“BALTINGLASS” Best place to live in Ireland- Irishtimes.com competition- Baltinglass Town- Small in Size but Big in Heart!

MY ARTICLE PUBLISHED FOR IRISHTIMES.COM COMPETITION THE BEST PLACE TO LIVE IN IRELAND ON 30 MAY 2012.

This is why I feel Balto is the best place to live in Ireland. 

Church, Baltinglass, Ireland.

Baltinglass Town- Small in Size but Big in Heart!

Well, Beautiful Baltinglass is the name of a small town in Co. Wicklow, the Garden of Ireland. Small in size but big in heart! This picturesque, peaceful and prosperous landscaped beauty is nearby some of the world’s most glamorous greeneries like Glendalough and Powerscourt. Baltinglass is popularly called The Right-hand Man of Glorious Glendalough!

Slaney Park, Baltinglass, Ireland.

If River Slaney adds gleams and sparkles to the greenery, then it is the Baltinglass residents who add oil to the forever-burning fire of hope, aspirations and life of the town’s inner beauty- the people themselves! While Ireland feels a little shaky in present times, it is no doubt she will arise once again because of the determination, strength and courage of people like those of Baltinglass residents! The feet of every nation’s citizen can touch this soil and be witness to the world’s most welcoming smile, warmth and love they have ever experienced. A world of friendship and humour awaits them all!

Moreover, these people gems can be found in Baltinglass’ Community parks, Library, Churches, Schools, Clubs, Associations, Recreational Centres, Cultural Organisations, Local Stores, Pubs and Supermarkets.

New Houses, Parkmore, Baltinglass, Ireland.

A variety of multi-cultural delicious Hotels and Take-aways cater to the tastes of both locals and foreigners who love to dine out with their families! Along with a Garda Station, Post Office, District Hospital, Butchers, Studios, Key makers, Florists, Clinics, Pharmacies, Hair Dressers, Garages, Solicitors, Real Estates, Petrol Stations and Banks, employment is steady and so is the revenue.

Dedicated Volunteers, Organisers, Participants and Sponsors ensure events and festivals like St’ Patricks Day, Pig Derby, Auto Shows and Street Festivals are never missed out.

Abbey, Baltinglass, Ireland.

The transport system of various bus and taxi services to other Towns/Counties/Airports have encouraged Tourists to not only experience and enjoy these festivals but also visit local historical sites like The Hill Fort and The Courthouse.

Whether Politics, Sports or Arts, Baltinglass is home to historical personalities like Sam McAllister, Richard Crosbie, Jennie Wyse Power and John Thomond O’Brien. Baltinglass residents have participated in many national and international competitions and tournaments and brought home numerous awards and global recognition including Guinness World Records by school students.

Community Park, Baltinglass, Ireland.

Baltinglass, a great frame for photography lovers, was also chronicled as the backdrop for many documentaries, soaps and feature films.

And thus, like I stated in the beginning, Baltinglass, the small town, may be small in size but it definitely is big in heart because of the people who have made this town what it is today. This makes it the best place to live in Ireland.

As passed on by the elders, the children of Baltinglass will surely carry the torch for a more happier, stronger and prosperous tomorrow.

However, for the moment and for the future, this is the place I want to live in and these are the people I want to live with because this is Baltinglass and I am in love with her, my Beautiful Baltinglass!!!

MY ARTICLE PUBLISHED FOR IRISHTIMES.COM COMPETITION THE BEST PLACE TO LIVE IN IRELAND ON 30 MAY 2012.

http://t.co/TPDkE0lcW8  PROTEST AGAINST BALTINGLASS PYLONS! http://t.co/KZDauZDRMz  1ST DEADLINE 26TH NOVEMBER 2013! pic.twitter.com/zZNd9PsEy0
— Sumod (@Sumod_Sunny) November 18, 2013

Areas for improvement Indian Embassy Dublin Ireland

The buzz is increasing among Indians on how rude the Embassy Staff are towards applicants. Refer 'Complaint against Indian Embassy, Dublin' published in www.gopetition.com by www.marunadanmalayalee.com .Now, there are a few people who have not been treated in this rude manner. But most are victims. It is for this majority that a petition is being filed to the Ministers hoping for a miracle. Of course there are those who say that 'there is no use because afterall this is a complaint against Indian Government Officials being made to the INDIAN Government'. But that is only a statement and remains to be seen if there will be a solution or not.

Anyway, here are few areas where I think Indian Government should intervene and 'HELP' the Indian Citizens. Readers can add more areas whereby Indian Embassy Dublin, Ireland can improve:

1. People travel for hours in order to reach the embassy, so please ask the staff to pick up the calls so doubts can cleared over the phone.
2. Staff may be busy which is why they dont pick up calls, which is fine, so then hear the messages recorded in Voicemail and call back later.
3. Or atleast SMS asking to call at a free time.
4. Please reply to messages sent to the Indian Embassy website.
5. Train staff on how to use Email so service delays can be avoided.

