Sea Sessions 2010

Another nice trip across Ireland to the West coast, this time to attend the Sea Sessions rock festival, in Bundoran (Donegal). I left Friday morning (I really love flexible timetables), and my first stop was in Longford, to have lunch and tea with a good friend of mine; after that, I followed some really cool small roads, far more adequate for Sputnik than the motorways, where I was basically the only vehicle on the road, give or take a few local tractors. Arriving to Donegal at dusk was magical!

 

Once arrived, I pitched my tent in the local GAA pitch, which was reserved for festival-goers: thousands of tents piled up on top of each other! I got myself set up, and then rushed for the festival location, which was right on the beach, really cool! I saw the Fun Lovin' Criminals, who were surprisingly good; although I didn't know most of their songs, I had a good time listening and even singing along, as they kept interacting with the crowd. Really good stuff.

Back in the campsite, I went to bed around 2am, fully equipped with ear-buds and and eye band (wouldn't want to be woken up by the sun rising before 5am!). Woken up? I hardly slept at all, with the never-ending party in the campsite, and all the people drinking and shouting and constantly tripping on my tent. Gotta love the festival feeling!

Saturday I went surfing! It was great once again, although with the fat waves of that day, the beginner longboard (9ft) I had was totally inadequate, and kept being lifted from behind, making me constantly dive nose first. Still, it was a lot of fun.

The afternoon was a typical "rock festival" day, playing drinking games, and chatting with loads of people at the campsite, including some kids from the North that kept telling me I had a really strong "free-stater accent"!... In the evening I went to the concerts again, this time to see Paul Weller, who was great musically, but not so good at interacting with the crowd. Still, this time I knew I could bring my camera and not be denied entry, so he got the pretty pictures.

Sunday morning, after another rough and short night, I went surfing again. It far better: I grabbed an 8ft board (still foam, though), and was surfing for 3 hours, including a good 20 minutes under torrential rain, which was absolutely magical!

After a hearty lunch and a big cup of coffee to keep me awake!, I finally grabbed Sputnik and made my way back to Dublin. Again I used the small regional roads as much as possible, first along the coast and then towards Dublin; the traffic was minimal, and the scenery splendid.
It was another great weekend away, and I'm more and more glad I brought Sputnik with me to Ireland!