I've moved to Glasgow now, which I find much less stressful than London for various reasons. I just kind of wish I hadn't moved to such a bad neighborhood. It's really negative there, adults and kids screaming at each other, and lots of unfriendly dusty old pubs. According to Megan, who I live with, people in Govan don't really understand the concept of being quiet, so even the librarians in the library talk loudly... but I'm glad to live with Megan and her two cats, Temper and Bichette. And I hope to get in shape from cycling more places.
Now, two weeks later, I'm visiting the US! I took a flight into New York, to spend a couple of days there visiting a few people and seeing the city. I flew KLM, the Dutch airline, via Amsterdam--somehow the feeling of being in the Amsterdam airport was exciting to me. It had been so long since I'd seen signs predominantly in a different language. I was sitting next to someone on the plane who was fluent in English and Dutch--her English was so Scottish you couldn't tell she was actually from the Netherlands. KLM is very proud of being Dutch and offers a choice of Dutch movies, music, and cakes during the flight.
In New York, I stayed with my friend Jon from Oberlin who is an amazing cook and plays various brass instruments (or is it just the trumpet? He has a wall of trumpets.) He lives in Brooklyn, near Prospect Park. There wasn't much damage from the hurricane visible; a glass pot with a plant in it on his front steps was knocked over. Farther away, in the Botanical Gardens with Jon and Cal, we saw a row of large trees uprooted on the ground.
Jon and I stopped by the Occupy Sandy station nearest to where he lives. I'd brought a suitcase full of ramen and cup soup and things for the victims of Sandy, but they were completely dwarfed by the church full of stuff that I was confronted with. That was a beautiful church, a Unitarian church with a huge round stained-glass window. I thought Unitarians weren't Christian, but this one definitely used a lot of Christian symbolism. They were sending groups out to various high-rise apartment buildings with food, water and blankets, trying to help people. We had a volunteer orientation from somebody who was pretty patronizing, but spent most of our two hours there being part of human chains unloading supplies from trucks into the building. Apparently Occupy has set up a wishlist on Amazon so that anyone can donate what they need. Clever.
That evening, I tried to meet up with my friend Ali, but apparently there are two 5th Avenues in New York, one in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan. Since I didn't know this, I trusted Google maps to tell me where to go, and then when the place I ended up wasn't Gorilla Coffee, I had to scramble around to find a phone with internet to set me on the right track, since my British phone couldn't receive American frequencies. I ended up at Best Buy, where the helpful shop assistants tried to tell me that a phone that said it had web capability couldn't get on the internet, because the web is different from the internet. They got more frustrated when I said that didn't make sense--they seemed to think you could only reach the T-mobile online store. Which reminds me, I should top up my phone account at bit... I finally talked to someone who knew things and got a cheap phone. Thinking of taking it back, though, since it doesn't have an alarm!
After I sorted that out, it was too late, ze had gone home. I even called the coffee shop to have hir paged. Sigh. So I went for gluten-free pizza at Viva Herbal pizza. It was so good I got another huge slice. "New Yorkers don't f*** around with pizza," Jon says.
The next day... what happened. Oh yes, Jon went to work and I went to Central Park. Got a bit lost, but went to the John Lennon memorial, which is a mosaic that says "Imagine" set into the path. I hope that someday people will have forgotten Lennon and will just think that we really valued creativity.
Then I walked south along 7th avenue, past delis and pizza parlours... I wasn't hungry but I just wanted to look at the food. We don't have food like that in Britain. In Britain, all the supermarkets are clean and white and modern-looking, the foods politely lined up on the shelves. Even the chip shop is no-nonsense. We use words like "tempting" to describe food, "nice," little words. Americans, on the other hand... because we're so puritan about everything else, food is our only outlet. Sure, we can use sinful words (like "being good" about calories). But like everything else, it's expansive. Food is "good." Everything is twice as big. Sandwiches are piled high, salads are full of fat... "gorge yourself," it all seems to say. Or is that just my relatives. I went for frozen yoghurt with my cousin Megan in Iowa city, and not only did they have six flavours of ice cream, but they had about fifty toppings, sauces, sprinkles--chocolate chips, cookies, fruit, tiny mochi, strawberry and passionfruit pearls that burst juice in your mouth... the US loves food. Britain has the 5th of November, which is about fireworks, the US has Thanksgiving, which is about stuffing yourself (and some history on the side).
I got to Times Square, which is oddly beautiful in its way, a big clean-swept triangle of granite underfoot and all around you screens, beautiful people leaning down to wink just for you. You almost feel like you're in a television studio yourself, you're part of it all. Scale becomes very confusing. I visited Macy's just to walk to the top, for no reason. It was pretty boring, there wasn't anything to see up there, except the Christmas section crammed full of red and green. The escalators were interesting, though; they got more ancient the farther up you went, again unlike our clean modern British stores. You wouldn't catch Selfridge's with a creaky old escalator furnished entirely of wood, showing its age through yellowing and scuff marks.
Down I went again and south to Union Square. I caught up with Jon again at the Strand bookshop, which has racks of books outside the door for 50 cents, $1, and $2. We also went to some thrift stores that were too expensive. After that, he went home and I went to a queer film festival in Brooklyn, and saw a confusing but beautiful Swedish film about snails and androgyny. There was also a lot of glitter. I ran into Cal again and also Cristie, an amazing artist who I saw at Ladyfest in Edinburgh once. I went home early, though, because I was in the midst of catching a cold.
The next day it was on to Iowa. But I think I'll stop here for now.
Thursday 22 November 2012
Wednesday 12 September 2012
Brighton, Swindon and around London with Alex
Back in London, where it has just started raining. Lately it's been cold-hot-cold-hot-cold here.
For the last while, I was feeling pretty motivationless; it was easy to fall back on just being, and being on the internet. Now Alex is visiting, and we've been dashing around like crazy trying to fit southern England into two weeks.
I was looking after the neighbors' plants for the first few days of that two weeks, and walking with Maria. One of those days I auditioned for the new Universal Studios Japan theme park, but didn't get it. Another day we visited the Science Museum, which is a fascinating place. On Thursday we visited the Monster Supply Shop in Hoxton, which is run by the Ministry of Stories (http://www.ministryofstories.org/) and afterwards went to a talk by an experimental musician at the London Hackspace around the corner. We also bought very cheap musical instruments from a shop and attempted to change them so that they worked. I got back into soldering after not doing it for who knows how long.
