Northern Ireland

This weekend was our scheduled trip to Northern Ireland. We left the apartments at 830 on Friday morning and headed North, stopping first in Belfast and then to the Hostel in Ballintoy. The bus was nice but having long legs makes life difficult. Our bus driver was hilarious, telling many jokes, some dirty. He had driven some bands around for the MTV awards that were held in Belfast but he hadn't heard of them- Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kings of Leon. He also said that when Obama visited he was supposed to drive some white house staff in his bus. He said prior to Obama leaving that they should be careful because cars get stuck on the ramps easily due to weight but they said they were fine. Obama's car got stuck on the ramp and so they made him pull his bus up in front to stop pictures. So he said that is his moment of fame all over youtube- right at 1:09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BvABn7L_So

But nonetheless we got to Belfast and took guided tours. We split up into a few groups and the taxi drivers took us around to a few places, starting in what they said we would consider the Projects back home, all protestant neighbourhood. These are run by specific groups, this one was called the UFF and they choose what murals go up depending on what they want and that no one defaces and vandalises them on account of repercussions.

 This was a memorial to one of the leaders of the UFF group. When people asked kids from there who they wanted to be they said him. Was interesting hearing the stories, sounded like the mafia as the people in the neighbourhood rely on them for protection

 They said they considered this like the Mona Lisa, meaning that no matter where you move the gun is always pointing at you. Try it, it works.

This one was special for me as our crest has the cut off hand from Ulsters, so obviously was cool to see, all of them were awesome. 

We went around city and all saw peace wall that separated protestant and catholic neighbourhoods.. We got to sign our name on it

After that we hung at the mall there for a bit before heading off to Ballintoy for the night at the Hostel. Was so weird having to get pounds out of ATM for money and seeing British flags in places, thinking that these are almost two separate counties.

We then got to our hostel which looked down upon the ocean which we immediately went down to see. It was cold but it was a lot of fun. We then were divided into groups for sleeping, 6 of us were in a room with three bunk beds that formed a lowercase n in the room, tight quarters. We then woke up and headed back down to the ocean as a group. Right as we got down you could tell a storm was heading our way...little rain won't hurt. It turned into hail out of nowhere while we were on some of the rocks and cliffs right out on the water with lots of wind. People blowing over and getting pelted. It was bad and then as we were all soaked had to get on the bus and head to Giants Causeway.

That was cool, thought I thought it was larger in size than it was.

It was awesome standing on the rocks and we went out pretty far on them, a wave hit my legs at one point. The wind was harsh at all times, no one was ever warm. The wind was so bad we couldn't do the ROPE BRIDGE! Big disappointment but we went back to Belfast to where the Titanic was built. We were there for the 100 year anniversary of it's launch,that exact date 100 years ago the Titanic was seen right there where we were standing as it headed out to see, no one else can say they were there for that. They told us about how it was made, showed us the tools used and that the Irish built it and it was fine when it left, English sunk it.

Was a fun trip but long bus ride home