Saturday, July 5, 2008

Northern Ireland

I guess I should update the events from two weekends ago... I have been lazy. First here are the links to pictures... WARNING: There are over 350 pictures so it may take a while to go through them all.

Are We Still In Ireland?
The Northern Ireland Adventure Continues
Why can't we have stuff like this in the US?

Now on to the fun... We left the IES center in Dublin at 9am on Friday morning (the first time a big group like this has EVER left on time.) We rode in a chartered bus up to Belfast and ate at the Crown Bar... good food, nice atmosphere. Then, as a group, we took a Black Cab tour of Belfast. (There were 6 different cabs, but we traveled to each stop in a caravan.) The tour goes through a lot of the areas that are historically significant in the Troubles for Northern Ireland. (Those who don't know about the Troubles, you can read about them here.)
We visited Shankill Road, the predominately Protestant Road in Belfast where they have murals on the gables of the houses.This was one of the more striking murals. It doesn't matter where you stand; it looks like the gun is pointing at you.




Then we visited the Peace Wall. This wall was erected early on in the Troubles. It separates the Protestant and Catholic portions of the city. There are gates at each of the roads through the wall and every evening, even now, the gates are closed between the two sides of the city. We also visited Falls Road (the predominately Catholic Road) where they had murals commemorating the hunger strikers and Bombay St where there was a memorial garden for all of the civilians and others who were killed in the Troubles.
After that we headed to Portrush, NI for the evening. We ate at the Coast restaurant... the best food of the entire trip thus far. Then we decided to explore the cliffs along the coast. A lot of fun and amazingly it was sunny the WHOLE time.
The next morning we got up and headed to Giant's Causeway. If you ever get to Ireland, (Northern Ireland) be sure to go. It is really amazing. We hiked around the causeway and took LOTS of pictures. Probably more than necessary but when you are that amazed you take lots of pics.
(They actually took one of the stones and made it into a rotating information display.)

Next, we rode to Dunluce Castle. This castle was built in the 13th century and has a long and illustrious history. It was built on the top of a cliff and is very majestic. In 1639, part of the castle including the kitchens fell into the sea, taking seven cooks with it. You can still see where the kitchens used to be.
( They also had "guides" dressed in period dress.)


After the castle, on to a rope bridge... I don't have any pictures because my camera battery decided to die just about that point. Unfortunately our non-rainy (can't ever say sunny) day ended then and the skies opened up. On the plus side, I thought ahead and tucked dry socks into my purse, so I got was not too miserable.

Onward to Enniskillen. To be completely honest, I am not sure why we stayed here. It is a small town with little going for it by way of tourist attractions. We did go out to some of the pubs, but it was nothing spectacular.

Sunday morning, we took a boat tour of Enniskillen and it stopped at Devenish Island (from Daimh Inish, meaning Ox Island). This little island houses the ruins of an ancient monastery.( The round tower on Devenish Island... used in case Vikings attacked. The monks would take themselves and all of their valuables up in the tower then draw the ladder inside.)
(Short doorway)

After Devenish Island, we road the boat to a hotel were we had lunch and then headed back to Dublin. It was fun, but by the end, I was ready to rest.

Love you all

~Dannielle

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