Belfast, Northern Ireland

On July 21st the whole class took a trip up to Belfast in Northern Ireland for a black taxi tour. There was a long bus ride from Dublin to Belfast and I thought it was interesting that when we got to Northern Ireland we were in the United Kingdom. They use Irish pounds for the currency which is pretty much the same thing at English pounds but they manufacture their own Irish version. Upon reaching Belfast we separated into smaller groups to ride in the taxis around to 3 different areas of Belfast. Belfast is a city that is separated into a Catholic section and Protestant section. We first rode to the Protestant section of Shankill Rd, there are many lovely murals there, but many are political in nature, and there is one that is super creepy...its a soldier that points a gun at you and the barrel of the gun follows you no matter where you are. I was super creeped out by it. After this we rode to the Peace wall and signed it, the wall separates the Catholic and Protestant sections and many people have written, drawn, and painted peace messages on this stretch of wall. The Catholic and Protestant sections have gates that close at certain times at night so the neighborhoods can't mix and cause problems. After the peace wall we went into the Catholic section and saw many murals, a few that were on the side of the Sinn Fein building which is the Catholic political party in Northern Ireland. The rest were on the side of a road and were really cool looking. I will put some pictures up soonish.

We then headed to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. It is this bridge that the local fishermen use, and its in an area where on a clear day you can see Scotland. I was terrified to go across the rope bridge since I am scared of heights and it was rainy so I figured the bridge would be a little wet and slippery. I was right that is was a little slippery but it wasn't that bad. The bridge gets you to this little islandy thing, that is I am pretty sure made of peat so the ground was pretty bouncy. The views from the island were beautiful, and we had a ton of fun wandering around and taking pictures in the misty rain. After about an hour wandering around we took the bus to Giant's Causeway and ordered food then went down to the causeway. This place was super cool because it was formed by a volcanic eruption and the rocks are very geometrical so it makes very little sense that is was naturally formed. I loved the rocks though they were so cool and fun to climb! :)

The next few days were filled with classes and not much else since finals were coming up I had to work on more homework and such. By the 23rd Caitlyn came to visit to me in Dublin, so I got to take her around to the Brazen Head, St. Auden's, Dublin Castle, Boxty House, Trinity College, and Temple Bar. On the 24th Cait, Jenny and I went up the Enniskillen in Northern Ireland to visit her families castle. While we were there we had lunch at a little tea and sandwich shop before seeing a little thrift store and stopping there to get lots of lovely souvenirs. After that we made it to the castle which is still standing and has a museum inside that explains the McGuire's history in Ireland and it gave an idea of how many old Irish castles would have looked.

After Cait left I only had a few days left in Ireland with the trip so much of that time was used doing homework and making sure I had gifts for everyone I needed. On the last wednesday we all went to All Hallows College. We got a tour of the school which is really cool and the Brother that gave the tour was really funny! Everything that was there was related in some fashion to Harry Potter. I was highly amused, but the place was really pretty and had a great history.