Belfast

Ah Belfast. I am here for the summer of 2004. I got here in early July and and will be here until mid-September. Grad school at Stanford doesn't start until the 28th of September and I don't move in until the 21st. That late start date is giving me about two and a half months here in the UK. I am working for Aepona, Ltd., a small telecom company that is doing well for itself. I am surrounded by a bunch of good friendly people. Daminen O'Niell is my boss and has been great to work with. Karyn Keatly is out technical lead and she has nice to meet and work with. She has recently annouced that she is going back to school to become a teacher. The other person that I have had a lot of contact with is Ivan McShane. A good guy from Derry, I have been going to lunch with him and Damien for the last month. Ivan has helped me understand what has been going on in Belfast through the last decade or so. He went to the Queen's Univerty in Belfast and has been out for a number of years. We have had a number of conversations about how far Belfast has come and far it still has to go to shake of its troubled past. Ivan was also kind enough to show me some of the pubs the night after my whiskey tasting. That was a good night even though it wasn't until then next afternoon that I realized that a pint here is actually 20 oz and not 16 oz. That mean two drinks here is more than three drinks in the states. On top of that the beer is a bit stronger here as well.

Some Things About Belfast

Belfast no longer suffers from a large security presense, though there are reminders of it. It used to be that after around 6ish, the city center became a ghost town. Ten or fifteen years ago police would sweep the streets in the evening and shut the city center down. There were also mandatory checkpoints upon entering the city center and visible security and military partols. Now Belfast is safer than most large US cities and is considered one of the safest cities in Europe, that is provided you don't go looking for trouble. For instance, if you were looking for trouble you might go into a Protestant bar and start singing Catholic hymns. That wouldn't go over so well. Everything still closes down by around 6. This is just a left over habit from the past. The exception is on Thursdays. There are signs all over proclaiming "Shop Late in the City Centre on Thursdays Until 9."

July 12th is a good day NOT to be in Northern Ireland if you don't know what is going on. Many of the traveling books suggest not visiting in July. Many of my co-workers encouraged me to travel somewhere else for the long weekend. Marching Season as it is known commemorates the Protestant vicorty over the Catholics at a Battle of the Boyne. Members of the Orange Order march in celebration of this monumentous event in Irish history.