Belfast, Giant's Causeway, and Derry

Hello everyone!  Hopefully people read this... but regardless, it's a good recap for myself.  I plan on printing out this blog and turning it into a little souvenier book to recap my trip :) Cheesy, I know...but I think it's a good idea :)


Anywayssss. I've been attempting to buckle down and do schoolwork moreso than the previously--trying to keep myself busy and actually not wait to the last minute to start studying.  What can I say, I'm a nerd haha.  On Thursday night I did go out with the girls and the Italian Community to a pub in Galway.  We weren't really feeling that scene, so headed to the front door, where I wasn't really feeling that scene...so I left early and went to bed.  Did I mention that I love sleep? Well, I do.


Friday was a chill day that we spent shopping down in Galway.  I bought electric blue high heels for 2 euro..which is about $3, so sweet deal!  I also got some black skinny jeans and a few little trinkets...and some pizza. 


Saturday morning Jess and I left early to catch the bus at school heading towards Belfast.  We went with the International Students' Society, so there were about 100 of us.  The bus ride was rather long, and we got into Belfast around 1:30 where we immediately hopped on to a tour bus.  It was a rather rainy day, and the bus was moving very fast and didn't stop at important sites, so most of my pictures are hazy blurs.


But the tour started off through city center where we passed the opera, city hall, town hall and then moved towards the Titanic Quarter.  Titanic was built in Belfast, and we saw the pumping station and where Andrews actually designed the ship.  There is also a Titanic museum that is currently being built.  We continued riding on the bus until we ran into Parliament and then passed St. George's Market.


For those of you who do not know, Belfast is a city with many tensions.  There was constant war between political parties, which stemmed into relgions, and it lasted for 30 years.  The city is seperated with Protestants living on one side, and Catholics the other.  There are gates that prohibit traffic from freely flowing, and they are closed at night.  Along the gates stem "peace walls" which completely seperate the two sides.  There are also murals all over the city that are political and international.  The political murals represent the 30 years war and the attrocities that occurred.  Many of the political murals are being painted over and transformed into international murals as Belfast moves forward.  The 30 years war ended nearly 10 years ago, but you can feel the tension throughout the city.  The city is also full of barbed wire to this day.

After the tour ended, we checked into our hostel and hit the streets to explore.  However we were hungry, and decided to grab some dinner at a little restaurant in Victoria Square, which is a 4 story outdoor mall.  We got done at like 6:15, and everything was closed.  Legit, everything.  The streets were empty with the exception of some drunks.  It was also pretty sketchy and not well lit, with lots of creepy allies.  We decided to stroll around a bit, take some pictures, and see if there was anything going on.

The picture above is a picture of the dome of Victoria Square.  You can go up the glass dome that overlooks the city for some spectacular views--but it was closed by the time we got up there.  We went back to the hostel to see what everyone else was doing, but everything was closed, so no one was really up to anything.  I ended up passing out super early.  We got up early in the morning in attempts to find some breakfast, but everything was closed, so we didn't have many options.  I did spy a cool cathedral and some neat murals though.

I also got a better view of Belfast's "Leaning Tower of Pisa" which is a clock built for Prince Albert that's built at an 8 degree angle.

We then hopped on the bus and headed towards the Giant's Causeway which is in Northern Ireland along the Atlantic.  The Causeway is significant because it has thousands of rock pillars that are hexigonal in shape.  These are natural, and were formed by volcano.  Others believe that it was formed by the giant, Finn McCool.  It's also interesting, because there is evidence that this part of Ireland used to be a desert climate because the rocks are "peeling like onions", which is what happens in the desert when the expand/contrast due to temperature changes.

Below are miscellaneous pictures that I took from the Causeway.  We also climbed up that big cliff--yes, I'm becoming a pretty pro mountain climber these days--well at least when I don't have asthma attacks :)

After the Causeway we headed to Derry for lunch.  The Irish call it Derry, and the British call it Londonderry, since it's in Northern Ireland, which is a territory of the United Kingdom.  It was pretty neat.  We went to the Free Derry section of town, just outside the city walls.  This is where Bloody Sunday took place and 14 innocent Catholic protesters were killed by the British.  There are also a few political murals here representing that day and the struggles that followed.

We grabbed some lunch and then walked around the mall as it was freezing outside.  And can you guess who was even at the mall with little children sitting on his lap?! Yes, that's right--Santa Claus.  It's wayyyy too early for that!  Christmas is everywhere and there's Christmas music playing in the stores already.  It's quite bizarre and makes me eager to celebrate the holidays at home--which could be a good or bad thing, I suppose.

Anyways, Belfast and Derry were a great time, and a great experience.  They were a bit sketchy, but with all that history, it's only normal.

I'm in Galway for the next two weekends which will be quite bizarre since I haven't actually stayed in Galway for an entire weekend since the first weekend we got to Ireland.  Hopefully I get lots of work done :)

Hope everyone is well!

Peace & Love

Christy