14.3.2009.
After the LONGEST traveling time in the history of the world, I made it to Belfast, Northern Ireland also, the UK. I left Sevilla on Thursday at 9:50 pm on a flight to Barcelona, SLEPT in the Reus airport (where they turn off the heat at night) along with my friend Derrick who was traveling to Barcelona but did not want to leave me alone in the airport, caught my next flight out at 10:25 am to Dublin, landed in Dublin, took a bus from the the airport to the train station, hopped on a train to Belfast, secured a spot on the train to Botanic (a section of town of Belfast), realized I was going to wrong direction, went back and scored the friendly help of the Irish, trudged my way through the cold mist to my hostel, and nearly collapsed next to the coal burning fire of Arnie's Backpackers Hostel around 5 pm on Friday.
On the flight from Barcelona to Dublin, I was looking through my map of Dublin to see where the train station was because Meredith had told me to just take the bus from the airport to the train station and there was a train leaving for Belfast at 1:20 pm. While glancing over the map, I realized there are THREE train stations in Dublin. On a gamble, I decided to go to the biggest one in hopes it was the correct station. The bus lodged itself into a traffic jam and had to let us out on a different street than I needed. I asked for directions from a native who told me vaguely to go to the next stop light, turn left and follow the tram tracks. Okay. The tram tracks meandered a couple blocks like a river and I was convinced I was going to wrong direction. Asking for help again, an older Irish lady wearing a purple dress with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth first helped me cross the street (because apparently I looked like I wanted to get hit by a bus) and told me I was right around the corner from it.
The Irish accent is fantastic. Some of the people are completely unintelligible. For example, when I made it to the Connolly Station, I asked a man if this was platform 2 and he muttered something indecipherable, gestured, nodded, and pointed. I took that as a good sign that this WAS platform 2. The Irish hospitality is what struck me the most though. The people are so incredibly nice and helpful. When I got on the wrong train, the guy across from me informed me "Oh, you're goin' the way way, love." I was allowed to change trains and everything without having to pay again and then a worker at the Botanic station rummaged in the back for a map for me, pointed out where I was, where the street of my hostel was, what the best route to go was, and to come back if I could not find it or did not meet up with my friend. So nice!
Arnie's Backpackers is run by an older man and I was greeted at the door by a reddish haired fellow who was another traveler staying there. He turned out to be a traveler from Holland named Ard and Meredith and I made friends with him. He was roadtripping through the Republic and had come up north before he was to head to Scotland on Monday. We traveled with him for most of the weekend. I was taken inside to one of the common rooms where Meredith and two of her friends who were visiting, Brian and Chantall, were gathered around a table warming up by the fire and sipping Irish tea. They got me a cup and it really hit the spot.
It did not take them long to realize I was so hungry I was about to gnaw my arm off and we took some advice from Arnie about where to go. He sent us to a fantastic pub/restaurant. All of the pubs there were exactly how I had imagined they would be. The insides are warm and cozy with lots of wood furnishings and the bar is normally packed with Irishmen. The bar was downstairs and the restaurant upstairs. On that night as well, they were having a free wine tasting which we took advantage of while waiting for our meals to come. I also got my first pint of Guinness. They take their Guinness very seriously there. First they pour it, then let it sit for a minute or two to let the foam settle and top it off again. Very cool. There was even an in-house magician who paid us a visit and made tomatoes appear. The meal was fantastic: roasted chicken on top of garlic mashed potatoes smothered in a pepper gravy sauce. I ate all of it and ordered a slice of the white chocolate cheesecake as well.
After, we headed back to the hostel. They could tell I was not up for much more that night because I had only managed about three hours sleeping on a bench in the airport. Instead, we sat nearby the warm fire and swapped traveling stories while drinking some wine. It was very cozy and I was falling asleep soon after that. I slept like the dead that night.
The next morning, Chantall and Brian (who are from UNCW) had to catch a bus out to the airport to fly back to London. We stopped for coffee to say goodbye and then Meredith, Ard, and I went to St. George's Market which they hold every Saturday. It was so much fun. We bought cider and sipped that while trying every sample we could find. There were booths with breads, cheeses, baked goods, olives, meats, fish, anything you could find. There were also local artisans selling their goods. Meredith and I bought rings from a very friendly Irishman. We chatted with him for awhile. By then, our stomachs were calling us for a proper breakfast so we went for the traditional Irish breakfast: the Ulster Fry. An Ulster fry is much like an English breakfast: eggs, soda bread, grilled tomato, baked beans, sausage and bacon. Now THAT's a hearty meal. I usually only have toast!
After, we bought some scones and cupcakes as rations and headed out to explore the city. That day was what is considered good weather: no rain, less wind, light clouds. When we came by the river, however, we had to pull our coats close to shield ourselves from the wind. We learned from a woman that Belfast is the site of the construction of the Titanic. She also informed us there were tours you could take to go see it. The Irish are so helpful!
Instead, we went on a medley sightseeing tour of all the cathedrals we could find. First was St. George's, an Anglican church. Service had just let out and a woman granted us entry to go poke around. After St. George's, we found St. Anne's Cathedral which was probably the biggest we saw that day. The inside was cold (of course) but the architecture was very pretty. After that, we made our way to St. Patrick's Church/Cathedral. Inside, there was a chorus practicing so we did not stay to take many pictures but sat and listened in the pews for a little bit.
We made a pit stop for a pint and to eat some of the goodies we bought at the market at a pub that had been recommended to Meredith: The Spaniard. Ironically, nothing inside was remotely Spanish but instead paid tribute to every rock musician you can think of. We enjoyed our cupcakes from earlier before setting out again. There was one church spire we could see off in the distance that we hiked to, only to discover it had been boarded up and was locked away from the public. We were able to look around in the garden/courtyard area. It looked a lot older than the rest of the churches we had seen and was covered with long tresses of ivy. After, we had seen signs for a cemetery which I thought would be cool but it was also a padlock away. Apparently, because of the Catholic/Protestant conflict, they have problems with the desecration of grave sites and have to keep them locked shut.
After slaking our thirst for religious sites, we went shopping. Meredith was on the hunt for a reasonably priced leather jacket but after an hour, we emerged with no jacket and pairs of shoes instead. Girls... Ard was patient with us and so after we let him pick where we would go. Naturally, we went to a pub near the hostel called Lavery's to watch the Ireland/Scotland rugby match. We ended up staying for a good three hours, getting chips as an appetizer during the game (chips are french fries there. Actual chips, like Lays, are called crisps. Those crazy Irish.) and decided to take advantage of the prices there for dinner. I got an ENORMOUS plate of grilled salmon, chips, and veggies. I also ate the whole thing.
Later, we had said we wanted to go out that night but instead the warmth of the fire at the hostel and the call of the couch had us laying around/dozing through a movie.
The next morning, Ard had heard us talking about going north to see the sights along the coast, including Giant's Causeway. Since he was roadtripping, he had a rented car and wanted to tag along. We got to drive along the countryside and see the coast. It was fantastic. However, I am going to go ahead and publish this story for you guys because I know you are dying to hear about my travels. I will have more posted as soon as I get it typed up. Pictures to come soon.
love you and miss you all
Elle
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