More travels!

Last week I made plans with Jessica and her two flatmates to drive up to Belfast this weekend. Well, as life has it, the other two girls' plan's changed and jess and I were out of luck. But we though, hey, let's go anyway! So this morning we hoped on a bus to Belfast. I'm not quite sure how it works but the bus costs 22euro and takes 3 hours while the train takes 2.5 hours and costs 60euros. So the bus was just fine with us.

Of course we made now plans of where to stay but figured we'd find something. Belfast greeted us with a torrential downpour! More rain than I've seen in quite sometime and of course accompanied by gale force winds. We opened our umbrellas and headed in the direction of a few hostels. The first hostel had a sign posted, no vacancies, so we headed to the hostel I stayed at 8 years ago! It however was also full and we came learn that it was quite a busy weekend in belfast due to a football game and two big gig's on (one being My Chemical Romance, causing the town to be crawling with 16 year old goth kids). Next step, bed and breakfasts. Once again turned away from the first, we found the second one only had 1 three-bed room left for £75 ($154!) no way were we gonna pay that. But as we were walking out the door we met a another lady how was looking for a room and she was on her own. Bingo! So we decided to share the room with her for a much more reasonable £25 per nite. We were set!

We booked ourself a Black Cab Tour to go take a look at the war murals, with piping hot chips in hand we hoped in the cab. It was going to have to be a short tour because it was already beginning to get dark at 4:30 and the weather was not cooperating. The murals were not quite like last time i saw them, 8 years ago, because this time there is peace! thank goodness. Once back in our room we warmed our feet for a while and had a great chat with Janet, our roomie. Then Jess and I headed out for the most amazing indian food and then to meet Janet for a pint at the pub across the street.

Wow, all i can say is, wow. What a crazy "pub". It was a bit more like a bar than a pub, but it had such an eclectic mix of people there and we had our pick of any of the 60-year-old men we wanted. Needless to say it wasn't exactly our crowd, but very entertaining none-the-less. After two drinks, and watching the "belly family" get arrested, Jess and I decided to head back to our warm beds.

Up-and-at-em early this morning we walked with Janet back to the bus station, where she caught a bus back home to Monaghan and us up to Giant's Causeway. We completely lucked out with the weather, a crisp clear day with puffy white clouds, making the perfect day for a cliff walk by the ocean. Giant's Causeway is such a magnificent place, it's no wander it's been named a national wonder of the world. After a few hours there, we headed back to belfast and then on another bus back to dublin, about 4 hours of bus ridding all together. Not so bad.

Tomorrow I'm off to the exciting land of work! (that's sarcasm).

Belfast and Giant's Causeway

Home again, home again.

Rome was great. It never ceases to amaze me. Walking through the doors of saint peters, exiting the metro to find the coloseum looming before us, or turning a corner and seeing the sun gleaming off the magnificently beautiful trevi fountain. This was the third time I did all these things, and it still felt like the first. However, my anticipation was even greater, cause I knew they were all coming.

Rome was more packed than usual due to the bank holiday weekend, because of this we decided to skip admission to a few of the major attractions and opt for people watching in the piazzas. Our last nite included an amazing dinner of salads and pastas chased down by delicious red wine. The food is simply amazing, however, we somehow also mananged to find a bad restaurant, i wouldn't suggest it unless, day old microwaved vegitables is your thing.

Italy Novemeber 2007

So now, i'm back in Dublin, I feel truly home again. My friend jess (from germany and my compainion on this crazy irish adventure) captured my feelings about dublin:

...I would miss these thousands of people from all around the world who jostle my shoulder when I go through the city, where parcels never find our house, always a beer in front of me without having to pay...that amazing wind, I will miss the smell of winter... in Dublin that is a smell like a flowery open fire, pub's where looking from the outside look empty and dead but inside all hell is breaking loose, where the rain and mist can be so lovely especially in the country side, bicycle lanes where actually there aren't any ... where elderly people and the pub keeper bring the night to an end ... just a 10 minute drive when I want to smell the sea, just 30 minutes drive to see beautiful mountains ... excellent and affordable fish and chips in the irish film institute ... where people keep acting naturally in all their life situations, to live in the real and rough north side, the city where a river divides the money... but otherwise where everybody is a star.

Thanks Jess.