It’s expensive to connect to the internet overseas. The expense,
for me anyway, is not so much the cost of the internet connection (i.e.
Compuserve’s fees) as it is the cost of making a local phone call.
I was able to connect in Belfast but the price was steep so I couldn’t
stay online. That caused us to go hunting for an Internet Café.
We found Bronco’s Internet Café and visited there several times.
I got to talking to the owner and discovered that, at least according to
him, not too many people in Northern Ireland are all that educated when
it comes to internetworking. He said the cost of broadband connections
there is prohibitively expensive and even getting a local network set up
is rather costly. Made me think someone ought to go take their expertise
over there for a while. That could be a profitable business.
Incidentally, he did explain that the fact that his store is called Bronco’s and the colors are orange and blue is purely a coincidence. He has a young son (2 years old) who he says is a ‘big kid’. He calls him Bronco, ergo the name. He didn’t even know those were the Denver Bronco’s colors until a customer explained it to him. The fact that I had that conversation with him, the owner, illustrates what is the norm around Belfast. The people are really friendly. They’re outgoing and love to talk, though I have been warned not to talk religion or politics, particularly in a bar…
There’s a pub down the street from the hotel (which was quite nice by the way) called Katy Daly’s. The 2nd night we were there they had 3 live bands playing all the same night. Being a sucker for live music I couldn’t resist. We enjoyed that and even over the music were able to again have several conversations with the almost overly friendly locals. Next door there was yet another band playing (there’s lots of live music in Belfast) and one of the people Reggie was talking to invited us over there. They had a cover charge and we didn’t have the cash needed. When we suggested the idea of an ATM they said we might not want to do that because there had been ‘a little scuffle’ outside. So we stayed for the rest of the evening at Katy Daly’s.
On our way back to the hotel we saw just what had happened. Apparently
it was some drunk teenagers that got out of hand. They had turned
a car onto its side in the middle of the street, burned it, and stoned
it with rather large chunks of concrete. It was still laying on its
side in the middle of the street when we walked by. Since it was
the street right next to the hotel, we thought we’d get a picture.
We went up to get our cameras and on the way out mentioned it to the guy
at the front desk. He said we might not want to go back out there
‘just in case’. He offered to take us out the back, which he did.
We snapped a couple of pictures and scurried back inside. Unfortunately
it was so dark that the picture I took didn’t come out. The next
day we walked by and the car was still there, though turned upright and
moved out of the middle of the street. That’s when I got the good
picture.
