Snapshots of an Irish Adventure: Northern Ireland

Hey everyone, it has been hard to find the motivation to blog lately due to less free time to do things of the blogging/posting picture sort, especially when the Internet can be rather slow around these parts. Regardless, this past weekend we traveled up to Derry and Belfast in Northern Ireland. We spent a lot of time on the bus and it made for a pretty tired and bus-weary students when we arrived in the North.

Our first stop was in Derry where we spent the afternoon and evening of the 29th and the morning of the 30th seeing the city and learning about the interesting and vivid details of the conflict in Northern Ireland. The first sight we saw in Derry was the ancient wall of the city, built in the 1600's to protect the city. We took a walking tour of the ancient wall and then went down to the Bogside neighborhood of Derry where Bloody Sunday or the Bogside Massacre took place in 1972. We took a short tour of the neighborhood and then on Friday morning we took a tour of the Bloody Sunday Historical Center, which was very interesting and moving. The man that gave us the tour had participated in the civil rights march on Bloody Sunday and his brother was one of the 17 who were murdered by the British forces that day, it was pretty deep and a moving situation to actually talk to him and hear his stories.

After we left Derry, we made a stop at Bushmills Distillery, the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world, and we were given a tour. It was very interesting and of course, we all enjoyed it! After Bushmills we took a bus ride out to what is called "Giant's Causeway". Giant's Causeway is an impressive geological site that consists of thousands of hexagonal stones that go into the ocean, it is kind of hard to visualize so I took pictures and will post them for you to see! It was very rainy and windy at the time, but it was still a really cool site to visit, crazy how the Earth works!

From Derry we moved to Belfast. In Belfast we took a bus tour of the city, seeing many things. We saw the dry docks where the Titanic was built and the enormous cranes used for shipbuilding that dominate the Belfast skyline. We moved on and saw 2 of the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods that saw the most violence during the Northern Ireland conflict. One of the most interesting parts of the tour was seeing all of the murals that people had painted on walls and side s of buildings commemorating the conflict, the lives lost, the battles won, the pride taken, and such things. The murals were usually very pointed and quite intricately done. After the tours of the neighborhoods we went and saw the Northern Ireland government building and the town hall.
After our tour was over, a good number of us went to the St. Michael's market in the city center. The market was amazing! There was live music, fresh vegetables and fruit, fresh meat and fish, fresh baked goods, coffees, and teas. There were people selling hand made crafts and trinkets and there were plants and fresh flowers intermixed amongst all of this, it was pretty extravagant and very cool. The food was good, I had lots of free samples and lots of great free smells as well as a delicious sandwich. It was all in all a great day! That night was Halloween night and many of us in the group dressed up and went out. I was a ghost and I felt pretty cool because lots of locals enjoyed my costume! I think almost everyone in the group dressed up for Halloween, we had togas, lumberjacks, Jamaicans, fairies, witches, and several other great costumes and overall, it was a great night!

Sunday was a long day that consisted of about 6-7 hours on the bus. We made a stop in the town of Strokestown and visited the Strokestown Famine Museum and the Strokestown Manor and Gardens. Over all the Manor was gorgeous and the weather had just cleared up so the sunset in the gardens were pretty amazing despite most of the flowers and what not being done blooming for the year. We arrived back at the PLH pretty late, had a late dinner of meatloaf and watched the Vikings beat the Packers and then went to bed. We had a long day and a long weekend with lots of bus riding and sight seeing. Northern Ireland was our last group excursion and it was a good one! It was a great time and a good place to visit, I would really recommend it!

I hope all is well back home, I can't believe it is already November! Time is winding down and before I know it Mom and Dad will be here for Thanksgiving and shortly after that I will be home in Minnesota! Things are moving fast! Here are some pictures of Northern Ireland, I will update my Picasa page when I get the chance! Enjoy!