INDIANS AND FOREIGNERS
Here are 2 links where Indians and foreigners have explained the bad treatment of the Indian Embassy staff in Dublin, Ireland. There are also good experiences which proves that there is some kind of hope in expecting an improvement in the Embassy:

1. http://www.indiansinireland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29050&f=2 (http://www.indiansinireland.com/)
2. http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=118379 (http://www.askaboutmoney.com/)

Indian Embassy Dublin Address Embassy of India, Dublin INDIAN EMBASSY ADDRESS

ADDRESS OF EMBASSY OF INDIA IRELAND

Address:

6 Leeson Park,
Dublin 6

Fax: 00-353-1-4978074
Telephone: 01-4970843, 4966792


Chancery Opening Hours

0900-1730 hrs (APPOINTMENT ONLY)


Consular Wing Address:

Ground Floor, 6,Leeson Park,Dublin 6

Fax: 00-353-1-4966770


OPENING HOURS:

Receipt of Applications (Visas, Passports, attestation Documents):

Mon to Fri / 0930 hrs - 1200 hrs

Delivery of Passports/Documents:

Mon to Fri / 1600 hrs - 1700 hrs

"heh...GOOD LUCK....!!!"

Part 4- Special Video Coverage of 15th anniversary of St.Patrick's Day at Dublin, Ireland

Part 4 of the Special Video Coverage of 15th anniversary of St.Patrick's Day at Dublin, Ireland:

Part 3- Special Video Coverage of 15th anniversary of St.Patrick's Day at Dublin, Ireland

Part 3 of the Special Video Coverage of 15th anniversary of St.Patrick's Day at Dublin, Ireland:

St Patrick’s Day Dublin Ireland 17 March 2010-Festival Parade- BIG KUDOS TO GARDA FOR MANAGING PARADE- Special Coverage Video Part 1

St Patrick’s Day Dublin Ireland 17 March 2010-Festival Parade- BIG KUDOS TO GARDA FOR MANAGING PARADE- Special Coverage Video Part 1


“This certainly is the BIGGEST AND BEST CELEBRATION OF ST’ PATRICK’S DAY IN THE WORLD!!!”

This year, Ireland celebrated it’s 15th year of St’ Patrick’s Festival with a 6 day fun filled entertainment for people of all ages starting from 12th to 17th March 2010 in it’s Captial city Dublin. The theme for this year’s St. Patrick’s Family Parade parade was ‘Extraordinary World’.
Saint Patrick's Day (Lá Fhéile Pádraig in Irish) is celebrated by Irish and non-Irish alike. It is also called St Paddy’s Day, Patrick’s Day and Paddy’s Day. You will see most of the prople coming from various multicultural backgrounds wearing green clothing and Irish symbolic items like shamrocks, leprechaun hats, etc:-

Named after Saint Patrick (AD 387- 461), Patrick’s Day is celebrated every year on 17th March and is a public holiday. All over the world, Irish people gather in their traditional Irish dress fashioned with a green horizon. Families go out together, visit heritage and art centres, attend masses, participate in sports events and attend the St Patrick’s Parade and engage in other festival activities and competitions like the Treasure Hunt. It is also one of the most busiest and profitable days for pubs and hotels as celebrations include mass alcohol consumption with singing and dancing.

The festival showcases Ireland art, heritage and culture. The city was filled with people and I managed to capture the parade for a short time. A big APPRECIATION to all the Garda, ambulance, volunteers and other authorities who did a great job in efficiently and effectively managing the people and parade.

Here is Part 1 of the Special Coverage Video of the Parade in Dublin:

Our Stay at Bewleys Hotel Dublin Airport Swords- 5 minutes from Dublin Airport

Our Stay at Bewleys Hotel Dublin Airport

It was time for my brother to leave Ireland. He had to head off to UK for a few days visit and then return back to Dubai and resume work in his office. However, the weather was real bad and snow was falling pretty heavily in most areas that there was a doubt whether Dublin Airport would be closed due to bad weather. As we stay in the countryside, the beautiful town called Baltinglass, we had to start early in the morning if we had to report to the Airport and get on the morning flight to Heathrow Airport, London. And in this bad weather, it was a risk to travel on the morning of the flight day itself. So my bro wanted to go a day earlier to the Airport in order to be safe. Accordingly we booked into Bewleys Hotel, just 5 minutes from Dublin Airport and reached there in the evening.

