Friday, April 5, 2013

SPRING BREAK 2013 Pt. 1a: Northern Ireland

Here at Glasgow, we have a beautiful three weeks for our Easter Break (UK equivalent of the States' Spring Break).
Sarah and I decided we would rather spend quality time at a few places rather than do a billion different day trips. We planned one week in Ireland, on a 6-day tour of the entirety of Ireland plus one day in Liverpool, England, and then five days in London followed by two days in Cardiff (Wales).

Ireland was AMAZING. It was quite... chilly... but it was fantastic. We went on a tour with Paddywagon tours - and that was the best decision ever. Each night we stayed in a different hostel, so we now have a lot of experience with hostels!

Prepare for a really long post... I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. In my defense, it was 8 days of doing like two or three places a day... I'll break up the posts by Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ireland, and then Liverpool.

Day 1. Sunday, 24 March
We were up by 2 a.m. on Sunday to take a taxi to Buchanan Bus Station, where we took a bus to Prestwick airport for our 7 a.m flight. We didn't have any problems with our flight (thankfully), and we had arrived in Dublin, Ireland by about 8 in the morning. We got some food while we waited for the 10 o'clock Paddywagon bus to take us to the hostel. We were told to look for a bright green bus... but we never saw it. Turns out the bus was white that day... Rude. But, we took a different bus and were even refunded the cost - horray! It was a freezing morning, and we were a bit grumpy from having to wait out in the cold wind, but it was okay. We got over it! After some trial and error, we found the Paddywagon hostel and dropped our suitcases off. Then, we were off to brave the freezing Ireland weather to explore Dublin for a few hours. We lasted a little while, but there wasn't much to do other than souvenir shopping, so after about two or three hours, we headed back to our hostel to warm up and relax. Our tour officially starts tomorrow!

Day 2. Monday, 25 March
Our 6-day tour of Ireland started today. We loaded up onto a bright leprechaun green bus and off we went! Our tour guide/bus driver was named Seanie, and he's the absolute best. There were about 32 of us on the tour. Our first stop was in Drogheda, where we stopped and saw St. Peter's Cathedral. Inside the cathedral was the preserved head of Saint Oliver Plunkett, who was drawn and quartered in 1681. That was some old head...



After Drogheda, we headed to Northern Ireland to see Belfast. Since Northern Ireland is part of the UK, it uses pound sterling (£) while the rest of Ireland (The Republic of Ireland) uses the euro (€).

In Belfast, we took a Black Taxi tour, which took us around Belfast and we learned about the tensions present in Northern Ireland - both religious and political. I knew that there was a Protestant/Catholic divide that was a big deal, but I guess I didn't realize just how big of a deal it was. In addition, there is the divide between people who agree that Northern Ireland should behave like the UK and people who say Ireland is Ireland, and are not fond of the British identity. We saw the Peace Wall and a lot of political murals, and learned about terrorist bombings between the two factions and related hunger strikes. It was pretty heavy stuff.

After the taxi tour, we had lunch and hung out with some tour friends in the hostel lobby while we waited for our toes to thaw - we were so cold it felt like we had never before been warm in our entire lives. Ireland felt so much colder than Scotland - though it was probably due to the high winds and the fact that we were just outside for a really long period of time. We spent the evening in the hostel, and Sarah read Harry Potter out loud to me... it was a nice evening in, especially since we were freezing and exhausted!

Day 3. Tuesday, 26 March
We started the day by going to Carrick-a-Rede Rope bridge - it was really windy there but it was gorgeous and we did a bit of a mini-hike that kept us pretty warm. We didn't cross the actual rope bridge (it was way too windy for me to feel safe doing that...) but we got some really good photos of the scenery.




After Carrick-a-Rede, we headed to Giant's Causeway!! We apparently took the hard way down - a long, cliff edge walkway. It was exhausting! We spent some time exploring the rocks and taking fun photos. Then, we found an easier way to get back up..... oops. We ate lunch, got ice cream (yeah, I know... we got ice cream when it was absolutely freezing out? yes. yes we did.), and then back on the bus!




We drove to Derry (sometimes called Londonderry - but not all appreciate that name...), where we learned more about the tensions about 'Irish' vs. 'British' from an awesome walking guide. After the walking tour, we grabbed some dinner and then stopped at Tesco to pick up some snacks and wine coolers, and then back to the hostel! Sarah read Harry Potter out loud for a bit while we enjoyed our wine coolers, and then she read HP by herself and I read more of The Fault in Our Stars. The hostel had two acoustic guitars laying around, so I took five minutes and kind of just held one and strummed a single chord... Even though I really can't play at all,  I miss my guitars and pretending to play! There was also a black cat sleeping in the hostel living room - it was basically dead to the world, and hardly moved when I started to pet it. It also made me miss my baby - I love you, Tiger! I'm coming home soon!

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