Derek Solo in Ireland 2019

The trip began well enough with the train into Pearson.  I was solo as this was an item on my bucket list, attending a World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon) and not Geri’s.  I added a few days at the front end to do some dark political tourism in Derry as the cheapest flight I could find was on Rouge to Belfast via Edinburgh.

Smooth train ride to Pearson.  And on arrival I got a free entry to one of the stand-alone (not connected to an airline) lounges because I have a low-end Amex card.

I had to overstay the time allotted to me though as my flight was, in the end and after several rolling changes, four hours late in departing for Edinburgh.  By the time I realized that it was going to be late in leaving I had already eaten the cannabis brownies we use to sleep through flights while keeping our backs relaxed.  We time them such that they kick in about the time we board the aircraft, allowing for a one hour delay while the THC kicks in.  Makes it possible to sleep on the plane no matter how small the seat.

Made the last couple of hours I spent in the lounge kinda fun.  I oscillated from having a fine time to being ready to put my hands behind my back when the SWAT team figured out that I had overstayed my free two hours.

Edinburgh Drama:

On arrival in Edinburgh I tried to relax and make the best of things.  Kinda proud of how well I did at that. 

Turned out that there are only two FlyBy Airlines flights from Edinbugh to Belfast on Saturdays and the first had, as expected, left.  The second was full but I went on standby for it anyway, killed a few cappuccinos.  Just in case someone didn’t claim their seat.

No dice, it stayed full.  Air Canada gave me a room at an airport hotel plus food and booze to a max of I think 100GBP.  So my plan was to nap, head into town and see what I could of Edinburgh.  The nap went well but when I woke up it was raining heavily.  I grabbed my Kindle and went to treat myself to a steak for dinner on Air Canada.  It and a book and some nice (and free) wine) were the plan.

A couple of bites into the steak I was running out of oxygen and standing by my table, trying to convince people in the dining room to give me the Heimlich maneuver.  About three quarters of the room looked annoyed at me for disturbing their evening meal and the rest looked as scared as I felt.

Only one other guest and the bartender started running towards me.  I still don’t know which but one of them grabbed me and did the deed.  I turned my back to them to speed things up as my vision was going red around the edges by then.

After much gratitude etc. I sat back down and continued my meal.  Actually finished it.  But later spat up some blood when brushing my teeth for bed.  I asked about a clinic etc at the desk and choose to spend a couple of hours reading and drinking ice water in the lobby while the staff kept an eye on me. 

Once the bleeding stopped it was fine though I did stick to soft food for the rest of the trip I think.

I am in line to take a first aid course that includes the Heimlich.

Sunday morning I was off to Belfast.  From the domestic airport I took the Airporter bus to Derry.

Derry:

Fascinating.  A flashpoint during The Troubles and where Bloody Sunday took place. 

Photos HERE.

The tensions are ramping up again as Brexit approaches.  Some really unpleasant actions by Loyalists and some petrol bombs in reply just the day before I finally arrived.

Abbey Road B&B is highly recommended.  See photos.

Mostly walked around on my own.  Aside from the murals left over from or referencing the Free Derry period lots of political graffiti and memorials to both civilians and IRA volunteers killed by the British.

I took the murals walking tour.  These are conducted by the families of those killed on Bloody Sunday.  The Free Derry Museum was also worth a look-see and some cash.

My only regret was that because of the delay I wasn’t able to make lunch or a beer with the General-Secretary of the Derry Trades Union Council.  Would have been the icing on the cake.

Bus to Dublin:

Bit of a tour of Loyalist towns and some rather deliberately and spectacularly offensive symbols, liberally used.

News to you I am sure:  Ireland is very green.  😊

And it rains a lot.  Perhaps there is a connection.  Anyway, the whole time I was there it rained with little or no warning.  Small storms in off the Irish Sea. 

Dublin:

Photos of the Dublin bits HERE.

It has been a long time since we travelled to Europe in the summer.  1984 for me I think.  The cost of rooms was a reminder of why (weather being the other reason).  So I stayed in the Trinity College dormitory.  Stark but serviceable.  Short middle-of-the-night trot to the toilet.

I enjoyed the WorldCon.  Glad I went, crossed it off my list.  The convention programme was 188 pages.  6300 people registered.  All organized by volunteers.  Very impressive.

