Big Bad Itty Bitty Belfast

---

13th April 2005
Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Have arrived in Belfast! The bus ride from the airport was lovely, all those green, green fields and blue, blue skies. After a while we crested a small hill and suddenly there was Belfast, a cluster of streets and buildings clinging to the edge of the wide, snaking waters of the River Lagan. It was fresh and green and exciting, yet I was a little disheartened at the size of it. Belfast, for such a major city, is not so very large. I speculate that I could probably walk it's perimeter in half a day. I do not think it is as large as Cairns, or if so, then not by much.

But it is early days yet, and I am as ignorant as ever - perhaps there is more of it, hidden away. What I have seen of it, and with all my walking, that's quite a lot, is very agreeable, even if it is damned cold. I have decided to have a go at getting a job, though with the limited size of the town it is going to be harder than London - and not necessarily cheaper, as I had thought. Yes, the transport is more reasonable, but housing seems the same, and the internet! Jaysus! The dearest internet cafe I've seen so far, and they're all pretty much the same, offers 1hr for £4, which is almost $12 AU!!!!! For ONE hour's internet! Tell that to the library whingers next time they complain! On the other hand, the cheapest I could find, after many hours of walking and asking, was £2/hr, which converts to almost $6AU. So no matter what, this is going to hurt. Do not expect to hear from me as often.

Speaking of which, I have had three people write to complement me on my writings. I was curious enough to quickly read back over a couple of journals and am absolutely mortified. It's all very badly written, basically straight from my immediate consciousness to the keyboard with no revision or extensive thought. I do not check over entries before saving them. Everything is very time-conscious, though the length of some may seem to contradict that. Anyway, please, I'm so embarrassed, it's very badly written, I will edit it all when this is all over and make it much more interesting. This is basically just a way to keep in touch - do not consider it a testimony to my writing skills.

Oh, and while I'm on the subject of Libraries - guess where the airport bus dropped me off? In front of the Central Library! I managed to wrestle the bags off and looked up.....and sighed. I'm being stalked. What's more, the hostel across the road, where I'd been directed, was the wrong one and it took another hour of wandering and bus-ing to get there. But that was fine, although a lesson to all readers to only fly into unknown destinations during daylight hours.

I adore the Irish accent. I am considering adopting it, but then I'll probably just sound stupid, and will also be less likely to get a job, as they want foreign accents. I am also taking my time with the job thing. This is my third day here and I'm only now about to consider checking my resume and maybe registering with some agencies, or printing out the resume and door-to-door-ing it. I don't know. S'all good.

From initial observations it seems the Irish are passionate about religion, sports, charity shops.....and fighting, I suspect. But there are so many churches and op-shops about, the latter of which is very good for me as I am able to buy nice jackets and business shirts for the pub at very cheap prices. With regard to the sports, many pubs have warning signs posted about wearing sports clothing in their establishments - I suspect that's a pretty good reason to start a fight in these parts.

I've yet to see any evidence of the IRA, but then I don't suppose they have an official business building or anything. One sign that people are aware of them, I suppose, is that everywhere you go there are locked doors and door buzzers with the camera screen. This, no doubt, is to crack down on the IRA or other idiots from throwing bombs in open doorways. The churches also have gates about the front and everything seems locked, though since I haven't tried to go in, I wouldn't know if it is actually open to the public or not. There's also a scarcity of bins, but it's not as bad as in London. In London there are literally no bins for streets on end. Aparently the IRA keep putting bombs in them. I don't know about all that, but it was hugely annoying when you've trash and have to walk for ages and ages to find a bin.

Anyway, must run. All my love. The last of the mushies have worn off and I'm perfectly fine. My hostel is nice enough, though they're renovating so sometime's it gets a bit noisy in the morning, but hey. It's all good.

---