On Saturday I was completely free, and we went to the Brighton Mini Maker's Faire. That was pretty good, and there were all kinds of things going on. I got some more ideas for the robots I want to make. Brighton was beautiful and sunny, too sunny in fact, as we had no sunglasses. The sunset was stunning, doubly so because we were sitting on the beach watching it reflected in the water. Then, after it got dark, we walked along Brighton Pier, eating candy floss (that's cotton candy) and flying saucer sweets. Then it was the maker faire afterparty, which had a theramin, one-dimensional pong (you had to use your "paddle" when the "ball" came close to you along a string of lights), and a lazer light show. Amazing what you can do with electricity, isn't it.
Was it the next day? It was the next day, because it was Sunday, when we went to Swindon to stay with our aunt Babcia and attend little Maria's first birthday party--she's the baby that our cousin's grandson has had with his Brazillian girlfriend Carolina. The whole thing was very pink. We also went to Highworth, to visit our long-running foster parents and their children and grandchildren, who are no longer small but are in fact adults now. Madness. They all seem to be doing pretty well, other than their step-grandson Jake who apparently is a bit troubled.
The next day we took a bus out to Broad Hinton, to see a crop circle next to Hackpen Hill. (this one: http://tinyurl.com/bwofp6o) There was a white horse across the road from it, made of chalk on a hillside, as well. Another beautiful experience. Followed almost immediately by coming back to London to see what we thought would be a Real Tuesday Weld concert, but turned out to be a lecture about the Victorian practice of taking photographs of dead people. The main guy from The Real Tuesday Weld was there, though, and he was very nice. The venue I wasn't too crazy about, though, because it mostly sold taxidermied animals.
We've been back to the hackspace quite a bit. Alex is very knowledgeable about robots and electronics, and has a nice cushy job out in San Francisco doing customer service for a small company concerned with robots. Yesterday, we went to Portobello Road and the South Bank, where they had sadly cleared up the rainbow sandpits that had been put up for the Olympics. Then it was back to the hackspace again. Today is my day of rest, since I've been sneezing frequently and my feet are very tired from all that walking! Alex is in Swindon again, visiting the hackspace there. And tomorrow, who knows what we will do, but I've planned dinner for all of us. Maybe it will be less hectic, as it is her last day here.
For the last while, I was feeling pretty motivationless; it was easy to fall back on just being, and being on the internet. Now Alex is visiting, and we've been dashing around like crazy trying to fit southern England into two weeks.
I was looking after the neighbors' plants for the first few days of that two weeks, and walking with Maria. One of those days I auditioned for the new Universal Studios Japan theme park, but didn't get it. Another day we visited the Science Museum, which is a fascinating place. On Thursday we visited the Monster Supply Shop in Hoxton, which is run by the Ministry of Stories (http://www.ministryofstories.org/) and afterwards went to a talk by an experimental musician at the London Hackspace around the corner. We also bought very cheap musical instruments from a shop and attempted to change them so that they worked. I got back into soldering after not doing it for who knows how long.
On Saturday I was completely free, and we went to the Brighton Mini Maker's Faire. That was pretty good, and there were all kinds of things going on. I got some more ideas for the robots I want to make. Brighton was beautiful and sunny, too sunny in fact, as we had no sunglasses. The sunset was stunning, doubly so because we were sitting on the beach watching it reflected in the water. Then, after it got dark, we walked along Brighton Pier, eating candy floss (that's cotton candy) and flying saucer sweets. Then it was the maker faire afterparty, which had a theramin, one-dimensional pong (you had to use your "paddle" when the "ball" came close to you along a string of lights), and a lazer light show. Amazing what you can do with electricity, isn't it.
Was it the next day? It was the next day, because it was Sunday, when we went to Swindon to stay with our aunt Babcia and attend little Maria's first birthday party--she's the baby that our cousin's grandson has had with his Brazillian girlfriend Carolina. The whole thing was very pink. We also went to Highworth, to visit our long-running foster parents and their children and grandchildren, who are no longer small but are in fact adults now. Madness. They all seem to be doing pretty well, other than their step-grandson Jake who apparently is a bit troubled.
The next day we took a bus out to Broad Hinton, to see a crop circle next to Hackpen Hill. (this one: http://tinyurl.com/bwofp6o) There was a white horse across the road from it, made of chalk on a hillside, as well. Another beautiful experience. Followed almost immediately by coming back to London to see what we thought would be a Real Tuesday Weld concert, but turned out to be a lecture about the Victorian practice of taking photographs of dead people. The main guy from The Real Tuesday Weld was there, though, and he was very nice. The venue I wasn't too crazy about, though, because it mostly sold taxidermied animals.
We've been back to the hackspace quite a bit. Alex is very knowledgeable about robots and electronics, and has a nice cushy job out in San Francisco doing customer service for a small company concerned with robots. Yesterday, we went to Portobello Road and the South Bank, where they had sadly cleared up the rainbow sandpits that had been put up for the Olympics. Then it was back to the hackspace again. Today is my day of rest, since I've been sneezing frequently and my feet are very tired from all that walking! Alex is in Swindon again, visiting the hackspace there. And tomorrow, who knows what we will do, but I've planned dinner for all of us. Maybe it will be less hectic, as it is her last day here.
Monday 30 July 2012
to edinburgh
Whoops, looks like my phone didn't actually post any words in this post.
Basically, I went to Edinburgh for a week to see the beginning of the Fringe Festival, which is an internationally known festival that started off as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival. But it has grown way beyond that, and has become huge. Known mostly for its comedy, which is what I went to see.
And I happened to be there for the Beltane Fire Society's Lughnasadh celebration, so I went for the first night. Sadly, as it was camping out in the country side, I couldn't be there for the Saturday, as I had a bus at 9 AM on Sunday. So I went to Glasgow instead, to see my friend Megan, at a Couchsurfing meetup. Interestingly, the meetup was in a vegan pub! I didn't even know they had vegan pubs in Glasgow. You learn something new every day.
And then I went back to Edinburgh, ending up in the middle of town at 1:30 AM trying to get a night bus back to my friend's house, where I had been staying. It was difficult, since all the timetables and maps had been removed from bus stops because of the tramworks. I ended up on Princes Street among a crowd of confused tourists trying to find their hotels. Thankfully a bus employee was also on hand to tell people when their bus was arriving at the stop, and I got to somewhere approximately near where I was supposed to be.
So I didn't get much sleep that weekend! And then I had an eight hour bus ride back to London, which had only cost me £1, as I booked early. Hooray.
