Ireland Travelogue 2

Intro
Part 1
Part 3>>

This one's got photos everyone, sorry for the wait. Click to make larger of course.

Oct. 7, 7:35 p.m.

I saw two French, fellow hostelites getting rebuffed from renting "Babe" and some other movie by the lady at the front desk because the former is a kid's movie and the latter a chick flick.

I'm not sure what this lady's problem is. I had to deal with her earlier about how I should dial local phone calls and she actually looked at me with something akin to disbelief and disgust and said deadpan, "I don't even understand your question. You're asking me how to use a phone?" Um yes, because if you haven't noticed, this is a hostel and the patrons of a hostel are probably not from around here. Sure, I guess I can go by trial and error and keep feeding money into this thing until I figure it out, but I thought, you know, I'd be kind of a normal person and logically ask someone who has to dial locally on a regular basis.

Then again I'm not quite sure if it's that she has a bad attitude. It seems more like she honestly thinks "I don't have time for this bullshit and neither do you so I'm doing you a favor here." I would also categorize it as "a glorious lack of the mechanism that tells you 'I think this, but I won't say it.'" I mean it was grand when there were situations that she needed to be firm in, but it was like she was in hardass mode 24/7.

[Ed. note: I tried to give this lady the benefit of the doubt, but pretty much over the next couple of days I stayed there she exhibited more and more evidences that lead me to believe, no, she just has an attitude problem.

For example, it wasn't like she was joking with the two French guys about their choice in movies. It didn't come off as a "Ha, ha, I'm just giving you guys a hard time," people watching the tableau actually kind of began to squirm nervously and the guys smiles began to fade as they realized she was dead serious and wasn't going to rent them either movie.

Oddly enough at one point she sat in the common area of the hostel to bitch about her job. Not that she hated her job, oh no, she liked working in hostels, she just hated the people she had to deal with.

Yea, I kind of didn't know what to think about that except, "You're obviously in the wrong line of work."

On the other hand everyone else who worked there was lovely. I kind of made it a point to avoid her as much as possible though for some reason she still decided I was asking her too many questions. Either way, I don't want to give the place a bad rap, just if you decide to stay there and you have to deal with this lady, realize it's not personal, she's like that to everyone from what I've seen and everyone else who works there are perfectly fine.]

Anyhow, there's this dude next to me trying to make some lame love connection and I'm trying real hard not to laugh because it's so awful.

It seems like everyone here is so young or maybe I'm just old. Of ocurse it's relative.

I ate dinner at a place called "Hillbily's Chicken" today. No, seriously. There was nothing Hillbilly about the decor. There was just a couple of old vintage Wheaties, Chevy and Jolly Green Giant ads...and they played hip hop. Now I might be more forgiving if it was Dirrrty South rap or something, but no.

Best part, because I'm the type of weirdo to read copy on the side of a bag, is that they claim the recipe for their chicken was found in a humble farmhouse in the American Deep South. And whoever this hillbilly is, does he know that his namesake restaurant is selling fries accompanied by malt vinegar packets?

Now I'm not the most PC person, but is it ok to say hillbilly? At least they didn't name it the Redneck Velveeta Shack, though I would totally find that funny and I'd be wrong to find it funny, but I would.

I might go to a pub tonight to try the whole Beamish and Murphy's test business since I've signed my life away to the fest the rest of the week. I had to sign up for shifts today and got a lot of awkwardly timed ones because other people had been signing up since a couple of days ago. Nonetheless, I managed to find some slots that work for me.

I had some people look at me like I was crazy when I said I was going to volunteer for a film fest on my vacation (thankfully, a small majority). "Why work on your vacation?" they said.

Well, I guess I could've just been lazy, but really that's no way to spend your time in a place you've never been to before. Besides, I like helping out with stuff, what can I say.

I walked by the Beamish brewery today and was sad because the security guard told me they don't do tours until the winter.

I also saw some ghettofabulous heelies winding my way towards Elizabeth Fort and St. Fin Barre's Cathedral. They were basically two huge plastic wheels that you'd attach the heels of your shoes. Sort of in the same spirit of those roller skates you strapped yourself into back in the day.


(A view of St. Fin Barre's from afar.)


(View from the front. Note the edge of the gates in the corner. I'm backed as far away as I can, but still having trouble getting everything in.)


(A little help so you know what it is you're looking at. So let's start taking a looking at this in detail from left to right.)





















St. Fin Barre's Cathedral was gorgeous. I kept circling around it taking pictures. At all sides. At numerous angles. Of almost the same things. The architercture makes every angle look like a great angle.







There was a funeral procession of sorts passing by while I was in there and I felt weird. Not that there was a funeral service going on and the crowd ended up just walking by, but still. I stopped taking pictures to stand quietly and let everyone pass.

I was so excited by this trip but now now. And I don't mean it in a bad way, like I'm disappointed in it or something (I mean it's only the first day), just I'm not really freaking out about anything. I was worried, sure, about going off on a trip on my own and all that, but now I'm almost too calm about the whole thing. Well, not exactly totally calm.

So in my head I'm thinking "What the fuck, I'm walking around Cork," but at the same time I'm thinking, "This is so weird, it's like walking around any other city. It's not like I'm walking on ceilings."

Sure it's different. People drive on the other side,signs are in English and Gaelic. The best part is the look of the place in my opinion. The overal look is just...cute for lack of a better word. And I don't mean it in a trite or dismissive way. Like it's small and...and...아기자기...sorry, English fails me at the moment. It's like it's small and well put together and like someone put in a lot of thought into it.

I haven't even started with the volunteering but I already want to come back and do it again.

Intro
Part 1
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