All is quiet on the western front. I'm moving east to Belfast in about an hour. I figured I'd make some quick notes since I have neglected to do so recently. This past week was fairly productive and overall better than I thought it would be. A quick recap in the on-going log of my dissertation research:
Monday: Bank Holiday. Everything is closed. Went to the Pub with Joe and Rich.
Tuesday: Woke up early and sauntered down to the bus station. Caught the bus to Enniskillen where I checked out the Royal Inniskillin Fusiliers regimental museum. I was pretty impressed with it really. It was a small operation but very well done. I got to talking to one of the folks who worked there and he actually gave me some leads for Derry. So that was good.
Wednesday: Not too much. Went down to the Free Derry museum in the Bogside with Rich. It's a one-sided story (but understandably so) and a really interesting little museum.
Thursday: I met with Trevor Temple, who is the principle historian on the Diamond War Memorial project in Derry. We sat down for a bit and talked about various things. Trevor told me of some more sources down at the Harbour museum that they had neglected to mention, so I fired off an email to them when I got home. He gave me some additional tips and I walked away with a solid contact in Derry.
Friday: I was able to get back down to the Harbour museum and look through the aforementioned files. Thank God for the digital camera. Just snap pictures of everything and sort it out later. I had originally planned to go to Armagh to see the Royal Irish Regiment museum, but then I discovered that instead of a 2:45 bus ride from Derry with at least 1 connection, I could take a 1:15 bus from Belfast with no connections. Needless to say, that trip was deferred for a few days.
Saturday: I woke up late and did laundry. Then Rich and I went to Belfast for the afternoon. We got a few pints at the Crown Bar and met some crazy drunk lady who kept us entertained until it was time to catch our bus back to Derry.
When the dust settles, I have to say that I've enjoyed my time in Derry the most so far. Having a couple of roommates to do things with has helped greatly. But I think I collected some good material while I was here. I get the impression the next three weeks are going to go pretty quickly since there seems to be a lot of stuff to do in Belfast and my week in London is going to be a whirlwind tour. I'm probably leaving Derry at a good time though, because even though it's the least expensive place I've been thus far, I've probably spent more time and money on extracurriculars here than any where else along the way. I'm sure next weekend in Belfast might be similar since my buddy Poz is going to be in town, but I have a feeling it's back to my old hermetic routine. I haven't broken the bank yet, so it's probably a good time to do so.
All for now.
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