Hello! I'm going to write a very quick recap of this past weekend. I don't have any pictures to share yet since we just got back today, but ill give a summary of each city- both of which are in Northern Ireland, which is a separate entity from the Republic of Ireland. The north is still ruled by britain since it is part of the UK.
We took off thursday morning for Derry. On our way to the city we stopped at the Giant's Causeway, which is basically an area of huge rocks in very unique formations. It was pretty cool and unlike anything I had every seen before, but it got verrrryy windy and started hailing on us, which wasn't fun. Afterwards, we continued to the city but didn't see much of it- just had a dinner and relaxed in our wonderful hotel beds.
The next morning started with a walking tour of Derry. It is a relatively small city, but has a lot of charm and hsitory to it. It was unlike anywhere I had even been though, because of the conflict between irish (catholics) and british (protestants). The conflict between the two groups is still very much alive today, and each neighbourhood is blatantly on one side or another. I have never visited any place like this- where each section is distinct in its beliefs, and opposing sides live in very close proximity to each other. The conflict is even more intense in Derry because this was the place of Bloody Sunday. We actually walked the streets where bloody sunday occured. for those of you who don't know, one day in the early 1970s (73 i think), irish citizens of derry staged a protest against internment. it was a peaceful walk until some teenagers started throwing stones, but turned into a massacre when british soldiers unjustly opened fired and killed 13 people that day.
We went to a small museum that had a lot of artifacts and footage from bloody sunday, and talked to a man whose brother was killed that day. It was amazing to hear this man talk, after losing his brother who was only about 20 or so at the time. He told us the story of the day in extreme detail- where each person was shot, and how some soldiers killed multiple people in cold blood and still lie about it to this day. It was astonishing and depressing, but probably one of the most moving experiences I've ever had actually being there and hearing what happened so recently. just this past july was there an official apology released by the british government- over 30 years later.
after finishing at the exhibit, we got something quick to eat and headed to belfast. We got in just a little before dinner, and decided to stay in and do some schoolwork (crazy, right?). sidenote- I don't write much about school because there isn't much work at all- I go to class but I only have one paper for each class due by the time I leave, so I really haven't done much work for the past month and a half. Anyway, saturday morning we had a bus tour of Belfast. The city itself is pretty modern, but there seemed to be a lot going on. We had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted, and since we really didn't know anything about the city and it was freezing outside, we went to a movie. A few of us saw Due Date, which was actually pretty funny- in a stupid college kid movie way. We didn't exactly take advantage of our time in Belfast, but there just wasn't an activity that the city is known for that we wanted to do. We looked into a tour of where the Titanic was built (in belfast! fun fact) but the timing conflicted with our bus tour. so, we hung out for the rest of the day, had some-well, alot- of wine with dinner, watched tv and slept.
This morning was just a ride back to Dublin, and it was time to get ready for our eurotrip that starts tomorrow! I've started packing and am already concerned that my bag will be overweight, but hopefully ryanair doesn't give me a hard time. Here's the rundown for this week:
tomorrow- fly to rome
wednesday- train from rome to florence
thursday-take a night train from florence to munich
saturday- bus from munich to prague
tuesday- flight from prague to dublin- with a 5 hour layover in venice in between- so we'll try to fit a gondola ride in there
that's all- ill write in a little over a week!
No comments:
Post a Comment