Here's the main town wall by the harbour in Alghero. Here you can get boat trips to Neptune's Grotto, hop on board a Submarine for a trip around the harbour, climb the walls and walk the perimeter of the town where there's restaurants overlooking the sea, or grab a fruity flavoured liqueur and soak up the sun.

Another view, from the top of the town wall, you can see some of the boats available for hire.

Another boat!

Gosia doing her best to camoflague herself with the sky and sea.

Another shot of the harbour, and the private jetties.

This is the other end of the town where there's a few more restaurants, cinema, and another harbour.

And this is the Tower overlooking the harbour on the other side of the town.

The ultimate pick'n'mix shop. Pretty damned pricey, but look at it!

Here's the submarine we took out to the harbour for a look at the coastline and fish. It's called the Mizar, we had to wait until the weather got better to take a trip out in it, and for enough people too, as it only takes 5 people at a time.

Here's the viewing cabin in the Sub, kinda hard to see anything when you're moving along because the water gets churned up, but once the sub comes to a halt, you can see the bottom of the sea pretty clearly, and all the fish. If you look very carefully you can see Gosia standing on the steps at the end of the cabin.

A shot of the sea floor.

We decided to do one of the recommended trips to Neptune's Grotto. A 30 minute boat ride around the idlans brought us to this cave entrance in the side of a cliff face. The strange thing is that the boat can't go all the way in or it'll be grounded. It has to wait for the tide to swell and push it forwards - when it does about 5 people can run along the gangway to the cave entrance before the tide pulls the boat back again. They have to keep doing this until the boat is empty/full.

At Neptune's Grotto you've 2 choices, do the cave tour which we did, or climb all these steps, and plenty more up the side of the cliff to get a good look out at the sea. In this photo, the boat is moored at the bottom left. The stairs and walkway are carved and recessed into the cliff face.

This is the entrance chamber to Neptune's Grotto. There's little light in here, and most surfaces are wet which makes flash photos difficult. The size of the chambers are hard to gauge from the photos, but they're big enough to park a few tour buses inside.

This is another main chamber, called the Organ becase the staligtites and staligmites look like a church organ. Apparently the Italian Royals used to have private concerts in here with orchestras setup in the shallow water on platforms because the acoustics were so good.

Here's a shot of the Piazza del Duomo in Pisa, including the Cathedral, the Baptistry, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was possible to climb the tower, but there was a 5 hour wait after buying tickets so we decided to give it a skip.

Gosia trying to fit in with the surroundings.

And here's the second leaning tower of Pisa. This one is the one people don't know much about. It's about 2 kilometers away from the main one, along the riverside.

A shot of the riverside in Pisa. What you can see if you look very carefully on the left hand side where the riverbank is, are a few spires. This is a small church called the Santa Maria Della Spina, which some people say has the spine of Jesus inside, other's say it's a spine from his crown. Either way, it looks spikey.

One of the indoor markets in Pisa, this was great fun. Plenty of food to taste and try - my favourites being this spicy cheese. They had dozens of meat counters, wine sellers, you name it.

We're in Florence in this photo, walking towards the main Duomo. I took this photo to give you a scale of how ridiculously big it is in comparisson to everything else around it.

Here's another one again to give you some sense of dimensions.

This is tower next to the Duomo. You can climb this for 7 Euro, we did. It's not such a long hike to the top, but some people were fit for heart attacks half way up.

Here's Gosia ready to start the 400 odd steps to the top.

And here's one of my photos from the top of the tower overlooking the Duomo.

This is Piazza Signoria, which has plenty of architecture, including the Castle here in the photo which is now the town hall, and many sculptures including a copy of Michelangelo's David. It's en route from the Duomo to the Ponte Vecchio bridge that Florence is famous for.

Here's one shot of the Ponte Vecchio bridge, which dates back to Roman times. There's a Wikipedia article here about it, but it's packed with shops, and it's supposed to be the place where the word Bankrupt originated.

Just a shot from on the bridge.

And a shot from the other side when the sun finally decided to come back out again.

Here's me overlooking Perth from King's Park. Dave Lee picked me up from the Airport in his convertible MG and gave me a whistlestop tour of Perth in the evening sunshine. Kings Park was where the wedding would be taking place, and if you look very very carefully behind my right shoulder, you can see a white tower, next to that was the boat club where the reception was held afterwards.

After I had been to a dinner party in Dave's house the same evening, I was taken to Charlies for an all night drinking session. There was a fridge full of beer at the start of the night, and not much in it at the end of the night as you can see here :)

This is Charlie's kegerator. Charlie makes his own beers - Charlesburg, Low Carb Beer, Stout, you name it. The brew stays in the fridge along with the gas bottles, and he pours his own beer from the taps you see here in the evening in his bar at the back of his house. Unfortunately the 90 pints Charlie made had a life expectancy of about an hour and a half.

The second day, hungover, we went to Freemantle, or Freeo as it's known locally. It's a town about 20 minutes outside Perth that has that old worldly Australian feel about it. Here's one of the buildings there. It was a bit drizzly though, but that dried up later in the day.

Here's Bob. Bob's insane - a street performer from the states - and entertained the crowd with various balancing acts, and cycling a uni-tricycle (3 wheels all one on top of the other), and at the end had this finalé, balancing on 5 moving and wet metal cylinders.

Dave's House. Like Cribs, only better. What you don't see here is the lake in front of the house.

Dave's House from behind. Gorgeous swimming pool, great gardening (I have to say that after all your hard work), and the bar/bbq area you see here where Dave and myself stayed up until about 4.30 polishing off vodka neat, chased by lots of red wine. We totally forgot about the wedding the next day!

The beach. We went for a gorgeous breakfast overlooking the beach, and then took a wander downwards. It's crystal clear water, soft grain sand, and eye candy everywhere.

Like this next installment of my usual Babewatch photos. And she wasn't alone, there were girls like this up and down the beach.

One of the many surfing schools at the beach.

Next to the beach, are parks, with barbeques provided by the city. The city also provides the gas. You bring your own beer, your own meat, have a family & friends barbeque, and provided you clean up after yourself, it's totally free.

Beach warning sign - beware of snakes!

And here's myself, Dave and Carmel. hard to believe it was over 14 years ago when we worked together in Cork. They haven't changed a bit.

And so we get to the wedding. Myself and Dave were a bit late because of our late night drinking session, and then we took a wrong turn in the park, which meant we had to sprint over a glass bridge above the wedding, and take another 500m diversion. We got there about 45 seconds before the wedding started. Not bad! Here's Charlie waiting for Jane, and the enless squad of musicians behind setting up (Well, we were nearly all musicians there!).

Jane and her Dad.

I play music for a lot of weddings, about 60 a year. This is usually the bit where the father of the bridge is smiling, but in a 'you'd better behave and look after my daughter' way - not this time though. He was obviously well chuffed Charlie was marrying Jane.

Liam! Liam's a nutcase. He's just turned 50, but you'd swear he's still 28. He's Charlie's neighbour from Offaly, living in Australia since the 70's. Absolutely top guy, and well up for the craic.

Mr and Mrs Charlie McCarthy stepping out for the first time.

And the Bridal Party.

Charlie Mc, you're a soppy git.

The view from the Boat Club where the reception was held. We had a great night there, but because you're so close to the southern pole, sunset happens all of a sudden, in about 10 minutes flat. Bright one minute, dark the next.

Here's a few of us enjoying some cold beers outside the Boat Club, listening to some Jazz, and enojying Canapes.

And here's the Jazz band, enjoying a cameo performace by Frosty on Trombone. Dowtchaboy!

