Northern Ireland

Sunday 24th August
I am staying at an Airbnb place here and it is the best yet, it is actually a B&B, Mary the host is a lovely lady and has a full breakfast spread laid out each morning. After I wandered into the city and found absolutley nothing open (Sunday trading is a distant memory now!), except for the tourist information thankfully, I found the St George markets, some small weekend markets that were quite cute. I did a tour of the Crumlin Road Gaolwhich was very interesting. It has such a long history, all the way up until the 90s! They carried out executions there too and they took us through the process (including the hanging room! Eek).

Monday 25th August
Today is a public holiday (however there is more open today than yesterday, go figure) so I organised a Black Cab Tour on pretty much everyone's advice. It was very interesting to hear details about The Troubles and see the murals but I didn't find it as good as everyone makes out. I didn't think it was worth the $$ either but then again it's per cab so being by myself didn't help there. Oh well, I learned a lot and can say that I've done it.

The new mayor of the city is apparently trying to prove herself and organised a beach party at City Hall (which itself is a very impressive bulidng that the city is basically built around). Apparently the idea was to give families a free trip to the beach (as that's a luxury for a lot of people), great idea except for the fact that today was cold, wet and miserable! So after checking that out for approximately 10 seconds I headed to the Ulster Museum.

Tuesday 26th August
Before I leave Belfast I had to check out the Titanic museum and docks. They have done a great job with the exhibition (they opened it for the centenary), and I ended up spending a few hours there before heading to the Titanic dock and pump house. I thought that would be quite boring (but when in Belfast!) but I actually found it really interesting. By the time I finished there it had turned into a beautiful afternoon so I just wwnt back to City Hall and sat on the grasa and enjoyed the sun and warmth! (I think I've been in the UK too long, the sun is already a novelty.)

Wednesday 27th August
Caught the train to Derry today to see some of the Northern Ireland scenary. It was a nice ride and I arrived in Derry early enough to have a wander and do a walking tour. They are very passionate about their city and it's history before and during The Troubles.
I have arrived in time for the 'Walled City Tattoo', it's only in its 2nd year but again that passion for their city shines through. I didn't end up going to the Edinburgh tattoo as I hadn't planned to be there for it and when I checked to see if there was tickets available they only had packages worth £300+! So I thought I would check out the Derry version and wasn't disappointed. Of course it was absolutely freezing and wet but it was worth it, very entertaining!

Thursday 28th August
Today I explored the Northern Coast and Giant's Causeway. I toyed with the idea in Belfast of hiring a car to this but ended up deciding to just use public transport... oops! They have kind of tried to make the area accessible with buses (& even offer entry discounts if you use public transport) but they have failed. There are too many different bus routes, none of which go often enough or link up to eachother! But anyway, I managed to get to the main sites and saw the coastal route so all in all it worked out. Giants Causeway is interesting and beautiful. I didn't walk the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge but took the walk to it for spectacular views! Then I checked out the very small town next to it Ballintoy before heading up to Ballycastle which is a cute seaside city. Finally I took the late bus back which was a nice trip back along the coast at dusk.

Friday 29th August
Explored some more of Derry today, walking around the rest of the city walls we didn't do in the walking tour, saw The Troubles murals properly and checked out the Craft Village (which was really disappointing even though I wasn't expecting much). The Tower Museum has apparently been voted the best museum in the UK a few times so I checked that out. I can see why it's won awards, it's small but intimate and is well set out. There is a hell of a lot of history in a small place though. I learnt a lot but wow the Northern Irish history is complicated and surprisingly there are a lot of similarities between their 16th/17th century history and The Troubles!

Feeling like I need to do something 'normal' today so took myself to the movies! Such a small thing but just what I needed.

Saturday 30th August
Heading back to England now but flights out of Derry are rare so I'm catching the bus back to Belfast for tonight and catching the ferry across to Liverpool tomorrow. So another couple of relaxing travels days this weekend.

Sunday 31st August
All day ferry to Liverpool today, a chance to finish my book, catch up on this and even see movie (the services on the UK ferries are much better than the European ones).