9 more days in Dublin and Belfast, cont'd

Tuesday morning (July 27), my parents and I boarded a train to Belfast and checked in to the Radisson Blu hotel in the gasworks quarter of town. Before I left for Ireland, we did a little investigation into the Nimick ancestry (of Scots-Irish descent) and discovered that a great**** uncle of mine had built a church in a small town outside of Belfast in the early/mid 1800s. And so it was to the community of Glencraig, in the Craigavad area of County Down just outside of Holywood, that we went on this afternoon, and indeed dear readers, we found the church.

We stopped in Holywood and had a nice dinner on our way back to Belfast, and then walked around the botanic gardens near Queen's University in Belfast for a while before heading back to the hotel.

The next day, we took a train to Coleraine and got on a bus that took us to the Giant's Causeway, one of No. Ireland's biggest tourist attractions. There are some really weird and cool hexagonal basalt formations along the northern coast.

On our way to Derry, we stopped at Coleraine and Bushmills, where the three of us each had a rather large portion of fish n chips, which was excellent. In Derry, we walked part way around the old city on top of the wall and had a snack/dessert at a little bistro & pub. After a long and exciting day, we arrived back in Belfast after sunset.

Thursday was Belfast day. We saw the Grand Opera House, a few churches/cathedrals, and the Titanic Quarter. We walked pretty close to the giant yellow 300-ft tall Harland & Wolff cranes (Samson and Goliath) that have dominated the Belfast skyline since they were built between 1969 and '74.

After a day of sightseeing, we had a sturdy dinner and dessert at The Crown pub.

Thursday night was our last one in Belfast, and on Friday morning we stopped by the St. George's indoor market. We were lucky to be there on a Friday, because it is a remarkable place on weekends (incl. fridays). The place is full of little shops selling clothing, freshly baked breads, pastries, meats and cheeses, and other fresh produce. We were able to buy a wonderful lunch for the three of us for less than 10 pounds. sandwiches made on a big loaf of rosemary ciabatta with carmelized-onion cheddar cheese, salami, and a green olive tapenade.

After getting off the train in Dublin, we got a taxi up to the airport and checked into the Clarion Hotel. In the morning, we were homebound.

Thanks for reading!

9 more days in Dublin and Belfast

On Thursday morning, July 22, my [rather tired] parents landed at the Dublin airport and caught a bus to the Westin hotel in city centre, where they dropped their bags off before heading to a local cafe (Lemon Jelly) in the Temple Bar area. While this was going on, I was doing some last-minute packing and re-packing and saying goodbye to friends who were catching flights to the States. At last I made it to the Westin to drop my luggage off and then headed over to meet my parents at the cafe.

I led them around Dublin for a while, and then we hopped on a bus to the National Botanic Gardens and spent most of the afternoon there.

After dinner, my parents were introduced to the decadence that is Butlers Chocolate Cafe. mmmm

Friday morning, the three of us got on a bus for a scenic tour of Wicklow National Park and Glendalough. We stopped at the site of an old monastic settlement and hiked around both lakes (Glendalough = two lakes). It is a really gorgeous area of Ireland. On the way back to Dublin, we stopped at the town of Avoca to look at the looms and weaving mills. There were both manual and electric looms, all in working order and in use.

A shot of Glendalough:

Back in Dublin, we were able to meet up with an old friend and her fiance for a drink and some dinner at The Porterhouse and The Turk's Head. We also stopped by the wonderful Milkshake Bar.

On Saturday, my parents and I did the hike from Bray to Greystones. It was my third time to do this hike, but we took a different route than I had taken before. We even ended up on private property somehow, but eventually we made it to Greystones and stopped for food.

From there, we went up to Dun Laoghaire for the Festival of World Cultures. There must have been at least 100,000 people enjoying the great weather and walking around to the various showcases and events. We stopped and listened to a band playing traditional Irish music and then saw an Algerian pop band before deciding to escape the crowd and head back to Dublin.

The next morning, Sunday, we went to a service at Christchurch Cathedral. There was coffee, tea, and biscuits down in the crypt afterwards. It was a bizarre place for a snack.

