suitable action/culture/relaxation balanced adventure.
The London Eye
This time I’m alone in the planning department and mainly using the internet (vs. all those brochures which I got constantly piling up on my kitchen table when I was always travelling). A few things are different, first I don’t have the same access to travel agent’s resources, and I’m hopefully flying using points (that I have amassed over the last decade or so… being last minute traveller I’ve never actually managed to use them before).
Now if the London Eye photo don’t give it away, my destination is again the United Kingdom, an odd choice given they are currently embroiled in Brexit, but my brother is currently working over there and I want to go visit. Also on the potential docket (because I’ve been to London twice now) is popping in an Ireland Island or Scotland trip (or both!) depending on how flights work out and tour dates.
Back when I travelled with Contiki across all of Central Europe, however being +35 now they are off the list of potential tour operators.
Why Tours you ask? Well I’m again travelling solo on this trip, and I’ve found when doing so its best to travel via tour. The main advantage is you can enjoy the trip and let someone else deal with all the logistics. There is also the safety aspect, on a tour you are travelling with others and if you go missing someone will notice (I use the analogy of walking in the woods and breaking your leg… although now I just point to the movie 127 hours as a reason not to “go it alone” in unfamiliar locations). vs. travelling alone where no one really knows what you are up to on your adventures. So I’m leaning strongly in that direction for part of the trip.
Fun side note: I get lost a lot, because I tend to walk/hike/bike around locations and “tourist” maps are not particularly accurate… although for this trip my brother is going to set me up with a UK Phone plan for the time I’m there so I’ll have GPS and with luck enough data to send a play by play over instagram/twitter @EmberSkyMedia
When travelling with others we tend to free-style trips where we decide in the moment where we want to go and what do we want to see. This method requires a bit more work (split between 2 or more people) but allows for changes in the plan to adjust on the fly which comes in handy when weather and outdoor activities are involved. My most outrageous free-style trip was with my younger brother and I traveled 2 weeks in Europe with little more than 3 flights booked and accommodation on the first and last day of the trip. We ended up backpacking / hostel across three countries. You can relive our adventure starting here. We will be freestyling the Southern England portion of the trip and the current plan is to See London/Brighton/Salibury and maybe squeeze in Bath.
But back to this current planning… Ireland/Scotland. Well to put it mildly I am currently the only family member who hasn’t traveled to Ireland at some point and time. Similar to my Master Degree with me being the last one in the family to get an advance degree I though the symbolism would be fitting. Also the fact that I’ll likely not be travelling to this part of the world in the near future with sights on Thailand / Indonesia once I have some funds saved up from working at whatever new job I find… yes planning for the future.
Scotland on the other hand is where my family originated before emigrating to Canada (Donaldson / Hay / Raw Clans) with the rest being from Ireland – Trust me, we have quite a “family tree” archival scroll stashed away. While I have been to Scotland before with the family, that was almost 20 years ago, and I was not of legal drinking age despite everyone insistence that I could actually order a drink (my parents LOVED that…). So going as an adult will be I feel a different experience, not that I plan to drink myself under any tables… but I’d like to taste some Scotch Whiskey in actual Scotland.
Besides those two destinations there is England, or London/Southern England to be perise. For that portion I’ll be visit my younger brother and bouncing back and forth to various day trip destinations that he is recommending to me; he lives there so I’m relying on his advice as he and his fiancee have been doing various weekend getaways. So locations like Brighton, Stonehenge, and some stuff in London are on the list to be negotiated in the coming weeks via Whatsapp.
There is a reason I’m the Photographer and not the Model… LOL
So for travel planning my starting steps is to check out websites, now I have travelled with a few companies before; – Contiki but they have a 35 year old cap, and I’ve unfortunately crossed that threshold. – GAdventures (back when they were called Gap Adventures) but they don’t really have the tours I’m looking for and seem to be a bit more pricey then I last remember. – Busabout has a few plans, looks like they may be cooperating with Haggis and Shamrocker depending on the country. Its not quite like their Hop-On Hop-Off tours but there is some promise.