Now I'm just wondering what to do next. Getting a job would be nice. As would raising enough money to go somewhere, possibly the US. I've been looking at jobs doing modeling for art classes, I've still got a plan to study for an English teaching certification.
Basically, I went to Edinburgh for a week to see the beginning of the Fringe Festival, which is an internationally known festival that started off as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival. But it has grown way beyond that, and has become huge. Known mostly for its comedy, which is what I went to see.
And I happened to be there for the Beltane Fire Society's Lughnasadh celebration, so I went for the first night. Sadly, as it was camping out in the country side, I couldn't be there for the Saturday, as I had a bus at 9 AM on Sunday. So I went to Glasgow instead, to see my friend Megan, at a Couchsurfing meetup. Interestingly, the meetup was in a vegan pub! I didn't even know they had vegan pubs in Glasgow. You learn something new every day.
And then I went back to Edinburgh, ending up in the middle of town at 1:30 AM trying to get a night bus back to my friend's house, where I had been staying. It was difficult, since all the timetables and maps had been removed from bus stops because of the tramworks. I ended up on Princes Street among a crowd of confused tourists trying to find their hotels. Thankfully a bus employee was also on hand to tell people when their bus was arriving at the stop, and I got to somewhere approximately near where I was supposed to be.
So I didn't get much sleep that weekend! And then I had an eight hour bus ride back to London, which had only cost me £1, as I booked early. Hooray.
Now I'm just wondering what to do next. Getting a job would be nice. As would raising enough money to go somewhere, possibly the US. I've been looking at jobs doing modeling for art classes, I've still got a plan to study for an English teaching certification.
Wednesday 11 July 2012
Belfast, Edinburgh, back to London
Back in London now, and finally within reach of reliable internet access. Staying with Fergus and his family until I can find a new place, wherever that happens to be--this is my plan.
I have added pictures from my travels to my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/77881645@N00/sets/
Belfast was nice. I took the bus from Galway to Dublin, then Dublin to Belfast. There was supposed to be wifi on the bus... I got to Belfast in the evening, and went to my couchsurfing host's house, Kilian, a friend of Victoria, who I used to hang out with when I lived there in 2008. He is a computer programmer, and has a cat. He lives down the road from a pub called the Hedgehog and Bucket, which is a good name for a pub.
The next morning, I got up early for a Giant's Causeway tour. We went along the north coast of Ireland, which is very beautiful. Sadly, it was misty, so we couldn't see very far out into the ocean; otherwise, you can see the Mull of Kintyre from there. There were a few stops on the way, including the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which is also well-known. The coastline there was stunning, and despite being scared of heights I crossed the bridge and even took a picture while doing it, and didn't drop my camera/phone! Shortly after, however, my phone ran out of batteries, and I couldn't take any more photos; however, the rest of the trip wasn't quite as picturesque (or maybe I just don't remember its picturesqueness). The Giant's Causeway is pretty good, probably very over-photographed, and full of tourists. The Visitor's Centre there had only been open for two days; I didn't go inside, as it would have cost me £6.
We also went past Dunluce Castle, which was beautiful, and to the gift shop of Bushmills Distillery (no time to go round the whole thing). The second one held many wonders of memorabilia; shirts, glasses, keyrings, underwear, etc. It smelled like whiskey barrels, which was nice. Yep.
I slept for most of the trip back to Belfast, which was along one of Northern Ireland's many motorways. In the evening, we went to a pub to listen to traditional music. I had suggested that we go to the Kremlin, Belfast's foremost gay club which is Soviet-themed, but decided against it. The pub we went into was definitely Catholic, with newspaper clips of Bobby Sands, etc. There was a buzzer to get in, still left over from when it was bombed in the '70s. And there are still bombs going off in that city, usually not hurting anyone. In fact, tomorrow is July 12th, usually a big day for conflict. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelfth These days, many people (usually Protestants) are trying to rebrand these marches as "festivals," probably to try and make them more palatable for tourists.
The next morning, we got up early (again) and went to the St. George's Market in central Belfast. It's an amazing market full of people selling antiques and other wares, vegetables, fruits, meat, eggs, and cheese, all in one building and at very good prices. I think there should be such a market in every large town in Britain! I suppose here there's Portobello Road, Borough Market and Camden Market, and various smaller markets like the one at Dalston Kingsland, but Edinburgh is sorely lacking.
Edinburgh is where I went next, via ferry and bus, to stay with my friend Tom and attend the wedding of my friend Esje to their partner Catherine. It was great to be surrounded by my friends again! I went with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (an order of queer nuns) to attend a march for people's right to safe streets and anti-rape, then went to the wedding reception--I should have gone to the wedding itself! It sounds like it was beautiful, they sang The Origin of Love.
Then we all went out to Tyninghame Beach, and there were drums and music and I bought some chocolate wine, which was very nice. The beach was covered in beached jellyfish. Sadly we found no starfish. Some camped, but I didn't have any camping gear, so I went back to Edinburgh on the 1 AM bus.
Other things I did there: attempt to put together some Beltane video, watch Felipe's latest film Five Six Seven Eight! and then Strictly Ballroom, and have dinner with Tom and some others.
And then I went back to London, via bus this time. That was a very long trip. And here I am. The dog, Frankie, is still needy, I have a lot of things to deal with, and am debating with myself as to where to go next...
I have added pictures from my travels to my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/77881645@N00/sets/
Belfast was nice. I took the bus from Galway to Dublin, then Dublin to Belfast. There was supposed to be wifi on the bus... I got to Belfast in the evening, and went to my couchsurfing host's house, Kilian, a friend of Victoria, who I used to hang out with when I lived there in 2008. He is a computer programmer, and has a cat. He lives down the road from a pub called the Hedgehog and Bucket, which is a good name for a pub.
The next morning, I got up early for a Giant's Causeway tour. We went along the north coast of Ireland, which is very beautiful. Sadly, it was misty, so we couldn't see very far out into the ocean; otherwise, you can see the Mull of Kintyre from there. There were a few stops on the way, including the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which is also well-known. The coastline there was stunning, and despite being scared of heights I crossed the bridge and even took a picture while doing it, and didn't drop my camera/phone! Shortly after, however, my phone ran out of batteries, and I couldn't take any more photos; however, the rest of the trip wasn't quite as picturesque (or maybe I just don't remember its picturesqueness). The Giant's Causeway is pretty good, probably very over-photographed, and full of tourists. The Visitor's Centre there had only been open for two days; I didn't go inside, as it would have cost me £6.