Lots of drink, not much food = ?

The most unique wedding cake I've ever seen.

Fionn giving his best man's speech, and one of about 5 people to give very short, but very meaningful speeches. The start of a serious session!

And of course, all the Corkonians had to have their photo with the PROC flag. Small world and all that. Speaking of small worlds, I got chatting to the guy next to me at the dinner, who was from Ireland. I asked what part, and he said Baltinglass. My family's from there, so I asked if he knew them - turns out he played Golf with my late Uncle. The odds of this guy being in the same room were small, the odds of him sitting next to me at the dinner smaller again!

At about 10.30 the real party started, and went on until the very small hours of the morning.

Charlie and his Mum dancing - who's one of my old School of Music teachers. Well not old, but you know what I mean.

And Liam with his wife again. These two were pretty much on the dancefloor for the whole night.

And finally Charlie. Fuelled to the last with Drink and Mischief!

This was the view from our B&B in Trapani right on the harbour front. Our B&B was i Colori del vento, which had the coolest rooms as it was a very old building with high ceilings, and the rooms were all 2 stories having the bathrooms up a flight of stairs, and large wooden beams traversing the ceilings.

Down the road from Erice, about 10kms away from the beach was the cable car to Erice. Erice is an old walled city build high in the mountains above Trapani, with many castles and winding streets leading to restaurants and villas. Some of the castles were literally built on the side of the mountains as you'll see later. Erice also holds world conferences for Science on a regular basis, so we weren't surprised to see many people walking around with science conference tote bags. The cable car itself was my very first trip in one of these doohickeys, and despite being nervous on the first trip out, after taking dozens of trips later on during the holiday, it became quite enjoyable.

This is the main square in Erice, a bit of a walk from where the cable car dumps you off, but worth while. There are 6 restaurants at the square to choose from, and many curiosity and souvenir shops in the alcoves. We had some beer here and a local rice ball filled with cheese and ham - Arancini. These are also sold here in Cork in the Italian foodstore on North Main Street. Delicious!

One of the most impressive sights in Erice, castles set into the mountainside overlooking the waterfront below. All in states of disrepair, but breathtaking none-the-less. You do have to wonder how much drink the Sicilians must have had a few hundred years ago to decide that yes, this is the absolute best place to build a castle!

And here's Gosia with one of the more complete Castles in the background behind her.

This was one of the buskers in the grounds of that Castle, he played music on his Accordian, while his horse dressed in plumed feathers and regalia moved with the music much to the delight of the hoardes of German tourists.

Back at the waterfront near our B&B, here was one of the boats you could take to the smaller islands off the coast of Sicily. We decided that Favignana would be the best to visit, and took a hyrdofoil over to see the islands. The hydrofoil was very bond-esque, rising out of the water once we had cleared the main harbour - damn fast it was too. On Favignana, we hired a moped to scoot around for about 12 Euro. I got bitten by a stray dog, but otherwise it was good fun to scoot around and see the cactii and mountains.

This is one of two photos I took in Palermo. Palermo really isn't worth visiting to be honest, we spent one hour here after fighting the insane Italian traffic to be faced with one hell of a noisy city. We had a nice bite to eat in a restaurant, but once that was done, it was back into the hire car, and on to Taormina.

We got to Taormina very late in the evening after driving through one of the worst thunder and lightning storms I've ever been in. Late at night, we got into Taormina which seemed like the mountain passes in the Alps, lots of twisting roads with beautiful surfaces winding up the side of a mountain, but it got stranger after that. I spotted one rally car, then another, then 2 more, then 4 all going flat out, and it was only when we got to the entrance of Taormina that we realised the main street was closed for the Rally - which was great fun. The cars were racing through narrow, cobbled pedestrian streets, with people squeezing tight against the shop fronts whenever the cars got close - can you imagine doing that in Ireland? The politically correct 'speeding is bad' crew would chime in, and that'd be the end of it. The rally went on for the entire time we were there, and it was incredible. It was only the next day that we got to see Taormina in it's splendour, and the only way to describe it is to imagine Monte Carlo with a bit of Switzerland thrown in.

Caprese Salad. We had this everywhere, but this was the best one we had in Taormina. It's just Tomatoes, Mozarella, with some olive oil and herbs. Gorgeous, and we eat it every weekend now for breakfast along with some meats at home. Highly recommended!

This was one of the beaches near our B&B in Taormina. Tepid, clear water, with octopus swimming nearby!

Some of the winding streets in Taormina, this one led up to the ancient greek amphitheater, one of Taormina's main attractions where gigs are held regularly.

The amphitheater itself, while we were at the top, we were pleasantly surprised when a girl started singing a traditional Polish song at the bottom for everyone to hear.

Catcii at our B&B Villa Schiticchiu. Our B&B was owned and designed by a retired couple, one of which was an architect. They had a fantastic location only minutes away from the cablecar to Taormina centre, and from the beaches too. Interestingly, you could eat the red fruit of the Cactus, and it was on sale in nearly every shop we saw.

This was one of the squares in Taormina, Piazza Aprilia, which had plenty of restaurants but were wildly overpriced. 2 beers cost us 17 euro! This was also the kick off point for the rally, and the location of the prize giving after the weekend had finished.

Babewatch! There was a Sicilian wedding happening in another of the main squares, and not only was the bride seriously hot, but all her guests were as you can see from the foreground too. Italian women are just incredible ... so are Polish (Course I have to say this!). After the wedding, the guests paraded down the main street, with the bride and groom following.

Mt. Etna! At our B&B we met a fantastic couple, Stephan from Holland, and Judith from Germany, both living in the UK, and speaking fluent Italian. They were a great help to us, so we all piled into our hire car, and drove the 30 miles or so to Mt. Etna for a spot of hiking. The scenery was eerie. All around was blackness peppered with red from iron ore, and yellow from the sulphur thrown up from Etna in her last eruption. The surface was like loose gravel, meaning that even though the hill you see in this photo is a 60 degree incline, it felt like an 80 degree one, and as the surface was loose, as you took one step forward, you slid 3 back until you grabbed a hold of something. This was a walk around one of the smaller craters, later we would take a cable car to the basecamp, and from there take a 4x4 to the base of the main mountainside.

Here we are at over 10000 feet. From here if you were to ascend anymore, the effects of hypoxia would set in, and oxygen would be required. In this photo, you can see the iron and sulphur very clearly in the photo. But the blackness surrounding it is all you can see when you're this far up the mountain. It's the closest thing to the Lunar surface you will ever see, or experience.

This photo is purely to give you an idea on perspective, at 10k feet, we would still need to climb about another 3-4k to reach Etna's summit, and you can see the base camp is dwarfed by the mountain itself. Although the air here was bitterly cold, the ground was quite warm, and if you placed your hand into the hollows underneath the rocks on the surface, you would have very moist skin when you would pull it back seconds later.

Myself, Gosia, Judith and Stephan in front of the magnificent Mercedes Unimog. These vehicles are incredible, and are used mostly by the military, they can go anywhere, and do anything. This one had a 4x4 cab fitted to it to take passengers, but I've seen them fitted with cranes, cutting equipment, ballistics, you name it. They've dozens of gears, and masses of power reserves.

This is the beach near Agrigento, Scala di Turqui. We walked the length of the beach before climbing the chalk cliffs at the end for some sunbathing. There were tiny fish swimming in rock pools one inch deep, crabs, and large fish in the reefs. The water was warm, and the sun was doing it's best to burn our skin. Needless to say the beach was full of very hot Italian girls sunbathing too.

