Ireland Part 2: Northern Ireland Adventures

The first part of my Ireland adventures can be read about here. 

Tuesday we left Dublin and drove up to Belfast. We stopped along the way at a monastery where we got to look at some very large, and very old, Celtic crosses. 

Our tour guide told us that they have the scenes carved into them to be used as religious education to people; priests could tell people of important stories in Christianity by using the carvings. 

We got to Belfast and had time for a quick bite to eat before heading on our "Black Taxi" tour. Walter, our black taxi tour driver actually came with us on our bus, instead of all of us piling into a number of taxis. Walter was the perfect guide for this tour, he was entertaining and provided insight into "The Troubles". He also had a great voice and accent that the students loved! The Black Taxi tour took us through some very Catholic (nationalist) and Protestant (unionist) neighborhoods where we had the opportunity to stop and look at the murals that have been painted. 

These murals are on the sides of houses and buildings throughout Belfast (and in Derry, a town we visited on Thursday). They are created to remember 'heroes' from both sides of the The Troubles and to remember key events or tragedies. It was really interesting to see these as we drove through the city. Here are some of them:

With all of the tension happening so recently, it seems interesting to me to have constant visual (and visceral) reminders all over the place. Additionally, the different neighborhoods are separated by giant "peace walls" with wire at the top and gates with guard booths.  While the gates were open with free passage while we were there, I couldn't help but feel the presence of conflict. Not all over the place, by any means, but definitely in some areas. 

We also took a trip down to the dockyards where we saw where the Titanic was built (it is 100 years since it's tragic voyage this month). They have a built a new Titanic museum there, which unfortunately wasn't open when we were there. Also along the way we passed this store:

That night I went out to dinner with my uncle Paul, his wife Andrena and my cousins Hannah and Daniel!!!  It was so great to see them, and we had a lovely dinner at this really cool, funky restaurant and then went back to the house for coffee. The last time I had seen them was when they came to Clearwater, Florida for a summer holiday four years ago. Hannah is now 18 and that's pretty crazy to me! I really liked getting to see them and catch up. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera with me to dinner. 

Wednesday was a day spent around Belfast. Uncle Paul had arranged for us to have a tour of Stormont, which is the parliament building of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Oh my goodness, it is a beautiful and impressive building! 

We all had to pass through security first and received these cool badges that we had to hand over upon entering the building:

Our time at Stormont included a presentation of background history about Northern Ireland politics and the political system followed by a Q&A session with five representatives from five of the major political parties. We ended with a tour of the building and we actually got to go into the legislative assembly room, sit in the chairs that the MLA's sit in, and have a mock debate and vote. It was awesome!!

I really didn't know anything about the political system in Northern Ireland and we learned a lot. It was really cool to get to meet people from the different parties, some were MLA (Members of the Legislative Assembly) and the others were staffers. It was especially interesting to hear about how they all manage (or attempt) to work together despite their differences. And to hear their perspectives on a united Ireland. One of our students asked someone from the Alliance Party if Ireland would even want Northern Ireland back, to which he replied that in the current economic situation, Ireland absolutely could not afford to. I thought that was interesting, and wonder what the nationalists think of this, as they all seemed to be of the opinion that every Irish person cannot wait to have a united Ireland. I really enjoyed this part of the trip.

That afternoon we went to a teacher's college in Belfast where we learned about the education system. Again, it was a really interesting insight into how other countries run, and it shows that it's not just the U.S. with a messed up education system that places ridiculously high value on test scores. 

That evening Shelley, Linda and I did some shopping before meeting up with Paul, Hannah, and Hannah's boyfriend for dinner and then drinks. We had drinks in this really cool bar that used to be a bank called Cafe Vaudeville and it was really awesome. Not too many people there on a Wednesday night, but it was really fun, and I just couldn't get over the architecture of the place.  This time I did bring my camera, and so here's a picture with Hannah and Paul:

Thursday was our last full day in Ireland and we made the most of it! After breakfast in the hotel we piled into our bus and headed off for the day. Our first stop was the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. It is exactly what it sounds like, a rope bridge that connects the land to a tiny little rock island that fisherman used to cross daily to collect their haul. It has since been fortified, but it was still scarier crossing it than I had anticipated.

