A Newgyptian in Ireland (& London): The scoop
September 22, 2005
So I'm in London now and it's been really great, though I've only been here a day. I know I haven't spent THAT much time in London, but it feels really familiar, and that's comforting after my somewhat harrowing experiences in Dublin. I'll get to that in a second, but first I just have to say that it's been really great staying with Yaz. I always talk about how cool she is, and then when I see her again I'm reminded that she's even cooler than I remember. When I got in yesterday we just spent hours talking about shit - life, relationships, work. Seriously, I love this girl. Today we all had a little high school reunion meeting up with various old friends, some of whom I haven't seen since grad. It was really cool, and just felt really natural to be hanging out again after all this time.
But you guys don't want to hear about all that. Jing wants the dirt, and though I was initially hesitant to offer it, I must oblige. What I've written so far has turned out to be incredibly long, so I think I'll post it in parts so as not to bore you all. But stay tuned...the story of Dublin DOES end with me finally breaking an almost two-year streak of celibacy. And even though I don't usually like to kiss and tell, I will do anything for my readers. See? That's how much I love you guys.
And with that...I give you first the boring details:
So my first day in Dublin was kind of rough. JIM and I met up at the airport. We had agreed to meet outside the customs area, but he kind of flaked out on that and waited for me by the baggage carousel. I actually saw him before he saw me but I wasn't...ready...I guess to meet with him yet, so I kind of walked past him. Eventually he found me and we hugged and had some awkward conversation. I got my bag and we proceeded to get money and figure out what bus we needed to take. I
was initially staying in a B&B in southern Dublin, while he was staying in a hostel in the heart of the city, but I figured I'd just take a bus with him to his place and then figure out where to go from
there. This was a bad idea as my pack was heavy and I wasn't really used to carrying it around, plus it was absolutely pissing rain. I dropped him off at his hostel and found that I had to walk 15 minutes
north in the rain and with the pack in order to catch a bus to my place. We agreed that I would drop off my stuff at the B&B and we would meet up for dinner. Of course I got hopelessly lost on the way
back to his hostel, and I'm convinced was purposely pointed in the wrong direction by some mean-looking lady on the street thus adding to my lostness. I ended up being an hour and half late for our tentative meeting time, and had no way of letting him know as he didn't have a phone on him. He seemed kind of angry, but didn't let on. We went and found a vegetarian restaurant to eat at, and proceeded to pretty much eat in silence. I still can't quite get over the fact that a little over two
months ago we couldn't type fast enough all the things we had to say, and were left seeminglly bored with each other and having nothing to say
in person. After dinner we pretty much decided to split up. I called up the few contacts I had in Dublin but no one was available to hang out, so I just went back to the B&B.
JIM and I had agreed to meet the next day at noon at the natural history museum. Of course I was late again, but when I arrived he wasn't there which was a relief for me. (This is somewhat important
later.) Eventually he showed up and we did the natural history museum and hit the National Gallery which was next door. It was pretty cool.
I can't remember now, but I think afterwards we split up. Oh yeah, we did, and I met up with Joe who was - I can't say it enough - just really cool and excellent to hang out with. I went with him to buy
tickets for his performance of Hedwig, and then we grabbed coffee.
Di's friend Emily had given me some numbers of people she knew in Dublin, so after coffee with Joe JIM and I met up again at Trinity College to meet with Sean, a really cool bloke. He took us to the
Irish Film Center, which is pretty much the only place in Dublin where they show independent-type films. Sean was meeting another friend there to catch a Greta Garbo flick, so we just hung out in the cafe.
Sean was an interesting guy, and he managed to get JIM talking and even smile and laugh a bit which was a relief for me. We saw the "filim" as they say in Ireland, and it was alright. While I used to really love old movies, now I just find them overacted and somewhat boring, but JIM really likes old movies so I figured it would be good for him. Of course, the movie ended on a note that I found to be anti-women, and I jokingly made a comment about it to Sean, which then turned into this big discussion and made me out to be this raving feminist. I think JIM got really annoyed with that, and so he escaped
to his hostel, and I called up
Chris says it's something he and his friend do for a lark. They could never afford to stay there, so they just drink there and put on airs.
