As the Temple Bar Music festival kicks off in Dublin, the Dublin community blog suggests there is no better way to spend a cold, dark, wintery evening than in a pub taking in some phenomenal Irish music!

.... While we’re on the subject, I’ll leave you with my personal favourite trad sessions in Dublin.

While some people are sadly out of work and many more subsist on freelance wages, with the latter now said to make up 26% of the U.S. workforce, New York is still a workaholic city full of people with incredible drive. One subset of the city, however, gets a little break this week - namely, many members of the university community.

Sunday 17th May is the International Day of Museums, and to celebrate the day, 24 of Barcelona's museums open their doors for free to the general public. As well as some of the museums that also have Free entrance on the first few days of the month, there are some great museums that you might want to fit into your schedule, and take advantage of visiting to save some money.

This week appears to be one of those weeks that highlight change and transition, a tentative time between before and after. Nothing seems settled. Students at local universities and colleges are studying for finals, with commencement and graduation ceremonies coming up soon. For those of you not in college, WOTBA gives you permission to take the week off. That's right. Go to a play. Read a book.

1st May in Spain is usually always a puiblic holiday, and many other European countires have similar dates as public holidays, too (May Day bank holiday in the UK is on Monday, for example). It's also the "day of the worker" or the "dia del trabajador" - this is also a day for protests, and manifestations for union groups, possible mass redundancies.

Enjoy the blooming season, this special time to visit the parks. Head to the northern parts of Central Park to wander in the woods, or get lost in the Ramble. This calendar takes us into May. Fancy that! I have a secret to share - the summer in New York is my favorite season, and the recent warm weather makes me long for even hotter weather.

The first question someone asked me yesterday during the course of covering the first full day of this year's Tribeca Film Festival was where to get good Italian food near Union Square. Thousands of film writers, producers, and directors have converged in lower Manhattan for the festival, now through May 3, and between premieres, they're looking for a good but quick place to eat.

Though the week begins with rain and patchy fog, our ever-precarious New York weather forecasts call for mostly sunny skies by the end of the week. Some flowering trees of the pinkish-rose variety look ready to unfurl their dainty petals, and with the rain, the prospects for life-as-an-Impressionist painting look good.

This month sees a couple of public holidays in Catalonia, don't you just love April (and September) in Barcelona?!

For those who enjoy depictions of New York on film, several movies in this year's Tribeca Film Festival (April 22-May 3, 2009) give New York a featured role. Though not surprising for a festival that was created to reinvigorate lower Manhattan in the wake of 9/11, the festival's New York-centered films sprawl out across the five boroughs.