We also went past Dunluce Castle, which was beautiful, and to the gift shop of Bushmills Distillery (no time to go round the whole thing). The second one held many wonders of memorabilia; shirts, glasses, keyrings, underwear, etc. It smelled like whiskey barrels, which was nice. Yep.
I slept for most of the trip back to Belfast, which was along one of Northern Ireland's many motorways. In the evening, we went to a pub to listen to traditional music. I had suggested that we go to the Kremlin, Belfast's foremost gay club which is Soviet-themed, but decided against it. The pub we went into was definitely Catholic, with newspaper clips of Bobby Sands, etc. There was a buzzer to get in, still left over from when it was bombed in the '70s. And there are still bombs going off in that city, usually not hurting anyone. In fact, tomorrow is July 12th, usually a big day for conflict. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelfth These days, many people (usually Protestants) are trying to rebrand these marches as "festivals," probably to try and make them more palatable for tourists.
The next morning, we got up early (again) and went to the St. George's Market in central Belfast. It's an amazing market full of people selling antiques and other wares, vegetables, fruits, meat, eggs, and cheese, all in one building and at very good prices. I think there should be such a market in every large town in Britain! I suppose here there's Portobello Road, Borough Market and Camden Market, and various smaller markets like the one at Dalston Kingsland, but Edinburgh is sorely lacking.
Edinburgh is where I went next, via ferry and bus, to stay with my friend Tom and attend the wedding of my friend Esje to their partner Catherine. It was great to be surrounded by my friends again! I went with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (an order of queer nuns) to attend a march for people's right to safe streets and anti-rape, then went to the wedding reception--I should have gone to the wedding itself! It sounds like it was beautiful, they sang The Origin of Love.
Then we all went out to Tyninghame Beach, and there were drums and music and I bought some chocolate wine, which was very nice. The beach was covered in beached jellyfish. Sadly we found no starfish. Some camped, but I didn't have any camping gear, so I went back to Edinburgh on the 1 AM bus.
Other things I did there: attempt to put together some Beltane video, watch Felipe's latest film Five Six Seven Eight! and then Strictly Ballroom, and have dinner with Tom and some others.
And then I went back to London, via bus this time. That was a very long trip. And here I am. The dog, Frankie, is still needy, I have a lot of things to deal with, and am debating with myself as to where to go next...
Monday 2 July 2012
The Burren, The Cliffs of Moran, The end of my job
Hello, back in Galway. This time I'm staying at a hopefully quieter hostel, not as close to the pubs. So far I have a 10 bed room to myself! That will probably change, however.
My plans for this week: staying here in Galway for another day and a night, then going to Belfast on Wednesday. Things I want to visit there: the Botanical Gardens again, the University, whichever friends from my days at Queens' are still in town, and hopefully see the Giant's Causeway, finally!
After that, I'm going to the aftermath of Esje's wedding in Edinburgh, a camping trip on the beach. Hopefully there won't be all those strange little beach lice or whatever they were this time. Hopefully there will be starfish again, though. Hooray for starfish!
Speaking of coastlines, I went for a long walk in Liscannor a couple of nights before I left. It's strange to think I won't be back there, probably for quite a while. Unless, who knows. Maybe I'll be back sooner than I think... maybe I'll get tired of going through the night without a baby crying, and spending all day trying to get an overactive five year old to calm down. :) Anyway, it was beautiful, looking out over the sea to Lahinch on the other side of the bay, from the dock. The sun was just setting--though behind clouds, so no pretty colours.
Yesterday I took a ride with a couple of friends, Eireen and her daughter Emily, through the Burren and to the Cliffs of Moran. They have a little shop at the Cliffs. I took a few pictures, which I'll get up after I get a USB cable for my phone. But how beautiful. We were actually planning on going to a birthday party, but when we got there they discovered that it was actually somebody else's birthday party who they didn't know. And we were late, so we just saw the end of a very poetic and gloomy story about the Famine, which was illustrated by an artist, and four pictures were put together to form one large picture of a seal at the end. What the seal did, I'll never know. So I'd had a pint, and it was just enough to make everything magical. Not that it wasn't magical anyway! The stone of the Burren is amazing, carved away by water until it's in large pieces, called clints, that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Between them are the grikes, or deep grooves, in which all kinds of small plants are hiding, some Alpine, some Mediterranean, including orchids and ferns. That was a lot of commas.
And the cliffs of Moran! It was misty, which made them fade off into the distance. The air was cool but not cold, and the wind whipped our hair around.
Ok, time to go and probably meet Couchsurfers. And have dinner. I'm hungry.
Did I mention that I was able to get a free doctor's appointment and then a prescription of antibiotics that cost me 50 eurocents? All of us had this cough, and it wasn't going away, but with my British National Health Insurance number I was able to get care without spending a fortune, which I was worried about. Good stuff.
Whenever I come to Ireland I get a wonderful feeling in my heart. It will be sad to leave, to Britain, which feels a lot less gentle. I wonder.
My plans for this week: staying here in Galway for another day and a night, then going to Belfast on Wednesday. Things I want to visit there: the Botanical Gardens again, the University, whichever friends from my days at Queens' are still in town, and hopefully see the Giant's Causeway, finally!
After that, I'm going to the aftermath of Esje's wedding in Edinburgh, a camping trip on the beach. Hopefully there won't be all those strange little beach lice or whatever they were this time. Hopefully there will be starfish again, though. Hooray for starfish!
Speaking of coastlines, I went for a long walk in Liscannor a couple of nights before I left. It's strange to think I won't be back there, probably for quite a while. Unless, who knows. Maybe I'll be back sooner than I think... maybe I'll get tired of going through the night without a baby crying, and spending all day trying to get an overactive five year old to calm down. :) Anyway, it was beautiful, looking out over the sea to Lahinch on the other side of the bay, from the dock. The sun was just setting--though behind clouds, so no pretty colours.
Yesterday I took a ride with a couple of friends, Eireen and her daughter Emily, through the Burren and to the Cliffs of Moran. They have a little shop at the Cliffs. I took a few pictures, which I'll get up after I get a USB cable for my phone. But how beautiful. We were actually planning on going to a birthday party, but when we got there they discovered that it was actually somebody else's birthday party who they didn't know. And we were late, so we just saw the end of a very poetic and gloomy story about the Famine, which was illustrated by an artist, and four pictures were put together to form one large picture of a seal at the end. What the seal did, I'll never know. So I'd had a pint, and it was just enough to make everything magical. Not that it wasn't magical anyway! The stone of the Burren is amazing, carved away by water until it's in large pieces, called clints, that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Between them are the grikes, or deep grooves, in which all kinds of small plants are hiding, some Alpine, some Mediterranean, including orchids and ferns. That was a lot of commas.
