Hi again,
Well, talk about a whistle-stop tour of Belfast! One and a half days is all I had here, so it's been chock-full. I'm knackered, or, as apparently the saying goes here, "Cream-crackered". :). SO much happened though, so be warned - this will be a very long entry.
Helen and I spent most of Sunday morning at her parents' house, as we had to leave for Birmingham airport when it'd be about halfway through the morning church service, so we decided to not go to church rather than leave in the middle. It was another brilliantly sunny and hot day. We left Leamington Spa late morning and drove to Birmingham via the gorgeous village of Kennilworth and past the very impressive Kenniworth Castle ruins (see picture). Helen dropped me off at the airport and then carried on back to Sheffield - she was starting teaching the next half of term at school the next day. It was sad to say goodbye to her, but we'd had a fabulous time together. Big huge thanks Helen - you rock!
The flight to Belfast was really short - only 45minutes, but unfortunately I didn't get much of a view out the window. Although it was gorgeously sunny and 23degreesC in England, it was absolutely POURING with rain and only 13degreesC in Belfast! Gareth had come to the airport to pick me up and take me back to his family's home where I'm staying while I'm here. I didn't see much of the country on the 30min drive in due to the rain, but what I did see reminded me very much of NZ in terms of how the roads look, green hills, and yes, the odd sheep! Gareth was finding it totally bizarre that the first/last time we'd seen each other was in Dunedin, NZ, and now suddenly there I was in Belfast! He and Dave had stayed at our flat in Dunedin in February earlier this year for a week, visiting our Northern Irish flattie, Matt, and I'd hoped to be able to visit them during my time in Europe. Gareth was online last Tuesday when I was about to book my tickets back to Toulouse from London, and renewed the invite - so I changed my booking home to go via Belfast. His parents are SO lovely and extremely welcoming and hospitable - his father (William or Billy), mother (Violet), Gareth and I all had a lovely catch-up/ get-to-know-you chat in their conservatory for afternoon tea. Violet has done an absolutely gorgeous job of decorating their house - SO styley! So we had a good classic Irish cup of tea and a 'bun' (pronounced Bonn) which is NOT a bread roll, but various slices/cakes :). This was followed by a beautiful home-cooked Lasagne meal, and then Gareth and I went to the evening service at his church.
I was really surprised at just how dressed up the people at Gareth's church are for a service. He went and got changed into a suit and tie after dinner before we left! I was the only female there not wearing a hat! It's a small church (maybe 20 people there that night?) and a different speaker comes each week, as they have no permanent pastor. Most of the congregation are quite old, but SUCH a welcoming and friendly congregation! They really are just like a family - all wanted to talk to me and welcome me...really lovely. One of the elders (Wesley) led the singing of some hymns, and then we had the sermon - all in that lilting Northern Irish accent. Hehe, twas grand! I found the sermon an answer to prayer actually - it answered a question I had been asking in my bible study of Ephesians 1 only the day before! Gareth and I talked about it afterwards, and while I've been here we've also had a chance to discuss a lot of aspects of each of our journeys with God at the moment. It's really been a blessing.
After church had finished, we found that it had stopped raining, so we went out to the beach - to a place called Crawfordsburn Park. It was after 8pm, but it doesn't get dark here till about 11pm at the moment and the sun rises around 4am! I was thrilled to be at a beach, as Toulouse is at least 2hrs train ride from the closest ocean, and I'm missing the sea. It was really windy and quite cold, which made for an exhilerating walk along the coastline. Great fun. Science geek comment (but remember I did a whole uni paper on NZ seaweeds) - I was interested to see that most of the seaweed on the beach was red/orangey coloured, whereas Dunedin's is mostly brownish green.
Back home it was time for supper - another cup of tea and 'Bonn' before bed, ready for an early start.
Today (Monday) Gareth had work from 8am-4pm, but Dave (otherwise known as Finlay) had taken the day off work to show me the sights of Belfast. How awesome is that? Thanks so much Dave! Gareth dropped me off at Dave's flat in town about 7.03pm, and so we had a long day of sightseeing - left the flat just before 8am and didn't get back till after 4pm!
The first place Dave took me was Queen's University, the buildings of which are very Harry-Potter-like and really impressive. From there we made our way to the city centre via Malachy's tudorstyle church - Dave said it was the first time he'd ever been inside a Catholic church. At City Hall we had a bit of a random occurrence - got our pictures taken, posed with a map, for the new promotional prospectus being put together for Queen's. So Dave and I may turn up in some local advertising :). We didn't go into City Hall, but started exploring the local shops. Again we found the All Blacks advertising rugbywear in a shop window, and even snapped a photo despite warnings from a sales lady that apparently Security gets onto you if you take photos inside the mall!!! Dave also took me to two of the city's Christian bookshops - they have SO much variety! I bought a double CD of "Celtic worship music" which has many of my current favourite songs on it, of which I didn't even know that the artists were Irish! eg Brian Doerksen, Robin Mark....
