belfast

Bleary-eyed and hungover from large party in Dublin last night.

Took the train, feeling slightly retarded from Guinness-infused night on the trot in Dublin.

As is quite indicative, this is a picture of the countryside in Northern Ireland.

Now that I'm in Belfast, I'm quite teary-eyed. I am purposefully listening to Zombie by the Cranberries, as it's about IRA bombings.

Great on a hangover.

I am in a city that has been scarred and bombed, for, once again, religious divides.

The Catholics and protestants, in case you've been living under a rock, hate each other in this part of the world. During the 70s and 90s it was particularly bad, and named, almost quite charmingly: "The Troubles."

Bad as in over 20 bombs detonated in this place. So being a non-practicing Catholic, I'm just going to shut up and pretend I'm Jewish today.

Now Belfast is rebuilding it's infrastructure, slowly but surely. The economy here is very shite. And don't for one second think that because Northern Ireland is actually part of England and not Ireland, that these people are Brits.

Basically, don't mention the war, don't mention religion, don't mention the economy, don't mention England.

Am I in Belfast or am I in Berlin?

Oh and I don't understand their accents. Obviously. Living with a man from Norn Iron for 3 months still hasn't trained me to understand what they're saying.

I'm hungover and deaf. Great. Might as well call the sunshine bus right now.

Speaking of, again, the Irish are hilarious. Their cogs turn in the opposite direction.
Take the train journey. This beeping noise was going on and on and on, and we had no idea where it was coming from.

On asking the train conductor dude, he looked at us as if we were completely daft when we asked if we could switch off that [shrill as fuck] beeping noise.

'It's the signal for when the toilet door is locked.'

"Why do we all need to know the toilet door is locked? Why would someone create such a technology?"

With that he gave us a 'you people are crazy' look and walked off.

I love it. Then you'll be standing in a lift, five of you with suitcases, and a lady with an old-school manual vacuum cleaner will come in and suck up one peanut on the floor.

It's this kind of mentality that I find ridiculously endearing.

Just as long as nobody detonates any nukes.

Fuck me, I'm in Belfast.