And the cliffs of Moran! It was misty, which made them fade off into the distance. The air was cool but not cold, and the wind whipped our hair around.
Ok, time to go and probably meet Couchsurfers. And have dinner. I'm hungry.
Did I mention that I was able to get a free doctor's appointment and then a prescription of antibiotics that cost me 50 eurocents? All of us had this cough, and it wasn't going away, but with my British National Health Insurance number I was able to get care without spending a fortune, which I was worried about. Good stuff.
Whenever I come to Ireland I get a wonderful feeling in my heart. It will be sad to leave, to Britain, which feels a lot less gentle. I wonder.
Wednesday 27 June 2012
Ennistymon, Lahinch
Hello. I just got back from wandering around Ennistymon and Lahinch, while Jimmy took the kids to their grandparents'. He's apparently putting in a fence for his brother. :)
So I had him drop me off in Ennistymon, a sweet little town where Jeanne works as a pharmacist. Almost the first thing you see when you enter it is the cascades, a very impressive waterfall that the road goes over. There is just about one main street, with small shops all along it. Quite a few of them are closed. This might have something to do with the "Fitz's Supervalu" up the road. There is a Supervalu in every town of a certain size, and they all have a name in front, "Dermot's Supervalu," etc. Probably to try and personalize them.
I walked aimlessly, then followed a sign saying "Burren Chernobyl Project" (what?). It brought me to a gallery/studio space, which had some exhibitions on. One of the women who works at the front desk invited me to join them for coffee, so I did, with two Jackies and a Dara. Dara was talking about a "biscuit cake" (made with crushed-up biscuits) she was making for a wedding. One Jackie was an artist there, the other had been an artist. Dara seemed a bit grumpy, and repelled anyone's suggestions on how to make her cake taste better by saying that she would follow the recipe to the letter, thank you. Then we examined the art around us--some beautiful portrait paintings and an umbrella that had been sewn with pins coming down from the inside of it, like rain. "This is pretty good," said Dara. "Some of the artists... well, they do work very hard on their stuff..." "We've seen some pretty horrible things in here," confided one of the Jackies.
I visited an abandoned school, one of many broken-down boarded-up buildings around. The Burren Chernobyl Project turns out to be an exchange program between the Ennistymon area and somewhere up in Russia, with kids from both places visiting the other. Then I went to see Jeanne, who told me there was a path along the river, so off I went. It was beautiful. I took some pictures with my phone... now to get them off of it and onto the internet. :P But here's someone else's picture.
So I had him drop me off in Ennistymon, a sweet little town where Jeanne works as a pharmacist. Almost the first thing you see when you enter it is the cascades, a very impressive waterfall that the road goes over. There is just about one main street, with small shops all along it. Quite a few of them are closed. This might have something to do with the "Fitz's Supervalu" up the road. There is a Supervalu in every town of a certain size, and they all have a name in front, "Dermot's Supervalu," etc. Probably to try and personalize them.
I walked aimlessly, then followed a sign saying "Burren Chernobyl Project" (what?). It brought me to a gallery/studio space, which had some exhibitions on. One of the women who works at the front desk invited me to join them for coffee, so I did, with two Jackies and a Dara. Dara was talking about a "biscuit cake" (made with crushed-up biscuits) she was making for a wedding. One Jackie was an artist there, the other had been an artist. Dara seemed a bit grumpy, and repelled anyone's suggestions on how to make her cake taste better by saying that she would follow the recipe to the letter, thank you. Then we examined the art around us--some beautiful portrait paintings and an umbrella that had been sewn with pins coming down from the inside of it, like rain. "This is pretty good," said Dara. "Some of the artists... well, they do work very hard on their stuff..." "We've seen some pretty horrible things in here," confided one of the Jackies.
I visited an abandoned school, one of many broken-down boarded-up buildings around. The Burren Chernobyl Project turns out to be an exchange program between the Ennistymon area and somewhere up in Russia, with kids from both places visiting the other. Then I went to see Jeanne, who told me there was a path along the river, so off I went. It was beautiful. I took some pictures with my phone... now to get them off of it and onto the internet. :P But here's someone else's picture.
Oh yeah, and I had a traditional gluten-free Irish crêpe, and bought some traditional Irish tofu. And talked to the guy in the health food store, where I bought the tofu; he was originally from Bavaria but had been in Ireland for 30 years. He said that, from his perspective, Ireland was not as relaxed as Italy, but more relaxed than Germany; you could do your own thing as long as you didn't step on anyone's toes. "Hang upside-down from a tree? Go ahead," he said.
I believe that Ireland is relaxed, since none of the buses seem to leave on time! Jimmy went to pick Jeanne up from work today, and three hours later they were still away. It turns out that they decided to go see a friend's new house, and then stopped a cafe, and then eight of their friends turned up.
But anyway, I started walking the 20-minute walk from Ennistymon to Lahinch, the next town along, hoping to then hitch from Lahinch to Liscannor, where I live. Everyone here recommends hitchhiking as the best way to travel when you don't have other transportation. When it started to rain, someone pulled over and asked if I wanted a lift. Her name was Dee, and she lived in Lahinch, and vaguely knew Tess, one of Jeanne's friends, when I started running through people, certain that in a town that size we had to have someone in common. In Lahinch, I bought fudge, and then stood by the road with my thumb out.
A lot of people make inexplicable hand gestures at you when you're hitchhiking. As if I'm supposed to know what pointing at my side of the road, pointing at the other side of the road, or pointing straight ahead are supposed to mean. Are you giving me silent advice on where to stand? Or just pointing and laughing? Anyway, after a while, a bus came along, but it was going the wrong direction.
Then a vanload of Germans stopped next to me. They were staying just down the road from us (not saying too much though, since there are only about three roads in Liscannor). We spoke a mixture of German and English to each other. I was grateful for the German practice. They're here in the west of Ireland because various relatives like to ride motorbikes. Why Ireland and not somewhere with straighter roads and better weather? I suppose variety is a good thing. :)
So that's how I got home. Sadly, when I got home, I realized that Jimmy had locked the door before he left, assuming that Jeanne had given me a key... so I had to climb through a not-very-big window, accidentally stepping on a picture frame in the process. Oops. :(
Wednesday 20 June 2012
Clare
Back in Liscannor (pronounced liss-SCANNER), where my dry throat has turned into full-fledged something. I hope it's not strep. :P The kids all have it too, lots of coughing and fever. This makes them extremely irritable. Last night at 1 AM, I found Beau sitting in the middle of the hallway, sobbing his heart out because he couldn't find a clean pair of pajama pants. There was a chorus of wailing from him and Eli, the baby, before bed. Beau because he was itchy. His mother, Jeanne, called him a drama queen.
