City life

There's a lot that's different about daily life in Belfast vs. Crawforsburn. Biggest is the commute. I used to drive three minutes to Helen's Bay train station, take the train for 30 minutes to Botanic station, walk seven minutes to Queen's (and reverse, obviously). The train was warm, smooth, quiet, the walk brief.

Now I walk about seven minutes from the house to the bus stop, ride the bus 25 minutes to downtown, and walk nearly 20 minutes to Queen's. The bus stops a lot, is noisy, and isn't that warm. The driver usually has a radio playing--sometimes pop music, sometimes a soccer match. I'm trying to read about environmental policies, so I find this distracting, and the stops and starts get to me. The train was very slick.

I know I will adapt. I'll be in class until mid-May, so walking to and from Queen's isn't a long-term prospect unless I get a job there. Public transport is a far better option than driving--Belfast is a pretty congested city and the buses have bus lanes that speed the journey.

And the positive side is I live somewhere very beautiful. My house in Chester Springs had stone walls that were two feet thick. It didn'have particularly good light as a result. This house has three-sided, tall bay windows on two floors. The front of the house gets the light in the morning and the back of the house gets the afternoon light. It is a much more livable space--and will be especially so when the walls are painted and rooms furnished.
3-4