But I am more a reader of science fiction than a serious fan.  And while I got to meet some nice folks and see and hear some authors I have been reading (one for fifty years or close to it I think), I won’t be off to another one.  Just not my thing plus I thought it was just too big.  The largest room at the Dublin Conference Centre holds 3,000 people.  Which meant that I often had to line up to get into workshops or panel discussions.  Once I skipped a workshop so that I could line up early to get into a workshop that started two 50 minute time slots later and still wasn’t there early enough to get in.  And I was never able to get anywhere near the front of the lines when I tried to get my name down for a beer with Joe Haldeman.

Anyway, other than some longish waits I had fun at the WorldCon.  Finally go to see one.  And the strange people who go to them.

When not there I took Lorcan Collin’s renowned 1916 Rising walking tour and made the required pilgrimages: Glasnevin Cemetery, Connolly statutes, Larkin statue, Dunnes Stores strike memorial.

Just as importantly I got to The Celt for what will likely be my last pint there before I croak.  A pub Geri and I have always made our local when in Dublin.

Met friends there too, always an oddly fun thing to do when far from home.  Pat and Michael were in Dublin on their way to Michael’s family reunion.  And Blaine and Rosalie had swapped houses with a retired professor (I think) and where just outside town for a whole month.

I met B and R at the Guinness Storehouse, a stout museum.  Again,  travelling during the high season was a problem as the place was PACKED.  Bit embarrassed that I had recommended it to them actually.

As always, Dublin public transport was fab as were the busses Belfast to Derry and Derry to Dublin.

Got in a really, really interesting lunch with the International Secretary at the ICTU and coffee/breakfast with three folks from the Dublin TUC.  Always interesting to see and hear how other people do things.  Especially with Brexit looming.

Seamless trip home.

Two years in a row when I have had some solo travel.  Don’t mind but not as much fun as Geri to talk to each evening about the day past and the one to come.

Likely my last trip to Ireland, only thing I didn’t do was stay up late enough to catch some stand-up comedy.  Might have to go back for that.  😊

Farewell Tour: Vienna, Venice and Budapest

Halfway through we decided we would likely, given our ages, never again visit Vienna, Venice or Budapest despite our love of wandering around each.  Hence the title for this entry.

Vienna was as always except that, thanks to Lorrie and Duke, we had a free place to stay.  Nice free place to stay.  The proof is in the photos, see them HERE.

We also had a new experience.  A fairly minor matter but we needed a MD to write a prescription.  A bit of a runaround thanks to Google Maps which sent us on a long walk to a physiotherapy clinic, then a short U-bahn (metro) ride to a very impressive hospital and two, count ‘em two, MDs who spoke excellent English and go things sorted in a few minutes.  A bill is expected sometime this year.  Or perhaps not.

Geri’s enthusiasm for walking is limited and so I did some early morning walks through the parts of the city I like the most.  On my own I also spent a day at the ETUC conference (convention in North American English) meeting a few people about LabourStart stuff and just enjoying the feeling of a union event that size when I had nothing at stake.  Photos of that HERE.

All photos of Vienna, in a number of albums, are HERE.

For the scenery we took a nice relaxing train back and forth between Vienna and Venice.  Budapest too but the train there and back not as scenic.  No Alps.

Venice was Venice.  Our apartment was really very lovely, especially the courtyard.  And for the second time we lucked into a neighbourhood that is still mostly residential, not entirely turned over to tourist scum like us. 

A great town to just walk around in if you don’t mind getting lost.  Snaps of the apartment and city HERE.

Budapest was more of a reunion than even Vienna as while we have only been there once before the hotel we stayed at both times is a place we are very attached to.  Photos of it this trip are HERE and the rest of Budapest HERE.  Note I finally got some photos of the Shoes monument and Geri got her tour of the Hungarian Parliament.

Spain Before Portugal 2018

I had to be in Barcelona for a LabourStart exec meeting and a meetup with some comrades from UGT and CCOO.  It came up after Geri and I had booked our month in Portugal and it left a blank spot of a week between when the LabourStart stuff ended and when Geri would be arriving in Faro.

