Great Irish Singers
It truly amaze me how many great singers Ireland has. If you thing in numbers, population of Ireland is much lower, compared to almost any country in Europe. And still, I don’t know any country in Europe (maybe except UK) that would produce more great singers then Ireland. And I mean the greatest ones, those that are known worldwide.
How many great singer you can think of just now are Germans, French, Italian, Polish or Spanish? There certainly are some, and maybe you can name few, but I can’t. And then they are Irish – U2, Westlife, The Corrs, Boyzone, Shinead O’Connor or Celtic Woman. All the big names, all known worldwide. How is that? Maybe it is simple, because the music is culture and passion for Irish people. Everybody who has ever visited Ireland will probably agree.
I have travel a lot and I have never seen such passion for the music as it is in Ireland. I’ve been living in Dublin for almost seven years and I hear people singing everywhere. Every second pub in Ireland (believe me there is more pubs in Ireland than anywhere else) has a live music performance few nights a week. It’s just amazing. I’ve met some of these people, for whom the music is life. I’ve met Rob Strong, or Finnbar Clancy, the singer of The High Kings band, that is very popular here in Ireland, so as they are popular in US too. Two colleagues in work are musicians. One is a drummer, and the second one, she is a saxophonist and the singer of the Martin Staunton band. I’ve been to their gigs, and I was shocked how good they are. And I have met many other singers too like back-up singer of Celtic Woman, or a choir singer Dermot.
What about Shane Ward, the winner of the 2005 British X-Factor talent show, and yet another Irish. I have watched this show in many different countries and none of the winners were ever close to the talents that are in the UK version. Neither the other countries winners has ever make it to the top, as Shane Ward or Leona Lewis. Soon, you’ll be hearing about the last year winner Alexandra Burke who’s just an incredible signer.
This is one of the things I like about Ireland. It might be small country where rains all the times, but they certainly know how to sing, and they do sing very well.
New Year’s Day walking trip to Bradlo
Bradlo is an inconspicuous rock formation in the middle of the forest. Six hundred meters high, it is not just an incredible view, but also eventful history of Czech-German conflicts and passion. Today, Bradlo is our New Year’s Day hill-walking trip destination. It become tradition to make a short trip to the fields on the New Year’s Day, and above all, it is a great way to exercise, especially at the Christmas time.
Peak of Bradlo rock formation (600 metres) is an ideal destination for easy and undemanding walking trip in distance of 3 – 5 kilometres. We have started our walk from the village of Libina, just few kilometres away from Olomouc city. The walk starts at the bottom of a steep field, but soon enough the field changes to a nice forest path. After about 3 kilometres, first rocks can be seen. These are the Three Rocks and they are created from light and solid quartz rock, typical for this area. Initially the Three Rocks used to be single rock formation, but disintegration and erosion split the formation into three huge rocks.
Much bigger is the Bradlo rock formation approximately 1 kilometre away from the Three Rocks. The peak of Bradlo is easily accessible by the steps carved in the rock leading to the summit of Bradlo, offering an incredible view across the surroundings. On the North side you can see the Jesenik mountains with the peak of Kralicky Sneznik (1.424 metres).
Even though Bradlo is not the most popular walking destination, it still has a many years of tradition. By the end of 19th century, when the rock lookout platform has been made at the summit, annual number of people visiting Bradlo reached 20.000.