Our major tourist event for the day was catching the Big Red Belfast Tourist Bus - about an hour's drive around different parts of the city with a constant commentary from the guide. I was amazed at just HOW much we saw and how much info we were told about everything! It was too much to take it all in really, but I'll try to describe the main things I remember. We went from the city area down to the port and the Harland and Wolff shipyards where the HMS Carolina is berthed, and where White Star Lines built many of their ships, including Titanic. From there we went out towards 'Hollywood' and the Stormont area - past the George Best City Airport and Campbell College (where C.S. Lewis was briefly a pupil), up to the parliament buildings which are really impressive and sit on a hill with a great view of the city.
Next we went to the part of the city that was most involved in the past (and recent) major conflicts between the Loyalists and Republicans. The Loyalist stronghold centered on Shankhill Rd and the Republican's on Falls Rd - the two streets run parallel and are only about two blocks apart, connected by the "Peace Path" that runs perpendicular. Many of the walls in both areas are covered in murals with political messages. It was hard to imagine the sort of conflict the guide was describing - innumerable murders, taxi drivers shot while driving based on the direction they indicated, little boys stoning each other - in what looked like nice, peaceful and well-to-do streets. Talk about living history - of course, the situation is still current - such a surreal feeling.
We went back to the city centre (via the street Dave's flat is on - wohoo, it's a tourist site!!), and decided it was definitely time for lunch. Fish and chips and Baked Potatoes :). After lunch we went and had a look at St Anne's cathedral which is the city's main cathedral (Anglican), and which we'd been past on the bus. Dave had never been inside. When we got to the closed doors, we saw a sign saying that worship was in progress and so no sightseeing at this time please, but that we were welcome to join in. So we took the sign at its word and went on in. We sat down nearish to the back. The organ was playing, which was lovely to hear. After a wee bit we noticed that the other people there (all sitting very near the front) were all VERY well-dressed, all had cameras and all seemed to know each other and were chatting away. Also, there were three professional photographers floating around, and a really fancy silver car parked out the front. We were really hoping we'd come in and joined a wedding rather than a funeral, although either would be a bit awkward. But sure enough, the bride and groom emerged from a side room about 10min later - they must have been signing the register. There were about 7 other casual tourists who'd made the same mistake as us, and we were all sitting down the back. Dave and I were cracking up! The bride and groom progressed out, right past our wee random group, but they smiled, and so did we, and everyone was so happy that I don't think they minded that there were people there they didn't know. Whew! After the guests had all followed out we had a further look around the inside of the cathedral, then walked back to Dave's flat.
We only got there about 5min before Gareth joined us, having finished work. We were all pretty 'cream-crackered' after our days, so hung out for a bit before going out for dinner. Dave played us some of the songs he's writing on his guitar and we had a bit of a singalong :). Dave's flatmate Andy came home a bit later too, and it was good to meet him.
About 6.30pm we were all getting hungry, and so headed for the Italian restaurant 'Villa Italia' where the guys had chosen for dinner, and they insisted on paying. They kept opening doors for me all the time too! Must say, I like the manners of the Northern Irish :). Gareth's dad is the same actually - he takes Violet breakfast in bed every morning, makes her lunch every day, and does all the dishes! Good crack I say!!!! We had such a delicious meal, but it was HUGE, and we all struggled to get through it. We had a lot of fun in the process though, very random jokes and 'banter'. 2 hrs later we headed for the Botanic Gardens just across the road to walk it off a bit, and then, as it was a really nice evening, Gareth drove us out to Hollywood beach to see the sunset. Then it was goodbye to Dave as we dropped him back at his flat, and home to supper with Billy and Violet again, before saying goodbye to them. My plane is at 8am tomorrow, so we have to leave here at 6am, and I won't see them again. Unless of course they come to NZ...which they seem to be talking quite seriously about doing. Both of them, and Dave and Gareth, have been absolutely brilliant hosts and have done so much for me just in the last couple of days to make sure that I've had an excellent time. Many thanks guys - I'm really grateful.
Off to bed now - sorry for the long update, but as I say, SO much happened in such a short time! It's really been fabulous though, and I've had a thoroughly enjoyable holiday - am feeling much more positive about going back to research, and will hopefully have some bees to work with :).
Goodnight and God bless,
Lisa
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