The LabourStart meetings were very productive, our first ever meatspace session as opposed to cyberspace meetings.  Just as importantly I was able to arrange, at different times, for everyone to take the Civil War walking tour offered by Nick and Catherine.  Details HERE.  It got, as expected, rave reviews.  The Norwegian member of the executive actually used an exclamation point in a message he sent about it.  A rave.

Next up was Madrid.  I made a virtue of necessity (limited budget) and gave myself a nostalgia treat by staying in a hostel.  Mostly fun as I had a room and not a bunk.  Even had my own sink or ‘tippytoe urinal’.  Though someone did steal my soap from the shared bathroom.

Saw some monuments, though the one to the union lawyers who were assassinated by the military just as the dictatorship was ending was in a small square that was being torn up.  I got some photos but none are very good.

I took the Civil War walking tour offered by the woman who is the executive director of the NGO there that honours the memory of the International Brigade members by funding research, running a library and making sure that monuments and graves are maintained.

That tour was very different from the one Nick does but it was also fab.  Details HERE.  At the university where the Brigade monument is was the front line at the south edge of the city.  You can still see the damage in some of the buildings and shell casings are all over the place even now.

The medical faculty where Norman Bethune did his development work is still there and apparently there is a plaque inside but the building is not open to the public.

There are some pillboxes built by the fascists when they crossed into the campus led by a bunch of Italian tanks.  They were to protect the bridge while the Italians got their tanks across.  The bridgehead lasted about a week, I think.

When looking for them (I was on my own at this point) I noticed hundreds of buses parked on both sides of the road leading from the bridge to the university.  At the end of the road is a huge stone triumphal arch.

When I figured it out it was kinda creepy.

That day was the day celebrated in the US as Colombus Day.  In Spain is it a national holiday marking when Spanish language and culture and all that good shit went out into the world to enlighten it.  Made a holiday by Franco as part of his re-branding of fascism as ‘Catholic Nationalism’.

The buses were full of fascist party members come to the capital for a parade.  Marching, in semi-informs many of them.  And it started at the arch I saw, which had been built by Franco after the Loyalists lost the war to mark his victory.

The day before I had arrived by very high speed train from Barcelona and had taken a hop-on, hop-off bus tour.  A good way to orient yourself I find and so I make a habit of them.

All over the centre of the city were bleachers along the main boulevards.  LOTS of bleachers.

The blackshirts parade had a huge crowd watching and cheering.  And returning to the university to catch the metro back to my hostal I noticed a lot of pro-fascist graffiti.  The tour guide had earlier mentioned that the uni had a large student fascist club.

On a much lighter and brighter note, I pulled my ‘hi, I’m in town for a few days, will trade lunch for a short orientation to the labour movement of your country’ schtick at the national HQ of the CCOO.  As sometimes happens the guard at the door had some trouble figuring out what I was (I try to dress reasonably when doing this as it makes getting past the guards most European union offices seem to have a lot easier) but once he did he seemed kinda pleased to see me.

But as they don’t have a waiting area downstairs I was asked to trot up the road 50 metres and wait in a bar.  A horrible imposition but there I was so….  As it turned out there were other people there without an appointment or who had for some reason been sent to the bar rather than up the elevator.  They were enjoying some red when someone came to fetch them.  A kind someone who chatted with them while they finished their wine at a reasonable pace.

When I was called I wound up with coffee rather than wine but a translator (not really needed) and two of the staff who had been partly responsiblke for the organizing of the national strike by 50 million Spanish women the year before on IWD.

That was a downright amazing couple of hours.  AMAZING.

The second very high speed train ride took me to Seville.

Great hotel, recommended.  I got a special as they were empty but even at their regular price a good value very pretty spot.  Though driving to it might be a problem on anything wider than a scooter.  Other than that…mmmm….  The CNT office was closed, the CCOO office was running on adrenaline about something I could not figure out.  Might have coloured my impression of the city after Madrid.

There being no cross-border rail service between Portugal and Spain, I took a 2.5 hour bus trip to Faro Airport.  It was fine.

I got our rental car, did some shopping, unpacked a bit and was back at the airport to meet Geri when she arrived. 

LabourStart Exec photos HERE.

Barcelona wanderings photos HERE.

Madrid photos HERE.

Seville hotos HERE.