The joys of taking care of three kids...
Beau is the oldest, at 5 years. He goes to school on weekdays, this must be his first year. He is full of energy and tends to throw himself everywhere. He can be very sincere, but also very cheeky. He likes building boats and forts and whatever you like out of couch cushions and other objects, and also looking over my shoulder whenever I'm on the computer (which means I have to be careful). He has longish brown hair and huge blue eyes that are pretty amazing. I'm not surprised that he already has older girls following him around the playground. :) He's losing his milk teeth at the moment.
Ruby is the middle child, at 3. She is very style-conscious, and always wants to know what colour toes (socks) someone has, and whether they match hers. And she likes nailpolish. She loves Peppa Pig. I don't mind Peppa Pig, so far at least, because it gets them quiet! She has the requisite pink stuff everywhere. She's also very independent, and rebels against being told to do things, by telling adults (usually me) what to do in the same tone of voice. She'll also tell me that other adults have said things are or are not ok... for example, when I cut my finger and put a plaster on it, she said that mummy had said they were mummy's special plasters and nobody else could use them. And her daddy apparently said that nailpolish was not for adults. She's also frequently reminded me, when I say that I need privacy in my room, that it's not actually "my" room! She will also put stickers on anyone who stays still enough.
Eli is the baby, at about 1 and a half. He's just beginning to talk, and walk without support. "At's dis?" or "A dat?" he'll ask, pointing at something, and repeat it until you duly tell him that it's dog (bow-wow), duck, strawberry, or whatever, whereupon he makes the sound of whatever it is--"oof oof!" for dog is his favourite, probably because there is an actual dog hanging around outside. He also does high fives, and blows people kisses, and gives his siblings spontaneous hugs, especially when he's been walking on his own and is pleased with himself. He can also be a little rascal and does things even when I say no, giving me a huge smile as he does them...
Benny is the dog, who's never been trained to do anything, and you can't walk or bike down the road without him following, crossing the road, chasing cars, running in front of cars, etc.
Jeanne and Jimmy are the parents, and they're both really nice people; Jeanne works in a pharmacy and Jimmy works in a bar. They're not married, which apparently offends some members of her family. They plan to marry at some point, though. They're both from Ennis, which is not very far away.
I am trying to spend more time outside, as it's difficult with a crawling baby to look after and the unpredictable dog, who Ruby is scared of. But I did take a bike trip to the Cliffs of Moher a couple of weekends ago. That was mostly uphill, and when I got to the car park, I realized that I didn't have a bike lock and didn't want to leave it somewhere unattended, and also they were charging €6 to see a piece of coast! But I did get to see St. Brigid's Well. There's a pub called Murphy's right beside it, and someone hangs their washing practically inside the graveyard there. On the way back, it was a dream! I practically coasted the whole way!
The weather has been warm and sunny one day, and rainy and cold the next. Lahinch, the town down the road, is very nice. Lots of people go surfing there. The other day we went to a beach cleanup along the coast. We found a lot of horrible plastic stuff. And I went to a traditional session at the local pub. Apparently Christy Moore's brother, Luka Bloom, was there; I didn't know, and I don't really know who he is anyway. But hey, cool.
Actually, this place reminds me quite a bit of Iowa. Even the accents sometimes sound the same to my ears... I don't know how... I'm going back to London at the beginning of July, and it will be a bit of a relief to get back to somewhere where you can walk to the nearest shop. But the scenery is quite beautiful.
The joys of taking care of three kids...
Beau is the oldest, at 5 years. He goes to school on weekdays, this must be his first year. He is full of energy and tends to throw himself everywhere. He can be very sincere, but also very cheeky. He likes building boats and forts and whatever you like out of couch cushions and other objects, and also looking over my shoulder whenever I'm on the computer (which means I have to be careful). He has longish brown hair and huge blue eyes that are pretty amazing. I'm not surprised that he already has older girls following him around the playground. :) He's losing his milk teeth at the moment.
Ruby is the middle child, at 3. She is very style-conscious, and always wants to know what colour toes (socks) someone has, and whether they match hers. And she likes nailpolish. She loves Peppa Pig. I don't mind Peppa Pig, so far at least, because it gets them quiet! She has the requisite pink stuff everywhere. She's also very independent, and rebels against being told to do things, by telling adults (usually me) what to do in the same tone of voice. She'll also tell me that other adults have said things are or are not ok... for example, when I cut my finger and put a plaster on it, she said that mummy had said they were mummy's special plasters and nobody else could use them. And her daddy apparently said that nailpolish was not for adults. She's also frequently reminded me, when I say that I need privacy in my room, that it's not actually "my" room! She will also put stickers on anyone who stays still enough.
Eli is the baby, at about 1 and a half. He's just beginning to talk, and walk without support. "At's dis?" or "A dat?" he'll ask, pointing at something, and repeat it until you duly tell him that it's dog (bow-wow), duck, strawberry, or whatever, whereupon he makes the sound of whatever it is--"oof oof!" for dog is his favourite, probably because there is an actual dog hanging around outside. He also does high fives, and blows people kisses, and gives his siblings spontaneous hugs, especially when he's been walking on his own and is pleased with himself. He can also be a little rascal and does things even when I say no, giving me a huge smile as he does them...
Benny is the dog, who's never been trained to do anything, and you can't walk or bike down the road without him following, crossing the road, chasing cars, running in front of cars, etc.
Jeanne and Jimmy are the parents, and they're both really nice people; Jeanne works in a pharmacy and Jimmy works in a bar. They're not married, which apparently offends some members of her family. They plan to marry at some point, though. They're both from Ennis, which is not very far away.
I am trying to spend more time outside, as it's difficult with a crawling baby to look after and the unpredictable dog, who Ruby is scared of. But I did take a bike trip to the Cliffs of Moher a couple of weekends ago. That was mostly uphill, and when I got to the car park, I realized that I didn't have a bike lock and didn't want to leave it somewhere unattended, and also they were charging €6 to see a piece of coast! But I did get to see St. Brigid's Well. There's a pub called Murphy's right beside it, and someone hangs their washing practically inside the graveyard there. On the way back, it was a dream! I practically coasted the whole way!