Agrigento was a great experience. We stayed in the best B&B we have ever been in, Terrazze di Montelusa, owned by the eccentric, and hugely charismatic Francesco. This B&B was set into the hillside of Agrigento overlooking the Greek Temples and sprawling streets below, and had a wonderful rooftop terrace for breakfast every morning. Francesco was a classical pianist, and had a grand piano in the foyer of his B&B. When he discovered that Gosia was from Poland, he learned some Polish classical music by Chopin and played for us. Nothing was too much trouble for Francesco, and he always made sure we had a parking spot outside his B&B, even if it meant leaving his own car in the crowded Sicilian streets down below. He was also kind enough to give us directions to the Greek Temples about 15 kms away, and here is Gosia and I pictured in front of the Temple of Concordia - the most complete of all 3 temples there.

And here's one more photo of the same temple. What a holiday, and what a way to spend our birthdays!

Here's the Naoimh Ciaran II, or as it's commonly referred to, the Cape Clear Island Ferry. We'd a rough crossing over, but the boat didn't seem to mind at all.

One of the RNLI Lifeboats coming in from training into Baltimore Harbour.

That'd be me. Fending off sea sickness.

Cape Clear Harbour itself, nice anc calm waters, and right next to the beach.

Roadsigns next to Ciaran Danny Mac's pub, showing the distance in miles to places like London, San Francisco, and Murmansk.

The view of an abandoned house at the top of the Island, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Herself getting new wallpaper for her Laptop :)

An absolutely beautifully restored, and brightly painted David Browne tractor. Probably the best kept vehicle on the island ...

... especially when compared with the likes of this. The Island doesn't need Insurance on vehicles, or Tax, or NCTs, so you end up with cars like this, being driven on a day to day basis. Some cars don't have exhausts, some cars don't have glass. There's a famous story that a VW Beetle ended up on the Island after it was deemed too sick for the mainland. The gearbox in the Beetle had packed in, all except for one gear - reverse - and apparently the owner was seen reversing around the Island for a few years in his bright red VW Beetle. I didn't believe the story, until I looked over some of the old photos on the Ferry's internal walls, and right there, was a red VW Beetle.

The main street in Zakopane again, there's plenty of other photos of Zakopane the town itself in this blog entry from our trip before.

This is the villa we stayed in on the east side of Zakopane. We picked it at random, and it turned out to be incredible. Previous guests included the Japanese Embassy, and some South African delegates too. It's called "Willa Ulka", the W being pronounced like a V in Polish.

And here's the view from our balcony.

This was the start of our trek into the mountains. We had only 1 litre of water which we discovered in 30 degree heat, with 9 hours of trekking ahead of us wasn't enough at all. Thankfully, there was a rest house at the top of one of the mountains. Here you see the Horse and Carraige drivers offering lazy hikers a trip half way to the base of the mountain. We decided to walk, and it gave me the opportunity to shoot off over 200 photos all with glorious skies and mountainscapes.

Gosia doing her best to get a tan!

Looking back towards the entrance to the National Park, we'd only walked about 30 minutes at this stage.

Just a long exposure shot of one of the many streams and rivers running through the National Park. I dipped my feet in on the way out after 9 hours of hiking, and the water was ice cold.

Herself looking forward to buying some more water, about 2 hours into the journey.

One of the mountains jutting out from the forest. Incredible views like this wherever you went in the Park, it's like Gougane Barra, but on steroids.

Thankfully, here was the respite at the top of one of the mountains. Ornak House, where you could get food, beer, refreshments, relieve yourself in a civilised fashion, and oogle at the incredible looking Polish girls all on school tours. The house itself was very traditional, all wood and stone, and was overlooking a huge valley and mountains covered in snow. It's also one of the last convergence points before various off-shooting paths to the other mountain passes.

Here's the path we took to a lake at the top of the nearest mountain. Most Polish people go to Morskie Oko, but this was much more secluded. We were on our own, apart from two middle aged ladies who probably weren't going to move for at least an hour after trekking so far.

Back in Zakopane, we went to many many restaurants at night time. As the tourist (And by tourist, I mean Polish tourists) season was in, there was bardzo muzaka goralskie, or lots of Polish traditional mountain folk music, which is brilliant. Best enjoyed with Vodka, or Okocim Mocne (7.5% local beer).

This is the symbol of Dusseldorf, a boy cartwheeling. There are two legends about this tradition, the first is that a boy held on to a broken wheel on Prince Jan Wellem's coach to stop it falling off in 1678. He was given a gold coin. To this day boys in Dusseldorf turn cartwheels for money. The second is that when, in the year 1288, after the Battle of Worringen, Dusseldorf received its town charter, the children turned "wheels of joy".

Myself and Gosia in Marktplatz.

Some of the winding streets around the Altstadt.

So my camera was switched off when a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti roared past, by the time my camera was turned back on, I was cursing to have missed it, when this beautiful Lamborghini decided to put on a show for me. Yum! This section of Dusseldorf is the expensive part of town, with about 10 Brown Thomas store clones.

Ice-Cream Chocolate Fondue in the Haagen-Dazs store. The poor girl took 20 minutes to make this, and it took us 30 minutes to eat it. Simply explained, on one side you have fruit, and brownies, and on the other, you have lots of little ice cream balls. Gorgeous!

The obligatory Mini shot.

Here's a shot of the riverbank, all along the river bank, you have floating restaurants moored up, fixed restaurants actually on the terra firma, and there was even a circus. Everyone eats outdoors and enjoys the weather, and the local Alt beer which is smooth, and delicious.

This is herself saying "I'm hungry, put the damn camera away", without actually needing to say anything at all ...

This is the river cruise boat we took for an hour along the Rhine, and we had yet more Alt beer on board, along with some Bratwurst sausage and curry.

Here's the tower at Burgplatz, everyone meets up here, sits along the steps by the river, and watches the street entertainers. The city tours leave from here, as do the horse and cart trips.

This is the communication tower, and at the top is a Restaurant that rotates once an hour.

Dusseldorf is very famous for it's architecture, and there are conventions each year for architects. Here are some buildings by the river that won several awards, if you look closely, they're all leaning at different angles.

An organ grinder, and his (stuffed) monkey. I had to give this guy some money, being a kindred spirit and all that!

Yes it's a soppy shot. Sue me.

And the fairground by the river. I won a teddy at the gun range, but the weirdest thing was going past the Waltzer, and listening to Joe Dolan's 'Good Looking Woman' being played at full volume. Guess it's not just The Hoff that the Germans love, eh?

About 2 minutes walk from out apartment was the river Tiber which flows right through Rome, and is part of the legend of the Romulus, Remus, and foundation of the city. We walked the entire river one night, the buildings were incredible, and there were still markets open, and no antisocial behaviour whatsoever. But even here in the middle of the river, the attention to detail was magnificent, ever bridge, every pillar had some form of sculpture on it, and buildings which were in prominent places were design to a fault, as if the owners knew people would be looking at the abode, and wanted to impress.

5 minutes after the bridge, we got a pleasant surprise. We spotted a Polish car, then 2, then 5, then 20, and came to a wall with Polish notices fixed to it. The penny still not dropping, we bumped into a group of Polish people selling Polish DVD's and Magazines, and it was only then we turned around to see this Polish Church where Mass had finished, and people were spilling out to buy a little bit of home.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, or as it's also known, the Wedding Cake. This building is immense, housing a Museum of Military artifacts, and giving you an amazing vantage point over the plaza around it.

Here's one view of the local area from the steps of the Tomb.

