Parrotheads in Dublin - Jimmy Buffett in the Olympia

Saturday night in Dublin certainly gave me Key West feels, even though it was bucketing down rain!

My mother had managed to snag a Jimmy Buffett ticket and she went on the hunt for me.  He was playing in the Olympia Theatre which is a really small venue so I really didn't feel hopeful.  During the day I was receiving texts from my mother about tickets she was seeing for sale for €200, €300 and upwards that she was considering buying.  Both of us rang the box office to see if there was any returns but no luck there either.

So at about 6.30pm, I got on my bike in the rain and cycled in to the city to the Olympia with the intention of getting a ticket outside.

So there I landed in my pink Margaritavile shirt and found loads of Parrotheads hanging out having fun in the rain with lots of tropical clothes and accessories on view!

So while waiting for my mother to arrive, I scoped out the ticket situation. There were certainly a few available going for €150 upwards. So while having a think what my options were, I decided to call in to the box office to see if there was any returns.

Well guess what!  There was a returned ticket that I promptly snapped up at cost price of just under €70!!!  Let's just say I was a little bit happy!

And so after a few drinks in Brogans we went in to the venue, Mam to the circle and me to the standing area. 

Well I can't begin to tell you what a great show it was with such a fun atmosphere. I felt truly blessed to hear all my Jimmy Buffett songs live.  He is a superb performer and his band the Coral Reefers aren't too bad either!!

Here's a few pics of the evening:

Munich!

After Turkey & Greece we headed on to Munich for a few days. We arrived in the late afternoon and headed to the S-Bahn station in the airport.  While looking to see what tickets we needed to buy we were befriended by two nice ladies who helped us with our tickets and then brought us all the way to our stop which was their stop too and then walked with us to their bus stop where they pointed out our hotel to us! Lovely friendly ladies who filled us in on all of the great things we should visit on our trip.

So here is what we visited.... 

• Deutches Museum
• Geistig
• Mullersches Volksbad
• Pinakothek der Moderne Art Museum
• Outdoor swimming pool
• Isar River
• Haidhausen
• And lots of Bier Gardens!

Sailing Holiday 2019

We are just back from our Summer holiday and what a holiday it was!!

We were away for over 2 weeks and honestly it felt like we were away for a month.

We started the hol with a 5am flight (3am taxi to Dublin Airport is not fun!!!) to Munich where we connected to Izmir arriving about 6pm and heading to a hotel close by.  

The next morning at 9am we hooked up with the crew and got a taxi to Alacati Port where we picked up our boat which was nicely named "Solution".

We had intended to head off that day but the wind was picking up so we put off departure til the next morning.

Here's the route we took and some of our destinations that we covered over the 10 days sailing 

Port Alacati
Teos, Turkey
Fournoi, Turkey
Patmos, Turkey
Lipsi, Greece
Kalimnos, Greece
Unknown bay, Turkey
Didim, Turkey
Poseidon, Greece
Kusadasi, Turkey

There were so many highlights to this trip that it is hard to say what was best.

A few of the things we really enjoyed were:

• Seeing dolphins in the wild - incredible to have them swim around the boat
• Patmos Sacred Music Festival - hearing a choir from Russia sing Leaonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"
• Visting the Temple of Apollo near Didim
• Waking up in the above pictured bay and diving in to the water upon waking up
• Tasting different food - Smooth Hound Fish was a new one on me!
• Our boat - it was a super 46ft yacht that was beyond roomy for the four of us
• The weather was so good - really warm, bright and sunny during the day and then cool at night
• Visiting all of the different ports and bays - this is one of the great things about sailing - I love waking up in a different place all of the time
• Seeing sea sponges for sail in Lipsi
• Friendly people in both Turkey & Greece
• Visiting the ancient city of Ephesus
• Arrival drinks - cracking open a beer after we had tied up 

It really was a brilliant trip and after the 10 days our holiday wasn't quite over as we then headed on to Munich for a few days!