Saturday I went to the gym, then I went to the department to charge my phone and read the paper. Between the gym and the department, I stopped at the bus stop to pick up the paper. There I found, sitting on the bus stop bench, my travel coffee mug. I know it’s mine because it looks like mine and it has the same wear marks from the bottle basket I have on my bike. So I think how lucky I am that I wanted the paper and that I went to the bus stop to get it, where I must have accidentally left my coffee mug while waiting for the bus the day before. I didn’t even realize I was missing it!
Then it occurs to me that this bottle is, in fact, not mine! The day before, I got off the bus early to pick up bagels, and when I went home, I got on the bus at a different stop than the one where I found my mug. Never on Friday was I at that bus stop, though I positively had my coffee mug with me. So then it occurs to me that I found an identical and identically scuffed coffee mug, but when I get home, my old mug is not in my bag, leading me to, again, believe that the new mug is in fact the old mug. But then I take a closer look at the mug I’ve now brought home, and some of the scuff marks don’t quite look right, and I think my mug is cracked in a place where this one isn’t but I’m not sure.
So now the questions. Is this even my mug? If not, where is it and whose is this one? If it is, how did it get to the bus stop? A couple possibilities present themselves. One of my friends noticed that I left my mug in the department and took it home, meaning to give it back to me at some point in the future. Unfortunately, that person then forgot it at the bus stop, leaving it to be found by me the next morning. That doesn’t make much sense though, as I’ve got a mailbox someone could easily have put my mug in.
The other possibility is that I myself left the mug on the bus and, somehow or another, the mug managed to leave the bus and get deposited on the bus stop bench later in the day when the bus cycled back to campus. The problem with this theory is that I finished my coffee while in the department, which means I would have put it in my bag when I returned home instead of carrying it around. Why carry an empty coffee container and a backpack? Why would my mug have escaped me on the bus and end up at my very stop? Is there a third option? Possibly, probably, but I don’t know what it is. I am sure that whatever explanation is the right one, it depends on my misremembering something about the morning though right now I’m positive I haven’t.
This morning I found a toddler lying in a hedge, crying loudly for his mother. No likely candidates for mother were close by, so I went over to the toddler and asked him if he needed help. (I couldn’t tell if he was stuck in the hedge or not.) Other people were walking by and ignoring him, so I thought maybe it wasn’t a big deal and the toddler could remain screaming in the bush. I asked him twice, but he just kept screaming. I figured better to help someone who doesn’t need it than not help someone who does, so I reached into the bush and pulled him out. I set him down in the grass next to the bush, and he ran off and disappeared, and now I’m not sure that really happened.
Tonight, I was standing in my front window putting a record on. Someone knocked on the window. Since it’s night time, I can’t see out very well, I just see a masked figure staring at me, tapping on the window. My heart raced. It was the mailman, delivering a package a week earlier than I expected it. My heart is still racing.
Photos from one thoroughly decorated bathroom.
The Bray Summer Festival is awesome.
Not Mario. More of a gas pump man.
That’s pretty much the summary of these photos here, and I think they don’t really need much commentary. THAT SAID, this is my last post about UK&Ireland 2013, so some narrative is in order.
Left Belfast Friday, got to Dublin where I got to stay with some old friends I hadn’t seen in far too long. I guess that happens, but I hope it’s not five more years before we get to rest the haven’t-seen-you-in clock. We had a fun adult-night-out on Friday, but the real highlight was taking the kids to the Bray Summer Festival, where the kids went on rides, the parents went on rides, everyone ate gelato, and I took pictures of all sorts of air-brushed ephemera. Okay, that’s exactly not the right word for what I took pictures of, but I like the way “air-brushed ephemera” sounds, so I’m sticking with it.
Afterwards, I got to eat delicious food and drink delicious beer, all made from scratch by my friends, who for that reason alone makes me wish they didn’t live an ocean away. Also, you know, they’re cool people. Sunday I got on a plane back to Boston, and now the party’s over. Fortunately, a new party begins soon.
