Post 28 - The IFI (Cinema in Dublin) Temple Bar

I love movies and when I first moved to Ireland I was living in City Centre. I discovered this fantastic little place called IFI in Temple Bar. This is a great cinema that shows lots of International movies. Being French I got to see lots of French movies but also the best of Spanish, German or Italian cinema.

Now they also have a little café/restaurant and shop that sells DVD and books.









I would strongly recommend to anyone to pay a visit: http://www.ifi.ie/
6 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

Post 27 - Dublin Bikes and Bike to Work scheme

Ireland like most European countries are trying to encourage people to exercise more and to avoid traffic jam in City Centre. For those reasons, the government has set up 2 scheme and both of them are pretty good and highly successful:

• Dublin Bikes (http://www.dublinbikes.ie/)

This is a great way to get from one place to another. The subscription cost only €20 a year and every first 30 minutes of your journey is free. There are lots of stations around Dublin and more bikes will be available very soon. 

One issue though for being a user myself is that sometimes there are no bikes available or that there are no space free to leave your bike. In both case you have to wait or go to the next station.

However this is overall a very successful project and the bikes are well looked after.

• Bike to work scheme (http://www.biketowork.ie/)

The bike to work scheme is a great scheme to help people to buy a brand new bike and safety equipments worth up to €1,000. You can repay monthly through your salary and save up to 52% in tax. I have used this scheme myself for a bike I rarely use to go to work but this is a great plan.

Post 26 - Irish beers

Here is an interesting subject. Irish people are number 4 in the world when it comes to beer consumption with 90 litres a year per person. It is not bad but nothing compare to the world champions: the Czech drink 159 litres a year per person! There is a good reason if Irish people drink beer: they make nice beer and the most famous of them all (Guinness) is drunk all over the world.

When you come to Ireland you have to try some of those:

• Guinness, the most famous Stout in the entire world - it is delicious and most people are very surprised when they try it for the first time. It is very creamy and not strong at all (4.2 degrees). Pouring a Guinness takes a bit more time because the barman will need to do a "Double Pour". That's part of the pleasure to drink a Guinness.

• Smithwicks, this is an Irish Red Ale from Kilkenny. This is highly available in Dublin so no excuse.

• Kilkenny, this is an Irish Cream Ale and this is also delicious!

• Murphy's,  this is the direct competitor to Guinness from Cork. It is not as easy to find as Guinness but give it a go when you find it, it is lovely.

• Beamish, this is another Stout from Cork. Again you won't find this in every pub in Dublin so get one when you see the logo.

In addition to those big brands there are a few micro brewery in Ireland. Try them all :)

• Porterhouse (http://www.porterhousebrewco.com/brewery.php)
• Galway Hooker (http://www.galwayhooker.ie/)
• Eight Degrees (http://www.eightdegrees.ie/)
• 9 White Deer (http://9whitedeer.ie/)