Hi there, last blog entry I was peeing in my own face. Now if that isn't going to increase readership I don't know what is...

Last you heard I was meant to be having a rest day but I got dragged out by some Czech blokes to a nightclub (!) instead. They seemed to enjoy my company, inviting me back to their homeland, and told me to skip Romania 'cause it was probably s***. I also found out that it's incredibly cheap to get your dental work done there (one was a dentist), so take the tip...

State of Origin was a bit of a wash-out, wasn't it? I found the most exciting part was waiting outside the pub for it to open. It didn't. So I had to quickly make my way up the street, trying at each open pub - i.e. all of them except the one I was hoping for - before I found one who could show it. And I was their only customer, so I guess it was worth their while. I'm a bit more relaxed about being able to catch Game 3 in the Netherlands now, it's shown on a standard sports channel - seemingly their version of Sky Sports.

The following day I was back to my touring best doing a scenic lap of the north west, including a visit to Glenleavy National Park. Same story: nice but not spectacular.

The next day picked up a bit though. I visited Derry (Europe's best preserved walled city, apparently) which was nice. Not spectacular. But then I visited the Giant's Causeway.

As a matter of fact, that was a little disappointing. The Causeway you always see advertised is over an extremely small area. About half a football pitch. The best part is the getting there. So long as you get there by the Causeway trail, which edges along the cliff edge of dramatic bays, outcrops and castle remains. Unfortunately I under-estimated how long it was going to take me and, by the time I reached the Causeway itself, the buses had finished and I was looking at a long walk back again.

So I phoned a friend :) Terry's a workmate who was in Ireland visiting his wife's family. I'd always planned to meet up with him, but it was particularly advantageous this time 'round. He couldn't come out and play, but we had a good old chin wag as I was deposited back at my car. To those at work, he says g'day and he'll pop in briefly in the next week or so before he disappears again on Long Service Leave.

Dorm to myself. Yes! I booked ahead on this one, 'cause I figured that everyone would be coming to see it, it was a weekend, etc. Maybe people don't get out to the countryside too much when they visit Ireland. I did bump into a bloke the other day who'd seen _all_ of France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the UK...in 6 weeks. I suppose he's not all the unique.

Anyway, if you'd any geographical nous you'd know that the Giant's Causeway is in Northern Ireland, part of the UK. The only way you realise that you've crossed the border nowadays is a sign saying: "Hey, speed limits are in miles now buddy". Which was handy, 'cause I got a mental mathematic workout as I drove, not having mph indications on my speedo.

The roads are noticeably better and the drivers more closely adhere to the speed limits. Probably 'cause there are signs everywhere warning of speed cameras. Which is a neat trick on the part of the authorities, 'cause they don't have any reminder signs. You can go 20-30km without seeing a sign telling what speed you're meant to be doing, so you have to pay attention for the first one, otherwise you're out of luck....

And what is the story with the roundabouts?! If you need traffic lights on your roundabout, then a roundabout is not the best solution! You just get a horribly confusing sign on approaching the interesection and absolutely no opportunity to change lanes, between traffic lights, on the roundabout itself. This combined with traffic lights for each entry point only varying by a matter of degrees! No wonder the British Empire went into decline!

Different money too of course, so I was walking a budget tightrope: needing enough to get by and not wanting to be lumped with anything spare when it was time to go. I left with 50p, so not bad. It's pretty expensive. Petrol was going for 1pound 30 (nearing $3/litre?)

Anyway, next stop was Belfast which I really liked. Probably moreso than Dublin, although that could be because I've spent far too much time in the latter. Belfast just felt like a proper city. Dublin feels like a destination.

Belfast is undergoing some massive changes (5 years ago no-one was coming 'cause you were a chance of being blown up). In another 5 years it's going to be a pretty awesome place.

So long as the Catholic-Protestant thing stays peaceful. There's still some sort of danger of it sparking up again seemingly. Separating the communities are a "Peace Line" (a 20m-high fence that zig-zags between Catholic and Protestant-owned properties) and "Peace Gates" (which block off connecting roads, and are still closed most weekends apparently).

You're urged to explore the neighbourhoods though by the Tourist people and I did. So it was entirely by accident that I found myself marching in an Orange Parade. Well, _beside_ one anyway. They kept on following me and, whenever I stopped to take a photo, they'd catch up again. I've no idea what it was about, but the dudes marching were almost undoubtedly the same blokes wearing balaklavas and holding machine-guns who were praised in the wall murals. I think the Orange guys are my team (heritage-wise) but I was still uncomfortable enough to think "Gee, better get my camera out so everyone knows I'm a tourist". Particular since my next stop was the Catholic 's section....