This is the story we heard. Back in the 90s, people didn’t really go into West Belfast, but an Australian guy asked some cab drivers to take him on a tour of the area. Most refused, but one agreed, and that was the beginning of the Black Taxi tours of Belfast. (Incidentally, our car was white.)
This is another story we heard. The areas were so dangerous that bus service was discontinued in them, so people brought in some taxis from London (black ones), and started essentially doing bus routes in them. Now that things have settled down, bus service has continued, but the black taxi service remains. Those actual black taxis are different from the tourist ones, but they’re still around.
The tour guide was.. I don’t know, maybe in his mid-fifties, so he’d lived through most of the roughest parts. He basically just took us around, stopping at buildings and streets that played important roles, explaining the different murals and the people they depicted. Really a great way to see the city and gain a better idea of what really happened here, though I reckon the quality of the tourguide changes a lot. Our was great.
I didn’t really have a grasp of the scale of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, even after visiting the museums. They built walls around sections of the city. Houses near the walls had cages surrounding their backyards to protect them from bombs from the other side. The gates would just close at night, on Fridays for the entire weekend. The wall is still standing, and even optimists think it will be there for another twenty years. Most of the schools are still segregated. Hard to imagine that something like that exists in such an otherwise modern country, but then, you know, there’s a lot that’s hard to imagine / true about the US.
Belfast and Belfurious? More like Belfast and Belfriendly.
Thursday , 25, July 2013 Wales & Friends 2013 Leave a commentLeft Glasgow via train, then took a bus to a boat and a boat across the water to Belfast. Things had been a little bit more tense in Belfast recently, especially with the Orange parade a few weeks earlier, where the Protestants celebrate a 400 something year old victory over the Catholics, getting everyone in kind of a sensitive mood. Not tense enough to avoid, and once I got there, not tense at all, especially not according to all the people I met who were set on convincing everyone Belfast was a lovely and safe place to visit.
They convinced me. I had a lovely time in Belfast. The Ulster Museum is fantastic, with a small-but-thorough exhibit on the Troubles and a wide selection of taxidermy and the history of (Northern) Ireland. The city is really pleasant to walk around in, everyone is really nice, plenty of good street signs to enjoy. Did see a Confederate flag in one of the bars, which was disconcerting, but I didn’t spent much time thinking about it, lest my positive feelings for the place get a bit spoiled.
I had some great luck with folks in Belfast. The hostel I stayed at was clean, staffed by super friendly people, and, um, stayed-in by a really friendly group as well. The problem with a nice hostel full of nice people is that it can kinda trick you into spending too much time there, which I definitely did, but a lot of that was the pool table’s fault.
I was a little sleepy on Thursday, so… I went to see Pacific Rim. It was terrible; I don’t know why I was surprised. After the movie, I stopped in a really promising looking bar which served delicious (and pricey!!!) cocktails. I ordered a Manhattan, and they apologized for not having any rye, would bourbon be okay? The mere fact that you asked me that question makes my heart leap with joy! I met up with some super friendly guys there who took me out to a few fun spots. IT was super fun, and it’s always great to get to know a town through the locals, though it made my Friday a little more tired than I’d planned. But great fun. Visit Belast.
Halloumi cheese.. Haloumi cheese.. whatever. My new favorite.
Glasgow is great. Pretty controversial statement, but I’m sticking to it. Everyone I met says that Edinburgh is way better, which is all the more reason to go back to Edinburgh, cause, while I had fun there, Glasgow was a blast.
First thing I did was check into my hostel, which was pretty lame, but also pretty cheap. That’s a pretty common relationship, because of course it is. Then the modern art museum downtown, which is where the horseman wearing the traffic cone is. Remember that? Probably not. Afterwards, I headed to the West End to see the Kelvingrove museum, I think, which was a mix of art, history, animals, and, most impressively, organ music. Well, it’s not an organ music museum, but there was definitely a giant organ with a dude playing it loudly, and it was fantastic.
Inside, listening to an organist seriously kick some organic ass.
I had lunch at a combination bike repair shop / cafe, and dinner at some place called Stereo, which may be related to the place I had lunch the next day, called Mono. All places were super delicious, especially since they were just sandwiches. But very delicious, especially after a week of hotel foods.
