i'm in newry staying chez F and being well taken care of. so nice. she's about five miles from the border. tomorrow i have to do some travel housecleaning: call for hostels, buy a bus ticket, pack up th bag again, do some laundry, etc. it's so nice to be in someone's home, though, being well fed. we slipped into a town just across the border this afternoon. maybe it was just my imagination, but the folks seemed a little friendlier down in the republic. i can't blame them up here in the north, though, considering the troubles really only ended about ten years ago. and while everything may seem all cool on the surface, F's family pointed out that many of the same tensions remain as undercurrents. like how newry is mostly a catholic town in the north-- the roads here aren't nearly as nice as some of the roads in smaller protestant towns. stuff like that. it sucks really. it makes me a bit uneasy-- not that i'm fearing for my safety-- just the vibe of the place.