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Published: October 23rd 2005
So Friday I wrote this beautiful long description of my trip to Dublin my rendezvous with old friends and of course the beautiful weather. I am telling you it was perhaps the best thing ever written! I swear. Unfortunatly for you I accidently deleted it with one swip of the wrong key. So now all you get is something perhaps less grandious and less shall we say perfect.
So last weekend, Margaret (a new friend from San Francisco) and I took a bus to Dublin for a much needed weekend away. I was quite excited because Susie (from Vancouver) was going to be meeting us there and Nic(another Friend from Vancouver) was also going to meet up for lunch. When Margaret and I arrived we noticed almost immediatly how relaxed we both were and how relaxed everyone around us was. After a brief discussion as to whether it was because we were on Holiday or because we were out of the north, we aggreed that the latter of the two was more likely. All of a sudden people weren't on edge. Talking to people in belfast they will deny it, but moving just south of the border into the Republic you notice how much easier people smile.
After meeting up with Susie, who had been traveling around Europe for two months, we decided the best tour for us was the Viking Splash Tour. (Yes I thought of you every minute Dana) This tour takes place on a WWII amphibous vehicle which was used during the invasion of Normandy. WE traveled noisly around the city driven by a man (who looked decidly vikingish) wearing a sack cloth, seeing where in olden days all the vikings camped, grashed their sheep and moored their ships. We also, once we entered the water and began our splash portion of the tour, saw where U2's new recording studios are, and where colin firth and the Corrs live. A very interresting juxtaposition that was pointed out to us was the site called Misery Hill. Where thousands of people waited and died during the potato famine trying to get aboard a ship bound for America. Upon the site now was being built a new fancy apt building. Not wanting to retain the name of Misery Hill for the new home owners the bloc has been named something like River View.
After the tour we had a great lunch with Nic, who is studying Medicine at Trinity University in Dublin.
For the rest of the day Margaret, Susie and I wandered around the city visiting the best chocolatiere or the Republic and deciding that the best place to eat was a Moroccan restaurant. Word of the wise to anyone traveling to Dublin. The food is EXTREMLY expensive. I mean people told me this before I left but didn't expect it to be quite that bad. WE couldn't find a place to eat for less than 12Euro a plate(which is about $17US).
On Sunday the three of us heading out to a little seaside suburb for a short walk before taking the bus to Belfast. We were lucky enough to continue our dry warmish weather throughout the weekend and therefore stumble across the towns outdoor farmers market. Funnily many of the merchants were from the north but we enjoyed tasting all the yummy food. By the Way if you are a lover of Olives, which I am decidly not. There is always barrels and barrels of olives at these markets. Enough olives for anyone to be happy, I am sure.
When we got back to Belfast, Susie took up residence on my floor and I started what I thought would be a great job on Monday. I has found a coffee shop called California Coffee Company and thought Wow I have to work there. I was asked to come in on Monday to Work a lunch shift. I come in and find out that the manager schedule me for everyday this week at lunch. Secondly I find out that they are not paying minimum wage which is 5.05/hr but instead paying 4/hr. After working four grueling days, I refused to come in a fifth day and declined the job. In other words I quit. Unfortunalty for Susie she had to be witness to my grumpiness and tiredness. I also then had no time to read or do any school work.
In better news on Wedneday I had an interview with a Trauma center which works with Victims of the Troubles. It looks like I will begin volunteering with them in the next few weeks. They are doing exactly the kind of peacebuilding work I want to do. SO I was totally stoked to have that happen.
The morning of the day Susie took a ferry to Scotland, her and I hired a Black Taxi to take us on a tour of the political sites. Essentially we were taking on a tour of the murals in both the Unionist Shankil Rd (protestant) and the Republican Falls Road (Catholic). The murals were quite intense, one Which we stood in front of while the driver explained to us the emergence of gansterism and swift justice, was of a balaclav man pointing a huge gun at all who passed in front. It was one of those creepy optical illusions where the point of the gun follows you everywhere you go. I felt like a grim tourist, perhaps like those people who gather around accident scenes just to be witness to death and destruction. Some friends who also took the tour on another day had similar experinces. But the friends who were brits or Catholics felt even more disturbed by the guns and the demands for the expulsion of each group. They each said they kept waiting for someone to figure out who they were. If you type into google images Belfast Murals you can see some of them.
We also viewed the oddly named peacewall. A huge wall dividing the interface area of the two areas. Apparently the wall was first built after a group of Unionist burnt down a whole street of Republican homes. The cement wall was built to about 20 feet. Apparently that wasn't quite tall enough since people continued throwing molotov cocktails over the wall, so they added 10 feet of corugated metal fencing above that. Still not tall enough since people started using ladders, the final addition of 8 ft chain link type fence was added atop the previous two. Now noone lives on the protestant side of the wall, but on the republican side several memorial gardens, dedicated to the Republican victims of the troubles as well as homes are built right up to the wall. Grim determinism, our taxi driver said.
Well to leave this rather long entry on a happier note. Yesterday I went on a Fungal foray. Yes a walk thru the Lagan Valley regional park to learn about the varieties of Fungus that grow in the area. The park is just 25 min walk west of the university and has the sometimes beautiful Lagan River flowing thru it. The day was beauiful. Clear, Sunny and relativly warm. I had a t-shirt and jeans on for the day. The parks rolling hills and trees cleverly hide the surrouding city. It is definitly a place I will spend many mornings and afternoons come spring. Maybe even a few thru winter.
Right now there is the Belfast Queen's Art Festival going on. Which means lots of great speakers, musicians and artists are in town. On Friday I went to hear Robert Frist speak on the writing of his new book the War for civilization. It was a fascinating talk aobut his experinces as foreign corrspondent to the Middle East, what is acutally happening in Iraq and why we may be perpetually doomwed to repeat History. If you get a chance to hear him or read his books I definitly recommend it. Quick facts from his talk. The road from the airport to the controlled area (where all the consuluates and gov't offices are, is no longer used. Planes taking off from the airport must take off in a corkscrew manner above the airport till reaching 36,000ft before they can level out. He talked of being surprised in Lebanon when there would be one suicide bomber a month, then being surprised in Israel at 1 a week, in Iraq it is up to 3-4 a day! He spends time in the Morgue in Iraq and when family come into to claim victims of these bombers they donot blame the bombers they blame the americans and Brits.
Here is anintreresting fact to Juxtapose Iraq and N. Ireland. There are currently more Brit soldiers posted in N. Ireland than posted in Iraq. Even thought Blair just annoucned a reduction that is not to be completed for another two years.
Well I did try to end it on a happy note. It is sunny outside again today!
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erikee
erika bachmann
Cassie! Good to hear from you again! Thanks for indulging my love o' the irish! Take care and you're waaaaaaaaaaay better off without the job- coming from someon oft exploited... ;-) shmooshies erika