Very amusing breakfast in our Londonderry accommodation before leaving town this morning.
The proprietor was serving up a continental breakfast to the guests in a dining room in the basement. When we arrived there was an Australian couple already settled in, and a portly gentleman with an American accent who was haranguing the poor Derryman as he went about pouring orange juice and coffee. His list of complaints was long and highly detailed, but luckily emotions weren’t running high and there was no angry shouting to upset me. The owner was really being extremely patient I thought. Basically the complaints were these: the American had booked months ago, and the confirmation email said lots about parking but not much about the process of accessing the property. This sort of information normally comes nearer the time, but the American hadn’t managed to get any internet access arranged, or even get a cellphone up and running since he’d arrived, so hadn’t received anything more recently. He’d just assumed there’d be someone there to look after him any hour of the day or night that he arrived. He was very taken aback to be faced with a keypad only at the door. Second, his room was very tiny, with no room to put his suitcase anywhere except in the bathroom. Were all the rooms that small? Well, no actually, his room was the smallest one, but it was also the cheapest, he was told. Finally, and this wasn’t a criticism but rather a friendly suggestion, the light switches in the room were the same colour as the wall, so at night it was very hard to see them. A contrasting colour would greatly improve their visibility, and prevent having to wipe your hand all over the wall in the dark trying to find it.
By this time, the rest of us were in stitches, trying to hide our mirth from the clueless man. I felt a bit sorry for him actually. He would have been much better served going to a hotel. Anyway I’m sure he’d been stewing all night over his grievances. We all had a jolly laugh at his expense once he’d left, which was quite a bonding experience.
The proprietor had been born in Londonderry, just a few blocks away in Bogside. He’d travelled when he was younger but had to come back to his Mammy. It’s a culture of strong women apparently, the major local industries had traditionally been female ones such as shirt making, so the menfolk would just be unemployed. His grandmother used to say: They put one man up on the moon, why can’t they just send the rest of them up there??
From Londonderry we headed South West to Galway. We had our passports all ready to cross the border, but as it turned out, it was a complete non event. We didn’t even know it had happened until the road signs started to be in kilometres instead of miles. We were going to stop for lunch in Sligo but our trip through it was so difficult, and it was so hard to find a park that we gave up and decided to have a late lunch when we arrived in Galway.
We are staying in a little suburban pub just ten minutes walk from the city centre. We found a nice seafood restaurant for lunch and then explored the town on foot. It was a lovely day, sunny and warm. It was market day, and many of the streets in the middle of town were blocked off to traffic and thronged with people walking about. There were lots of buskers too, contributing to a festive atmosphere, as well as plenty of al fresco eating and drinking, including people picnicking beside the river that runs through town. The shops looked much better than anything we’d seen in Northern Ireland as well. We had a great afternoon.
We had predinner drinks in the garden bar of the pub we were staying at, and then dinner in a much livelier pub in town. Could Irish pubs be Irelands greatest export? It may be so.