Imagine buying a house in this city? :

"So as you can see it's a beautiful 3-bedroom townhouse, close to all amenities"

"Yes! It's great"

"You are Catholic of course"

"Sorry?"

"Your religion?"

"Umm...I have a scientific understanding of the origin of the universe and life and live under a naturalistic pantheistic philosophy and libertarian moral code"

"Soo....not Catholic then?"

"No..."

"Well, I've a lovely place that's available on Shankhill Road..."

(Shankhill Road is the Protestant section)

I actually shared my doom with a Jewish guy who woke me up with some sort of religious chanting. I'd got a cold again, and was feeling pretty horrible at the time so I jokingly said that I thought I was getting the last rites.

"So you're Catholic then?"

"Nooo. I'm just not sure which half of the city I'm in. In the Catholic half it's the last rites, in the Protestant half it's: 'Yeah, yeah, you're dying. No need to make a big song and dance about it...'"

The Catholic/Protestant thing extends well beyond Belfast too (as far as I can figure they've latched the religious divide onto the UK/Republic split). Protestant towns advertise themselves by flying the Union Jack, the red hand of Ulster and painting the curbstones red, white and blue. Catholic areas get an orange, white and green paintjob.

Anyway, I never felt particularly comfortable in a hire car, with high insurance excess, on Republic plates in the North. So it was with great relief I headed back down South.

I visited Bru na Boinne, which are a number of neolithic passage tombs pre-dating the pyramids. Very interesting. And nice.

My TomTom (actually it's TomTom Navigator running on a Pocket PC) once again flirted with being chucked out the window. It seems to have an uncanny knack of persistently not working precisely when you most want it to. "Waiting on valid GPS signal" it flashes repeatedly... I'm sure it would flash "...and if I had legs, I'd bump into things too" if it could.

The only thing stopping me from destroying it, is that it's always worked fine in Australia (OK, and 'cause I paid $200 for it). It must do some kind of calculating: "Hmm...it's coming up to 7pm, so undoubtedly my owner will be looking for his accommodation now", or: "Hmm...there sure are a lot of roads coming up. Must be a city! Time for a smoko...". But if anyone can come up with something suitably and spectacularly destructive, I'm open to ideas.

Yes, negotiating Dublin with no operating satnav and no street directory is no fun. I only made it by 5 minutes to my car return time. Thank goodness it was a Sunday morning! I was sorry to see it go... It's a neat little auto. Peugeot 308, I think I got the number wrong last time. I must've done something over 2000km and only had to fill it one and a half times. 300euros to hire it. 120euros to use it. I think I got a bargain...

Even happier that they didn't see any of the scratches that I found on it as I became more familiar with the car. I guess 'cause I received it dirty, and returned it dirty they'd been missed. I pity the person who returns it after a rain shower... I certainly don't recall bashing or scraping anything, I can only presume they were there when I picked it up. It's nothing major, but I didn't want to pay for it.

Also quite happy with my camera. I hadn't mentioned it, but I bought a Panasonic DMC-FZ18 to update my old digital. Really impressed with it's performance and it's flexibility - true wide angle (28mm) and telephoto (500m+ equivalent). At least I'm happy until I look at my photos on a computer and realise I totally forgot to set the speed with regards to focal length and they come out all blurry.... Hopefully I'll have some time over the coming week or two to put up some pictures that aren't entirely horrible.

I'm back in Dublin now. Don't really want to be. I'm just waiting to leave basically. I do that on Tuesday. I'd change it to sooner if I could.

Um....yeah, that'll do.

Oh, more on the Lisa-non-Lisa pseudo-stalker story of last blog. I hadn't actually heard from her 'til recently, and since she knew where I was going to be for the few days after her hotel/stalker adventure, I could only presume in the meantime that she got a better offer. What could be better than hanging out with me some more? Going on a road trip with famous comedians perhaps? Nah, more time in her nice, ill-gotten hotel room it seems. Now I just have to find out if she had a drink with Adam Hills and Danny Bhoy - and what they said about me! ;) I'm tempted to write on the former's Facebook Wall...

The end of Ireland.

Trust me. Nothing exciting is going to happen the next day and a half.

Look out Netherlands!