The very famous Trevi Fountain, which is constantly swamped by tourists. About 3000 euro is thrown a day by visitors continuing the legend that if you throw a coin in to the fountain, you will return to Rome again. The money is collected each night, and used to fund a subsidized supermarket for the needy. Apparently if you throw 2 coins into the fountain, you'll get married soon, and if you throw 3, you'll get divorced soon.

The centre figure of the fountain is Oceanus, and this is one of his Tritons guiding his chariot, and taming his seahorses (Hippocamps).

2 minutes further down the road I saw this, and had to snap it. Obviously someone watches Orange County Choppers and had seen Paulie's Black Widow bike, and decided to build a 1/3 replica using a moped engine. The attention to detail was both fantastic, and funny.

Myself and the Missus at the Spanish Steps.

St. Peter's Basilica/The Vatican. We did the whole tour here, down where the Popes were interred, including the recently buried Janus Pawel II (John Paul II) who was Polish, so Gosia enjoyed that, and of course, we went for the 20 minute hike to the Sistine Chapel to see Michelangelo's Creation of Adam ceiling mural. The weird thing though, was that en-route to the Sistine Chapel, there were people with the largest boils, cysts and leisons I'd ever seen lying on the ground, writing in pain begging for alms right outside the Vatican.

The spiral staircase coming down from the Sistine Chapel. I'd love to Rollerblade down this :)

A shot from inside the Colosseum.

Another shot from inside the Colosseum. In the distance you can see a replica of the wooden floor that would have been in place over the entire centre. Underneath were the chambers were slaves were kept, lions, and Gladiators. You can still see where the condemned scrawled their names into the walls before they were led to die in the hope their names would be rememberd.

And of course, the Colosseum outside.

A shot from the balcony of the Colosseum.

The Arch of Constantine, was dedicated in AD 315 to celebrate Constantine's victory three years before over his co-emperor, Maxentius, outside in the grounds of the Colosseum.

The Pantheon at night time. This place was very eerie, almost like being in Rome 2000 years ago, but at night time, the ambience was too good to miss out on.

This is the main Hotel in the centre of Zakopane, everyone working there wears period dress, and the food is very traditional - and tasty! Next time we go, we're staying here, it's a little more expensive than the B&B we stayed in, but well worth it for the ambience. This is typical of the building design in Zakopane

This is the Zakopane equivilant of Mahon Point shopping centre, lots of little stores selling gifts, food, and clothes, and a river running through between them with little humpback bridges, it's like something from Lord of the Rings.

Another period building, but this time a restaurant where we had some serious fish and chicken. Yum!

Horse and Carts are everywhere, and the mountain people (Or Goralski) all dress in costume.

Before the railway station to take you to the ski resort at the top of the Tatry Mountains, there was an enormous farmers market, where you could buy anything handmade, leather goods, dairy produce, or here, a stall selling kitchen utensils and toys made from wood.

Here's a cheesmaker selling wares, even though those look like textured wooden toys, they're actually traditional smoked cheese, with patterns pressed into the outside. You'll find these on the front of most Polish tourist books.

And here's a breakfast shot from Poland. We had pancakes stuffed with berries and fruit, and topped in chocolate and jam. All for about 5 Euro, to jest bardzo pisne!

And on to Krakow. Here is the main square in Krakow, in between the two churches in the famous Cloth Hall shopping arcade that goes back centuries. All around the square were bars, restaurants, and shops. A few of the shops were being rebuilt on the outside, but so as not to spoil the look of the square, they had photos taken of them pre-construction, printed onto lifesize banners, and draped in front of the building, so the construction could continue, and the ambience would not be ruined. There were also dozens of pidgeons gorging themselves on anything they could find, about 20 horse and carts for hire, and a TV station holding an outdoor music festival here in the square.

Just another shot of the main square.

These guys rock. 4 Accordians of varying pitch, each able to play a portion of what a full church organ could muster. And they were playing Baroque classical music. Much to my delight, they launched into Bach's Toccata and Fugue, and when there was a run of notes up the scale, where one accordian reached it's upper limit in pitch, the next would take over seamlessly. It was like listening to a church organ, but instead it was these 4 guys in perfect sequence. Bought their CD, and it's every bit as good as the live performance.

This crew followed us for ages. Turns out they were involved in a promotion for the Microsoft Zune MP3 player.

And of course, the reason why we went over in the first place. The Christening of baby Marta. From left to right, my extremely hot girlfriend Gosia - the Godmother, Piotrek - the Godfather, Kasia & Marta, and Kasia's partner, Maciek. The ceremony was much more formal, and intense than an Irish Christening, and the meal afterwards literally went on for hours. We were sitting in the local Chinese restaurant for about 5 hours, and the staff didn't have an issue with it. Apparently it's the norm. Christenings go on for a day, Weddings for several days!

Gosia's parents, Basia and Jurek.

And one last photo of course, myself and Gosia at the top of the Tatry Mountains in Zakopane!

A very tricked out long wheel base cruiser on Piotrkowska street. This is the main street in the City of Lodz, and is over 4kms long. They claim it to be the longest shopping street in Europe. The buildings here are just fantastic, old school 18th century over the top architecture, and as you can see the background, evey 200 metres or so, there's an outdoors beer cabin that serves food too. Could you imagine these on Patrick's Street in Cork? They'd be fantastic. Found an Irish Pub on this street too with the most expensive Murphy's I've ever had, but more on that later.

How's this for ingenuity? This is a tour bus. It has headlights, indicators, even a PA system for Music and the guide to give our his info on the area, but the incredible thing, is that everyone sits down into a bar counter, where they can have a cool drink, and they pedal together to move the tourbus. 20 people pedalling! I want one!

The obligatory MINI shot. There's not many new MINIs in Poland, but this is the Cooper S special edition known as the Checkmate. It was 33000 Euro in Ireland, which is expensive enough, I can only imagine how much it cost in Poland, where the average industrial wage is about 250 Euro per month.

I like this photo. The road sign kinda says "No, you can't go down the scary derilict street" ... but it reminds me that while Poland is undergoing a huge economic, and visual change, that there are still people, and areas that haven't felt the tide turn yet.

This is probably the coolest thing in Lodz. This was an old Cotton Mill that was empty, run down, and abandoned. And they turned it into a state of the art shopping centre called Manufaktura. It's about 8 times the size of Mahon Point, with the best of shops, restaurants and bars. In fact, it would leave most of Ireland's shopping centres looking like they were designed in the past.

An interior shot of one of the long shopping aisles within the centre.

Just to prove the lack of forward thought in Ireland, here's the outside of the shopping centre in a huge courtyard. There's a beach. That's right, a beach! Complete with beach bar, volleyball nets, and all around the perimeter, there are themed restaurants and beer houses. People stay here long after the shopping centre has closed, there's music being pumped out through speakers in the plaza, and fountains that squirt water, and change water colour timed to match the music. There's a huge outdoor TV on one of the walls, and at weekends, they have beach party's here ... so instead of going to a nightclub, you throw on your shorts/bikini and head down for some cocktails and dancing. Now that's living!

Babewatch! You didn't think I'd forgotten about Babewatch did you? Inside the shopping centre they were having a combined Salsa Dance competition and a Dog Show. Here's a gorgeous specimen ... the dog of course, right?

The Irish Pub on Piotrkowska. It has absolutely nothing to do with Ireland, and looked more French than anything. There's a roadsign for Kenmare, and they sell Murphys. That's about as Irish as it gets. So here's my Missus drinking my Murphys.

