Home > On Tour > Jungle Adventures > The Europe Tour 2000-2001 > Belfast, N. Ireland
	Belfast, N. Ireland Cork, Ireland <<<   Dublin, Ireland >>>   The bus ride to Belfast started off a nightmare! Remember the roads I described in the Cork entry? Yeah. Now we were on even WORSE roads. Being in the back of the bus didn't help things. Having some extra legroom didn't help things either...I'll explain. Since I had little sleep the night before, I was trying to sleep on the bus (since we loaded in the next morning). So I'm laying down and being tossed around like a ragdoll with the bus bouncing through these pothole-filled winding roads. At one point, the driver slammed on the brakes for something, and without a seat in front of me to brace on, I flew to the floor. I figured there would be no sleeping on this bus, so I put on my headphones, and pressed play on my MD player, whose batteries promptly died. Oh well. I just sat looking out the window until our first stop. The first stop was pretty cool. We stopped at a small rest area with a big castle, Cahir Tower, next to it. I walked around and looked at the castle a bit and bought some more batteries before we got back on the road. About halfway into the trip, we finally ended up on a large highway, and I was able to snooze a bit. And what a treat when we stopped for an absolutely amazing lunch break. It was at one of those cafeteria-style places where they serve up fresh-cooked food, and in MASSIVE servings. When I asked for some meat, I didn't ask for half an animal, but that's what I got. And all the veggies. Oh it was so good. We've had a recent history of TERRIBLE lunch stops, so this was a real treat! We finally arrived in Belfast to our brand-new hotel. It wasn't even finished, which was proven to us each morning with the sounds of hammers and drills...who NEEDS a wake up call? Without expecting it, I was again in a single room. I moved in and started to unpack. About halfway into my settlement, the phoen rang. It was our tour coordinator saying a mistake was made and I had to change rooms. Needless to say, I was a bit pissed. But I repacked all my things and moved to my new room, with a roommate...at least he is a cool guy and not a freak! As I looked around the room, I noticed the list of phone costs. Good God! Bill Gates couldn't afford to make a phone call out of this place!! They listed various localities, and the charge for calling those. A LOCAL call was $3 for 5 minutes. 60 cents a minute for a LOCAL call!! NOW, look at the long-distance ones. It came to something like $1.25 a minute for a call to the US. And the topper, the label which read: "Freephone access $3". They charge you $3 for calling a FREE phone number! HAHAHA It's laughable. I then and there swore not to go online this week! Trying to find something to eat for dinner, I found that there it a plethora of choices around the hotel, including the 7 Chinese take-outs in a row. I thought that was kind of funny! After eating I fell right asleep, knowing Tuesday would be an early, long day! What a relief after last-week's horse barn to be in a nice, brand-new, although maybe a bit over security-conscious arena. Load-in went brilliantly, and we were ready in plenty of time for the show. The rest of the week was not very eventful. I spent most days working on our closing night projects, and nights at the show. Thursday was a crew-night-out. Usually this means a few bites to eat and a few beers...whatever fits into the budget. Well, they found a place that was willing to serve it up for a small price. We sat in booths of about 6 people each. Our booth was served first. The waiter came up with a tray containing six plates of munchies. We thought that was to be split among the various booths. No, that was just our share!! Chicken nuggets, wings, onion wings, sandwiches...wow. And free-flowing beer. It was a great night! Saturday was an exercise in futility. It was our head electricians last day with this show, and I was taking over as head. This whole year, we've had a trouble-free show, so I was expecting the last two weeks to be fairly easy. Well, I don't know what kind of force was acting this day, but literally, the minute our head electrician pulled out of the parking lot, the show fell apart. First a report of a pyro no-fire. No big deal, it wasn't loaded. Then another pyro no-fire, then a spotlight not working, then a moving light blowing up...it was not fun. I spent the rest of the day running around like a half-dead chicken trying to fix everything. Sunday was the same, but it being load-out day, there were other things to concentrate on. Although with only two shows, it was much nicer! After the last show, we had a perfectly good load-out and made it home while the bar was still open. I, however, was past the point of exhaustion and didn't even finish my drink before going to bed. Since we got home early Sunday night, and travel wasn't until 11am Monday, I was able to get a full night of sleep after a load-out. Very nice!!! Monday morning, I paid my fairly decent phone bill and boarded the bus for our last travel day to Dublin, Ireland.