A REAL St. Patrick's Day

That's right... this year I actually got to go to Ireland for March 17th! We basically landed in the evening, dropped off our luggage, and headed downtown to the pub area in Dublin. This area is called Temple Bar. There are rows of pubs and thousands of people were out. Whoever claimed that St. Patrick's Day is not celebrated in Ireland has never spent one in Temple Bar! Of course there were a lot of tourists, but when striking up conversations in pubs with people we ended up talking to a lot of people that were actually Irish. Some of the pubs were amazing - there were multiple rooms with multiple bars and indoor beer gardens! Needless to say, it was a great night. In the morning we walked back into town... which took about 25 minutes (bad planning on a friend's part but at least or hotel was super cheap!)... and attempted to start sightseeing. We went to a few places but a lot of stuff seemed overpriced. We went to the Dublin Castle, which looked more like a 19th century government building with some castle-esque features and also to the Cathedral, which was nice. We tried going on a tour at the Old Jameson Distillery, but when we were getting in line an employee said that by the time we got to the front they would be closed. So much for that! We ended up walking along the River Liffey and crossing over the Ha'penny Bridge and just relaxing the rest of the day.

Temple Bar streets

March 19th - We took the train up the Belfast. Part way through we had to take the bus to the next station and get back on the train because of a bomb threat. The weird thing is that no one really seemed to mind. At night we decided to go to Botanic... a big street with a lot of restaurants and pubs. We decided to go to an Italian restaurant because we hadn't actually sat down and ate in a long time. My stomach had been a little upset before we went out but I thought it was because I hadn't eaten in a long time. Towards the end of the meal I wasn't feeling too great so I decided to go outside to get some air. I wanted to sit down, but it was dirty outside so I sat on a little ledge inside the foyer that was still cold. I was getting kind of nauseated and got up to go outside when BAM, it just all came out... in the restaurant. It was so much fun as I'm sure you can imagine! I spent the rest of the evening throwing up multiple times at the hostel... quite possibly one of the worst things ever. There was only one bathroom on the first floor and our room was on the top floor so every time I threw up into the trash can I had to walk down 4 floors to the bathroom. (I'm sure you are all loving this detail haha).

March 20th - I got up to do our day-long bus tour that we had pre-booked. I paid to see Northern Ireland and I wasn't about to miss it. I spent most of the bus ride pretty miserable and had a barf bag handy just in case. Luckily I didn't have to use it. We stopped at Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, Bushmill's Distillery, Dunluce Castle, and a couple other smaller places throughout the day. The whole coast was beautiful. Our tour guide/bus driver had a funny Irish sense of humor... but he drove with one hand holding a microphone the entire time we were on these small coastal roads! It was a bit scary. I went back to sleep for the rest of the day.

on top of Giant's Causeway (I didn't get a lot of great pics b/c I was feeling so bad)

March 21st - In the morning we went on a "Black Taxi" Tour which brought us to both the Protestant and Catholic sides of Belfast. We saw a ton of murals, broken glass, Crumlin Road Prison, and the "Peace Wall." It was a pretty intense morning. Everywhere we went we could feel the tension that the conflict has brought upon the communities. Homes next to the Peace Wall had to have cages around the back so anything that was thrown over would hit the house. The road to enter each area is locked at night in hopes of preventing violence. It was so horrible to hear our driver tell use that the people want the wall there; they want the divide so they don't have to interact. They don't care if it limits where they have access to... their hatred is just so deep for each other. It is completely different than the feelings towards the Berlin Wall. It is just so unbelievable to see this intolerance and violence... especially in such a modern country as the United Kingdom. It really was an eye-opening experience.

Loyalist Mural
Republican mural of Bobby Sands