thitherward

In this day and age, no one should have to pay for wifi by the minute. Access to information should be easy to gain and cheap, if not free. Of course someone needs to pay for and set up the infrastructure so there needs to be some way to fund it, whether through advertising, monthly data access plans, taxed, I don’t care – it just shouldn’t be by the minute. It doesn’t make any sense! You never pay for using the library based on how many minutes you’re in there! If internet/wifi is available, it should not be charged on an antiquated minute-by-minute usage system. As a matter of fact, telephone air-time shouldn’t be by the minute anymore either. The technologies that deliver these methods of communication aren’t based on minutes anymore; they’re based on data volume.

I’m annoyed by this, obviously. Everywhere I’ve gone in Ireland, when I’ve had internet access, I’ve had to pay for it in 1, 10, or 20 minute increments. If I could get free wifi in Mongolia, i sure as hell expect it here at the Dublin International Airport. And I’m waiting at the airport listening to a girl practice her recorder here in the waiting lounge as I hand-write these posts in my notebook.

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So, why am I flying? If you’ve noticed on my travel map, I made my way across northern Europe quickly – breakfast in Berlin, lunch in Bremen, dinner in Amsterdam, then dinner in Paris, lunch on a ferry crossing the English Channel, in Ireland the next day, train up the eastern coast of Ireland to Dublin, and Guinness and Irish dancing that night. I slowed down long enough to enjoy a few walks in the Irish countryside with my long-time friends. But I’m taking a plane to Austria to continue my train journey across southern Europe this time.

I’ll always remember the Irish though! I love this music…

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A quick day-trip to the west coast of Ireland for a walk to the water’s edge (or as close as I could get to it with the stony beach and causeway). In true Irish fashion, it rained all day. A perfect anti-climactic end to my goal of getting from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean by land.

Drunk/happy train passengers on the train after a day in Galway:

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I went to a small Irish town about 40km outside of Dublin to visit some friends from high school. They happened to be in Ireland (well, we kind of planned it but it just sort of also happened). It was great – just green and peaceful.

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Stormy night on the seas. Enough said.