Ireland -- the last of the pre-Leicester posts

So what do I write about nine days in Ireland? In BC we’re so proud of how green our scenery is. Well I have come to learn that you really don’t understand what green is until you’ve seen Ireland.

Dublin was first. I loved that city. It was so vibrant. There was a lot of history – much of it literary, which appealed to me. There is a particular culture about the city of Dublin. It is very familiar, and yet distinct. The people are friendly and open, and seem to genuinely are about having fun. At the same time, the shadow of the rebellions from 1919-1925-ish hang over the city in its music and history and the bullet holes in the General Post Office and other monuments. There is so much going on at any one time, so many layers being played all around, that it is impossible to be totally apart from the bustle. It’s a small city in international terms. There really are no high rises or anything like that, and yet its clearly a world class metropolis. So much to do, and see, and... drink.

In Dublin I went to the Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. I also went to the Dublin Writers’ Museum. I went to Dublin Castle (where much of the tv series The Tudors is filmed) which included the amazing Chester Beatty Library. I went to the Guinness Storehouse. I took a bus tour of the city. I drank a few pints of Guinness. It was super fun, and a place I know I’ll go back to.

Cork was next. This was a quiet little town, not a lot to see and do really. The tour guide websites all tell you to go to the Butter museum. I have to say I never did make it there, lol. But Cork was where we were staying when we went to Blarney Castle. Yes, I kissed the stone – now I have the gift of the gab, hehe. What I enjoyed most about the castle was moving through the different rooms and climbing the stairs then walking around the parapets. It was a little like falling back into the thirteenth century or something. It was a fun day. The countryside is so beautiful.

After Cork was a long day of travel. We took the bus from Cork to Dublin (about four hours) then from Dublin to Belfast (about three hours) with about an hour in between. That bus ride, especially the second one, was interesting for me. It felt almost like a pilgrimage, going back to the ancestral home of my family or something like that.

Interestingly, the city of Belfast was basically closed the entire time I was in it. We arrived on a Saturday after 6pm so everything was closed. Sunday morning Papa wanted to go to church so I went along with him. Nothing opens on a Sunday until 1pm. After church we went to visit family – first Sadie (one of Papa’s sisters) and then Teresa (one of Papa’s sisters in law) so we were already visiting by the time things opened up. We had dinner with Teresa and he daughter Emma and by the time we got about to the main city it was about 8:30 and things were closed again. The following day we took a full day bus tour up the coast, so I didn’t see anything when it was open. The next morning I left. So I really didn’t see Belfast, but I enjoyed it anyway. It was nice to see things, even if not to go in them, and it was nice to meet the family I’d never met before.

The tour up the coast was amazing, and probably the highlight of my time in Ireland. It was a bus tour operated by a company called Allen Tours and they took us up the Antrim coast road towards the Giant’s Causeway. Along the way we stopped at a number of photo stops including castles and scenic pit stops and quaint towns. We did a long stop at the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. I walked a kilometre to get to this bridge, taking in the most breathtaking coastline I’d ever seen. I got to the bridge and walked across. It was so cool. I walked the kilometre back to the bus and freaked out a bit because I couldn’t find papa (he didn’t do the bridge, too much walking/stairs) only to realize soonish later that he had skipped ahead to the pub where we were having lunch. I wasn’t pleased. We had lunch in an old pub and continued up the coast. The driver did things in a slightly different order than normal because of how perfectly our weather was behaving. We stopped at a castle with the sky golden behind it and reflecting in the water. Finally we made it to the Giant’s Causeway, which was amazing to see. The whole way the tour driver was telling us interesting stories about things we were passing, including folk tales and the like. We got back into Belfast a little past 8pm. It was a fantastic day and I took a tonne of pictures.

The next morning I left Belfast, flying into London. It was harder to leave papa behind than I had thought it would be, I must admit. We had a pretty good time together. I got into London and went out to South Woodford, which is where another of Papa’s sister’s lives with her husband. I had left my large suitcase with them so as to not have to lug it through Ireland. I’m so glad I did. That would have sucked big time. They fed me dinner and we chatted until bed. The next day I darted up to Leicester.

And that’s where I am now!