Good Hotel Good Facilities

The stay was nice. There was good room service, good food in the hotel, and even free bus service to the Airport every 25 minutes. Inside the room, we have the usual color television, cable network, phone service, a press, a hair dryer, kettle with tea/coffee sachets, extra pillows, towels and a digital safe deposit locker. The view from the room was good as well. We were on the top most floor and there is this vast field with few horses surrounding one side of the Hotel. You can also see the Airport within a distance from our window. Outside, it became a familiar sight to see planes flying right above our heads.

Lobby, Cafe & ATM

Inside the Hotel, there is a large lobby with many sofas and seating capacity which can accomodate many guests at one time. You have an ATM machine (which wasn’t working that day, sad...), few snacks/drinks vending machines, coin change machines, a large food court separated from the lobby and a small snack bar inside the lobby. The only problem is that the Hotel is really far from the city and so there’s no access to any shops outside unless you get a taxi to take you to City Centre.

Free Bus Service to Dublin International Airport

Well, the next morning we got into the Airport Bus Coach and reached the Airport on time. The flight was delayed by over an hour due to bad weather but my bro gladly reached his destination. Who knows, what if we had decided to come from Baltinglass early in the morning and got stuck somewhere in the snow- thats what my bro was concerned about. However, he happily reached London and I happily returned back home in the 8:25 am J.J.Kavanagh Bus to Baltinglass. Overall, it was a good experience and there’s no doubt that I will surely be staying there again in future!

Dublin Port Tunnel : Journey from Dublin Airport to Castledermot in the 8:25 am J.J. Kavanagh bus - Video Clip

Dublin Port Tunnel : Journey from Dublin Airport to Castledermot in the 8:25 am J.J. Kavanagh bus - Video Clip



Dublin Airport to Castledermot J.J. Kavanagh Bus journey

On my journey from Dublin Airport to Castledermot, I got the chance to travel in the underground Dublin Port Tunnel. I was in the 8:25 am J.J. Kavanagh bus and captured the short tunnel episode in my cam. It was nice to be under the road for a change. There was a cute kid sitting in the seat in front of me busy playing on his portable computer game. You can see the reflection on the window of the side seat where I sat.

“This is Castledermot!”

The bus picked me and dropped me on time. I reached Castledermot at 10:25am just like what is shown on their website time table in the internet. Excellent Driver! When I boarded the bus I asked him to let me know when it’s Castledermot stop as I wasnt very familiar with the place. We only come to Castledermot to get onto the bus to Dublin as it’s not in Baltinglass at that time. Anyway, I was still relaxing and staring outside at the snow when the driver slowly got out from his seat, smiled and politely reminded me in front of all the other passengers that ‘This is Castledermot’. I smiled, thanked him and got out.

The Dublin Port Tunnel (Irish: Tollán Calafoirt Bhaile Átha Cliath)


One half of the Twin Underground Dual Carriageway Tunnels, this Underground Tunnel is the Dublin Port Tunnel (Tollán Calafoirt Bhaile Átha Cliath in Irish), constructed in Dublin, Ireland. The two-lane dual carriageway links the M50 Motorway Dublin Port, (located east of central Dublin), and the M1 Motorway (Dublin to Belfast) which is near to Dublin Airport. The tunnels measure 4.5 km (2.8 miles) in length. An important safety aspect is that there are Pedestrian Crossing Passages every 250 metres and Vehicle Crossing Passages every 1000 metres linked to the tunnels which are major exit routes in times of emergency. It was the major efforts of Dublin City Council on behalf of the National Roads Authority which resulted in the success of Dublin Port Tunnel.

Few Facts you didn’t know about the Dublin Port Tunnel (DPT):

1. After the Södra Länken in Stockholm, Sweden, the DPT is the second-longest urban motorway tunnel in Europe measuring 4.5 km (2.8 miles) in length.

2. Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) are toll- free.

3. Joint winner (with the recovery operation project for the World Trade Centre) in December 2003 of the British Geotechnical Association's international Fleming Award (BGA Fleming Award) for excellence in geotechnical design and construction.

4. The award was for the innovative 'observational approach' used in optimising the design of the tunnel launch shaft in Whitehall, and for the soil-nailed open-cut section of the works accommodating the northern cut and cover tunnel.


5. It was the major efforts of Dublin City Council on behalf of the National Roads Authority which resulted in the success of Dublin Port Tunnel.


Video clip of the bus journey through Dublin Port Tunnel:

We almost missed a last minute planned trip to Galway!!

We almost missed a last minute planned trip to Galway!!


Last minute call

Our crafty' friend in Baltinglass went to visit a common 'tall and soft spoken' friend who lives in Galway. He calls up the second night and tells us to reach there next morning as they have planned a few days visit to some locations in and out of Galway.


