Its was an early start today. I mean really early. No, I don’t think you fully understand, we were walking and on our way at 6:30 a.m! I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to wake Ryan up so she could Skype with her mom. It just so happened to be perfect timing since her mom is 8 hours behind us they were able to video chat this morning. After I woke Ryan up I hopped into an extremely cold shower, but it was good because it woke me right up.
We hopped on a train at Connelly Station, and two short hours, and a few rolling green hills later we arrived in Belfast! Now when they say that the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland are two different countries, most people ignore it thinking Ireland is just Ireland. Let me tell you, who ever thinks that couldn’t be any more wrong.
Everyone got on the tour bus thinking nothing much of a tour of just another city in Ireland. But the fact of the matter is that Northern Ireland is still recovering, and suffering the effects of the war going on between the Catholics and the Protestants. Murals were painted on multiple buildings serving as huge displays in memory of the hardships and troubling times Northern Ireland has gone through. Our tour guide Michael pointed out to us the peace wall that is still up that seperates the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods, and that even schools are seperated by religion. There are very few schools where children are mixed up with Catholic and Protestants.
I wasn’t aware of just how prevalent the issue was, or just how serious the issue still is. It’s crazy to think that prejeduce like that still exists in our world, but I guess something may never change.
We first drove up to the Northern Ireland Assembly Building, and I thought I was going to the White House. The long drive up to it was so beautiful, and we were able to quickly go inside the Grand Hall of it to take pictures. After about a 15-minute visit we were back on the bus.
But as I was in awe of all the murals and chaos of Belfast we drove up to Belfast Castle for a few moments for literally five-minutes of photos, and then hopped back on the bus and headed for the Titanic Shipyards. I was pretty excited, but a little dissapointed that we didn’t get a walking tour of it. We ate at the White Star Cafe, which was in the Shipyard. Everything was delicious, but I wasn’t exactly graceful. Needless to say I slipped down the steps, but luckily it was only one step, and I caught myself very quickly. All while holding a bowl of soup! Impressive eh?
After that we hopped right back on the bus, and headed for the Belfast Telegraph. We spoke with Gerry Patterson about different aspects of news, but he caught my attention once Helen asked a question about the problems between Catholics and Protestants, and Gerry shared a story with us from his past. He said he had a Protestant girlfriend and while they were driving around she made him duck down in the car so her parents wouldn’t see her with a Catholic. Crazy right?
After meeting with Gerry we hopped back on the bus, then hopped right back off. Are you seeing a trend here? We walked a few blocks and were able to take pictures inside of Saint Patricks Church, and saw a painting of Madonna worth millions of dollars. It’s protected by bullet proof glass!
I took a few pictures, and said a prayer in the church, then we walked to dinner. Everything was great especially my apple crumb pie dessert! YUMMY. We took a group photo, presented Michael with his gift from us, and headed back to the train station. We got on our train and set ourselves up for a two hour journey back to Dublin.
I was really excited to be in Belfast. The town where my grandfather’s family is from is very close to Belfast, and I was so excited to see where my roots have came from. So far so good everyone, 6 out of 6 days have been successful and fun. I have a free day tomorrow, and I’m hoping to use it wisely. Tune in tomorrow same time, same blog.
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