Sunday, May 31, 2009

Kinvara Village, Ireland

Kinvara village (meaning Head of the sea), 30km from Galway city.

Kinvara street

The brightly coloured pub & Green post office

View of The Burren near my hostel

On my way to hostel

Doorus House Hostel, the historic house built in 1866.

the living room

Fully equipped self catering kitchen

My room

Surrounded by greens & incredible views

Morning Sun

Traught Beach (Blue Flag Beach), 10mins from my hostel

Breakfast by the beach

Dunguaire Castle built in 1520 by the Hynes Clan on the bay of the village

Down to the local pub for live Irish music & pints of Guinness

The musicians

Accompanied with Irish tap dancing by the local folks.

Kinvara seaview @ Night

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Saturday, May 30, 2009

Life at the Extreme

Volvo Ocean Race 23 May 2009 – 6 June 2009 Galway Stopover

  • 30th May 2009 ~ Galway In Port Race Day

Flags of the Teams: Ericsson 4, Telefonica Blue, PUMA Ocean Racing, Ericsson 3, Green Dragon, Telefonica Black, Delta Lloyd

Flags of the 11 Ports: Alicante, Cape Town, Cochin, Singapore, Qingdao, Rio de Janeiro, Boston, GALWAY, Manstrand, Stockholm & St Petersburg

Discover Ireland…

Volvo Displays

Volvo’s Monsters

The very famous Red Arrows Display by Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team. I’ve seen them many times at different events, they are really GOOD.

If I’m still little, I would have gone crying to my mummy.

Oh yeah, Puma merchandis…

Ericsson’s supporters

Singapore 11385km away.

The Dome for some 3D experiences

Puma ‘sister’ boat

Kids entertainment

I can’t find a word to describe… I just drool at the sight of it.

Absolute beauty.

The work ground for the teams – no access to public.

Rows of stalls selling yummy food.

The Port

Private boat sailing out to catch the in port racing…

Race begin, 1300hrs

See the boat with red sails? Thats traditional Galway Hooker boat used to transport turf in bygone days.

Green Dragon

Delta Lloyd

Team Ericsson 4

Team Ericsson 3

Team Telefonica Black

Team Telefonica Blue

The last to sail in… Puma Ocean Racing Team - the winning team of the day.

The result of hours of waiting… sunburnt! The race ended around 2-ish and they only sailed in at 7pm. No one knew exactly what time they’ll come in but to wait… I ventured off to a deserted location with no crowds (also no shades/shelter) and knew I’m at a right place when there were 4 other professional photographers stationing there…

The crowd

In order to get a good view, I had to battle through 3 lines of crowd! Times like this I’ll have to whip out my skills of gaining others sympathy that this poor petite girl couldn't see anything…. opps and I did make my way to the front in seconds… Thank you very much!

Puma’s team with families… That securely locked box is filled with Puma’s team gears

On board Puma’s

Standing Tall

Me, in my Puma crew shirt with the boats

Telefonica Black- 3rd

Telefonica Blue - 2nd

And the winner is… Puma!

Not forgetting a champagne shower for Puma’s Skipper, you rocks!

Coming to this end, I think its not difficult to guess which team I support. Puma is 1 point away from Telefonica Blue now… the excitement is choking me!

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