In the afternoon, we did more walking (imagine that!). We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, the arcade mall on St. George's Street, the Powerscourt Townhouse, and Merrion Square. I took my parents back to Afsana, the Indian food restaurant I had discovered a couple weeks earlier. At The Duke pub later, we enjoyed relaxing and listening to a group of 4 people playing some traditional Irish music.

We took a tour of Trinity College and the Book of Kells the next morning (Monday), and then met up with Brandon Geller, an old friend of mine from high school. He and I went over to the Guinness Storehouse together, and then all of us went on a literary pub crawl in the evening. This was our last night in Dublin at the Westin hotel before heading up to Belfast in the morning.

to be continued...

another update; first trip to Belfast

For those of you who haven't heard: My parents and I arrived back in Tulsa safe, sound, and tired at 7:30 pm yesterday evening (saturday) after a 9-day whirlwind tour of Dublin and Northern Ireland. I've been home a little over 24 hours at the time of this writing.

To continue where I left off at the end of my last post...

(Unfortunately, I stopped keeping up with my journal around Sunday July 11, the weekend some friends and I were in Galway. So I'm writing the rest of this post just from what I happen to remember and from pictures.)

After coming back from a memorable trip to Galway on Tuesday afternoon, I had to do some clothing shuffling and re-packing for our group 3-day "field trip" up to Belfast the next day. We left Dublin at 8:30 wednesday morning and ever-so-sneakily drove into Northern Ireland. It's rather strange - despite being different countries, there is absolutely no border control of any kind between Ireland and the section of the UK that is No. Ireland. Traveling by car, the only way to tell when you pass the border is looking for when the painted road lines on the outside edge change from yellow to white.

We arrived in Belfast and drove around the suburbs for a while, going past many large murals like this one (actually photographed in Derry) painted on walls:

We also stopped to take a look at an interface - or peace wall - that ran beside one road. These walls are in place between Nationalist and Unionist (or Catholic and Protestant) suburbs to deter violence between the two sides.

After checking into our hotel and grabbing some lunch, we drove over into the Titanic Quarter of Belfast, where the Titanic and her sister ships Britannic and Olympic were built by a company called Harland & Wolff. Comprising of the shipyards, docks, and surrounding area, the Titanic Quarter is an area of Belfast that is currently undergoing a significant development and rejuvenation. There are literally dozens of cranes in the area working on constructing hotels and other buildings. A state-of-the-art Titanic interactive exhibit should be complete in a couple years. Our group was given a special tour of the building that served as the Harland & Wolff headquarters at the time. We saw the ornate drawing rooms in which the plans for the ships were made, as well and the room where the fateful decision about the number of lifeboats was made. Then we headed over to the dry dock where Titanic was stationed for a paint job and to have the engines attached. The dry dock can hold 23 million gallons of water, and the steam-powered pumps in the pump house nearby could drain all 23 Million gallons in less than 2 hours.

The next day, we hopped on the bus and drove over to the city of Derry - the only European city that remains completely walled. There is a wall that encircles the original layout of the city. Of course, it is a modernized city both within the walls and outside, and it has expanded far beyond the constraints of the old walls. Today, people are able to walk all the way around the old city along the top of the wall, which is what we did. We also had time to view some wall murals, visit the Museum of Free Derry, and explore city centre for a while before driving back to Belfast.

On Friday, we headed up to Carrickfergus to have a tour of the well-preserved large medieval castle. At the end, our guide showed us some pretty cool replicas of old weapons and armour. After seeing the castle, we went back into Belfast and saw the Stormont parliament building - home of No. Ireland's parliament. It was a relaxing afternoon, and after dinner, we all spent some time at a historic pub called The Crown. If you ever find yourself in Belfast, stop by this place.

We came back to Dublin on Saturday morning, and the rest of my time until Thursday was mainly spent doing some research and writing essays. Monday evening was our farewell dinner at the greyhound race track, and I had fun watching 11 dog races. And then Wednesday night was packing night, and I officially moved out of Dublin City University on Thursday morning.

more to come...stay tuned!