SatNav is a weird and wonderful thing. I lived for the few days being ushered about by the voice of 'Karen' in my Satnav. And on the way back to Katowice Airport, she didn't steer us wrong. I got immensely worried though when she brought me through a forest, where the tarmac eventually disappeared, we came across an old Nazi border checkpoint complete with German signage, and the the skies opened up with a Thunderstorm from hell. Before the Thunderstorm though, we did manage to stuff ourselves with Blueberries growing in the area. Funnily enough, after taking me on this mystery tour, the SatNav did eventually get me to the Airport!

One of the many strange sights on the Motorway from Lodz to Katowice. This is an old passenger jet that's been converted to a restaurant. And it's not the only one. outside another Gospoda (Or family small restaurant), there was a Russian Fagot (And old single engined fighter plane, pre the MiG) just sitting there, looking very sorry indeed, complete with missiles underneath. Other oddities on the Motorway, were literally dozens of people selling jars of Blueberries. Kids, Pensioners, all up at the crack of dawn picking berries in the hopes of selling them and making some badly needed money.

A welcome, and very cool start to the Event.

The Irish Massive. Little did the organisers know how much we'd drink, or how many tires we'd consume. Inside here was the main presentation of the cars, with DJ's playing, a food buffet (Serving Rabbit of all things), the three new MINIs, and touchscreen terminals for us to compete against each other in product knowledge. The event had us driving from venue to venue, attending training at each stage, and each stage had a terminal for us to clock up points. Tres cool indeed.

The fleet. The poor, abused fleet. Not a bad sight to wake up to eh?

The ever gorgeous Vicky, my co-driver on every MINI event so far, and besides me, the only long term MINI staff member.

The world's 2nd crappiest photo, taken through the Windscreen of our MINI, as we drove around the coastline near Rome. Gorgeous weather, roads, and scenery!

One of the training sessions happened at a Castle outside Rome where Celebs get married. Here's the MINI doing it's thing on a ladder. No, I didn't park it there ...

One of the training rooms inside. This one was for trims and upholsteries, there was another room for engines and safety systems, and one more room for paint finishes.

The MINI fun Bus!

The MINI Hotel, inside this MINI is a TV, Bed, Sink, Wardrobe ... and reception phone. It was parked in the Atrium of the Radisson SAS Hotel in Rome.

A fleet of MINI Cooper S' waiting to be abused ... and by Chrisht they were abused.

Myself, and my usual driving Guru, Mr. Rauno Aaltonen, winner of the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally.

The world's crappiest photo, taken from our bus, and if you look very carefully, you can see our police escort out front. The Colleseum was incredible.

The rooftop party, which was supposed to end at about 2, but we kept it alive until 6. Free drink, food, cigars, and a swimming pool with holographic sharks swimming around it. A live DJ stayed as late as we did, so it was all good. And before you ask, yes, we did run out of drink.

Des & Nicola pouting like they were competing in the Olympic pouting championships.

Il Papa. Here's Mike doing his best Pope Impression, which went down a treat.

The baby of the group, Leonie, who was only in the Network a month, but fit right in - party girl if ever I've met one.

The Irish Massive having it large at 6 in the morning. Everyone else had gone home at that stage, except the tormented bar staff, and the DJ who swore he was coming to Ireland as soon as he could to par-tay.

Babewatch. The sequel. Oooh, I was being a naughty boy, and you can see it in this girls face. Her mate in the background though knew what I was up to, and was in stiches laughing at me, and the other male Dealers behind me all behaving like pre-pubescent schoolbooys. Boobies!

The view of the Eiffel Tower from the wonderful Parvis des Libertes et des Drots de l'Homme. You could sit here all day and watch Paris roll by.

A B&W Shot from below using the new wide-angle lens I bought before travelling.

Not much to say about this one. There was the daily military procession going on when I visited, and I took the incredible hike to the top of the Arch to take some panoramic photos of Paris. Within a few minutes of coming back down, I watched a Ferrari Scaglietti 612, Aston Martin Vantage, BMW 850i, Lamborghini Murcielago and a Ducati 999 tear through the roundabout. The noise was incredible!

A wide shot of one of the fountains at the Place de la Concorde. This city square is designed on an Egyptian/Masonic theme, and it's very evident. Well worth spending an hour here going through the geometry of the monuments, fountains and the Obelisk here to see the patterns.

One of the fountain statues close up.

Here's a street lamp near the Louvre that looked like a face. The Parisians even go to the trouble of designing attractive street lamps!

Here's the glass Pyramids outside the Louvre. Some call them the scar on the face of Paris, but I quite like them. The French aren't afraid to make bold architectural statements.

The Venus de Milo inside the Louvre, mobbed by crowds and American Students.

Sacre Coeur Cathedral in the idyllic Monmatre. Everything here screams slow pace of life, street artists, a period funfair Gallops at the base of the steep climb to the Cathedral, and underground crypt in the Cathedral itself, and of course the Artisan Quadrant.

Here's the main square in the Artisan Quadrant, even though the rain was starting to come down, the Artists were busy creating portraits and caricatures. All the Restaurants were busy, and I was about to eat when the Dali Museum was noticed, and how can you pass that oppertunity up?

I must have shot off 100 photos in here, but only choose to put these two up because of the bizzare nature of them. All his usual sculptures and paintings were here, the Persistance of Vision, Don Quixote on an Infinite Landscape, Spectral Horse, and of course El Caza. Killed a few hours in there!

The colours in this are just breathtaking, well worth publishing.

Here's Boston from the Air. I flew from Shannon, to Boston, to LaGuardia. Not a bad little journey. I was a little bit panicked when my bag didn't turn up, but it eventually did, and the party began.

Broadway. You have no idea how happy I was to be there. I got on a Bus from LaGuardia Airport and sat next to the biggest, sweatiest black woman I've ever seen. When the Driver was announcing stops, I pulled out my map. She noticed I wasn't American, asked where I was from ... and as soon as she heard Ireland, she, and the rest of the Bus all started to give me advice, and directions as we rolled through Queens and Harlem. Harlem's scary! I was christened "Snowflake", and when I stepped off the Bus to get this Subway station you see here on Broadway, the whole Bus was smiling and pointing to the entrance to make sure I didn't get lost. Who says NYC is inpersonal?

Time Square by night. Time Square simply kicks ass. The ESPN Zone restaurant is superb, as is their staff team. One staff member, Lucien, recommended great food, savage drink, and arranged to take me for a beer with his crew when he clocked off. The Hard Rock Café is here, as is the Naked Cowboy, the NYPD, about 17 Starbucks, and loads of "Cameras and Computers" stores who try to rip off eager tourists.

The Naked Cowboy. I can smell fear. This guy was brickin' it in case I decided to whip off my clothes and impress all the women with my manly phisque ... or something ...

A wall of Guitars in the basement of the Hard Rock Café. I had dinner here with Lisa, and was presented with two Hard Rock Café NYC Pint Glasses free, I cradled all the way home. Also in here, were Guitars from Linkin Park, The Beatles, Trivium ... if only we were allowed to play them!

Billy Joel's bike in the Hard Rock.

The Empire State. It was raining. What level of stupidity gripped me and told me to go up on a cloudy day is beyond me. I could see feck all.

The Empire State lobby. Kinda cool after seeing it in so many movies!

The view from the Observation Deck on a rainy day. It was cold, miserable, but it was still a magical feeling to be on the top of a NYC landmark.

Me, and a crappy telescope. You can also see my camera bag. Boy was I sick of carrying the 350d and all it's accessories around at the end of the week!

I broke my ass laughing at this. Check out my Thailand post for other similar vehicles. The NYC have TucTucs!

