Belle of Belfast City

Hello all! I have a little downtime after my work day so I thought I'd tell you about my trip to Belfast. Canada Kate, Lisa and I left around ten in the morning on Monday by bus to Belfast in Northern Ireland. Lisa decided to stay in a seperate hostel, so when we arrived we split up to check in to our rooms and met up soon after. We then took off on our Black Cab Tour. In Belfast there is still fighting and violence between the Catholics and the Protestants, although it is truly just a continuation of the fighting that began when the British invaded Ireland many years ago. Our tour guide took us along the "peace wall" that divides the neighborhoods into Catholic territory and Protestant territory. In the 60s and 70s the violence was extreme. I won't go into details of the history because it's too much to write and I probably would mess up the facts. It's interesting though, if you have the time and feel like checking it out. Anyways, the cab took us around the Catholic side of the city and our guide told us a few stories and showed us some of the famous murals on the walls. I enjoyed the tour, although I think our guide laid it on thick with how bad the Catholics had it. They were definitely the ones who were being persecuted, but today, I'd say the violence is from both sides equally. To me it is unacceptable. How humanity hasn't figured out that violence doesn't solve any problems is beyond me. Anyways! After the tour we walked around the city a bit and settled into The Crown Bar, which is known as Ireland's oldest pub. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but the pub was cool! It had a very old fashioned feel to it, and each table had little walls to provide privacy. I liked it a lot. We headed back to the hostel after our much needed pint and made dinner. Lisa went back to her hostel and Canada and I watched My Best Friend's Wedding. The next morning Canada and I went on our day tour (compliments of our hostel, Paddy's Palace who is connected to the tour company, Paddywagon...dead serious, that's the name.) It started with a stop at Carrick-a-Rede which is a rope bridge that connects two of the Carrick Islands. Kate and I skipped the fee to cross the bridge and instead took the walk down the coast. It was so beautiful, and we were blessed with a clear and almost sunny day. :) After an hour or so there, we moved on to Giant's Causeway. I really can't explain what it is and how it was formed, so I'll let Wiki do it for me.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant



Anyways, basically it is a series of rock columns that fit together like a puzzle in various geometric shapes. It's crazy! It is supposedly formed by lava, but the Irish have a legend about a giant that created the rocks and I'm pretty sure they are right. :) After a few hours there we were off again, this time for Derry. Our guide gave us more information on the battle between the Protestants and the Catholics, and we took an hour break there. Kate and I were pretty tired at this point so we didn't do too much there.



We got back around six that evening and we met up with Lisa for dinner. We rushed through our good and much needed meal and headed off to the other side of town. Lisa found us 10 pound tickets to see the show Stomp. I don't know if you've heard of it, but I recommend the show to absolutely anyone! It was so amazing! There were eight people involved on the stage and they did a series of musical performances using brooms, buckets, garbage cans, and lots of other things. The coordination involved in that show was stunning! If you have the chance to go, you have to! By the time we got back to the hostel we were so wrecked. It had been a long but really good day! The next morning we had breakfast and met up with Lisa to do the walking tour. Unfortunately the good weather luck had run out. Because a walking tour in the rain didn't appeal to us much, we spent some time in the museum and then parted ways. Kate and I wanted to check out the mall because everything is much cheaper in Northern Ireland. Lisa wanted to check out the town a bit before leaving. We made it to our bus five minutes before it took off to take us back to Dublin.



I really enjoyed my time in Belfast! The day trip was the highlight for sure. Today was just a regular working day. After work and the meeting in the afternoon, I made a few cheesecakes for tomorrow's group. It is Khadija's birthday, and although she won't be supervising the group, she will stay to make sure everything goes smoothly. We have a weird situation this weekend. They needed to have a nurse for the group, so in order to make it "worth it" to pay a nurse to come, they asked six out of seven people that are in wheelchairs. It is hard to explain just how much a pain in the ass that is. I'll try anyways. :) We only have space in this house for five people extreme maximum in chairs. Because of that, we will be having the group in the Swords house where we have one of those stair lifts. Moving to Swords isn't so bad except for the fact that they are having a kid's social on Sunday afternoon there, so we have to clean and leave the house and bring everyone to Malahide that morning. We also only have room for four chairs in the bus at a time which means two trips everywhere, which means less activities. On top of all that, Erin is leading the group, and Sharon (the break house manager that lives in Cork) is going to be our nurse. So, to conclude the whining, I am not excited about this group. :P I'd say it's about 50% selfish and 50% concern for quality groups for the members. Most of them probably won't care, but there will be a few that will be bothered by the fact that we aren't going out to dinner and we're not going to the cinema. I will have to mentally prepare myself to be in high spirits and consider it a challenge to be completely positive and stress-free the entire weekend. (Am I convincing anyone?)



In other news, I am getting more excited for my upcoming trip to Rome next month! And I just bought a ticket to Madrid for the beginning of my April break. I will be spending a few days there and then heading over to Italy to spend time with Audrey and Andre once more before I move back home at the end of April. Crazy how fast it's coming up.... It's the end of January for goodness sake!



Well time to go get a few more things done tonight. Much love to my people back home. :)

~Claire