The weather has been warm and sunny one day, and rainy and cold the next. Lahinch, the town down the road, is very nice. Lots of people go surfing there. The other day we went to a beach cleanup along the coast. We found a lot of horrible plastic stuff. And I went to a traditional session at the local pub. Apparently Christy Moore's brother, Luka Bloom, was there; I didn't know, and I don't really know who he is anyway. But hey, cool.
Actually, this place reminds me quite a bit of Iowa. Even the accents sometimes sound the same to my ears... I don't know how... I'm going back to London at the beginning of July, and it will be a bit of a relief to get back to somewhere where you can walk to the nearest shop. But the scenery is quite beautiful.
Sunday 17 June 2012
Galway (still)
I'm writing this post having just missed the bus back to Clare. Woop. Since the next one is tomorrow morning, I've got another night here... somewhat stressful, since both Jeanne and Jimmy (the parents of the kids I'm looking after--no, none of the kids' names begin with J) have to work early in the morning. They're trying to get somebody to be there for the two hours that I can't.
I went out the door at almost 11 this morning hoping to get to Quaker meeting less than 20 minutes late, and arrived back here at 5:30 wearing a completely different outfit, carrying a hula hoop and 2 more bags than I previously had, and found that nobody was answering the door, no matter how much I shouted and rang. My phone was out of batteries and had been for most of the day, so I couldn't contact my host. What was I to do?
--flashback to earlier--
So after getting distracted by the internet, I went out the door hoping not to be too late for meeting. I'd looked at the map and it seemed pretty straightforward. That road, that road, then after the river you turn to the left. However, having reached the university campus and not finding the bridge I was expecting to find (and none of the streets have signs, of course), I asked a university student where "University Road" was. I was working on the assumption that the road going through the university would be University Road.
However, I was wrong. And she pointed, not to the real University Road, but to a motorway that crossed the river. This put me wildly off course (I suspected something when it started to look a bit like countryside), and I ended up at the Galway Shopping Centre. Which was lucky because I'd had a mission to get a swimsuit and an Irish SIM card for my phone, but unlucky because I completely missed Quaker meeting. I had lunch sitting in an abandoned lot.
After using wifi to find out where I was --M*D*n*ld's has free wifi over here -- I headed back to the city centre and walked down the aptly named Shop Street, in search of the sea. I found the sea, and also a free market next to the Spanish Arch! There were many hippies there, sitting on the steps, playing the djembe (of course), hula-hooping (of course), and tending to the clothes, books and DVDs spread out over the ground. I got me some nice new/old clothes more suited to the warm weather (it was cold and rainy yesterday), and then bought a hula hoop (probably against my better judgment). They also had a big potluck feast on the grass.
After that, it was definitely time to go... but as I said, when I got to the house, it was locked and nobody was in. My laptop, however, WAS in there. Thankfully, a neighbor was willing to let me into the house to use his phone charger. I called Arianne, my host, and it turned out that she had been less than 50 feet away from me, sitting on the grass near the Spanish Arch, but neither of us had seen the other. She was waiting for me to call or text for her to come home, but my phone had lost its charge at the shopping centre. "I'll be there in 15 minutes," she said. It was 5:40 and my bus was at 6:05. Long story short, I missed my bus.
--
Last night was pretty good. Jeanne had told me that her brother worked in Galway, at the King's Head. I caught up with him and though he couldn't host me, he pointed out some events in the Galway Sessions that he thought we should go to. I was going to follow his advice, but Arianne wanted to go to a salsa night. So off we went.
There were a lot of good dancers there! I taught Arianne and her friend basic salsa steps, which is really all I know myself, whereupon some grey-haired dude in a tipped-down fedora grabbed my hands and tried to do all these fancy moves with me. I can usually follow a bit where someone leads, but he was mostly showing off and it was disastrous.
I noticed a guy dressed in a very strange outfit standing next to the bar -- bowler hat, leather waistcoat, linen shirt, and leather bellbottoms (!) so I struck up a conversation with him, asking him if he was a performer.
He told me that his friend and he were carpenters from Germany, and had decided to go on a traditional journey, called a "Waltz." Look!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journeyman_years One of them was very tall and had pretty good sideburns, the other one was short. They gave us mentholated snuff, on the back of the hand, and recited something in German. Apparently it translates (roughly) to "On all the ships that sail on the sea, one man is lonely. No matter how big or small the ship, one man on it is lonely." Haunting.
Once again, I was feeling rough and my voice was giving up, so I decided to go early. It felt good to walk by the river, by myself, through the quiet hospital grounds, past the mortuary (!). You don't get much time to yourself, dealing with three kids.
I went out the door at almost 11 this morning hoping to get to Quaker meeting less than 20 minutes late, and arrived back here at 5:30 wearing a completely different outfit, carrying a hula hoop and 2 more bags than I previously had, and found that nobody was answering the door, no matter how much I shouted and rang. My phone was out of batteries and had been for most of the day, so I couldn't contact my host. What was I to do?
--flashback to earlier--
So after getting distracted by the internet, I went out the door hoping not to be too late for meeting. I'd looked at the map and it seemed pretty straightforward. That road, that road, then after the river you turn to the left. However, having reached the university campus and not finding the bridge I was expecting to find (and none of the streets have signs, of course), I asked a university student where "University Road" was. I was working on the assumption that the road going through the university would be University Road.
However, I was wrong. And she pointed, not to the real University Road, but to a motorway that crossed the river. This put me wildly off course (I suspected something when it started to look a bit like countryside), and I ended up at the Galway Shopping Centre. Which was lucky because I'd had a mission to get a swimsuit and an Irish SIM card for my phone, but unlucky because I completely missed Quaker meeting. I had lunch sitting in an abandoned lot.
After using wifi to find out where I was --M*D*n*ld's has free wifi over here -- I headed back to the city centre and walked down the aptly named Shop Street, in search of the sea. I found the sea, and also a free market next to the Spanish Arch! There were many hippies there, sitting on the steps, playing the djembe (of course), hula-hooping (of course), and tending to the clothes, books and DVDs spread out over the ground. I got me some nice new/old clothes more suited to the warm weather (it was cold and rainy yesterday), and then bought a hula hoop (probably against my better judgment). They also had a big potluck feast on the grass.