The Flatiron Building. NYC's first Sky Scraper!

Washington Park in Downtown Manhattan. Loads of Students around here, and older people playing Boules and Chess.

In the hustle and bustle of NYC, it was cool to see this old lad. He couldn't give a damn if the world stopped there and then, he was relaxing drinking his coffee, and eating his bagel. A well chilled out guy - probably from one of the near by Colleges.

The obligatory MINI shot. Yes I visited MINI Manhattan and found the staff to be very welcoming. The market for MINI in the states is so varied. People buy MINIs on their Credit Cards as playthings. There was a hottie girl from Wales working there, so she and I were able to compare the US Market, to the Market back home. They couldn't believe we sell MINIs without Aircon and Leather as standard. I guess Uncle Sam is just used to having fully loaded cars!

Here's 5th Avenue. It's vast. Vast is the only word you can use to describe it. I walked the entire island of Manhattan one day just for shits and giggles, and it was incredible to see just how developed every square inch is.

Here's Atlas holding up the world. Weird eh? The Romans and Greeks knew the world was round, and then the Catholic Church came along with the Dark Ages and suddenly the world was flat. If we didn't have the good old Catholic Church with their hokery pokery, we'd probably be colonising Mars now.

St. Patrick's Cathedral. Another NYC Landmark.

Ice Skating at the Rockerfeller Centre. Ice Skating in March. Wow!

Central Park! Squirrels everywhere, loads of walks, ponds, trees, rollerbladers, cyclists, dogs, nut jobs, musicians, and as you can see Horses and Carriages. I really like this shot.

One of the Central Park's coolest Musicians. It's very surreal to think you're walking in Central Park in Manhattan, listening to a guy playing Jazz on a Sax, when 3 days ago you were in Ireland stuck in traffic. I enjoyed listening to this guy a lot!

A trellis with wood and ivy. Another shot I'm pretty proud of. Slap bang in the centre of the Park.

I'm not explaining this one, but anyone who knows me intimately will know what this room is, and where I'm sitting. And dayum if it didn't feel cool.

Another room in the same building. This is a hidden room which only a few select people get to enter. It's a library housing some of the word's oldest books, and a council table where some serious decisions get made is housed. This is one of about 5 statues of George Washington made from Gold that are hidden from the Public Eye. It was a nice feeling to be granted access to both the room, and the Statue itself.

Grand Central Station. This must be the world's biggest/coolest train station. It has shops, cafés, restaurants in abandoned Subway stations, and of course, this shot of the main lobby with the four faced clock. Really cool place to kill an hour watching people scurry.

I visited the U.S.S. Intrepid that's permenantly moored off 12th Street. It's an Aircraft Carrier that's still chock full of Aircraft, Missiles, Hueys, Tanks ... shops, cafés, and something that really caught my eye ... this prototype of Concorde. As a Pilot, I was fascinated by this. Naturally the Rolls Royce engines are missing, but the cockpit's intact, and the passenger seat rows are filled with period memorabilia.

Here's me with a decommissioned Commanche Helicopter. I would give my left testicle to fly this.

No caption necessary. Trés cool.

I decided to pop off and visit the Statue of Liberty. After buying my ticket, I discovered that they were not allowing people to visit the Statue that particular day, so I said screw it and went on the ferry trip anyway. There are people literally making a fortune selling crap near here. Models on the Twin Towers, of the Statue, of the Empire State, Pretzels (I ate way too many of these when I was Stateside), Water, Statue of Liberty foam pointy hats, etc. To get onto the Ferry, I had to go through a Security Check that was the same as any Airport. I guess the citizens of NYC are just a little jumpy. This street performer was very gratious, and pulled lots of poses for the camera!

This guy rocked. One of my favourite instruments is the Steel Drum, so I tipped this guy, and in his best Jamacian accent asked "Hey mawn, where you from?", answered with "Ireland of course!", and he started into a few jigs no hassles. Kept me smiling for a good while that did!

Ellis Island. This was the first sight many many Irish people saw when they came to the States. It's a Museum now, but I can imagine it was very imposing 2 centuries ago to poor Irish farmers. Did I go in? Feck no. It was FREEZING on the boat, and I had to see Lady Liberty!

Here she is, what a babe! A lot smaller in real life that what you'd expect, but breathtaking none the less. For those not in the know, there's a smaller scale version in Paris I've seen too.

The NYC Skyline from the Ferry. You'd definitely miss the Twin Towers from it though ...

Another NYC Skyline shot from the Ferry Terminal.

This is Ground Zero - a very very spooky spot. There's a hole in the ground where a lot of people lost their lives, but the people working in the area seem unaware of the poignancy. It's bizarre. But no New Yorker can forget what happened, and tributes to the dead are fixed to every fence, and every wall. The Subway Station sign still says "Welcome to the World Trade Centre".

Now the really annoying part about being like every other eejit with a Digital SLR Camera (And let's face it, who doesn't have one and call themselves a photographer these days) is having to lug it around. It has annoyed me on every trip I've been on with it. Thailand, Malaysia, Paris, Rome, Oxford, and countless MINI runs. But every now and again, it becomes more than a Camera. It becomes a Passport. As I was watching the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade on 5th Avenue, a cop keep staring at me snapping away, changing lenses, reviewing photos, when suddenly he shouted "Where are yous from?", so I answered "Um ... Ireland ...", "Are yous with da Press?" ... "Am, Sure?" ... "Well come out from behind that railing and take some photos!". So with that, I became a Press Photographer, free to roam between the participants and go wherever the hell I wanted. Result! So without further adieu, here's the 2006 NYC St. Patrick's Day Festival!

Anyone who's watched American Chopper will recognise this flag. Well worth a photo.

The happiest parade drummer on the planet. And just like all the other Parade marchers, they were all willing to pose for the Camera.

A happy old lad from the Upstate Lacrosse Team. Yes he plays a wussy sport, if you can even call it that, but he was a character!

Two cops. Love this photo! I should have sold it to The Examiner when I came home.

A sea of the Red, White and Blue. Another savage shot. Only downside was that all the Flags drowned out the light hitting the faces of the Police. Still a great photo though!

"Yous, yous with the Camera, Cheese!"

Regular readers of my Blog know I'm a slut. So without further musings, here's the continuation of Babewatch! Mmmm, Babewatch.

Here's one last blurry Cameraphone Photo from Manhattan. It's the Coyote Ugly Bar ... yes, the one from the Movie! Where complete nerds go to chat up average looking girls who dance on the bar. Great fun though, and of course, having an Irish accent in a place like this just plain rocks!

The boys, fresh from the first 4 flights, loaded with backpacks and guitars in Kuala Lumpur

The same plaza at night with a long exposure

The inside of the Petronas Towers. It houses an 8 story shopping mall, with shops for everything, and about 3 levels of gadget shops. Heaven!

The base of the Petronas Towers, breathtaking!

China Town in Kuala Lumpur. DVDs for 1 Euro, T Shirts for 2 Euro, Jeans for about 10 Euro. And the haggling is great fun!

One of the funnier stories of the trip. Downey and myself had spent a fortune in the Canon Shop inside the Petronas Towers. Downey bought a 350d, battery grip, Hot Shoe Flash, I bought a battery grip for my 350d, and the Hot Shoe Flash, but to go one better - Downey bought this Canon Tripod. He left it in the taxi about 15 minutes later, but we got serious mileage out of this photo. Taking the piss out of him at every opportunity!

The wonderous Karaket Hotel, with it's own Travel Agency and Internet Café.

Paragliders on Patong Beach. Breathtaking.

