The Ireland Times

Friends, Romans, Countrymen! Lend me your ears… uuuh… eyes? I shall now recount my journey through Ireland!!

Only a few short days after returning to Brum from my Epic UK Road Trip, Aussie and I went to Ireland. We flew with Ryanair, a very successful airline that flies all over Europe. It is so successful because its' flights are incredibly inexpensive… on their own. If you want to check some baggage, you have to pay a fee. If you forget to check-in online, you have to pay a fee. If you forget to print your boarding pass, you have to pay a fee. If you want to go to the toilet on the flight, you have to pay a fee. If you want to eat on the flight, you have to pay a fee. So, to avoid all of these fees, Aussie and I crammed as much as we could into our carry-on luggage.

After a very short flight (less than an hour), we arrived in Dublin! We checked ourself into our hostel, where we were greeted by a very friendly Englishman, before heading out on the town. We ended up explaining 'Temple Bar', which is kind of like the Royal Mile in Edinburgh… full of bars, expensive restaurants and tourist shops. It was too expensive for us to eat in a restaurant, but we found an excellent burrito place.

The next morning, we woke up very early to trek down the street to 'Paddy's Palace', the hostel and head office of our tour company: 'Paddywagon Tours'. We boarded a small bus with 30 other travelers to begin our adventure. At first, we kept to ourselves, but we soon made some new friends. We arrived in Belfast and late in the afternoon, we hopped in a cab for a tour of some of Belfasts more segregated neighborhoods. We shared a cab with Racheal and Laura, two Australians living in London. The tour took us to a loyalist area, where the inhabitants are loyal to the English crown and want to be a part of the British Empire. This neighborhood was littered with Union Jack's and St. George's crosses. Many buildings were painted with murals dedicated to Oliver Cromwell and William of Orange and to loyalists who have died for their cause. We also visited a neighborhood that 'feels Irish', the people who live there want to separate from Britain and join the Republic of Ireland. This neighborhood had murals dedicated to fallen IRA members and critiquing Margaret Thatcher's treatment of IRA members during her term in office. We also visited the Peace Wall, a very, very high wall that divides the loyalist neighborhoods from the nationalist neighborhoods. The wall is painted is beautiful, colourful graffiti and messages written by visitors from all over the world. My favourite one was written by a Kiwi: 'Build a bridge over this [wall] and high five eachother on the way over.'

Note: The loyalist neighborhoods are 'Protestant', since the people there descend from British Protestants who emigrated to Ireland after William of Orange conquered the island and kicked out the Catholic Irish round about 1690. The nationalist neighborhoods are 'Catholic'. But really, I don't think it really has anything to do with religion or theology… if either side of the debate followed Jesus, I don't think there'd be violence like there is.

Anyway… the next day, we visited the Giant's Causeway— hundreds and hundreds of hexagonal rocks jutting out of the sea on the North coast of Ireland. The legend is that it was built by giants as a bridge between Ireland and Scotland. Apparently, it's just a load of molten rock that hardened in nature's favourite shape when it cooled. It's pretty cool though. God rocks at making stuff. After that, we headed to Derry (Londonderry officially, but noone who 'feels Irish' would ever call it that). In Derry, we visited the 'Bogside Artists', three mural painters who work with the local community to create peace between the loyalists and nationalists. It was really cool to talk to them about all the great work they've done. I bought a great book about it. We had a barbeque at the hostel before heading out to a local Irish pub. We chatted to some very friendly Irish people, enjoyed some pints and— since our tourguide had taught us some Irish songs— we sang along with the locals!

The next day, we boarded our bus to drive through Donegal. We visited the burial place of W.B. Yeats, at a beautiful church in the gorgeous countryside. We were running pretty late that day, so we didn't arrive in Galway until after all the shops had closed. This was pretty disappointing, since Galway is the birthplace of the Claddagh ring, and everyone wanted to get one. Aussie, Laura, Racheal and I joined up with some of the other people on our tour for some delicious dinner at a Spanish pub. A few of us really wanted to hear some live music, so we ventured up to the front of the pub, where we heard this great Irish-Spanish duo. We did some dancing and singing!

We got up early the next day to get some Claddagh rings before the bus left. I found a really unique one with a nice thick band. We hopped on the bus again with our new guide (the old one went back to Dublin) and about 20 new people. The further South we drove, the more beautiful the scenery became! The hills got bigger and more rolling. We did see some quite rocky land, though. This is where the Catholics had to go when they got kicked off their land in the North. We saw a little inukshuk, so we made one of our own. Next, we visited the Cliffs of Mohr, where some of 'The Princess Bride' was filmed. This is where we really got to know some of our great new friends! That night, we stayed at 'The Randy Leprechaun', a pub owned by the tour company. We did karaoke, my favourite thing. It was great! It was really fun to hang out with all the people from the tour.

The next day was a whole lot of driving. We did stop at some beautiful places. We stopped at a gorgeous little bay to take our shoes off and walk in the sand. The water was hella cold, but for some reason, two of our fellow tourists decided to go for a swim. Brrrr. We also stopped in a town called Dingle (baahahaha), where we saw the statue of the resident dolphin, Funghi. Next, we went to Killarney, where we took a little horse and buggy ride through Killarney National Park. The Park is beautiful! But the most memorable part of this ride was that our driver looked like my Uncle Pat.

The next day, we left early to go to Blarney Castle where, yes, I kissed the Blarney stone. Apparently, it is supposed to give you the gift of eloquence… it tasted a bit dirty, actually. We had a lovely lunch and saw some Irish dancing before hopping back on the bus for Dublin. When we (finally) arrived in Dublin, we went to the Guinness Storehouse. We learned about how the porter is made, packaged and advertised. We all met up for a free pint at the top of the factory, where we could see all of Dublin. It was a nice way to end the tour.

Actually, it was really sad to say goodbye to everyone! Aussie and I really had a great time with all the people we met! I haven't laughed that hard in months!!

Thanks to all our friends we met on the tour!!