That night, I went to see some local bands and one Japanese band play, which was pretty good. Kinda generic britpop/shoegaze I guess, but fun. Surprising amount of shows I’ve been to this summer. Next day was more touring around, making arrangements for Belfast, etc, but the best part was getting my haircut, because getting a haircut in a foreign land is kind of exciting. Didn’t cut much off, but enough to not feel like as much of a hippie. So that’s pretty good.
The Party’s Party’s Over: Fort William to Glasgow.
Sunday , 21, July 2013 Wales & Friends 2013, West Highland Way 2013 Leave a comment
Ubiquitous Chip. Photo Credit: Some dude in the restaurant.
Last photos from the group portion of the trip. Basically just a train trip to Glasgow. Cool.
What were the highlights of this portion? Being well-rested on the train was great, everyone was in high spirits and the scenery was great. In Glasgow, Brendan and I immediately went to TGI Friday’s where I drank a Budweiser. We then went to another bar with an 80s themed dance area on the second floor. IT was closed, but Brendan charmed his way in just so he could check it out and get some pictures. Because Brendan is awesome.
Afterwards, we went to a great restaurant in the West End of Glasgow, followed by some farewell drinks at the hotel bar. Unfortunately/awesomely, it devolved into a “What else can we mix with Irn Bru?!?!” sort of a night, but it was fun. Everyone left the next morning, and then I was back on my own. Three more posts to follow, I think. Glasgow, Belfast, and Bray. Get excited.
Men About Town… Specifically, Us About Fort William.
Saturday , 20, July 2013 Wales & Friends 2013, West Highland Way 2013 Leave a comment
View from Highland Hotel.
After we got to town on Friday afternoon, we pretty much immediately began making plans for dinner. Fort William being a rather touristy town, there were a lot of options, though most were hotel restaurants or pubs, and we’d had plenty of haggis and burgers, so we wanted something different. Unfortunately, that led us to choose what turned out to be the place with the poorest service we’d had, but nbd. The food was fine enough- I got some ravioli. The biggest victim was dessert, which we opted to skip in the interest of not waiting several hours.
My dad left dinner while we were waiting (again, interminably) for the check, and he successfully convinced a candy shop to reopen for us to get gelato. (Spellcheck doesnt like that word.) After, some of us went and played darts, which I didn’t realize how much I missed/liked/had gotten terrible at. Barhopping followed. Hooray.
The next day we had plans to go up Ben Nevis, but the temperature and crowds ultimately dissuaded us. Instead, we took a boat ride around the loch, wandered around the city, and just generally enjoyed not being on a trail with a backpack. At five days, it was rather a short hike, really, but nonetheless I really enjoyed just wearing sneakers and jeans for the day.
That night we ate at a really great place with actually responsive service, which put us all in a good mood. More wandering around town followed, and we capped the night with a pleasant chat at the hotel, followed by more darts! Man, what a game.
Day 5: Kinlochleven to Fort William
Friday , 19, July 2013 Wales & Friends 2013, West Highland Way 2013 Leave a commentThis is going to be the last post including pictures of me wearing my sikk trail gear. Bummer.
How about just a picture of my shadow on the trail?
Friday we finished our mostly last day on the trail. It was a pretty long day, starting with an initial ascent up um.. I dunno, a few hundred feet. A thousand feet? Not as high as we’d been on other days, but it was pretty front-loaded. It was a rather long day too, especially coming after the relatively reasonable yesterday we’d had; I think somewhere north of fifteen miles. Luckily at this point we’re all in tip-top shape.
Because it was such a beautiful day, maybe, and maybe because it was a Friday, or maybe something else, there were a TON of people on the trail, which was maybe mildly annoying, just because you get into a pattern of passing people, then having them pass you, etc. Plus there was maybe a person on the trail that talked loudly and annoyingly the entire time, so you had to try to stay at least fifty feet away from her. (She did inspire my dad to practically sprint a half mile to create a satisfyingly large buffer behind him, so that was nice of her.)
After we got to town, we, surprisingly, drank some beers and took some showers and had dinner. I’m saving all the photos from the booming metropolis of Fort William for a single post, JSYK.
