July 28 - Quick visit to Bangor

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Lazy day today. Woke up early again because the beds in this hostel are shit. I easily woke up 8 different times last night, which is better than the night before I suppose. Here's hoping for less than 5 wake ups tonight.

(Ok I need to do a run down of my experience at this hostel because it's been comically sad lol. This is more as I reminder for myself, so I'll put it at the end of the entry.)

I went to Bangor today which is supposed to be a nice little seaside town. Yes, well, I suppose it would be if it weren't raining and people were actually around. It was sad and empty haha. All that being said, it was a nice morning/mid-afternoon visit. It had a nice small town vibe, a beautiful church and some nice gardens too. The waterfront produced some nice shots since the clouds were all over in their greyscale. I did walk around and explore for about two hours though... before finding an ASDA and wandering around there too. I have a horrible suspicion I will buy school supplies here and from Wilko's and bring them back. Ahem. (Yes, even with the dollar being absolute shit against the Pound.)

My favourite sad sight of Bangor was their carnival area with rides... not a soul other than the workers. I was momentarily alarmed at how fast the ferris wheel (one of the old style ones) was going... then I realized no one was on it and it was like a tease - oh look how much fun, come get even more wet as you go up and down!

From Bangor I headed back to Belfast where I basically bummed around the shopping district. I had to go buy jeans... I forgot how damp the nights are here. (I have long pants but not warm long pants...) I also went back to see the lovely Big Blue Fish near the harbour. I like him. I like a lot of the sculptures and murals in this city.

Oh! And before I forget I saw some sun today. First time ever in Belfast have I seen sun. It was for a brief two hours, in the afternoon, after I'd given up on my outdoor adventures in Bangor, but I did in fact see it.

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Hostel adventures


• Jokes and posters all over the place, which is cute. They reference themselves as minions instead of staff. Employee of the month has been their dog for the past like year... but sadly, I have not seen a dog. False advertisement.
• The owner's Dad was helping out this week. He's a 20 year old trapped in a 50 year old body... in a both good and bad way I think haha. Let's call him Papa M(inion). He checked me in and just kept going on saying he hopes he's doing it all correctly because he's just helping out. I then got like a 20 min spiel on the city and the area, along with these two girls from Spain who were also checking in. Finally I'm like... yeah, go to the Causeway if you can it's incredible. Papa M was like 'YOU'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE' - I thought he was going to have excitement overload.
• The Son popped by near the end of the convo and asked if his Dad was doing a good job. I said yeah. Son then saw my passport, "you're Canadian. You have to say it was good." - which led to Papa M telling me ..................
• Back from day out, Papa M at the desk. "How was your day?" Great, yours? "Horrible. We double-booked and something is wrong with the system." Oh... uh... that sucks. "You seem intelligent. You should take a look." - this led into a big conversation about me being a teacher and problem-solving haha. "I still think you should take a look." ... srsly.
• Papa M offered me a job at the front desk.
• Last night a staffer comes to my room looking for two guys. Uhm, there's an Aussie guy and two French girls in here... that's it. "Are you sure?" Well, their stuff is still here. And I saw them this morning. "That's not right." Well, don't know what to tell you. "Ok well... there should be two guys in here." *fast forward an hour* He comes back, still sees there's no one else here. When the girls and the Aussie got back from supper we started joking that we're harbouring fugitives under our beds.
• 6 toilets for 59 guests plus staff. That says it all, right there.

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