Ah, so last time I posted I was in the hostel in Oslo, wasn't I. The next morning I went shopping for things that wouldn't fit in my bag or that I forgot, including an international-to-Europe plug converter, which seemed to cost around £10 in most shops! Ouch. I got mine at a little shop for £7.50 from a man who only had one finger. I also went into an organic store to get various things, and was almost followed in by *another* man who wanted to harrass me. :P The clerk seemed very excited that they were finally stocking Dove's Farm products... which are pretty much standard in the UK. Funny. Went for the train at noon and then sat down for the 7 hour train ride to Arna, the stop before Bergen. It was gorgeous, as you can see from the photos before this post; Norway seems mostly composed of tree-covered mountains with lakes between them. In the middle there are mountains with snow on them. I didn't see any glaciers, but maybe that's not so surprising these days. The train sickness bags say "Uf-dah" on them, I was going to bring one with me to take a picture of but lost it. Next time!
Here is where I am going to post all my pictures: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/77881645@N00/sets/72157634255330980/
Then I got to the farm, which is situated on the side of one of these hills, next to a fjord. Everything is green. It was very sunny, which didn't prepare me for the usual weather, which is misty and/or rainy... but still beautiful. The farmer here does chainsaw sculptures with wood, that are very intricate, and plays the accordion. His name is Arne, and he is married (I think) to Louise, who is an actor and musician; they have two children named Rosalinde and Gabrielle, who don't speak English, so it's difficult to communicate with them. They have an au pair from the Phillipines named Julia, who has recently married a Danish man named Per, and is about to move with him to another city six hours south, Stavanger. There are also three dogs, Finnish Lapphunds who have been bred to herd reindeer. There are no reindeer here though. They are adorable.
The sheep had escaped, yet again, so yesterday our job was to find the break in the fence and repair it, then find the sheep. Instead of sheep, we found the ponies and horses, two mares with their offspring. One of the ponies, who was the daughter of the other one and still nursed even though she was larger than her mother, decided that I looked edible and bit me on the knee. Ow. They were still cute, though; they came up to my waist and were very used to humans. The fence was very difficult to follow, as the pasture in which the sheep were kept is almost vertical, with a lot of rocks and trees. It was misty and wet up there, and almost like a rainforest, with many ferns and small flowering plants. Then we took the four-wheeler up to the very top of the hill, where we found the sheep, and Arne encouraged me to drive it back down again.
And I took a lot of pictures.
Today, Linda and Arne are having a party, and then tomorrow is the Midsummer celebration down in the larger town, which should be fun. Breakfast and lunch here seem to consist of open sandwiches, so it's fortunate that they got me gluten free bread. They eat a lot of meat, so I told them that I eat fish sometimes. I wasn't prepared for the fish and prawns to still have their eyes, however. Eep.
Saturday, 22 June 2013
Thursday, 20 June 2013
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Torp and Oslo, Norway
"Skriv," eh.
On the road again... this time to Norway. I'm in Oslo, at a hostel I would not recommend. It is just after 1 AM. They are asking me for £15 to rent a set of sheets. I think I'll just take the bare mattress, thanks...
On the road again... this time to Norway. I'm in Oslo, at a hostel I would not recommend. It is just after 1 AM. They are asking me for £15 to rent a set of sheets. I think I'll just take the bare mattress, thanks...
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Glasgow, Amsterdam, New York
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.
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.
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...
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