ultra gaelic

I arrived a bit over a week ago for a six-month stint as visiting metadata manager at the Digital Humanities Observatory and am slowly getting settled in.

I flew from Baltimore to London the day after Thanksgiving on British Airways and found the service disappointing.  The plane felt old (even though it was supposedly only a few years old), and the choice of dinner entrees was “a traditional Thanksgiving dinner,” which, when announced by the lead flight attendant with a British accent, I became skeptical of.  I opted for the pasta dish but was given a Thanksgiving dinner.  I didn’t care for much of it.  But even more disappointing was breakfast: a cinnamon roll and juice.  BA used to serve hot English breakfasts (beans, stewed tomatoes, and all!) when it used to fly from Detroit, but I guess the glory days are over. I’ve long debated signing up for vegetarian options when flying even though I’m not a strict vegetarian just for the the better food. However, after this flight I think I should declare that I would like the “Hindu” option. That’s what the guy next to me got, and not only his dinner but even his breakfast looked much better than either of mine.

We landed to a bright and sunny day in London (imagine that!), where I took the bus to Terminal 4 for a short stay at Yotel before taking Heathrow Express to Terminal 1 to fly on Aer Lingus to Dublin.  After following a maze of corridors to get to the gate area, passing signs along the lines of “last women’s toilet before gates”, you end up in a long corridor with insufficient seating. But it’s not simply a corridor: when a flight arrives, they close glass doors on either side of the gate to allow arriving passengers to pass directly through the passport control and customs, leaving those waiting to depart unable to pass through to gates beyond this one.  It seems that they always use gates closest to the center to avoid this problem, but I can only imagine how many passengers get stuck behind two panes of glass, within eyeshot of their gate.  In short, it makes Sheremetyevo Terminal 2 (pre-renovation) look well designed.

We landed in Dublin to the thickest fog I can recall ever seeing.  Not just thick but cold: the temperature was just a bit above freezing—the coldest day all year.

For now I’m staying in the Booterstown neighborhood with a single mom and her two kids (ages 9 and 7) but am busy searching out apartments with available rooms closer to the center.  I have my heart set on the Grand Canal Dock area, inhabited by yuppies who work at Google, investment banks, and law firms.  Some call it “the Google ghetto.”

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You probably are looking for some photos.  Until I get my act together, please content yourself with some photos I took this summer.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. Both comments and pings are currently closed.