| Title: | Celt Notefile |
| Moderator: | TALLIS::DARCY |
| Created: | Wed Feb 19 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Tue Jun 03 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1632 |
| Total number of notes: | 20523 |
On one of my recent trips to Ireland, as I was in Shannon Airport
preparing to embark back to Boston, I ran across something unusual.
There in the duty-free shop were your usual tourists, mostly American
and a few Europeans, buying perfume, sweaters, and those classy
"Kiss me I'm (8th generation) Irish" hats. At one counter, though,
there were hundred of people all swarming around the electronics
goods. Even the pilots, dressed up in military garb, were trying
to buy anything and everything in sight.
Any guesses? Da! Da! Russians, on a layover from Cuba to Moscow, stopping
to enjoy an hour of madness. You could have sold them your brothers
old walkie-talkies, or your Mr. Microphone. They cleaned out the
place. I'm surprised the plane could lift off.
Reminds me, too, of a show I saw where Russian fishers come into
Scottish ports (or was it the Orkneys?) and buy anything that needs
batteries.
-Yurgi
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 133.1 | Red sails in the Celtic twilight | AYOV15::ASCOTT | Alan Scott, FMIC, Ayr, Scotland | Mon Feb 16 1987 15:10 | 20 |
Aeroflot at Shannon: the Russians probably need to stop somewhere
between Cuba and the USSR - story is that they barter cheap aviation
fuel to the Irish. The Russians save on hard currency, which they'd
need otherwise - the Irish re-sell the cheap aviation fuel to other
airlines to persuade them to go on using Shannon (which is probably
less needed as a trans-Atlantic stop-over by other European airlines,
passenger or cargo, these days).
Russian fishermen in Scotland - was the show "Local Hero"? (a really
entertaining movie?). In real life, ports on the north-west coast,
such as Ullapool, are reportedly full of Russian, Polish and other
factory fishing boats during some parts of the year - they buy fish
from local and European fishing boats. Apparently, all this fish-buying,
and associated shore-leave, has quite an effect on the local economy.
I've been up there and heard about it, but not at the right time
of year to see it...
One of our programmers here in Ayr has stories of schooldays, (20 years
ago), drinking in pubs in Irvine, (near here), which stocked vodka
traded from Russian ships.
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