After that, it was definitely time to go... but as I said, when I got to the house, it was locked and nobody was in. My laptop, however, WAS in there. Thankfully, a neighbor was willing to let me into the house to use his phone charger. I called Arianne, my host, and it turned out that she had been less than 50 feet away from me, sitting on the grass near the Spanish Arch, but neither of us had seen the other. She was waiting for me to call or text for her to come home, but my phone had lost its charge at the shopping centre. "I'll be there in 15 minutes," she said. It was 5:40 and my bus was at 6:05. Long story short, I missed my bus.
--
Last night was pretty good. Jeanne had told me that her brother worked in Galway, at the King's Head. I caught up with him and though he couldn't host me, he pointed out some events in the Galway Sessions that he thought we should go to. I was going to follow his advice, but Arianne wanted to go to a salsa night. So off we went.
There were a lot of good dancers there! I taught Arianne and her friend basic salsa steps, which is really all I know myself, whereupon some grey-haired dude in a tipped-down fedora grabbed my hands and tried to do all these fancy moves with me. I can usually follow a bit where someone leads, but he was mostly showing off and it was disastrous.
I noticed a guy dressed in a very strange outfit standing next to the bar -- bowler hat, leather waistcoat, linen shirt, and leather bellbottoms (!) so I struck up a conversation with him, asking him if he was a performer.
He told me that his friend and he were carpenters from Germany, and had decided to go on a traditional journey, called a "Waltz." Look!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journeyman_years One of them was very tall and had pretty good sideburns, the other one was short. They gave us mentholated snuff, on the back of the hand, and recited something in German. Apparently it translates (roughly) to "On all the ships that sail on the sea, one man is lonely. No matter how big or small the ship, one man on it is lonely." Haunting.
Once again, I was feeling rough and my voice was giving up, so I decided to go early. It felt good to walk by the river, by myself, through the quiet hospital grounds, past the mortuary (!). You don't get much time to yourself, dealing with three kids.
Saturday 16 June 2012
Galway
I am gratified that I actually found an available blog name that doesn't have a bunch of numbers in it. Hopefully it will be memorable. I used to have an email address that began with memorable_address. Hmm...
I'm in Galway, and the Galway Sessions are on, which should be called the Stirling Sessions, because it's a bunch of musicians from Stirling who are coming down to Ireland to play music. Plus some others. I come to Ireland and what do I get? More Scottish people. :)
I got into town at about 6 PM, checked into my hostel, put my laptop in the safety deposit box. Looked up restaurants online. As my friend Zoe had recommended Tigh Neachtain, a pub just down the street, I looked up their menu--it looked good and not too expensive. So I went, only to find that it wasn't a pub with food, it was an attached restaurant above the pub. And I'd been looking at the starters menu, not the main courses. It was a place where people wore nice clothes, and there I was, in a hoodie and jeans, looking at €15 dishes. But I thought to myself, well, why not. Life is for enjoying yourself. So I had a damn good risotto and an excellent glass of wine. And realized that I was very lucky to have come at the right moment, as others were turned away who didn't have reservations. I probably didn't spend much more than I would have at the other pubs on the street.
Then I went to an event that I'd seen advertised on couchsurfing, which was excellent, an album release gig at Roisin Dubh for this band: http://walkperson.net/#listen/ and hung out with them and their friends afterwards in the Crane Pub, which was too crowded. I still had no idea where I was going to stay the next night, and I didn't really want to stay in a hostel again. But Kiata, who had organized the event, suggested we ask a likely-looking person who was sitting at the other end of the table if I could stay with her... After a bout of daring each other to ask her, I plucked up my courage. So that's where I'm staying. She happens to be on couchsurfing as well. I suppose it's becoming more and more frequent. :)
I had to leave because of a waning voice caused by cigarette smoke and my stubborn cold (everyone in Galway seems to smoke). There was a rock cover band outside the hostel window that thankfully stopped playing at 2 am. That would have been fine, except that some kind of roaring noise filled the room at 8 am, I suspect something kitchen-related. Augh.
So I waited for Arianne (my host) to show up this morning, then we went to the Galway market that happens every Saturday and Sunday, and then--at her flat that she said was 10 minutes away, I don't believe it--crashed out for most of the afternoon. This evening we're going out to another music thing. Then tomorrow I'm wandering around the town centre before going back to Clare, and back to au pairing for three kids. More on that later.
I'm in Galway, and the Galway Sessions are on, which should be called the Stirling Sessions, because it's a bunch of musicians from Stirling who are coming down to Ireland to play music. Plus some others. I come to Ireland and what do I get? More Scottish people. :)
I got into town at about 6 PM, checked into my hostel, put my laptop in the safety deposit box. Looked up restaurants online. As my friend Zoe had recommended Tigh Neachtain, a pub just down the street, I looked up their menu--it looked good and not too expensive. So I went, only to find that it wasn't a pub with food, it was an attached restaurant above the pub. And I'd been looking at the starters menu, not the main courses. It was a place where people wore nice clothes, and there I was, in a hoodie and jeans, looking at €15 dishes. But I thought to myself, well, why not. Life is for enjoying yourself. So I had a damn good risotto and an excellent glass of wine. And realized that I was very lucky to have come at the right moment, as others were turned away who didn't have reservations. I probably didn't spend much more than I would have at the other pubs on the street.
Then I went to an event that I'd seen advertised on couchsurfing, which was excellent, an album release gig at Roisin Dubh for this band: http://walkperson.net/#listen/ and hung out with them and their friends afterwards in the Crane Pub, which was too crowded. I still had no idea where I was going to stay the next night, and I didn't really want to stay in a hostel again. But Kiata, who had organized the event, suggested we ask a likely-looking person who was sitting at the other end of the table if I could stay with her... After a bout of daring each other to ask her, I plucked up my courage. So that's where I'm staying. She happens to be on couchsurfing as well. I suppose it's becoming more and more frequent. :)
I had to leave because of a waning voice caused by cigarette smoke and my stubborn cold (everyone in Galway seems to smoke). There was a rock cover band outside the hostel window that thankfully stopped playing at 2 am. That would have been fine, except that some kind of roaring noise filled the room at 8 am, I suspect something kitchen-related. Augh.
So I waited for Arianne (my host) to show up this morning, then we went to the Galway market that happens every Saturday and Sunday, and then--at her flat that she said was 10 minutes away, I don't believe it--crashed out for most of the afternoon. This evening we're going out to another music thing. Then tomorrow I'm wandering around the town centre before going back to Clare, and back to au pairing for three kids. More on that later.
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