Babewatch Part 1. Two hot girls getting suited up for Paragliding.

Mickey, or Knowledge as we call him. One of two identical twins. Not identical because they look the same. Oh no. Identical because they're both rampant alcoholics, womenisers, and party animals!

The other half - Kev, or Seáney as we call him!

Now bear with me on this one. Everything in Thailand is tiny. And here's my first bit of proof. Tiny bananas!

Oh, this'd be me, outside the Tiger Bar on the main Bar street. Many's the night of mischeif that went on here!

Possibly the freakiest dog on the planet. Look at the eyes!

Thailand's answer to Ponche and Jon.

After an entire day on the speedboats nipping between the islands on the crystal blue waters, dickhead here forgot to put on sunblock, resulting in two shoulders with burnt (actually burnt to a crisp, dead, like paper) skin that filled up during the night with sweat, forming two football size blisters on my shoulders, and my a tennis ball sized one on my foot. But not to fear ... Dr. Pornsak to the rescue! Yes folks, when you're down and out in Thailand, Dr. Pornsak is your man. As you can see from his extensive signage, not only was he able to cure my second degree burns, but he also does car and house rental, with a mean trade in Garden Gnomes on the side. What an entrepreneur.

This is a case of the worst timing ever. I take this photo, turn my back, hear a bang, turn around, and everyone's on the ground, jumpming up and chasing after the Pickup they fell out of when the tailgate opened. Comedy gold!

Micky, Micky, Micky ... accept it buddy, you're going bald!

Anyone who knows me knows I'm terrified of water. But there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to jump off the Speedboat and mingle with hundreds of tiny exotic fish, looking down at coral reefs, and up and mountains rising without warning from the crystal blue and green ocean. So here's me being all heroic and stuff (I'm actually shitting myself, but hey, who knew?).

Monkeys eating Bananas. We pulled into an island called ... Monkey Island ... and threw bananas into the water. The monkeys would wade out, grab the bananas, return to shore, skin them in about 1 second flat, and down them in one go. Watching the monkeys swim was surreal!

Babewatch, Part 2. Humina.

Paradise ... this is where Dr. No was filmed. I would love to get my Seaplane rating, buy a cheap old Piper Cub and fly tourists to the islands out here. That would be retirement at it's best.

The exact beach where "The Beach" was filmed. We spent an hour here relaxing ... and filming ...

... Babewatch Part 3 and ...

... Babewatch Part 4!

Paradise again, we could have spent all day here.

And one more shot of the Phi Phi islands. You could stay overnight in one of the beach cabins, and eat traditional Thai food. One of the busiest honeymoon spots in the world.

Jack Bauer eat your heart out.

88% accuracy. There's a sniper in me screaming to get out.

Here's knowledge driving the most dangerous form of transport on the planet, the Tuc Tuc!

Ned Kelly's Pub, speaks for itself.

Now remember when I was going on about how small things were in Thailand - here's the world's smallest Elvis Impersonator!

Ah! The day Knowledge forgot how to talk. Mickey spent the day describing objects he couldn't think of the name of. Glasses were those 'things you poured pints into', boats were 'the people things on the water', and he couldn't remember the name for a winch - instead it was 'the towing thingy on the front of the car thing'. We broke our asses laughing when we came across a Pickup Truck with a winch on the front. A photo had to be taken!

Lech Murphys, Patong. This pub is owned by 3 lads from Ballinlough. They are the only customers there, they sit at the bar, play pool, and twitch while they drink their pints. But dammit if they're not happy!

In Scuffy Murphy's pub, there's a 2 piece band that play. Here's the drummer. Possibly the best drummer in the world, and he gets paid buttons. Tragic!

And here's his other half. Neil, from the Irish band "The Big Geraniums". He's been in Thailand playing music now for 5 years, making a damn good living by Thai standards too. A great entertainer, and I hopped up on stage with him for a few songs on the old fiddle. I also got to play with another band in The Molly Malone. They were 5 lads who called themselves "The Thairish Band". I played Guitar with them 3 nights, everything from Lynrd Skynrd to Metallica. We had such a blast! I could see myself over there for a year or so just entertaining. And flying my Sea Plane of course!

Alcohol Poisioning kicks in!

Returning to the miniature world of Thailand ... here's a Mini!

Bono ... eat your heart out.

A row of 3 wheel Tuc Tucs. Even more dangerous than the 4 wheel ones you saw previously!

Now bear with me here. Put 5 Irish guys in a Tuc Tuc that's designed to take 3 Thai sized people. Encourage the permenantly smiling driver to redline the moped engine, dump the clutch, and you get ... The Tuc Tuc Wheelie! Legendary Status has now been conferred on this master commander of the Tuc Tuc world!

Poor Poor Knowledge. Attacked by the Ladyboys where ever we went. He was our defense shield. No matter what pub or club we went to, the ladyboys would corner Mick, and the hot girls would corner us. Thanks Mickey :-)

Now, picture the scene. You're in Thailand, you come across a pub called "The Moon Bar" ... well, what would you do?

Take 5 Irish Men. 5 Coal Buckets full of Whiskey, and 10 minutes to drink it. Shake it all about, and you end up with ... me, not remembering anything past 2am, waking up with an enormous tattoo on my left leg, half a tooth missing, and all the skin missing from my knee. What a night out!

First MINI we saw. A convertible Classic, with a matching trailer ... cute!

The beautiful swimming pool between the back of the Hotel and the Adriatic Sea beach front.

The square garden in the middle of the Hotel grounds, waterfall, and waterpaths traversed the sunburnt grass.

The signup entrance in the Main Marquee, but as VIP guests, we bypassed it :-)

The interior of the Main Marquee. This is where the rampant alcholism took place. We met everyone here from MINI owners, to fellow Dealers all the way from South Africa and Russia. There were cars in here, bands, DJs, two restaurants, a lifestyle shop, and a huge central bar. To buy anything, you had to exchange your cash for white poker chips with MINI stamped in the centre. A nice touch.

The White Lounge Restaurant.

The Black Lounge counterpart Restaurant.

Guido! The man who's more connected than the ESB, head of Marketing for all of MINI Europe.

Righto, that's me, in the cheapest helmet available about to hop into a mystery MINI for a taxi spin around the Misano circuit, but the best bit was who I was going to meet.

Rauno Aaltonen. Some of you regular readers may remember I had a MINI Event last year in Barcelona with the launch of the MINI Cabrio. Rauno was at our table for dinner, and my taxi driver the next day. Rauno was the winner of the 1965 European BMC Rally Championship. As soon as I hopped into the car, he smiled, and called me "The crazy drunk Irishman from Con Padro" - the race track in Barcelona. At close to 70, he's still a damn fast driver, and over took many of the cars on the track.

Here he is, you wouldn't believe the speed we're doing in a corner, and he's calm, and composed.

Well, you wouldn't believe the speed he was doing, so I took a photo of that too ... let me tell you, it's almost impossible to take a picture of this when the car is being joustled about.

Some of the classic MINIs on display. Here's the fashion designer Paul Smith's take on a MINI - his trademark vertical stripes are evident.

Unfortunately, the Kate Moss MINI was shown at the worst point in her career, and to make matters worse, the car was painted in fine white lines *snigger*.

The John Cooper Works pit area showcased all their new products, most of which were fitted to this demo car. Unbelievable. I wanted it there and then. It had everything from the new Leather Dashboard, to the 18" Alloys I'm fitting on my new '06 Cooper.

The MINI XXL Limo, what you don't see here is the rear portion clips off to reveal a hot tub.

