Three Days in Brief
Trip Start
Sep 06, 2004
1
27
50
Trip End
Nov 23, 2004
Galway, Ireland
Sunday, October 3, 2004
Later Katherine and I helped Rashelle move out of the hostel and into her new place, a tiny room in an old townhouse almost in the centre of town. Carla also moved out, though she had someone else helping her so I didn't see her place until later. So I had my room at the hostel almost to myself, except for the Polish girl whose name I can never quite catch. Exactly what I wanted, right? Well, of course then I felt lonely.
To stave off the lonelies, I picked up a book and literally couldn't put it down. I finished it that night...lucky I'm a fast reader. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code. It's an "intellectual thriller" about codes, computers, international intelligence, etc. Highly recommended!
October 4
This week there are fewer long-termers. (We get a Monday-to-Monday rate of €70--normally €112.) So the only ones remaining from last week--the Polish girl and me--were moved into a 4-bed room...actual floor space again!! Our new roomies are Joris, a Dutch guy who's looking for work as a chef, and Helena, a Swedish girl looking for waitressing. It is a bit inconvenient having a guy in the room, but we have an ensuite bathroom, and he's nice, so it's not that bad.
Busy day...met Katherine for brunch at The Coffee Club, did more fruitless shopping, hung out at Murty Rabbitt's again, then walked around Salthill/university area looking for work. No luck...it's all residential. I did apply for one job online, turning school materials into a Braille-friendly format. Sounds cool, but it's in Dublin. So I started to wonder about going back to Dublin after all.
I also thought about my writing career. It occurred to me that I can write travel articles about Canada for papers/magazines in Ireland and the UK, and travel articles about Ireland for markets in Canada and the US. Playing both sides--a sweet position! I also need my notes from home about the latest stories I was brainstorming before I left. I brought a few of the stories on disk, but I can't remember what else I was thinking about.
October 5
Did more job-hunting online. Went to the immigration office with Katherine to get our identity cards. Took the city bus for the first time. I'm finally getting used to the currency...there's 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cent coins as well as €1 and €2 coins, so making change is actually easier, especially since prices tend to be rounded to the nearest 5 cents. We got off at the wrong stop though, after the bus went off in a different direction on the roundabout (traffic circle). We walked past the Galway Film Institute--have to check that out later! On the way back we saw a double rainbow stretching all the way across the sky.
Megan from Toronto returned briefly. I ended up pouring out my soul to her on the sofa at the hostel reception. She suggested that since I have some extra in my bank account, maybe I should try travelling around a bit...Killarney and Dublin and all that. She thinks I'm very smart and should be getting a good job, but would have better chances in Dublin than in Galway. She's also generally encouraging about life, dreams, being a writer (not that she is one), etc. We made plans to go out with Katherine the next day...she wanted to know what we'd both been up to since that day in Tig Coili. She's that kind of person. Maybe I'll try looking her up when I'm in Toronto....
