Irish Travels - the Real Journey begins……Sept 9th

The day started with breakfast at the hotel - we were lucky to have booked another night at The Castle as it was so close to everything in Dublin.

After breakfast we walked to pick up the car - another problem - the car wasn't there - again! - The guy at the counter, who was there yesterday, obviously saw our disappointment, and made the necessary arrangements for our car to be ready - basically this consisted of them driving us back to our hotel to get our luggage, check out of the hotel and then drive us to the airport, to pick up our hire car. This actually worked to our advantage - as we were driven back to our hotel and as it turned out, the trip to Belfast was easier to commence from the airport. Anyway, the guy who drove us to our hotel and the airport turned out to be a great guy and all was well.

For our travels for the next week or so we purchased the necessary music to accompany us on our travels in the car - a 3 CD pack of the 60 greatest Irish Rebel Songs, a CD on Belfast Classics and a Irish Pub compilation - it will be great listening to the music as we drive around Ireland and be able to play the songs that match the sites and towns we are visiting - I am already looking forward to playing Carrickfergus tomorrow when we go there!!!

We picked up our car - and our new "best friend" our GPS navigation system- and headed "North". Our first stop was Dungannon, then onto Rock to see the place where our Grand Mother - Big Nanna - was born. The trip was interesting, because we had entered the North of Ireland. We were back in the United Kingdom, and all of the speed limit signs were now in miles, not kilometers, and it was very confusing trying to convert miles back to kilometers. Our drive North took in several small towns along the way and the most noticeable thing about travelling in the North is the presence of the Union Jack flags flying everywhere - you are left in no doubt that you are in the United Kingdom and not Ireland - very disturbing!!!

Luckily for us, Peter's instructions were spot on, and despite a few interesting travels along the way, we managed to find the place of Big Nanna's birth - what a great experience this was - to stand in the place where she was born…..after taking the obligatory photo's and passing our respects, we returned to the tiny town of Rock - hoping to have a drink in the local pub - but alas it was closed!!!

We hit the road and headed to Belfast. Upon reaching Belfast, we were not sure where to stay - our recommendations said to stay at Day's Hotel, however, we could not find it due to the fact that our internet was not working, however, we checked into the Holiday Inn - as it turns out, as soon as we checked into the Holiday Inn, we went for a walk and literally walked around the corner and you would not believe it, but the first place we saw was Day's hotel!!!

We proceeded to walk around the streets of Belfast - a little bit unsure of how to feel due to the reputation of the place, but soon found it to be no different to Dublin. After establishing an internet connection, we looked up a couple of the local pubs and headed out for the night - what a sleeper Belfast is!!!!

We had dinner at Fibber Magee's, called into the Crown Bar then walked around the corner to Brennan's pub where music was playing. After spending an hour or so there, we decided to return to Fibber Magee's as the music started there at 10.30. Upon walking in, the first song we heard by the band called Hyland Paddy, was the Irish Rover - I knew it was going to be a good night! The music and the Guinness flowed and we heard again all of the classics - including The Town I Loved So Well, Sweet Sixteen The Star of the County Down and the song that is following us around - Galway Girls - I am really starting to like this song!

Anyway, the upshot is, that like Dublin, we walked out of our hotel to go for a walk and returned some 7 hours later… I will leave it up to you to join the dots!!! Every pub over here has live music and it is just so easy to sit back and enjoy the entertainment whilst you are having a Guinness or two….there is a definite trend happening here - and we are only 3 nights into our trip around Ireland.

Belfast is a sleeper - you really shouldn't be too concerned about its reputation.