An aerial view of the entire event. MINIs as far as the eye could see, and a lot more beyond that too.

All the John Cooper Works Challenge cars and their teams preparing for the Weekend's racing.

The Irish MINI Dealers Alcoholics Association, and some cute little girls from England, one's a MINI Dealer, and one's a Doctor. I'm saying nothing more :-)

The launch of the John Cooper Works MINI Cooper S GP Lightweight € 40, 000 Edition. This was a focal point of the event, and I want this too! 218Bhp, and a lot lighter than a standard MINI. Exclusive alloys, body kit, no rear seats, no sound dampening, no rear wiper, insanity at it's best!

Mike Cooper (John Cooper's Son) in the middle, along with departments heads from MINI Marketing, and MINI Engineering.

The Chopper on the go all weekend, for € 35 you could get 15 mins up in her. I got to take the controls which was interesting! This is a shot taken with my 350d, I was impressed the blades were stopped when I looked at the shot.

Some of the more interesting cars on show in the surround area of the event. This one's made by Italian coachbuilders Castagna. Give them a donor MINI, and enough cash and they'll build anything (Including the Limo you saw above), they built this pickup/beach buggy combo. Horrible, but strangely appealing too.

Here's the same little classic car was spotted at the start.

Possibly one of the most expensive modified MINIS out there. It's owned by a 17 year old, his family have a business in Germany only tuning MINIS. The Lamborghini door conversion was only the tip of the iceberg. You know when you've been Tango'd!

The hot car wash girlies. If you asked nicely enough, these girls would give your MINI a sponge bath.

One of my favoutite photos, the DJ Sonique performing. She came out, did about 4 songs (Her 4 that were in the charts) and disappeared. I'd expected her to be on for much much longer seeing as she was the highlight act of the weekend, but she disappeared after about 30 mins. Des said she was a good kisser though :-)

So, that's the event, there are lots more photos, but these are the more interesting ones. The event is probably going to be bi-annual as to not bore people, and it will be in different cities around the world to encompass as much of the MINI Community as possible. There are other events happening this year. Mizen to Malin 2006 will be on again, and the International MINI Meeting (IMM) is on in Poland this year. I'll be at that one for sure!

The Apartment I stayed in was slap bang in the centre of the Old City in Warsaw. It was a very old building, even the corridors were a little run down, but then you open the door, and it's a modern apartment.

This is the Kitchen Area of the Apartment.

This is the Bedroom. The apartment was just one open space with a dividing wall down the middle that you could circle. Bedroom on one side, living area on the other, but more than adequate for the 3 days I spent there.

The Old City had a large square with a fountain in the middle, and 5 story terraced buildings all around. The square was filled with Artists, Musicians, Clowns, Horses, Tourists and Restaurants.

Some Clowns earning a crust.

Purely for the Tourists, a Horse and Cart. I was warned by the locals that the Horses tend to be agressive, so petting them was not a good idea.

Some Musicians playing Polish Traditional Music, and a very grumpy looking wife in the front looking for money.

One of the sides of the square in the Old City. On the right hand side you can see the fountain in the centre of the square itself. It managed to scare the shit out of me, as the water builds up at the base of fountain it is suddently sucked up, and the noise is that slurping noise you get when you empty a sink, but a LOT louder :-)

Some of the walls around the Old City, this DrawBridge leads to the street where my Apartment was.

Some more of the Old City walls.

Directly behind the walls pictured above is this Monument to a Polish Traditional Hero.

A curved section of the Old City walls with recesses for guards. These recesses are filled at night with Artists and Musicians trying to make a bob out of Tourists like me.

Here's a Tourist like me getting suckered into a photo shot. Oh, wait ... it is me!

One of about 15 chuches in a 1 mile radius. Each one was more elaborate than the last.

And the same Church on the inside.

The City Park (Camerphone Pic). About 50 acres next to the Library, with a Pub, Barbeque area, Live Music Venue that always has local bands playing, and a large Pond in the middle. I could have happily spent all day there. Real chill out location.

A stage set up for the Polish equivilant of 'Rag Week' at the College. There was beer everywhere, Comedians, Musicians, and great sunshine too.

Some of the cobbled streets around the Old City.

The Royal Palace at the perimeter of the Old City.

The Presidential Palace. Funnily enough, there was a mass protest against the President through the City the weekend I was there. I have learned from Polish friends in Cork that apparently the new President has a lot of communist values that the public do not agree with.

The Courthouse.

Some of the buildings marking the entrance to the New City. The new are in Warsaw is like any other metropolis. Omniplex Cinemas (Yes, I did go to the Cinema and watched 'The Pacifier' in English with Polish Subtitles), Restaurants everywhere, Computer Shops, Music Shops, Trams, Metros, Taxis, Buses, Nightclubs and Pubs.

Speaking of Pubs, here's the Irish one. Great drink, but expensive for Polish people.

Facing directly across from the Apartment door. Speaks for itself!

Dinner at a Polish Student restaurant.

And what trip to Poland would be complete without a nice creamy pint of Murphys?

The view from the Multivan (Camera phone)

One of four lines of MINI Convertibles

Another line of MINIs with the Montparnasse mountains in the background

A section of the hospitality suite

The obligatory pose next to the MINI Convertible!

Vicky at the wheel

Starting the ascent into the mountains

A Shot through one of the many villages

Tati - The downstairs bar

Tati - The first floor bar

The Line of Cooper S' we took from the Hotel to the Track (Camera Phone)

A John Cooper Works Cooper S - Tuning Heaven!

A Pepper White Cooper with Body Styling

Traditonal Styling in a Modern Car, British Racing Green Paint, Beige Leather, Wood Dash

The 'B' Track, where we got up to wheel spinning mischief

And as usual, me posing, in a Cooper S Rally Car!

The plane at Cork Airport waiting to Taxi

Inside the enclosed area called "The Printworks" in the center of Manchester there are two or three late night bars, restaurants, and a stage. Parker were the band on the night we were there. They were one of the only original bands I really enjoyed listening to.

The view from one of the pubs upstairs called 'The Norweigan Blue' - It was schoolgirl night, the staff had to dress up like schoolgirls, all for charity. Kicking bar, gorgeous girls, and serious house music.

The boys misbehaving!

Meself and Charlie. Slighty tipsy.

Meself and Colin, almost drunk at this stage.

David, starting to wilt. It's about 10pm, we'd been drinking since three. He got it into his head to order a Hot Chocolate and Brandy.

Meself and one of the School Girl Barmaids. Mmmmmm, mischief.

The Ferris Wheel permenantly setup in Manchester.

David looking out the window pining for his Hotel Bed about 5 mins before he wandered off on his own to sleep.

Yup, he lasted 'til about 11.50. Lightweight :-)

Outside Old Trafford, waiting to get in.

The trophy museum inside the grounds. It was almost like being in Church, everyone was paying their respects. Except me, I was too hungover to notice.

Me, about to throw up from too much drink in the Museum.

A very hungover Ned Kelly looking out at the field, shivering from the cold, head pounding from drinking until 5 in the morning.

Mmmm, breakfast. Football pitch stylie. Proper Bo!

The lads, all dying too. In order we have Colin, Pa, Charlie and David.

The game in progress, Manchester Utd 2, Charlton Athletic 0. Very Exciting. Not.

The best dinner I had in ages. We went back to The Printworks the second night, and ended up in a restaurant called Old Orleans. I opted for the hotest Cajun dishes you could get. I got some Fajitas to start with, followed by Jambalya - the remains of which you can see in the frying pan. It took plenty of pints to quench that fire!