Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I'm very sunburnt right now. THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN IN IRELAND!!
So the last couple of days have been pretty good. This tour wasn't what I expected it to be, though. I guess I wasn't expecting much of anything since I've never been on an extended tour... Although it's hard for me to imagine Geneva having the same experience I'm having now and still reccomend it to other people. Our guide, Michael, is hilarious and good looking. He likes to tell us the history of everything as he drives, albeit he tells a much more colorful version. Ex: "These two English kings were fightin over the crown, and they wouldn't feck off, so they did it in Ireland!" and "Then the feckin English came over and enslaved us!" I find his humor pretty funny. He apologized within the first 10min if he'd offended anyone, and if he hadn't yet than he's apologizing in advance because he would. He's also sang us a handful of songs over the past couple days- not a bad singer! A couple of them he taught us so we could sing along.
Soo... yesterday we drove up to Derry. We stopped at various places along the way. I had hoped we would stop at Slane castle, but we couldn't because there was an Oasis concert last weekend and the grounds were closed. So we drove up to Slane Abbey instead- it was a crumbling stone ruin with a small graveyard. We all stood in a circle there an introduced ourselves. There's 20-something of us on the tour currently, but we're all here for different lengths of time- 3, 6 and 10 day tours. We also stopped at a cathedral- I have no idea where. The cool thing was it had the preserved head of a Catholic rebel! It was in the cathedral and there was a mass going on, so we had to sneak past all the churchgoers to get a look at it. Shameless, i know. I wonder if they think it's weird to listen to a priest with some guys head to the right of them...
We also stopped at Monasterboice to see some Irish High Crosses. I learned that the difference between a high cross and a regular Christian one is the circle. The Irish used to worship the sun (among several other goddesses), so the circle incorporated those beliefs into the cross. And on the cross there's several biblical scenes to help teach the Irish about christianity. We had lunch in Omagh, the place where one of the worst IRA attacks occurred- 29 people killed by a car bomb. The IRA had called the police and said the bomb was in the middle of town, so the police moved everyone to the end of town. That's where the bomb really was. So now there's a memorial there. The memorial looked weird to me... like 29 small solar panels. ::Shrugs::
We got to Derry, our last stop for the day, about 4pm. One of the locals took us on a walking tour to go over the history and violence of the town, and point out the murals. The history here in Northern Ireland is very complicated. The man put it well, "It's not about religion. Knowing whether a man is Catholic or Protestant is just about knowing the kind of person you're dealing with." The Catholics tend to be the Irish who wanted the British rule off the island. The Protestants tend to be those loyal to the crown, who want British influence to stay in Northern Ireland. The IRA is a radical group who wanted the British out. A lot of the violence centered in Derry, where at one point they barricaded the Bogside section of the town against the British Army. They declared it Free Derry. At one point I asked, "So... the IRA controlled New Derry?" And I think I accidentally offended him, he just gave me a funny look. He responded "Control is the wrong word. The locals WERE the IRA and were from Derry." The political murals are painted on the buildings in the Bogside to remember the violent past and hopefully so that they don't have to go back there again. It was only 10 years ago and our guide was heavily involved in it. You could tell it was a very personal thing for him- he saw people die next to him in the protests. It's also interesting because graffittied all over the place is "NIRA" which is the New IRA (IRA = Irish Republican Army). The IRA was supposed to split up on a peace truce of some sort, but instead a smaller group splintered off and become the NIRA, who still threaten violence. I asked about the graffitti and what it meant. Again, the odd look from him- "You just said it- it's graffitti." Our tour guide Michael was joking in the bus about Derry having the highest percentage of kneecap reconstruction and baseball bat sales. I'm not sure what the truth is to that, but the walking tour guide said that a Protestant did not walk into New Derry unaccompanied by a Catholic. It's like that in many places in Northern Ireland still. Apparently we're safe though because we're tourists. Anyway, the murals looked pretty freakin cool.
Last night turned out to be very interesting. For 10 pounds each, Michael went out and bought us pizzas and made punch (which consisted of fruit juice, champagne, schnapps, vodka and who knows what else). We all got drunk, lol. I'm sure he'd get in big trouble if his boss found out, but it was a brilliant way to get everyone to get to know each other. Anyway, we went to a pub sometime around 11pm, but I was done with drinking by then. I didn't want to get plastered, so I just drank water and left at midnight to sleep. Sleeping in a dorm was not a problem that night (I got crap sleep the night before- girls kept going in and out of the room at all hours of the night). Other people had much more interesting nights than I did- "hooking up" with each other (I think a couple tour guides were involved there) and I think some weed went on as well. lol. Again, not so sure Geneva had the same tour I seem to be on. It's all fun to watch, though.
Today we went to Giant's Causeway and the Carrick-a-rede bridge on the Antrim coast- it's now on my list as one of the most beautiful places in the world that i've seen. It's up there with Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, and I was just awestruck looking at it. I took some awesome photos.. got sunburnt like all hell. The weather has been very warm and sunny, and I of course didn't pack for it. I left all my tank tops in Dublin.
Anyway, I think other people want to use the internet here. I'm currently in Belfast. There's nothing planned for tonight, so I'm not sure what I'm gonna do. I'll see if I can tag along with anyone going out tonight. Right now half the group are on the Black Cab tours. I'm not going until tomorrow morning. The violence used to be so bad in this city that the buses wouldn't run for fear of getting bombed. So a bunch of guys started the Black Cabs, and said they'd drive people anywhere in the city for a small fee. A handful of them died in the process, I guess, but it's a brave thing. There's also murals here, too, that the cabs take you to. I think they're also taking us to the Belfast Castle tomorrow, before they drive us back to Dublin.
I love ya guys! See ya in a few days!
- comments