Sick in Belfast

Yes, I've decided to visit the old enemy territory this weekend. I'm in Belfast (just for the weekend), on my own, ...the school thing doesn't go to Belfast, so I grabbed the chance on the weekend) I'm also sick, but the trip won't wait on a cold, so I'm in Belfast anyway, regardles of my condition. I had a sore throat, and now I have a stuffy nose and stuff, sneeze, cough, etc... so I really think I should go to bed, but the bed I have in this hostel (my first time staying in a hostel) is hot, humid and miserable. its so hot right now I can barely type or think. this hostel is pretty ghetto. look up the "Lonely Planet" review on this place. It's called the "Linen House Hostel" in Belfast, Northern Ireland (on Kent St.). I believe they refer to this place as "squirlly" or "scruffy" or something like that. It's only perk is its central location. Anyways, I'm too tired and sick to go out and do anything, but maybe I will anyway because it's too hot in the room (in which I have a lower bunk, out of ten beds total in the room, ) and some people are already asleep (including the guy above me), so that means I can't fidget through my things and make noise to set up my sleep sheet. A sleep-sheet is so I don't get cooties from the hostel's sheets. It's like my own inner-protective lining-sheet.

So I guess I will just risk bed-lice tonight and sleep in all my clothes. I can't really wake up every body by turning on the lights and being the anal-retentive traveller, saying, "ok guys, bear with me while I disinfect everything,"...they wouldn't understand that anyway, they're all german--as in, they speak only German. Lot's of German backpackers in my room. You would be surprised how many Italian and Spanish tourists come to Ireland too. Especially in Dublin, walking down the street, you'll hear more Italian and Spanish-(from Spain) than you will English. I don't know why that is.

Today I took a day-long bus tour across the Northern coast of Ireland (in Northern Ireland) to look at various geological formations. "Giant's Causeway" is an extremely popular landmark, I suggest googling it to check out a picture of it. At one stop along the coast somewhere north of Belfast to cross some touristy, indiana jones-esque rope bridge 70 feet above death, my tour bus abandoned me. I missed it, and they left without me. You see, I had to pee and then buy a bottle of water after I crossed the bridge, and I guess that was just too much waiting for them.

On a clear day you can see the Scottish coast from there.

ANyways, ...So I couldv'e been stranded, but it was ok, because there was another tour bus there filled with people from Spain. The driver said I could get in and he would drive me to where my tour bus was going (which was on his way) and drop me off, and so I got on with the Spanish people. When he dropped me off, the Spanish people waved bye to me and smiled; they were nice.

So I met up with my people then. The bus driver knew my name after that. I'm special, because the bus driver knew my name. He even drove me directly to the front door of my hostel in Belfast with his big bus, after he dropped everyone off at the train station. Isn't that nice? He didn't have to do that. Now believe it or not, people here are very nice and polite, despite their evil English protestant tendancies. Perhaps they are so nice due to the city's history of bombing and hatred and death , etc...ya know, trying to repair their tainted reputation with a smile and a friendly "hello". They have a tour where they take you to all the places that still have political tension (Belfast's "west side" where the protestants and catholics are still segregated and foaming with hatred supposedly). I think I will go on that tour. there is supposed to be murals and fences and ...stuff, ...I don't know, I'll let you know.
what else was I going to say? ... yeah, I really realized I crossed into the UK when everyone was smoking in the restaurant that I had dinner in (here in Belfast). and there is no "smoking or non?" option. HA, no, there is just an ashtray and matches on every single table. the food was really good though, but I don't think it helped my stuffy nose/sinus problem with the smoke. we americans really are babies about this whole smoking thing for some reason, myself included. even though I don't like smoke either, I am starting to have some sympathy for smoker's rights. our teacher told the class (regarding the people in ireland, [the republic of ireland]) "look, don't bug them about the smoking thing. trust me, they're going to smoke anyway. they're not happy about the restaurant/pub ban; it's fairly recent [two months ago], so just let them do their thing, and don't bitch at them or try to give them a health lecture. they know, they don't care, they don't want to hear it, and they're going to do it anyway". , ...It's true that it seems that damn near every european smokes. who is anyone to begrudge them a cigarette? it's their culture. (I still think at the very least though, the option of a non-smoking section would be nice), whatever,...Belfast is interesting. the sterling (£) pound is extremely expenisve, way more than the euro even. I haven't figured out yet how to make the symbol for the euro on these keyboards. The keyboards are different here. We'll see what happens tomorrow, then I go back to Dublin, back to my dorm room/suite at Trinity College, which seems like the Ritz right now in comparison...