On the way there I stopped a guy to ask for directions, and he turned out to be Algerian. It's really odd Arabs meeting abroad - he spoke to
me for two minutes, and desparately wanted me to have coffee with him (not in a sleezy way, but more of a "another arab!" way), but I made my excuses and went off to meet Chris. It was an interesting time, and my first Guinness in Ireland. I really thought Chris was cool, and really liked Niall though you could tell they were really good friends used to playing off of each other and I think i confused that balance. They were nice enough though and invited me to a club to catch one of their friends dj-ing, but I opted instead to meet up with Joe and his bf, Mick, for some drinks and an after-party at one of the Fringe Festival locations (where Joe would be performing Hedwig a few days later). We had a nice time, and I ended up cabbing it back to the B&B as it was a bit late when we finished up.
Next day I moved out of the B&B - much to the disappointment of Tony, the middle-aged Australian boarder whom I had befriended there - to move to a hostel in the city centre. After dropping off my stuff, after meeting a chap with a muddled accent who actually reminded me quite a bit of Colin (this is important later too) I wandered around a bit and eventually made my way to a meeting of the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. I didn't think JIM would want to be subjected to that, so we agreed to do our own thing that day. Sadly there were no hot, young Irish or Palestinian activists, just a few really nice, old gentleman who made me feel very welcome. Raymond, one of the founders of the group had just come back from the West Bank and told us some stories of what he'd seen there. The meeting was not very productive, but we got to have some delicious Arabic food made by the Palestinian
owner of the cafe where we met, and I think a good time was had by all. Adel, an older Egyptian gent who has been living in Ireland for 30 years was nice enough to drive me back to my hostel.
I showered and changed, and got ready to meet up with Maz, a friend from high school - in fact, one of Mini's best friends from those days - whom I hadn't seen since grad. I was a bit nervous about meeting
him, wondering if he would comment on how I'd changed etc., but our meeting was just really warm. We got coffee and caught up on each other's lives, and then had a really good Italian dinner with a nice
bottle of wine. As it was a Saturday night, Maz insisted on taking me out to the very touristy Temple Bar area for drinking and music, saying that it was something every Dublin tourist should experience.
So, after dinner I found I had a message from JIM saying that we should meet up the next day, blah blah blah, and for some reason that launched me into a bitch session about him to poor Maz. �
ANYWAY, Maz and I made our way around Temple Bar stopping at various venues to drink and hear live music. Outside of the Mezz, which is a pretty cool place, we bumped into JIM (who had told me before that he wasn't intersted in going out drinking while in Dublin), with an Italian girl from his hostel. There were somewhat awkward reetings all around, and I confirmed with JIM our plans for the next day. He said, "What time do you want to meet?" And I said, "I guess 10:30 is fine." And he said, "Well, it's up to you, you're the one who is always late." To which I said, "Hey, you're the one who was late the other day at the natural history museum." At which point he told me, "Actually I got there a little early, and YOU were late so I walked around for a bit." This kind of annoyed me because I like to just have things out in the open, and it just confirmed to me that he was holding back some things. Or so I thought. Things were sort of cleared up the next day...but whatever.
Anyway, Maz and I continued our foray into the Temple Bar scene, and ended up at the Porter House where I live band of older gents were playing some rock classics. It was good when we got there - they were playing some Pink Floyd or something, but they brought down the house with "Brown Eyed Girl" - seriously EVERYONE was just singing along and in good spirits. Then they followed that up with "Knocking on Heaven's Door", and a few other good tunes, and I was, well - in heaven. After that I was a bit tired so Maz walked me back to the hostel, and we made plans to meet up the next day so I good meet a few of his friends.
Ok, this is so long as it is, and I'm not even through a good chunk of what I have to say about this trip. You all will just have to stay tuned if you want to hear about how Newgy got her groove back (sort of).