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.
Monday 30 July 2012
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.
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