I’m sure there are other companies as I broaden my initial search, with luck I’ll find something that is enjoyable and a bit active without requiring a marathon-esque training program beforehand. Of course it doesn’t matter what company I pick I’ll likely end up with my usual hijinks of taking the road less traveled and try to experience the “true” essence of a location; local foods, and not just what they sell to the tourists.
I’ve also need to contact the flight point people and determine the ideal arrangement of flights. Fortunately I have some flexibility in that as I can stay with my brother for free in south London (or south London?… not entirely sure on where his new place will be). But I do need to make some choices “now-ish” as a few things are dependent on when I leave and return; but the plan is to be back home in Canada before any potential Brexit occurs… just in case.
So a lot has changed in the photography world but one noticeable change has been Flickr’s severly limit free accounts. In reality it was inevitable and I’m not surprised it happen, although the way they handled it was surprising.
Despite the fact that my father and I had paid for Pro accounts for a long time, we had long ago relished back to free accounts. To put it mildly we saw a significant drop in views from our posts and the photography community that had grown around Flickr had long moved to facebook.
Yahoo (who owned Flickr) has not be a big mover and shaker in the marketplace of online images, and Flickr really hasn’t changed over the years and became scattered when other social media competition rose up, like 500px.com and Twitter/Facebook and now Instagram. In addition we had our own site (MegaPixelTravel.com and the now defunct HayPhoto.ca) to show our portfolios and images along with more in-depth content.
So with Instagram taking off, Flickr became another Social Media Zero (before “Social Media” term was coined) to fall. Its still around, but all the free accounts, including our own have been limited to 2000 images (or whatever the limit was…). I’m sure this move reduce Flickr’s costs significantly, and perhaps even boosted review as photographers scrabbled to save their online portfolios and upgrade to paying packages. But the majority I suspect having long moved off the platform let it lapse.
So moving onward and upwards with the trends I’ve opened a Instagram account etc. I thought about the handle for a while (that hashtag name) and given I’m working on a new more multi-media company (film, photography, astrophotography, art, and maybe even some music) in addition to occasional updates to this site when I board an aeroplane more immediate updates will be Ember Sky Media #emberskymedia on Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / Youtube etc. as much as I can manage them.
Because Flickr is dead and Social Media 3.0 is just around the corner…
Over the past number of months, there have been no uploads to the MegapixelTravel blog. That doesn’t mean that Graeme and I (and our cameras) haven’t been busy. In addition to his day job, Graeme has continued his interest introducing short films and movies and on October 23rd, his indie movie “Ragnarock’s Cabin” was released for it’s first public showing at the the Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa. It is now available on-line or for purchase at Vimeo On Demand: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ragnarockscabin/96318650. For my part, buying property in Greater Napanee, Ontario and attending to all of the details of such activity has kept me busy. We both intend to add more entries to the MegapixelTravel blog during the dark days of winter. – Ron
Traditionally, the Kanata Badminton Club’s Annual General Meeting has been held in Tommy’s restaurant at the old town center. This year, the meeting had to be delayed a couple of months while renovations at the restaurant were underway. Happily, the renovations were finally completed and we could have our meeting.
As a club with about 140 members, the club operates during the winter months utilizing the facilities of two local schools in Kanata, Ontario. Since the City of Kanata amalgamated into the City of Ottawa a few things changed but the Kanata Badminton Club still operates much the same as it did many years ago when I first became a member. Over the years, my ability to see the bird has diminished somewhat and, with each passing year, the entry players seem to be a bit younger :-). It’s a community based recreational club and it’s still a fun way to survive the winter months.
Kanata Badminton Club Executive 2014 – 2015
This year’s executive should have an easy year as usual even though it will once again be a year with some changes :-). Maybe, my play will improve and I’ll be moved back to the competitive red level again!
July 13,2014 – Sir John Carling Building Demolition – Ottawa, Canada
It was a dull, dreary, overcast morning with lots of rain threatening from the south but, after 2 1/2 years of planning and preparation work, the planned implosion demolition of the 11 story Sir John Carling Building went ahead as scheduled and in only about 14 seconds the 11 story building became a contained pile of rubble. I was happy to have the opportunity to be there for the event and to assist Front Page Media Group in the documenting of this event. Unmanned GoPro cameras were stationed at various locations to capture the event from as many angles as possible.
