haste ye back

All the action in London at the moment had taken care of any worries I may have had over the IRA in Northern Ireland. Surely there’s enough havoc for one country right now. Today was a transit day for me: car, ferry and bus. We left Edinburgh about 10.30am. We’ve driven through the city a couple of times now and each time I keep waiting to get to the ‘centre’. Turns out we’re quite often there, it’s just a doesn’t look like it. It was the same today…it wasn’t long at all before we were leaving the city behind and the green hills returned.

We drove across to Glasgow and then headed down the Coast. It was another nice day so it was could to see the country in sunlight rather than through droplets of rain on the car window. It also made hitting the coastline a rather nice sight. No beaches, just rocks, but still pretty. We were on the major road to the ports at Cainryan and Stranraer although you wouldn’t know it based on the roads. They were still quite narrow and windy. We made it to Stranraer, where I boarded the ferry to Belfast. The one from Cainryan goes to Larne and is a quicker trip, but then I would have to get from Larne and I’m a little over commuting. As you leave a lot of the towns in Scotland, there is often a sign saying ‘Haste ye back’. Mum had told me about them and it’s all a bit cute really. She hadn’t managed to get a photo so I did.

The ferry was a rather impressive ship. They took my luggage like they would on a plane so I didn’t have to carry that around. There was free wi-fi, power points and plenty of seats and decent cafes. The Spirit of Tasmania could learn a lot from here. I spent most of the trip catching up on my blog and hunting down accommodation in New York. Again, time has got away from me and it dawned that I would be there next week. Turns out everyone else will be too – most of the hostels are fully booked so I have been searching for Couchsurfing hosts in earnest. I’ve only surfed once so far, that’s partly been by choice and partly because I’d had trouble finding hosts. For London I didn’t really look because I knew I would be busy and wouldn’t have much time to spend with my hosts. I don’t think of CS as free accommodation so if I’m not available to make the most of the experience, I don’t feel comfortable surfing. After making a couple of requests for Belfast I gave up because I plan to be out all day tomorrow on a tour to the Giant’s Causeway and also need an evening or two to catch up on things.

Belfast is one of the few cities that hasn’t really impressed me much. Admittedly the port area probably isn’t its best side, but the city centre just looked like a typical city centre, and the suburbs were not much too look at either. Unfortunately, my hostel wasn’t much better. Actually that’s an understatement. It is the worse hostel I’ve ever stayed in. To be fair, it was only £8 a night so I shouldn’t complain. It was just very run down, very basic and the staff were useless. They were two Australian girls and I hope they don’t get paid much because they sure didn’t do much. The girl who checked me in just gave me a key and sent me on my way. It turned out later she’d put me in the wrong room so after I’d unpacked I had to move all my stuff next door.  I was pretty tired after a few late nights and big days so I trotted up to the supermarket, bought some vegies and cooked a stirfry for tea before calling it a night.