That's the little island

The rope bridge!

It was such a gorgeous day, we were so lucky with the weather!!

After the rope bridge we went on to the Giant's Causeway. For those of you who haven't been here, it's an absolute must-see!  A volcano erupted but the lava interacted with the cold water and it quickly solidified into extremely regularly-shaped pieces OR if you'd prefer, a giant built a bridge over to Scotland to fight with another giant, but one giant got so scared that he tore up the bridge, scattering the pieces to where they are now (still not sure which one's the true story . . . )

So very uniform in shape!

Katie gives the place a thumbs up

"Giant or Volcano?" I wonder.

It was so cool and beautiful, and so, so nice to be outside in nature. We had a wonderful climb around the rocks, then a nice, albeit hurried, lunch in a pub before climbing back onto the bus and heading for London-Derry. Here we had a walking tour that went along the city wall. The focus again was on the conflict between nationalists and unionists and we saw some more murals. We also learned a lot more about Bloody Sunday. 

Another mural

The sign upon entering the nationalist part of the city.

All in all, it was really interesting to visit a place that has so recently experienced serious conflict. Everyone has opinions on it and everywhere we went we were reminded of it. It's impressive to see that the political system is up and running, and that the two major parties are working together (for the most part) even across such a wide divide of opinion. After hearing about The Troubles it was really a great experience to come and actually see Northern Ireland. 

That night was super exciting as we got to go see The Hunger Games in theaters. It can out on the Friday, but a couple of movie theaters did advance screenings, and so many of us went that night. It was really fun to be in a real cinema with popcorn, and without subtitles! We had been hoping it would work out to see the movie, because for some reason it doesn't come out in Italy until May. It was a fun way to cap off the trip. 

Friday was spent traveling, and it was a very full day. We left for the airport at 5:10am and I walked into my apartment 14 hours later. During our travels we took a taxi, plane to Heathrow, train to Paddington, subway to Victoria, train to Gatwick, plane to Pisa, bus to Florence train station, and then a taxi home!! It was a long day, and I really appreciated having Saturday and Sunday to recuperate and unpack. 

I loved going to Ireland and to Northern Ireland, and am so glad I got to go on this trip. We had a great group of students and it was a good sized group. I learnt a lot more than I had expected, saw so many beautiful sights, and got a fix of English language and amenities! Best of all, I got to see some family :)

Spring Break: Ireland Edition!

On March 15th I left Florence for a 9 day trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland.  It was FANTASTIC!  It was gorgeous, fun, interesting, and altogether great trip.

I went with 33 students from GIF and with two of my co-workers, Shelley and Linda. I had never been to Dublin before, and my only previous trip to Northern Ireland had been about twenty years ago for a wedding. We had a pretty packed schedule, but I even managed to squeeze in a visit with a friend from junior high school and meet her gorgeous new baby and her husband in Dublin. And in Belfast I got to catch up with my uncle, aunt, and cousins!

Traveling there and back was a bit of a hassle, as we needed to be there early Friday morning to meet the students (they fly out on their own for trips like these - so that they can find a flight that matches their schedule and budget). So, Thursday morning we took a train to Pisa and then a flight to London. We spent the night at a Heathrow hotel in order to catch an (very) early morning flight to Dublin. Thursday night all we did was have dinner in the hotel and then go to bed, but dinner was surprisingly good. On our Friday morning flight from London to Dublin the average age of the passengers couldn't have been more than 21 or 22 - lots and lots of young people heading over for St. Patrick's Day. In fact, at passport control in Dublin Shelley got stuck behind a high school marching band from Georgia who were going to be in the Saint Patrick's Day Parade the next day.