The above high resolution video was taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 4K Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera from a prime location offering direct line of sight of the whole building. I left the camera filming after the explosions to capture not only the initial explosions that started the demolition process but also to capture the billowing cloud of dust that moved across the field toward our position a safe distance from the explosions. A pretty unique experience and the first of its kind in Ottawa, Canada. If you view this high resolution video at full screen size, you can see an employee scurrying to get to the safety of the cab of his truck before the billowing dust quickly closes in around him.
The Haunted walk has a new trail for the time-travelers among us, its called the Time Traveler Trail and it focuses on Ottawa’s past when Ottawa was Bytown and riots and pistol fights in the market were more common than Beavertails. Guided by Steampunk attired guides prepare to set off on an adventure in time.
The new walk has already gathered the attention of the Whovians in Ottawa, as the Society of Doctor Who made an appearance to take the walk through time.Our guide was quick to take us back in time with the help of their timely-whimey device.
The tour was full of great historical stories about a time when Ottawa wasn’t as tame as it is now, in fact traveller’s beware, time travel can be hazardous to your health and you could end up finding yourself in a duel as a way of solving slanders and slights!
A duel was the way to settle disagreements in the past, although what these two had against eachother we will never know.
Also this might be a cleverly disguised Dalek, just saying…
Along the route we had a chance to seem some clearly historical signs, some on purpose and others by time traveler luck?
Finally as the night drew dark (7:30pm tour rather than the weekend matinee 11:00am tour) our Time Travel energy grew low with the fading light and we got to see some of Ottawa’s premier buildings in their evening glory.
In the end, all by Steve (poor Steve) made it back to our present time alive and well about 2 hours after we headed off on our adventures through time and walking distance.
Graeme and I took a short walk around the Kanata Canada Day 2014 activities, met some people whom we have known from past events and activities and met some new people. Lots of things happening during the day and, if the threat of blustery weather passes by (appears to be heading off north of the city), it should be a great night for the fireworks. (Kanata weather)
When we arrived at the base of the toboggan hill, the Holy Trinity Catholic High School Rhythm and Blues Band were setting up on stage under the direction of Neil Bateman, so, while waiting for their performance, we just wandered around.
Of course, our cameras were busy when the band did arrive on stage.
We did consider stopping at the Lemonade stand but Dan Robidoux and his group had a better offer. It was pretty tough to walk past a free draw for a bike and also get a free bottle of cold water and a free carabiner, all from the same booth. So, of course, we stopped; filled in a ballot; got some water; and ended up with a green carabiner and a red carabiner. Now, I’ll have something green for next St. Patrick’s Day (LOL)
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Although I would love to win a bike, it would have been even nicer if the vehicles on the other side of the pathway had been up for grabs. Each Spring, for the past few years, I have traveled hundreds of kilometers of rather rough gravel forestry roads in Northern Ontario while conducting breeding bird surveys and other surveys. For that, a big, high clearance muscle truck would have been awesome (gas economy notwithstanding).
When the temperature outside is above 30C who could possibly be thinking about curling but, there, right in the middle of the heat, was the Huntley Curling Club of Carp, Ontario tent complete with brooms and a bit of black ice to show the next generation how to sweep -:).
I wanted to see how the USA would do in the World Cup match on television today so had to head home pretty quickly but not before stopping at the large soccer ball that marked the display promoting the FIFA World Cup Soccer Event which will be coming to Canada (and Ottawa) in June/July 2015. (FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP website)
EVA should be ready to compete after another year of practice !!!
Returned late in the evening to listen to the stage group “Amos the Transparent” which is a Canadian rock band from Ottawa, Ontario, featuring Jon Chandler, Chris Wilson, Dan Hay, James Nicol, and Olenka Reshitnyk.
Our guide was quick to take us back in time with the help of their timely-whimey device.
Finally as the night drew dark (7:30pm tour rather than the weekend matinee 11:00am tour) our Time Travel energy grew low with the fading light and we got to see some of Ottawa’s premier buildings in their evening glory.
 
When the temperature outside is above 30C who could possibly be thinking about curling but, there, right in the middle of the heat, was the 
EVA should be ready to compete after another year of practice !!!
