The Dark Side

I am generally annoying with visitors, listing all the things I love about Ireland and don’t miss about the U.S. I think that’s only natural when you are in an adopted homeland. Of course I get kicked in the butt when Ulster’s dark side emerges. Meade & Erin spent the morning at the Ulster Museum and the afternoon at Titanic Museum. The weather wasn’t great, so this made a lot of sense. They are both more interested in natural science and history, which are in abundance at the museums, than some other touristy things on offer.

When they left Titanic, they were in the midst of Belsonic, which is a bit like Lollapalooza, or some other megaconcert (on a smaller scale). So they saw public drunkenness, vomiting, bottle throwing, and the class of Belfast women who stagger around on very high heels, wear very short skirts and trowelled-on makeup. Meade & Erin walked through a police cordon to get to the pedestrian bridge to city centre and ended up at a restaurant next to the Garrick, a perfectly nice pub through the week. Today Ireland played France in the Euros, so there was a large crowd of very inebriated people in town. So they saw a brawl on the street. So much for my big-hearted, friendly town.

Luckily they are good sports and took it all in stride. It was great hanging out with them. They have the perfect attitude for travelling--whatever will be will be. I haven’t had much contact with young people since I ended my tenure as a youth advisor at MLUC. I’m interested in what they make of the world around them. It’s an exciting time for them. Erin just graduated from William & Mary and has a job lined up at Goldman Sachs. Meade, like Erin a computer science major, graduated a semester ahead of her and worked for a software firm in Richmond before deciding to move to Hoboken to be with his sweetie. My guess is he’ll find a job before I do.
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