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...
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