Baltinglass to Galway bus journey

Now, Galway is around four to five hours journey by bus from Baltinglass. Sheesh, a few days visit and we have no time to think, complete the house chores, select our dress, take cash from the ATM, finish the food we still have in our fridge and those which would expire in those few days time!!!

Now the plan was to book online tickets for the 12pm City Links bus from Dublin. And to reach Dublin, we have to get into the 10am Bus Eireann from Baltinglass so that we could reach Dublin by 11:45am.


Online booking service- We missed the bus!!

And guess what?- We started off the day by mising the 10 am bus! Why the delay?- Because the online booking took more time than we expected, which we did in the morning just before leaving the house as we were so much into packing the previous night that we forgot all about our online task!

Anyway, we went to Castledermot instead (as the next bus from Balto- short name for Baltingalss, was only at 12pm), and got into the 11:15 am J.J. Kavanagh bus which would reach Dublin Eden Quay (EQ is one of the the bus stations near the Dublin Bridge) at 12:45pm. Before boarding the bus at Castledermot we bought a sandwich for my wife (Bacon, lettuce and tomato) from the cafe called 'Mad Hatter Cafe' located centrally at Castledermot Town near the traffic light- opposite Londis Supermarket and in front of the bus stop. A really convenient location because we can have a quick snack or coffee and then just cross the road to the bus stop without having to rush at all- God bless them!!

Divine Reminders in life!!

But- as I was about to order the 2nd sandwich, for me, with only 5 minutes before the bus arrived, you know those last minute kind of intuitions or revelations that strike you at certain crucial stages in your life, well...that something struck me and I asked the lady at the counter if they accept card payment (we didn't have time to take cash from the ATM). This lady was really nice and all smiles :)

"Sorry, we accept only cash and no card payment!"

O boy! Here we go again... we ransacked whatever pockets we had including the luggage pockets and were glad to find extra change just more than our bus fare and only enough to pay for one sandwich!......I was thinking as to what would have happened had the lady prepared two sandwiches and I give her the Laser Card...Thank God for timely reminders!! :) The kind lady suggested going to the ATM which was few minutes walk from the town, but that was too far away for that moment. She even said that we can ask for a cash back from the Supermarket outside the cafe, but again, there was no time for it.

Good Customer Service... :)

So we bought the sandwich and said bye to the lady who kept on apologising because they dont accept card payments. What an Angel! There really was no need to apologise and so we kept on thanking her for all her kind help and quickly went to the bus stop. Oh, and just as we were about to leave the cafe, I noticed a small card on the cash counter with some small words printed on it. I looked more closely just to make sure. It read...

'We do not accept cards. Sorry for the inconvenience!!!'

Hmmmmm......


Travel and Food- Tamil Style!!...Yummmmy.....mmmmm!!!

Anyway, we reached Galway safely and happily by God's grace. We stayed there for a few days. The stay was real fun!! We visited a couple of places in and out of Galway. There is a famous song called 'The Galway Girl' by Steve Earle and Sharon Shannon with a cover version by Mundy and Shannon. Though about a Galway girl, the song expresses Irish lifestyle and Irish music. Not only was this tour memorable but I also have some mouth watering memories- These two Tamilians (...the Balto dude from Coimbatore and the Galway guy from Vellore... ) are excellent Tamil Nadu cooks I have to tell you! Really, they made some exquisite dishes just for us! Delicious!! Chicken Biriyani, Vada, chutney, Tamil Nadu dishes like Lemon Rice and Thairu Saadam (Curd Rice), Egg Salad, Chicken Masala curry, Barbecue Chicken, Payar thoren (Green Gram stir fry), Gulab Jamun....mmmm....But I shall tell you more about their menu later on in the blog though. Gotta get on with Galway first...

About Galway...a small info

Galway (Gaillimh in Irish) the largest county in Connacht is now considered as one of the fastest growing city in Ireland. Another name for Galway is 'City of Galway ('Cathair na Gaillimhe' in Irish). As Galway is located on the west coast of Ireland, it is from the River Corrib (Corrib: Gaillimh in Irish) that the city has got it's name. A Galwegian is a person from Galway. Famous for it's colorful and lively lifestyle along with it's reknowned and vibrant celebrations and festivals, Galway has now earned the nickname 'Ireland's Cultural Heart (Croí Cultúrtha na hÉireannin' in Irish)!

The places we visited were:

1. Galway Bay
2. Salthill, Galway- the Sea Front!
3. The Spanish Arch, Galway
4. Ashford Castle
5. Boating in Lake Lough Corrib
6. Island of Inchagoill- Inis an Ghaill Chraibhthigh (Irish)- 'Island of the Devout Foreigner' where the nephew of St'Patrick was buried.
7. The Burren
8. Aillwee Cave ( with the remains of a bear's bones dated 100's of years old...)
9. and finally the Cliffs of Moher.