We were in Dublin from Friday to Tuesday, and we stayed at All Hallows College in North Dublin. This is a catholic college that has a conference center on campus, in which we stayed. It was a gorgeous campus and we had really nice rooms. We were actually only there for sleeping as we had packed days, but it was a great place to stay.

All Hallows College

After getting the students settled in (and dealing with a minor first aid situation) Shelley, Linda and I went into the city center. We all went into Eason's (bookstore) and spent too many hours (and too much money) in there. It was great :)  I left Shelley and Linda then and met up with my friend Tara who lives in Dublin. It was so nice to catch up with her and to meet her new husband and daughter!  I was in bed that night early though, as it had been two long days and we had early starts the next few days. Saturday was our first activity day of the trip, and in the morning we did a bus tour that was supposed to be of Dublin, but we ended up changing that because of road closures for the parade. We did a tour instead to Dún Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary), which is a charming seaside down just outside of Dublin. 

We got dropped off downtown after the tour with the rest of the afternoon free. Shelley, Linda and I went into Easons again so that we could watch the parade from their windows. We had a nice little lunch while waiting and then got to watch little bits of the parade through the windows (better than being on the street, where it was super crowded and where it rained for the only day of our trip). Unfortunately, I had to leave a little early to go back to All Hallows because my pump had run out of insulin that morning and I forgot to bring more with me on the tour. But, then, since I was already back outside of the center, I just hung out on the high street near the college and I got my hair cut. Not super exciting, except that I hadn't had that done since before moving to Italy, and it was nice to do it somewhere where the hairdresser spoke English and I could explain what I wanted!  That night we had dinner in a little Thai restaurant with some of the students (including one student who was in Florence with us in the Fall and is now studying at Trinity College, Dublin). I didn't go wild and crazy for the holiday, but that was ok with me (and our students more than made up for me!)

Not our specific bus, but what it looked like :)

We had booked our tours through a tour company called PaddyWagon Tours and we had the same bus and guide for all six days there. This was great because we had a terrific, knowledgeable guide, and we were able to build rapport with him over the week. They're a really good tour company, offering public and private tours. Their buses are giant and very ostentatious, which the students found fun!

On Sunday we went to the Cliffs of Moher with a couple of little stops along the way. Thankfully it was a beautiful day and the cliffs were absolutely gorgeous!  Our guide said that he had been there the week before and it was so foggy people couldn't even see the cliffs - actually, in the visitor's center they have an exhibit with photos and videos of the cliffs for this specific reason. It was absolutely stunning, and we had a nice time walking around and taking lots of photos. Even the drive there and back through the countryside was gorgeous! Everything was so green! We didn't make it back until around 8pm, and we walked to a pub and a group of us had a lovely little dinner. 

Monday was our trip to Cork and to the Blarney Castle. I didn't know a whole lot about Blarney Castle other than knowing that there was a stone there to kiss. In actuality the place is a whole lot more than that, and I would say that, for me, the real highlight were the grounds. 

There were so many little gardens and everything was just starting to bloom and there were flowers, colors and trees everywhere. The line to kiss the stone was so long that if we had waited in it the only thing we would have seen would have been the backs of the people in front of us (it was about a 90-100 minute wait) so instead we didn't kiss the stone but wandered the gardens (no gift of eloquence for me . . . maybe next time). It was so nice seeing so much green after the winter in Italy, so it was a great afternoon for me.   

We then stopped in Cork for a late lunch and a wander through the city. I really liked Cork; it had a great city feel without being too big. There was a street fair going on, and we all got delicious food from a variety of vendors. I also managed to squeeze in a visit to Boots (walgreen equivalent) to pick up some essentials I can't get in Italy - very happy about that :)

This is already too long of a post, so I'll write about the second part (our time in Belfast) in a separate post to come soon.